When I went to the USA in 1983 with my parents, we didn't get to go on the cable cars in San Francisco because they were being renovated/serviced at the time. So this time I really wanted to do it. So this morning I headed out a bit early and caught a cable car! Caught it downtown, then walked back to the hotel. It was pretty exciting :)
Cable car in San Francisco
Looking north up Powell Street
Turning the Cable Cars at the end of the line
The cable cars only go one way, so they have to be turned manually at the end of their runs
Pete had booked a Mustang for the day, but when we went to pick it up, they didn't have one. He was a bit disappointed. I also had to race back to the hotel to get my passport so they'd rent us the car.
First up, we headed to Lombard Street. I'd been down this street twice before - once with mum driving and once with dad. So this time Pete had a go, then I had a go. On the tour yesterday they said they hadn't planted anything nice this year so it looked pretty boring. They were right. It really did look very drab. And it was a bit too early in the morning for good lighting - too many shadows.
Lombard St
Lombard St
Looking east down Lombard St
Next up we headed for Coit Tower. But we couldn't find any parking (we didn't make it to the tower parking lot - we were just in the streets below it). So Pete stayed with the car and I went for a walk. But the entry fee was $3.75 and I only had $2 on me, so I didn't get to go up it. Oh well. The lighting was wrong for the city anyway - looking straight into the sun.
Golden Gate Bridge from Coit Tower lookout
They were doing all this construction work at Coit Tower, plus I didn't have enough cash on me to go up the tower, so just took a couple of pictures from the base
Alcatraz from Coit Tower lookout
City from Coit Tower lookout
So then we headed north out of the city.
When we picked up our hire car it was only half full of petrol!! (Taken after we'd been down Lombard Street, but still...)
Golden Gate Bridge from our car
Golden Gate Bridge from our car
Golden Gate Bridge from our car
Golden Gate Bridge from our car
Golden Gate Bridge from our car
Pete had been hoping to visit the Napa Valley and try some wines, but we ended up in the Sonoma Valley instead. We found a winery at random and stopped (Viansa Somona on Arnold Drive). Pete tried some wines, and I tried a couple, but I had more fun trying dips and sauces - yum! We asked the staff at the winery what the blood alcohol limit was in California. But they couldn't understand what we were asking. Seems they don't really do breath testing here - just sobriety tests. So it took us a while to figure out it's 0.08 here - a little higher than Australia's 0.05).
Viansa Winery, Sonoma Valley
Headed up the valley some more, decided we were hungry, then stopped at Denny's! I had fond memories of Denny's when were here in 1983.
After lunch we decided to just go exploring before going to meet Todd. The drive around wine country was nice enough, but the vines had lost their leaves for the winter so the countryside was very brown and not overly pretty.
Wine Country road
Wine Country road
After driving around for a bit though we go mixed up in Santa Rosa and got muddled, so we decided to go try find Todd's place. But Todd's instructions weren't very clear and we didn't have any maps and we were coming from the wrong direction and so we ended up getting somewhat lost. I was very frustrated and had a bit of a meltdown. In the end I thought we should just stop somewhere, call Todd and he could come find us. So we ended up at a "Mountain Mike's Pizza" where Todd was able to come and find us and take us back to his place. We sat around for a while and chatted, then went for dinner at Johnny Garlic's. It wasn't bad, but Pete kept picking on me which was no good. Todd on the other hand is thoroughly lovely. Sweetest guy. Pity I didn't get to spend any more time with him :(
Todd Sinclair
I met Todd on IRC in 1995, finally met him in real life
Todd and Karen
Todd not wanting his photo taken :)
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