We spent our final days in San Francisco hanging out with Jeff & Kate as well as a couple of our other friends. Saturday was spent all day wine tasting in Napa (my brother really hooked us up since he belongs to a couple wine clubs) and Sunday we spent in San Francisco doing some last minute sightseeing.
Day 6 (Saturday, April 28)
Our first stop in Napa was to Del Dotto Winery where we went on a wine cave tour & tasting
Outside of the winery
Inside the wine caves where we were tasting wine straight from the barrel
Our group: Paolo, Kate, Jeff (my brother), me, Todd, and Derek
They had food prepared for us too after our cave tasting
Our wine guide
Inside the tasting room
Our next stop was Neal
Smaller tasting room but very good wine (and reasonably priced!)
Neal vineyards
We stopped at a market to pick up food for lunch then headed to our 3rd winery of the day, Joseph Phelps
Gorgeous views from the back patio
More views
VIP seating for lunch
We ate our picnic lunch overlooking those amazing views of the vineyards
Wine tasting was set up outside & it was a beautiful day out--almost 80 degrees!
A couple of us started to slow down at this point as we'd had a lot of wine with 2 stops left but I was looking forward to the Clif Family Winery.....but was disappointed they didn't pair their wines with Clif bars
Sign inside the winery
Our own tasting room
They gave us flavored almonds to snack on with the wine and the paprika almonds were amazing....the wine not so much but it was worth the trip to pick up a bag of those almonds
Another view of our private tasting room
Todd & I
Our last stop of the day was Vintner's Collective, a multi-winery tasting room where smaller wineries have their wines to taste
After Vintner's Collective, we took the hour drive back to San Francisco where I passed out at 9:00 PM (partly due to being tired & partly due to the wine) but Todd, Jeff, Kate, and Paolo went out for sushi and more drinks before making it back at 2:00 AM.
Day 7 (Sunday, April 29)
- Brunch at Grove Cafe
- Gelato at Washington Square
- Dinner at Mamacita
After our fiasco of trying to find Coit Tower a few days earlier, we decided to let Jeff & Kate help us find it, which worked out well since Jeff had actually never been in it either
We had great views of the city from all angles
Lombard Street near the top center (crooked street)
Golden Gate Bridge in the fog
Downtown
Alcatraz & Pier 39 (don't mind the window relflections)
Todd, me, Jeff, and Kate (I wasn't very good at taking people pictures on this trip)
After gelato in Washington Square, we drove over to Golden Gate Park to walk around
Luckily, we were able to witness this awesome roller skating area where these people were dancing to Thriller (I feel bad for the 2 little girls up front because apparently they think this is normal behavior)....anyways, it was great people watching
We walked through the Botanical Garden but I wasn't too impressed
Obviously there was lots of plant life everywhere....
but I think I liked the dancing roller skaters better
We stopped to dip our feet in the ocean (it was freezing!) before meeting up with Derek & Emily for one last dinner together
Day 8 (Monday, April 30)
- Left San Fran at 7:50 AM and arrived home in Columbus at 7:10 PM
It's hard to believe our trip is already over & done with considering we'd talked about going to San Francisco for the past couple years. It was an awesome city to explore & I'm sure we'll be back again someday.
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