The Wine Country

Sunday we headed out through Sonoma and Napa Valley for a little wine tasting and a tour of the Beringer Brothers Winery. Sonoma proved to be a very interesting stop. We had a great lunch at La Casa Mexican Restaurant.


This Cactus is in full bloom and it is so pretty. It was in front of the mission. We walked around the Sonoma Plaza and found many interesting things to look at, including a free museum at an old hotel. See the pictures below.












We did not take the tour here, only looked from the outside.













The mission bell says 1629.














This is the lobby of the hotel museum... imagine that, free admission and they encourage you to take pictures. The place was staffed by volunteers.

We did stop by Robert Mondavi Vineyards and took the tour and wine tasting at Beringer Brothers Winery.

See pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/SonomaAndNapaValley

The Transamerica Tower in the financial district. This building is a landmark in San Francisco and has been since 1972.

















Chinatown, a place that has to be seen if you get to San Francisco. The shopping seems endless. We found the Golden Gare Fortune Cookie Company on Ross Alley. Two ladies make over 4000 cookies aday. This shot is down Grant St.










The famous San Francisco cable cars. They wind their way up and down the hills of the city just as they have for decades. We didn't get to ride one but we did see them on our tour and also we saw the electric trollys from all over the world that are now used in the city.








After a beautiful day riding around the city on the double decker bus and walking through Chinatown, we went to the Palace of Fine Arts, a must see also while in San Francisco, and then out to a park beside the bay to watch the sunset across the Golden Gate bridge. It was a beautiful day.

More pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/SanFrancisco

The Golden Gate

We went across the Golden Gate for a little visit to Stinson Beach, Muir Woods and Sausalito before heading back into San Francisco. It is an amazing feat of engineering. The first trip across had the topof the bridge covered in sea fog. We only had to pay toll on it south bound. They charge you to get into San Francisco, not leave it. How novel!!!

The welcoming committee of Sausalito. These guys were watching for anyone running the stop sign, failing to yeild to pedestrians or speeding. They were busy while we were there. We had lunch in a little pizza shop there.














These were some pretty tall redwoods in Muir Woods. We didn't actually go into the park; we just rode through the parking lot. There was not enough time to actually take a walk through these beautiful woods. We wanted to get to Stinson Beach and have enough time to get all the way back to South San Francisco before dark.







This is a shot from above Stinson Beach. There is a posted warning about shark attacks along this beach in as little as six feet of water yet there were countless people out there in it. Go figure.

Monterey Lover's Point

If you look closely in the center of this picture you will see one of the California Sea Otters. I was very fortunate to catch this little guy in the kelp bed off of Lover's Point Park in Monterey. I understand they are quite common but difficult to photograph because of their shy nature. I only got a couple of shots and then he was not to be seen again.








The water is so clear here but it is also very cold compared to the gulf back home. Billie and I both noticed how fresh the seashore smelled here in California. It is not like the seashore in Texas. Also the water is deceptively deep in this picture. It drops off to at least 10 feet very quickly.









This girl was jumping into 15 to 20 feet of cold water on a regular basis while I was taking pictures from a short pier. She would swim back to the ladder and dive in again and again. She swam through the kelp bed like it was nothing, not to mention she was not wearing a wetsuit to shield her from the cold. Kids are sure able to take it. I shuddered watching her but she was far from alone in the water.

More pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/LoverSPointMonterey

Carmel By The Sea

We made a stop by Carmel. This beautiful seaside community has a wonderful floral law on the books that requires all local businesses to use only real flowers both inside and outside of their establishments. This was just one of a myriad of lovely flowers we encounterd on our walking tour. The colors are striking.






This is a sample of the cottages that inspired Thomas Kincaid in his many paintings. There are many fairy tale cottages in Carmel. In fact, Thomas Kincaid's first gallery is in Carmel and we saw it on our tour. The flowers in the next picture are from a hanging basket in front of his Gallery.








The flora we saw was absolutely stunning. Few places we have seen can compare to the beauty that is abundant in this eccentric little community of one square mile. Doris Day still lives here and she has a hotel we visited on the tour call the Cypress Inn. Quite lovely.

There are also a great number of dog lovers in this community.

More Pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/CarmelByTheSea

Nit Wit Ridge

The man who built this house out of natural materials and junk he had collected took over 50 years to complete the project. It is a site to see. We didn't have time to take the free tour which I'm sure would have been very interesting. This house was featured on the Discovery Channel program.

Hearst Castle

This is the Neptune pool outside the guest house. It was torn down three different times before being completed as you see it today. There are bits and pieces of antiquity from all over Europe at this place. It is very interesting to visit and very beautiful. It is hard to fathom such opulance being built at a time when the rest of the country was in "The Great Depression" of the late 20's and 30's. The extravagance of it all is hard to describe.



This is the main house. It is a museum all by itself. The furnishings are extremely lavaish even for this day and age so it is hard to imagine what people of his day must have thought of it in William Randolph Hearst's day. Our guide told us that there was two types of people in Hollywood during the 30's and 40's; those who were invited to the Hearst Castle and those who "said" that they were invited to the Hearst Castle. This place is well worth the time to visit. In fact, it would be very easy to spend at least two or three days there taking the four different tours offered by the state to see it.

Find more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/HearstCastle