San Francisco visit
From Aug 26 to 31, we were in San Francisco with our dragon boat team Specialty Subaru. On the 26th, we had a practice at 1pm to familiarize ourselves with the race site and the BUK boats. These boats were nice! They are light and comfortable for the paddler. The SF Dragon Boat Festival was that weekend, Aug 27 to 28, at Treasure Island. We competed in the Open, Women’s, Men’s, and Out-of-Town competitions. Our team joined forces with Roli Canada for the Women’s and Men’s races. We won medals in every competition: gold medals in the Women’s, Men’s, and Out-of-Town competitions, and a silver medal in the Open competition. The team really came together and every race went well. Just small tweaks here and there but overall, we were flying.
Hanging out with my teammates was a hoot. We had a party to celebrate our victories that Sunday night. Mike, Lisa, Kim, Wes, Phil, Ed and I were pretty inebriated even before dinner was done. And it was downhill from there. I gained a new nickname - Lizard Bang. Oh, it was funny. I guess you had to be there. Thanks to Wes and Kim, I got back to our hotel safely. I did pass out on Mike’s bed. Thanks to Ed for taking me back to my own bed.
Needless to say, I was hurting on Monday morning. I was not the only one hurting, mind you. Our team went for dimsum in Chinatown. Congee is good for hangovers. We walked around Chinatown and window shopped downtown. That evening, Ed and I went on the evening tour of Alcatraz. The cells in Alcatraz were smaller than I expected. The self-guided tour was pretty interesting because they had former inmates and guards sharing their experiences. Seeing the prison during and after sunset made the visit more poignant, I think.
Tuesday, Ed and I went on a cycling tour from Fisherman’s Wharf, over the Golden Gate bridge, to Sausalito, then to Tiburon. We took the ferry back from Tiburon to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a 26 km cycling route and I have to say my legs felt like jello at times. I thought I was in good shape! But we rested/stretched here and there along the way and my legs were able to keep going. It was a good way to see the sites. We stopped and meandered when we felt like it which was nice.Wednesday, we picked up the rental car and drove around SF. Lombard St, the crooked street was fun. Bought chocolates at Ghirardelli, went to the Marin Headlands and took lots of photos. The view was amazing. To the left was the Golden Gate bridge with the city beyond it. To the right was blue ocean until the horizon.
We left San Francisco and headed to Sonoma. Pat, Ed’s boss lent us a book about the wineries in Napa’s backroads. It featured the smaller and privately-owned wineries located away from the main highway. In Sonoma, the recommended winery to visit was Gundlach-Bundschu winery. Ed and I made it to the winery 30 mins before closing time, luckily. The wine was very good and we decided to get a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. We walked around Sonoma town for a little bit then headed to Calistoga where we had planned to stay. Calistoga is a pretty little town at the foot of the mountains. It is known for its spring water and geyser.
The next day was wine tasting day. We visited Sterling winery which was pretty impressive. I wasn’t overly impressed by their wine but the winery itself was first class. We had to take a 3 minute cable car ride to get up to the winery. Then there was a self-guided tour of the facilities. And there is the fabulous view of the valley from the lookout deck. Very nice. We also visited V. Sattui, Beaulieu, and Whitehall Lane wineries. We were wined out by the end of the day. We cooked dinner (our suite has a kitchen) because we were tired of eating out.
Friday, we checked out of Carlin Cottages and proceeded to the winery Chateau Montelena in Calistoga. This winery was also in the backroads wineries book. We then visited Rombauer and Hess Collection (in the book, too) wineries. Then we made our way to Fresno to visit Ed’s relatives.
More on Fresno next time...
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