San Francisco

We had intended to sit on deck and watch while we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. Just as well we missed it by an hour as the entire Bay was shrouded in fog. Instead, we watched the sun come up through the Oakland Bridge while eating breakfast on our deck. Cormorants, seagulls and pelicans hovered, bobbed and squawked around the water our ship churned up, and little fast ferries took morning commuters into downtown a lot faster than the vehicles inching across the Bridge. The cool air took on that lovely round California warmth as the sun rose, and we readied ourselves for going ashore.

Our first land-based trip and I thought I might be a bit off balanced after several days at sea. No such worry as I took the land again as a duck to water. Except the other way round.

Our day was spent mostly aboard a large tour bus with a fairly large group of fairly elderly companions, three of whom were in wheel chairs, so we wondered just how stimulating it would be. But we had a lively senior tour guide who talked history and geography as we meandered through the streets of San Francisco and then over the Golden Gate Bridge (still shrouded). I didn’t realize that the Bay was not noticed by European explorers until 200 years after the rest of the coast had – no doubt due to that famous fog. Nor that the Golden Gate was so-called because the namer had been to, and seen a similarity to Istanbul’s Golden Horn and so chose a name of similar proportion.

The rest of the day was spent in an alcoholic haze. WE visited two Somona wineries: a relative newcomer to the Cline family (Jacuzzi) and the oldest quality winery, Buena Vista. Here’s another little factoid for you. The Jacuzzi family, Italian immigrants to the USA, made their name originally for building wooden propellors that galvanized their business as these were used in all American airplanes during the First World War. Their child, suffering from severe rheumatoid Arthritis, found respite in hot springs, and so the family figured out how to build a home-sized version so expensive and irregular travel for treatment could be avoided. Voila, the modern day Jacuzzi was born! Of course they also had to figure out how to ensure their child was not electrocuted by a plug connected to a large tub of water in which said child sat. Sitting on the bus and watching the scenery we mused at what might have been the outcome should the Jacuzzi and Zamboni families intermarried.

The scenery was lovely. Dry, golden hills with small dark green Scrub Oak and tall stately Eucalyptus with its silver bark in shreds and long-fingered green leaves. Small deserted farmhouses of 100 years ago intermingled with small vineyard bungalows of 50 years ago, such a treat to see after our extremely overbuilt homes in B.C.’s Okanagan valley. Some grapes still on the vine, but this year’s extremely hot dry summer meant most grapes were picked in July, instead of the usual September. What this will do to the vintage is anyone’s guess, as the skins were ripe before the fruit inside was, but if left even a few days, turned to raisins. The loss of Mexican immigrant labour also meant lost grapes left on the vine and there were mutterings by winery staff about the ridiculous decisions being made in the capital. I think the general way of thinking in California is very similar to that of my part of the world.

We stopped in the village of Sonoma for lunch, and Beazy and I lit out away from the crowd and headed to a little Bistro across the street from the square. We had salad and bread to line our stomach, and then each had a flight of 3 white, local wines, which of course meant we got to taste six wines (in addition to those on the tour). We were having a lovely time until we looked our watch and realized we were going to be late to board the bus!  That has got to the a first for both  of us, and even though it was only 5 minutes past the time we had been told, we felt like naughty schoolgirls getting on board to the sarcastic applause from the rest of the group. The best travel holds a series of firsts, some of them lasts, but novel experiences at least.

We bought two bottles of a decent Pinot Noir (in homage to the film we watched the evening before “Sideways”), and it truly was the only wine we tried today that we both liked. Sitting on our deck at the end of the day, the sun still high but the air cooling and the Oakland Bridge again snarled with traffic ended its work day. Three blasts to warn we were about to move backwards, and we moved away from clean, dynamic, lovely San Francisco. This time we did watch as we moved slowly under the Bridge, its red top already caught in the swirling fog. Alcatraz, the “Rock”, was bathed in light, two tiny police boats followed us out and intercepted small sailboats and paragliders zipping along in the strong wind, and we wrapped ourselves in blankets and stayed in the cold air until the fog insinuated itself around us again and we moved off into the grey of dusk.