Saturday, January 30, 2010

San Fran

A couple weeks before Christmas, my (Alli) parents told us they wanted to take a family trip and thought San Francisco would be fun. We were pretty excited about this idea, so the day after I finished my last test before the break, we left for the west coast! My brother always, seriously always, has some connection with some person to get awesome deals/opportunities when it comes to travel and he didn't disappoint us. We stayed right on the wharf in this really cool boutique hotel that was decorated really pretty for the holidays. At night, they had a fancy hot cocoa bar and free wine in the afternoons. It was a welcomed treat after finishing another semester of school!

It was pretty cold outside, but there were people swimming in the water in front of our hotel! We asked about the sanity of these people, and a nice guy explained that a group of people swim there year round and have a whole system of monitoring their body temperatures to know how long they can handle it and when to go inside to this health club where they get warmed back up. That is a serious dedication to exercise!

The second day we were there, we went to the wine country! We started the morning in Sausalito, a really cute little town right across the Golden Gate Bridge, and had an awesome breakfast at a great cafe.

As usual, my brother wanted to check out the boats that were docked, so we had a nice walk and saw tiny jellyfish in the water around the boats.

We drove through the beautiful countryside and stopped first at the Jacuzzi Winery. Yep, the same guy who invented the hot tub. It reminded Mark and I of this vineyard we looked at to have our wedding and reception. The wine was really good and my parents joined the wine club, so we are benefiting from their monthly deliveries!


Next, we went to the Robert Mondavi winery, a bigger one with a tour offered. So, we got to see some of the behind-the-scenes of wine making and learned a lot about the history and science of it all. It is a pretty involved process.







The vineyards were so beautiful, and we weren't even there for the time of year that they are known for being beautiful!

After we had enough wine tasting for the weekend, we went back to enjoy the city. We had some delicious meals, of course, and walked around all of the little shops. The only slight disappointment for me was that the seals who usually sit on these floating platforms in the wharf were pretty scarce. I guess I wouldn't want to sit up in the wind when it's cold outside either though.

My dad's favorite phrase whenever Alcatraz was in view was (said in a semi-Connery sounding voice) "Welcome...to the Rock."


Our last hoorah for the weekend was a stop at the Ghirardelli shop to have an ice cream sundae! It was a great weekend with my family!



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