Monday thru Wednesday – SF area and Gilroy area

 

Monday we decided to head back in to San Francisco.  We still wanted to ride the cable car, go to Chinatown, and eat at Scoma’s. Rick and Janie drove and this time they took their FastTrack so we sailed over the bridge and got into the city very easily – until we got downtown!  But we made our way to the Hyde St. Station (near Ghirardelli Sq.) and found a very convenient handicapped parking spot and paid ($15. per person) for a day pass which allowed us to get off and on whenever we wanted. We saw Lombardi St. and made our way to Chinatown, where we jumped off and, after asking several locals, headed for the Fortune Cookie Factory, where we watched them use these really old machines to make round shapes which then were handed loaded with the fortunes and formed into the cookie.  Of course we bought some as well as almond cookies before climbing back up the steep St. to re-board the cable car.  We rode it to Powell where we had to get off and get back in a (long) line to head back.  That done, we went over to Scoma’s for lunch.  This place is our favorite stop for a nice (but rather expensive) meal.  They didn’t disappoint!  All of us had the lunch special catch of the day which was scallops in a saffron sauce.  The BEST! Rick insisted on treating us as an anniversary gift.  Thank you Sir!  We bought some more sweatshirts and t-shirts on the way back to the car and headed home. The dogs were glad to see us (and get out to go pee!).  We skipped dinner and snacked and then watched some taped shows before going to bed. 

 

It’s Tuesday and our last day here…..  We are done with SF so we headed out to breakfast and then back to Sepay Groves, the Olive Oil store.  For breakfast, we chose Huckleberry’s in Fairfield.  This is a place similar to Orange County Mining Co. in appearance but less pricey.  The breakfast was really good and a place we will come back to again.  Then we drove over to have the girls get some more EVOO and asked more questions about the health benefits.  That done, we headed back home but on the way, since it was still early, we decided to pick up the dogs and head up to Sonoma to check out that area. The drive was easy enough and we had the air on but I guess that wasn’t enough to help Bailey.  She got carsick a few times.  But Sonoma has a town square with a park so we were able to get her out for a walk which helped on the way home.  Once we got back, Lydia and Janie went to the laundry to wash the unlucky jackets from the car, and then went off to the store to buy a few things they needed for our steak dinners tonight.  Tomorrow we have a short 102 mile trip down to San Juan Bautista (Gilroy area). 

 

Wednesday we slept in and then got the rig ready for travel.  We left about 10:00am and made the trip down to San Juan Bautista and the Betabel RV Park. We got stuck for about 20 minutes behind street sweepers on I-680 but otherwise had no issues.  We got set up in camp and rested for a bit.  Janie’s niece lives in Salinas and they came down to visit for a while.  We decided earlier that we wanted to go to the Giant Artichoke in Castroville for dinner.  We had been there before and remembered we liked it.  Jeremy and Stacy came with us.  The meal was ok.  The artichoke soup was terrific!  After the meal we drove back through McAlpine Lake RV Park on the way home.  We had stayed there before but Janie didn’t remember it. Once w e returned we settled in and watched TV before going to bed early.  Tomorrow we are going up to San Jose to tour the city and go to the Winchester Mystery House.