Category Archives: 2016:SFBay

Around Half-Moon-Bay

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The plan for today was less tight and – after the action the previous days – we kind of took things easy. Also the weather turned against us – with rain and low temperatures (around 12C).

We left Oakland late in the morning and made our way South to the San Mateo Bridge to cross the bay and then over to the Pacific Ocean at Half Moon Bay.

With the weather against us, we decided – after a short coffee / tea stop – to have a small road trip down famous Pacific Coast Highway / California 1 to Pescadero for lunch and then back via the back country with a stop at the beach on the way (it had stopped raining at least).

Heading North we stopped in El Granada to pick up some crabs – that would become dinner later tonight. After a short walk around, we made our way back to San Francisco for a crab dinner with the family of Lisa’s son – a great opportunity to finally meet them, after having heard so much about them over the years.

Around Mount Diablo (literally)

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Today we were heading inland for Mount Diablo. With just below 1200m the single highest elevation in the bay area – offering stunning views.

We first made it to the summit by car (this is the US at last) to take in the views and check out the visitors center. We also talked to the ranger about hiking / walking options. There was the easy going 1km trail around the summit (even halfway paved) – with the next bigger hike a proper 12km hike around the mountain (and no real options in between).

We decided for the latter one – and soon discovered, that we had underestimated both elevation changes and trail conditions – in short gravel and gradients are not a combinations … the hike in the end took us a good four hours (including breaks) and not the 2.5 to three hours we had expected. Yet – it was a very enjoyable hike, with fantastic views (some proof below), abundant plant life (many wildflowers in full bloom) and perfect weather conditions (cloudy, temperatures of around 18C). So – we took our time and enjoyed.

California Wining

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It had been some time since my last visit to the San Francisco bay area, so it was about time to return – with the main driver really being to see Lisa – my old pen pal, who I had originally met on my first trip to Antarctica – and to finally get to personally meeting some of her family.

So on this Saturday I was handing myself over to Delta Airlines to get me across the pond into Detroit (my favorite US airport) and then on towards San Francisco. I made it into San Francisco in the late evening (around 22:30) after two uneventful flights (good thing). Lisa and Harry did pick me up and we made it over to Oakland.

Sunday saw me sleeping until about 10:00 (not unexpected, given how timezones work). Over breakfast we looked into the planning for the upcoming days – to then head for an easy day of wining around the more local wineries.

We first made it over to Treasure Island – straight in the middle of the bay and straight in the middle of the Oakland-SF bay bridge – for a visit of The Winery SF (or simply W). We made our way through a number of wines. Not being a fan of Chardonnays (anymore), my focus was on the reds here – all were nice, though the Pinot Noir really outstanding.

On the way out we had a stop at the coast for a view over to San Francisco – before making it back into Oakland and a stop at Dashe Cellars to try some great Zinfandels. After a late lunch, we had a final stop at Rosenblum Cellars for a further tasting. Dinner was at home with a home-made Korean-style ox-tail soup.

Overall a great and easy going day – and a good introduction to California wines (which over here are still somewhat seen in the ‘mass-production’ and ‘nothing-special’ category) – and even better preparation for the following Monday.

Monday saw us driving up to Napa; Harry had secured tickets for the wine train – i.e. a train ride through the Napa valley, accompanied by a great lunch. With the train marketed as ‘wine train’, we somehow had expected the trip being themed around wine, e.g. with a proper tasting, some wine backgrounds etc. – but that was not the case, it was really more like a restaurant on tracks (with an extensive wine list though). To make up for that, we had another tour around the valley – after we returned to the train station. We also did two more tastings – one at the Whitehall Lane Winery and the other one at the Grgich Hills Estate.

So – two wining days … with many great wines – in other words two winning days 😉