Saturday, August 19, 2017

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
Earthquake Warning

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


Andrew Zimmern

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

Sausalito

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

Man and 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



Muir Woods

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


Muir Woods Trees

Trees with some humans for scale

Muir Woods trees with people for scale

Some more trees

Muir Woods Steps

Steps into the woods

Muir Woods kids in front of trees

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
Sailboat near GoldenGate bridge

Back in San Francisco I noticed this line at Tadich Grill
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

Driving over the Golden Gate bridge timelapse

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

The sign at the entrance

Grgich Hills sign

American and Croatian flags at the entrance Grgich Hills entrance

Below are the grapes ready to be blessed
Grgich Hills. 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.

Grgich Hills snacks to go with wine

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

Grgich Hills winestomping shirts


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


A picture of grapes on the vine
Grgich Hills grapes

Some barrels of wine
Grgich Hills barrels s

Wine tanks or perhaps even fermentation tanks?
Grgich Hills wine tanks

Some more wine barrels
Grgich Hills more barrels


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

Grgich Hills guess the number of corks

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 WineryCoppola Winery Entrance

Pool
Coppola Winery Pool

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

Godfather's desk
Coppola Winery Godfathers Desk

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


Car from the movie Tucker
Coppola Winery Tucker car Front

Car from above
Coppola Winery Tucker


Costumes from some movies


View of the bar


View looking towards the vineyard
Coppola Winery vines


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

Friday, August 18, 2017

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


How low can you go

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

Yoda Foutain at ILM


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

Disney 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..
The Witch

Some of the paints used for the animation
Paints used for Disney animation


Some propaganda work done during the war years
Walt Disney Propaganda
Adolf the clown??


Technicolor Camera DF-7
Technicolor Camera DF-7


Television Set 1950s

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

Golden Gate bridge waves

Picture of the bridge
Golden Gate Bridge


Here is a panorama one Golden Gate Bridge Panorama

And another panorama Golden Gate Bridge Panorama

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

Here is Torpedo Wharf

Torpedo Wharf. from distance

This one is a little closer
Torpedo Wharf


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

Fort Point

A room inside Fort Point
 Fort Point room

Light tower at Fort Point
Fort Point light tower

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
Fort Point inside view

Hallway in Fort Point
Fort Point hallway

Cannon and cannon balls in Fort Point
Fort Point Cannon and Cannon balls




Palace of Fine Arts

Palace of Fine Arts back view

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

Palace of Fine Arts

Side view
Palace of Fine Arts 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.