The Sealeys: November 2011

Finally...a post on what we did in San Fransisco the weekend before Halloween.

- Arrived early (10am PT) on Friday afternoon and were starving since we had not eaten since 6:00am ET. So...after driving around a bit and deciding not to attempt the restaurant we had originally planned on attending, we came upon some food trucks! We see food trucks all of the time on TV, but had never tried them.

There were about 5 choices and were settled into a small area right outside of the city government offices, so it was extremely busy during lunch - but REALLY good! And...the weather was beautiful, so we sat outside and ate with the ducks.

The 'Occupy Wall Street / San Fran' people were everywhere, but this colorful character from the group was the best!

After a much-needed nap, we headed to dinner and then to watch Game 7 of the World Series. We ate at Incanto, which was a little too weird for us - but then jumped off the bus to find ourselves in a very lively sports bar to watch the last 2 innings - and see the Cardinals win!

Just look at the face of pure enjoyment. I still can't believe they won...

Then..it was off to "Lefty" O'Doul's, which was right across from our hotel. This was a bar / buffet - never seen anything like it my life!

After "Lefty's" was another bar close to our hotel called, The Gold Rush. A very small, but also interesting place.

Saturday morning was a trip to the famous Dottie's Cafe for breakfast. You have to get there 30 min BEFORE they open (7:30am) and wait in line outside to be sure you will get to eat before 9am! The menu was really cool and the food was excellent.

Then...the van picked us up at our hotel to take us on our Sonoma Valley wine tour!
A quick view from outside our hotel:

First stop...J Rickards winery. We went to 4 very small wineries, but none were as interesting as this first visit. Jim Rickard is a very interesting character who was a former farmer & Marine - and bought the small acreage in 1973. He gave us so much great background and history - and how he chooses to grow grapes, keep the pests away, care for 100 year-old vines and make wine!

Each winery had their own 'mascot' of sorts. Most had dog(s) and one had a very friendly cat. Here's Jeff playing with the Jim's winery dog.

Here's Jeff trying a wine grape. They were very tasty - much more juicy and fragrant than a table grape!

Here's Jim showing us how to care for 100-year-old vines:

Our second stop was called Fricks winery. It was our least favorite, but very interesting in that he grew a whole different variety of grapes than most - but, unfortunately, we didn't like the wine much.

Our third stop was Talty winery. This guy let us see the fermentation process in these huge plastic bins. I guess they don't truly 'stomp' grapes any more - ha! It's more of a stirring process:

Our fourth and final stop was Amista. They customized our visit a bit with this fun 15th Anniversary sign:

It was a wonderful, wonderful day - and, of course, the weather was gorgeous!

We arrived back at the hotel, took a nap - and were off to a very late dinner at La Folie. Very good, but we were soooo tired as we had a reservation for 9pm and they didn't seat us until 10pm - keeping in mind that's really 1am ET for us!

We spent most of Sunday at the shoreline - at a restaurant called, Pier 23. We were able to enjoy the beautiful weather, watch football - and also hear some live blues/jazz music while watching people dance the night away. Fun and relaxing!