Day2 - first full day in California

The day started early due to jet lag, but after a busy day of sightseeing and travel, we all slept through to 6:00am (PDT)

We started the day with breakfeast at Bodin, a famous sour dough bakery and fueled up real good with one 2 breakfasts shared by all 4 of us. American breakfast dishes are real big. Octane was supplied by Peets coffee. San Francisco takes it's coffee seriously (Tim Horton would never survive) and Starbucks has competition.

Our goal was to drive up highway 1 to Jenner and then head over to Napa valley and wind our way back to Frisco via the wine region. Then we would hit the wax museum for Jonathan and have dinner. I hope that the way that it actually went is not an indicator of the rest of the trip. Oh yes, everyone agreed it was a fantastic day, but our route...

First stop: Golden Gate bridge. As we approached the bridge, it was shrouded in fog and you couldn't see 20 feet in front of you. The fog is caused when the cold air mass, cooled by cold water from arctic currents (darn Canadians export a lot of cold), meets the warm California air, heated by the sun baking the hills. The hot air rises and sucks the cold air from the ocean, and when it mixes, instant air conditioning. We drove up the coast and this cooling effect is maximized right over San Francisco. I don't know why.

Anyway, the far side had some sun, so we walked across the bridge and took some pictures. Jonathan was amazed at the height of the bridge and several spit balls were dispatched to count how log something would fall from the bridge.

Some how between driver and navigator, the objective of driving highway 1 and getting to Jenner got mixed. We drove up 101 looking for a store to buy a cooler and some food. Did yoy know that there are NO Walmarts in Marin county! We can't have riff raff shopping in our area. We finally found a Target in Novato. While driving north after that, I commented that when Erwin Ho and I did this trip last, I did not remember going this far to get to the start of Highway 1. That touched of a fire storm.

Sidebar: I wanted to take my family on a trip of highway1, that runs along the coast north of Frisco. I had done the trip during a conference in Frisco, when working at Teknion. Erwin was our programming manager and we had worked our ss's off with a dealer and had one day to see sights. We drove this route with a rag top mustang ... and it was good.

So now we find out that the start of highway 1 is all the way back at the golden gate bridge. Not only that, a car had flipped on the south bound lanes a few miles back and traffic was stop and go for ever. You know how I react to stop and go traffic. So, Mike has a tantrum but get's over it and at 1:30, we're on our way up Number 1 to the coast. Elizabeth notes that she would not like to drive this road without more driving experience. Julie comments that the road is just like Positano, in the Amalfi coast (Italy). Long story short, if/when you get to the San Francisco area, and have time, you must drive this road.

Once we get to the coast, the fog is still billowing over the coast, only this time, we are right on the edge of the cliffs. Muir beach was invisible and chilly. We found a lookout point further north that was just a touch higher than the fog and a little up wind so it was sunny there. From that vantage point, we could see the top of the fog and it was a classic image that one would see just as a plane breaks the cloud top and the sun makes the clouds look like a field of rolling white. In the distance, the peaks of San Franciso buildings, and the tops of the Golden Gate towers punctured the blanket of white. Nice. The camera did not capture the image a well as the mind.

We had lunch in Stinson beach and the sun was so hot, we burned our feet in the sand. Cooling them off in the ocean only took 2 seconds because it was so cold. It was 3:30, so we already knew the late afternoon an Frisco were not going to happen.

Continue along the coast and made our way to Napa. The traffic jams heading to town were already miles long so we already planned alternative routes. toured Napa (after eerything had closed) and Julie did wine tasting (I was driving) and had dinner (salads with steak topping). Had to look for a restaurant made for tourists and not wealthy wine connoisseurs on a pilgrimage to Napa.

Hit the road home just as the sun was setting and crossed over the bay at Bay bridge. Long but satisfyng day.

Next day, Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. We may not have internet in the campground so there may not be a lot of posting.

Photos, may take a sort time to post. I set the camera to bracketing and need to fix the exposure on some of the photos.

M