Northern California Day 3 - redwoods and vineyards

Pictures here

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8:00pm - back at the bnb after a long day. Tour bus picked me up at 7:45am. I took the tour with Extranomical. The guide was good and mostly funny but it felt rehearsed and to support good job of selling stuff. He recommended a restaurant in Sonoma I'm sure gave a kick back, etc. Anyway, it was a good day and worth the money. The lovely people at my bnb bagged up my croissants for me. Took a joyride of sorts through San Francisco picking up the other people on the tour before crossing the golden gate bridge and onto Muir Woods, home of redwoods.

What a magical place. No cell service, no sounds except nature, these gargantuan trees that make people look like ants. Awesome. Wandered around for about an hour before the tire continued on the pch for a bit and into Sonoma.

First we stopped at Mayo wines. Sampled many wines. Still hate red wine. Still hate chardonnay. Then went to historic Sonoma plaza for lunch. Got a prosciutto and brie sandwich from a bakery and bought a chocolate Danish for dessert. Then in wandering around the square I of course happened upon an ice cream shop selling fresh homemade ice cream and we've already established I'm incapable of resisting such things. Had a cappuccino chip and decided to save the Danish for later. 

Next winery was in Napa called Madonna. It's organic and they don't irrigate. Love that. Liked their sweet Moscato. Still don't like red wine. Still don't like chardonnay. Bought a nifty wine opener that doesn't damage the cork and lets you recork it. For all the one bottle of wine a year I might open myself. 

Last winery was Cline back in Sonoma. Much bigger with really pretty grounds. Tasted too many more wines and dumped most of them out. Maybe I'll just never like anything except sparkling and sweet wines...? By the way, this area is beautiful, with the rolling vineyards and hills, not unlike some parts of Italy and Spain I've seen.

Drove back down to SF and stopped up a high viewpoint road for awesome views of the golden gate bridge. 

Instead of getting dropped off at my hotel, we could get off wherever, so instead of gambling on a gastropub near my bnb with a menu that looks like 20 places I could go to in L.A., I got off in North Beach and went to Baonecci, which I'd read about as having good pizza. That's all I needed to know! Everyone in the front of the house was from Italy. My waiter is from Lucca. I didn't have the heart to tell him that THIS was my only real memory of Lucca. I asked him why in the hell he'd ever leave. He said living there was impossible. Sorry buddy, you didn't convince me!!!!

Anyway, my pizza with spicy salami was delicious. As I'd read, the crust there is cracker thin. Almost melt in your mouth. Roman style but even thinner. Completely delicious and I finished the whole damn thing. And it only cost three times what it would in Italy! 

Walked back to the bnb through Chinatown and saw a cute shop selling little vases hand wrapped with colored bamboo. Couldn't resist! 

Tomorrow will be all about food with the ferry building market and reservations at two trendy restaurants for lunch and dinner. Good thing I've been walking a lit the past few days - and going to the gym for the past four months! Yikes!