San Francisco!

Saturday July 9^th-

Jackie and John have been living in Dublin, CA, outside San Francisco for about 2 years now and have since become wine country experts.  They live close in the Livermore Valley wineries, and about 45 minutes away from Napa Valley!  With their expertise, we spent the day at several wineries where we learned to swirl, smell, taste and chew; all the necessary actions to see if the wine is good or not.  We enjoyed fancy chocolates at the Hess Collection, toured the Mum Winery Champagne factory and savored tastings from a $90 bottle from the Silverado Vineyard after John and Nate schmoozed the lady who was pouring for us.  We finished the day at Prager, a small hole-in-the-wall building where they make some delicious port.  Nate liked the Port so much he says he wants to go back in October just to buy a bottle after the harvest.  We’ll see, another visit would be wonderful, but maybe J&J can mail us one instead.

Beautiful Gardens outside The Hess Collection Winery 

The giant mixing tanks during our tour at Mumm Napa

Enjoying the Scenery at Silverado Vineyards 

Just a small sampling of the dollar bills on the ceiling and walls of The Prager Winery

Sunday July 10^th-

After being on the road for so long, it was wonderful to go to church with J&J on Sunday morning. We’re very glad that they’ve been able to find such a wonderful church home.  It’s so great that Jackie is actually working there while she works on her Masters in Counseling online. 

After church, we headed into San Francisco for a day exploring the city.  We drove down Lombard street, 

the windiest road in the country, while waving at all the tourists who were taking pictures of the street. 

The tour guide(ie John) then took us to Crissy Field, for an excellent view of Golden Gate Bridge, the bay and Alcatraz.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to go to Alcatraz as the tickets had been sold out for weeks.  Again, we’ll just have to go again someday! 

Super Strong! (what a dork)

We got a little bit lost trying to find the Painted Ladies, the homes in the background of the opening credits of the TV show Full House, but thanks to mobile internet and John's dogged determination, we eventually found them.  It was very relaxing to lie in the grass, overlooking the city and the Painted Ladies and re-enact the famous Tanner Family picnic from the show. 

J&J then took us down to Ghiradelli Square for some amazing Ghiradelli icecream!  We shared a Midnight Chocolate Sunday, which was incredibly rich and delicious.  We have to say yum just thinking about it!

After Ghirardelli, we headed back to their place for the evening and the guys played some serious Stratego. (Nate wants to mention that if John needs lessons, he offers a pretty fair rate.  And as long as he wants to gloat about Stratego, it must be noted that John spanked him multiple times in Bags.) Needless to say, the games went long into the night. 

Currently, we're near Seattle, heading to Glacier National Park, which in blog terms means no updates for the next few days.  If we happen across some wifi, we'll try to catch up a little more.  But we can't promise anything :)