San Francisco day 4: Sausalito and Muir Woods

Today's plan was to go to Sausalito and Muir Woods

We started to walk down towards the ferry, on the way there we passed the new SalesForce Tower which is still under construction



Salesforce Tower, formerly known as the Transbay Tower, is a 1,070-foot (326 m)[1] office skyscraper under construction in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. It is located at 415 Mission Street between First and Fremont Streets, next to the Transbay Transit Center site. Salesforce Tower is the centerpiece of the San Francisco Transbay redevelopment plan


We also saw the following sign on the wall of a church we passed


We bought the tickets and had some time to spare so we looked around at the farmers market, and who do we see?




Yep, that is Andrew Zimmern, host of one of my favorite shows Bizzare Foods. He is in town filming for this new show which will air in 2018

We planned to take the first ferry, it was delayed by an hour, so our plans were a little derailed
By the time we made it to Sausalito, it was nice and sunny



Once we got of the boat, I saw this man with a dog playing guitar



We then rushed to find the shuttle to Muir Woods. The ride to Muir Woods is a little scary, a lot of people get freaked out. There are only 2 lanes and you are really close to just toppling over down the mountain only to die in a horrible accident
The ride was about 30 minutes or so





Now I have to warn you, none of these pictures are doing Muir Woods any justice. You have to be there to appreciate the beauty and size of Muir Woods. The tallest tree is 379.3 feet/115.61 meters, this is taller than the Statue of Liberty




Trees with some humans for scale



Some more trees



Steps into the woods



My kids in front of some trees

We spent around 3 hours in Muir Woods but would have stayed longer if we didn't have to catch the shuttle back to the ferry

Took this shot of a sailboat with the GoldenGate bridge in the background


Back in San Francisco I noticed this line at Tadich Grill


The Tadich Grill is a seafood restaurant located in the Financial District neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the oldest continuously running restaurant in San Francisco

That is all for today.

San Francisco day 3: Napa Valley, Sonoma county

Today the plan was to visit Napa and Sonoma. Grgich Hills winery had a blessing of the grapes ceremony at 10 AM, so we had to leave San Francisco by 8 AM to make it in time

You can see a timelapse of us driving over the Golden Gate bridge below



We arrived at Grigich Hills Estate around 9:40 AM, the drive wasn't too bad

The sign at the entrance



American and Croatian flags at the entrance 

Below are the grapes ready to be blessed


Here is a video of the blessing ceremony


I am not sure if you can hear it or not but Mike Grgich joined the ceremony via facetime because he had some issues with his back and couldn't make it in person.

There was some food for the people attending the blessing of the grapes. As you can see there is salamis, prosciutto, cheeses, olives and crackers.



You also could get wine, I had some Chardonnay, Fume Blanc and Rose. All of them were delicious

Here are some shirts hanging to dry from people who did the grape stomping




In this video, you can see my daughter stomping the grapes


A picture of grapes on the vine


Some barrels of wine
s

Wine tanks or perhaps even fermentation tanks?


Some more wine barrels



There was a small contents, you had to guess how many corks were in this bottle



A bust of Mike Grgich



I spent some time talking to Mike's daughter Violet. We talked about the winery that the Grgich family started in Croatia, the grapes itself and some other things

I also went into the store and purchased some wine. Now I have to figure out if I drink it here while I am still in San Francisco or do I bring it home to Princeton

I think the blessing/stomping event was very nice, I highly recommend it


Coppola Winery

Pool


The pool area was pretty packed, they have packages with cabins, towels and lounge chairs

Godfather's desk


This is the desk that was used in the Godfather movie. Pretty cool to see it in person


Car from the movie Tucker


Car from above



Costumes from some movies


View of the bar


View looking towards the vineyard



After Coppola, we went back to San Francisco had dinner and called it a day

San Francisco day 2: Golden Gate Bridge, Presidio, Disney museum

Today was a little easier with the jetlag, instead of waking up at 3 AM, I managed to sleep all the way till 4 AM. Once I got up I put together yesterday's blogpost.

The agenda for today was pretty simple

Presidio
Walt Disney Family Museum
Golden Gate Bridge
Palace of fine art
Dinner

We left the house around 9 today and started to walk down to the Presidio. I still can't believe how crazy steep some of the streets are in San Francisco




This is incredible, you have to see it for real to believe it

On the way to the Presidio, we passed Industrial Light and Magic, we saw this Yoda fountain there, that was pretty cool




We also passed the Presidio gate also known as the Lombard Street Gate



We spent some time at the Presidio visitor center

After 15 minutes or so we headed to the Walt Disney Family Museum

This was pretty cool, here are some pics from the Walt Disney Family Museum

My kids listening to something


A Universal camera



Frame by frame animations of Steamboat Willie



I also shot this short video of the animation of Steamboat Willie

This was pretty cool, probably my favorite part of the whole museum


Here we have the Witch..


Some of the paints used for the animation



Some propaganda work done during the war years

Adolf the clown??


Technicolor Camera DF-7



Television Set 1950s


It is ridiculous how small that screen was, your phone is almost bigger than that.

I liked this museum a lot, kids will love it.


After we were done with the Walt Disney Family Museum, it was time to go to the Golden Gate bridge

Here is a 3 second timelapse where you can see the waves move



Picture of the bridge



Here is a panorama one

And another panorama

I have many more pictures of the bridge, I won't bore you by posting all of them  :-)

Here is Torpedo Wharf



This one is a little closer



Fort Point
Fort Point is a masonry seacoast fortification located at the southern side of the Golden Gate at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. This fort was completed just before the American Civil War by the United States Army, to defend San Francisco Bay against hostile warships. The fort is now protected as Fort Point National Historic Site



A room inside Fort Point
 

Light tower at Fort Point


Up here it was so windy, I was scared to turn my head because I though my sunglasses would fly away

Inside view of Fort Point


Hallway in Fort Point


Cannon and cannon balls in Fort Point





Palace of Fine Arts



The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is still situated on its original site. It was rebuilt in 1965, and renovation of the lagoon, walkways, and a seismic retrofit were completed in early 2009.
In addition to hosting art exhibitions, it remains a popular attraction for tourists and locals and is a favorite location for weddings and wedding party photographs for couples throughout the San Francisco Bay Area



Side view


After all this we went for dinner at Nopalito for some Mexican food

Here is what it looks like when looking at the map that runkeeper produced



That is it for today, tomorrow we go to Napa.