INTO THE CITY BY THE BAY

MORNING arrived rather sooner than I'd have liked, but my fellow travelers were ready to rock by 11:00 a.m. having breakfasted at the complimentary breakfast bar.  We were rolling by 11:15 and Mom had to be restrained as we passed by grapes growing to the left and right of us!  In reality, when I offered to detour to a winery, Mom declined saying, "I heard they make you pay for wine tasting and it's just a sip, so we can skip that."  😂

Mendicino County Vineyards

We stopped for fuel just out of Ukiah and I was reminded of reasons 1-6 for leaving California -- 
THE COST OF EVERYTHING!

After a couple of hours at speed, we found ourselves on the northern approach to San Francisco and detoured to the Marin Headlands for the ultimate west coast photo op...

Hold onto your hat, it's windy up there!

The Golden Gate from atop the Marin Headlands

We came down from on high in good time, crossed the bridge into the city, and headed for Lombard Street - "The Crookedest Street in the World."  You'll have to trust we went down it, but it does not lend itself to photo taking while driving!  Instead, I let Paul out to walk the last half-block to the top end (our pace would have made a snail look like an F1 racer) and snapped him on the corner before we headed down...

Moments before reboarding for the trip down Lombard Street

At the bottom of the Lombard switchback, we headed for the Embarcadero and I was forcefully reminded of reasons 7-13 why I no longer live in California -- TRAFFIC!  It really didn't matter if we headed North, South, East, or West, if we moved we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic.  😡  Eventually, we made it to our target, and after showing Paul all the Piers and the main Port of Entry, we found our way ever-so-slowly back to U.S. 101 and onward to see my niece at the Google campus in Mt. View.

 A view of Coit Tower (LT) on our way to the Port of Entry for San Francisco (RT)

A quick hello with Stace before heading to Los Gatos

Our last target for Northern California was dinner at Mom's favorite establishment, Pedro's, in our old stomping grounds, Los Gatos.  Dinner didn't disappoint although we were told the restaurant had changed hands twice since we last dined there some 20+ years ago.  

Mom's Happy Place

From "downtown" Los Gatos, we hopped straight onto 17 through the Santa Cruz mountains and hitched up for the night in Salinas.  We have a target or two in this area before continuing south tomorrow.