California the Beautiful..❤️

Recently I made a spring visit to California that included San Diego and San Francisco, I had been to the former but the latter was my first visit and I was left in awe of both cities. San Diego with its beautiful coastline ,its quaint towns within and gastronomy really was a pleasure to explore. My favorite area was La Jolla which was along the coastline and depicted a lot of the lifestyle habits in San Diegoans. They were happy ,free spirited , walking along the Oceanside walkways with their dogs in tow or being led by them as well as riding their bikes along breezy pathways and of course having a bite alfresco ,enjoying the glorious outdoors! Of course I wanted to sell my house in Florida right away and move to San Diego !
San Francisco was certainly a treat, a delicious one ! We drove from San Diego to L.A. which was approximately seventy minutes or so visited with family and flew form LAX to SFO a mere hour and ten minutes flight time.
We stayed at the Donatello which was centrally located and well appointed for exploration on foot both day and night. San Fran boasted Cultural ,Architectural , Historical and Foody delights to interests their locals and visitors alike. The hop on hop off bus is well worth the price for touring the city., it goes all around the city and ventures out to Museum row and the famous Japanese Tea Garden a beautiful site to behold ! The bus further travels onto the Golden Gate Bridge which is an awe inspiring experience both approaching its clay colored structure and the high winds while riding along it. Hold onto your scarves and hats when riding on the top level of the bus, it gets so windy that your face moves on its own accord!
The food offerings are as fabulous as you have heard and read about or seen on Food shows. Pier 39 was an adventure all on it’s own with , fish markets, restaurants and souvenir stores. My favorite Restaurants were Fog Harbor Fish House and The Grab house . Do visit them when you go.
We also included a visit to USC to see the Alvin Haley Dance group which was also high on my list sine I was a young girl. First Friday in Oakland was an adventure as well with street food and music to tease the senses.
Yosemite National Park which was on our list of places for a long time , the tour took us up the mountain by coach bus ,hugging the sides of canyons while i tried to pray away my fear of looking down from great heights. El Capitan and Bridal Falls were my favorite views there but the entire park visit was awesome! Muir Woods to see the legendary Redwoods was another highlight of our visit to the Bay Area. Just outside of San Fran by coach bus tour was fabulous as well . Some of the trees are over a thousand years old and are taller than two hundred and fifty feet . The woods are serene and full of birds and other wildlife that thrive still in this region. We decided to return to the city via boat from a quaint little town called Sausalito , lovely little village with small boutique stores and interesting restaurants. On the boat ride back we were able to view the infamous Alcatraz, the history of this place is truly as interesting as seeing it up close.
Napa was our last venture from the city , we wanted to have time to explore and see and drink wine while there so we rented a car for the day and explored. We had a vey informative wine tasting session along the Main Street area and even bout a couple bottles. Yum ! St. Helena is the area that has lots of Wineries to visit , along the way we saw some of the local wine names you may know . The vineyard we chose to visit was V.Sattau , it had a Hugh wine store and cheese shop area which was heavily visited apparently as there was not much parking when we arrived. WE however had a great time and bough wine cheese and breads before our departure.
​ Yes the Bay Area is so worth a visit on your next trip to Cali. See pics below to whet your appetite for your visit .Enjoy!