Thursday thru Sunday – Vallejo/San Francisco area

 

Thursday morning we ate breakfast in and then headed east and visited Jelly Belly.  We all took the factory tour which turned out a little disappointing as most of the line was closed down (we think for maintenance).  But what we saw was cool.  After that, we decided to visit the Olive Oil Tasting room just around the block.  We tried several kinds and bought two bottles each.  This is for daily use as we plan to take tablespoons to help control cholesterol and triglycerides.  After a quick meal, we then went over to Budweiser and took that tour.  All three of these places are within a ½ mile radius. Once we got back to camp we walked the dogs and then rested a bit.  Lydia was in charge of dinner tonight and fixed a casserole. Yummy!  Tomorrow we go in to SF

 

Friday morning we left about 8:45am.  We are 25 miles from downtown SF.  We figured we would hit traffic pretty much any time we left but wow, was it tough getting to the wharf!  Once parked, we walked the shops along the wharf and bought some souvenirs.  We stopped at Fisherman’s Grotto and had the upstairs dining room all to ourselves. 

 

 

Once we were finished the place had a lot more folks.  Note – if you park at the lot with the big famous Fisherman’s Wharf sign,  

you can have your ticket validated by many of the local shops close by, saving a ton on the fee (it only cost us ($3.00). Last stop while we were here was Boudin’s for sourdough bread. Janie was given a sample of 4 small bread shaped turtles to share later.

We then went down the road to Ghirardelli’s to get some chocolates.  Lydia also wanted to visit Loved to Death, which is featured on Oddities SF on TV.  The shop was a lot different than she thought it would be. We then headed home (took about 55 minutes). We rested for a while and then Lydia and Janie went to pick up tortillas for steak burritos. I got a call that my car was done so Rick took me to pick it up.  At dinner we planned our day tomorrow.  We are heading out early for Napa Valley. We are taking the dogs with us as we can take turns going in to the tasting rooms.  We found out that V Sattui Winery allows dogs both in the winery and in their lawn garden.  After dinner we found where Jersey Boys was playing and went to the show.  I had seen that the ratings weren’t all that high but we all enjoyed it very much.

 

 

Saturday morning we left early and headed out to a local diner in old town Vallejo called the Good Day Café. It turned out it was on a downtown street that happened to be shut down for a farmer’s market.  No problem! We found a close by parking space and walked to it. The food was very good.  After a walk through the market, we headed back home to pick up the dogs for our day trip.  We headed up to Napa, Yountville, Oakdale, St Helena and on up to Calistoga.  On the way up, we decided to stop at V Sattui, which happens to be our favorite winery, and walked the dogs, then found a table in the shady lawn area, and had wine, cheese, crackers and grapes for lunch. After making our way up and down the valley, we headed home and rested for a while.  None of us had decided on dinner so we came up with Chinese.  Via the web, I found a local place, back in old Vallejo, called the China Wok.  They had a 5 out of 5 rating. Boy, was that a good meal and a good choice.  Then we headed back to the rig and planned our day for tomorrow.

 

Sunday morning….. Happy anniversary to us!  (46 years!).  We thought we’d head back to the city for the day.  But being Sunday, we knew the tourists would be out in force.  So we slept late, did some chores around the rig, watched a couple of movies, and then headed west on I-80 just for a ride.  I stopped just short of the bridge and headed toward Berkeley and then to Oakland.  We just drove around a bit and then started back toward home.  On the way we found a residential road that wound it’s way up into the hills behind UC Berkeley.  Very steep and windy roads!  But we made it ok and got a great view of the Bay and then worked our way back toward home.  We stopped and bought stuff for spaghetti which Lydia made and was tasty!  Tomorrow we will head back to the city for SF2.