It's been practically two weeks since we (ahem, Tracy) last did a blog entry, and we've been packing so much in that I’ve been getting worried about forgetting stuff if I wasn’t able to get in front of the laptop again soon.
We ended up spending three nights in San Francisco - it's a lovely city, and we made sure we ticked off as many of the requisite tourist experiences as we could. We rode the old cable cars to the docks, visited the sea lions on Pier 49 and did a tour of Alcatraz. It was weird to see the actual cells (complete with holes) that Frank Morris (aka Clint Eastwood) escaped from back in the sixties. We also rented bikes and rode across the Golden Gate bridge to the nearby town of Sausalito, then sat around in the sun and had a few wines before getting a ferry home. I won't mention that Tracy drunkenly fell off her bike in the middle of the street, because I don't want to embarrass her.
Wine was a common theme for us for the next few days; we rented a convertible and drove to Napa Valley, right in the heart of wine country. It was great - the weather was gorgeous, and we basically ambled around some of the tens of vineyards in the area, popping in to the tasting rooms and drinking some really nice wines. In fact we've now got a boot-sorry...trunk full of bottles that we've somehow got to get through. Ho hum.
Highlights included a visit to HG Mumm (which makes champagne that you're not allowed to call champagne), where we had to repeatedly sample six different varieties, and also we had a couples mud-bath at the spa we were staying at, which was a very strange sensation and felt (and smelt) a bit like lying in a giant hot cowpat. Did wonders for the old complexion, though. There was also a blues and jazz festival on in Calistoga on our second night, so we were able to enjoy lots of free live music as we stumbled around.
After Napa valley we visited the neighbouring Sonoma valley, popping in on-route to see the Old Faithfull geyser, which true to its name, spurts boiling steam sixty foot in the air every ten minutes or so. Far more interesting for me was the owner's small herd of 'Tennessee Fainting Goats', which have an unfortunate and slightly surreal genetic adaptation that causes their muscles to lock up and them fall over whenever they are startled. Frontier sheep herders used to keep them with their flock so that whenever predatory animals attacked the herd, the goat would fall over and provide an easy meal, allowing the sheep to escape!! What a bizarre thing to be.
After wine country, we drove the short distance across to the coast to join Route 1, which we'll now be following all the way down to San Diego. The coastline is stunning, and there are loads of protected beaches with Sea Lions and Elephant Seals chill-axing in the sun. We also saw a gopher, which isn't a big deal, but I've never seen one before - it basically looks like a big brown hamster. This area of the coast is also home to one of the biggest populations of Great White Sharks in the world which probably explained the lack of surfers.
We've been stopping a various small towns as we've come down the coast, but the B&B's are quite a bit more expensive than we thought they were going to be, so today we stopped off as we drove back down through San Francisco to buy some camping gear and a tent! It might be a bit less luxurious, but we've calculated that if we camp for four nights we'll have saved the cost of all the gear, so hopefully we'll be able to save a bit of cash for other things.
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