It has been two years since we went on long trips.  I have been longing for a break to clear my mind off and enjoy nature. This time we decided to travel far away from Virginia. We had been thinking of both California and Texas. But of course California has more to see and it is a popular tourist destination. So we packed our bags and decided to stay at my bestie’s at San Francisco. I have to remind you that this is my first trip to someplace very far away from Virginia and I have biased opinions about San Francisco. Having said that, we landed into a relatively dry place at SFO. We are becoming Metro lovers and had to become BART lovers too. Shankar being a transpo- person is excited about Metros everywhere. 

Four days and full of fun. I have to admit – I also got some work done here and there. We started with the 17 mile drive, with stunning views of the Pacific. We stopped at the Santa Cruz boardwalk for a short while. Its amazing how the weather is hot during the day and totally chilly at night. On July 4, we went around San Francisco downtown, the Golden Gate bridge, and drove through the ups and downs of Lombard street and took a peak at the Crooked street. I must say that the Palace of Fine Arts is surprisingly beautiful. US being a relatively new country, I have not had much to enjoy in terms of architecture. I loved the richness found in the Palace of Fine Arts. Unfortunately we could not make it to the fireworks because of the never-ending struggle for parking. And again it was cloudy and there was no way we could get a good look at the fireworks. To counter for that, we made some super awesome fish curry and fish fry for dinner and treated ourselves to a sumptuous dinner.

Fresh seafood

17 mile drive – Viewpoint

The lonely Cyprus

The Golden Gate

Palace of Fine Arts

Vine and grapes

Napa Valley

Palace Interiors at Castello di Amorosa

Barrels of wine stored for ageing

Our choice of wines from the winery

Uphill drive to the majestic Lake Tahoe

Emerald Bay from the woods

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe and the Storm clouds

Pillars at the Palace of Fine Arts

The next day, we decided to tour the Napa Valley area. We visited the amazing Castello di Amorosa at Napa Valley. A quick tour of their palace following by some super awesome wine tasting made the day for us. We ended up grabbing a couple of wine bottles. We visited a restaurant at the small-town Calistoga, CA where this winery is located. This day was so far the best of our trip experience. 

The following day was the best part of our trip – a trip to Lake Tahoe. A scenic drive with lots of Alpine trees and totally green vegetation uphill as opposed to the dry landscape all over San Francisco. To be honest, I felt disappointed at the dry vegetation at San Francisco. The Lake Tahoe trip cheered me up. Atop the hill, we could see the majestic Tahoe in all its blueness. The Gondolas and the Zip liners were closed that day on account of a thunderstorm warning. But besides that it felt amazing. Although the lake was stinking big time, we drove uphill stopping at various view points to get the best glimpse of the Emerald Bay. We got a couple of emergency thunderstorm warning while we went to the highest possible viewpoint, so we decided to drive back. We stopped at the town for some food – lucky us – there was a fifteen minute hailstorm as we sat for food. We drove back all satisfied about our trip.

If there is one thing that I really loved about San Francisco, it is the food. We had food outside almost everyday, and never had one bad experience. Any type of cuisine you pick, it tastes good. SF is the place to be for any foodie in US. 

Not to miss, we also met a couple of good friends. A trip totally worth it, just in time! I am posting some pictures here for you to enjoy. 

I could not get enough of this trip. I decided to do a quick sketch of the entire trip in one journal page. I started doing it in flight on our way back and continued it the following day while I was relaxing. Here is a picture of the sketch I did. 

A quick sketch of our SF Trip