August 15

Upon waking up in San Francisco we discussed the following facts:

1. The freezing cold weather which were were woefully unprepared for
2. The fact that our hotel was AWFUL (Sheraton, Fisherman's Wharf, I'm looking at you)
3. We were being charged $47 a day for parking (therefore negating the price savings of staying in San Fran instead of Napa)

And thus decided to go ahead and cut out of of San Fran a day early. We made a reservation for that night in Napa online, checked out of our hotel, and packed up the car. But before taking off, we decided to get some breakfast and do a small walking tour Mike found online.

This is me at breakfast at the Blue Mermaid on the Embarcadero. I had a spinach omelette with brie on it. Californians will put brie on anything, and for this I love them.
We walked to the end of a nearby pier to get some pics of the Golden Gate and Alcatraz, and were going to get a pic with our "Thank you" sign with them both in the background. And then the wind whipped the sign from Mike's grasp and flung it into the bay. You should have seen Mike scurry after it, it was the least graceful I have probably ever seen him. Poor thank-you sign!We also had planned on trying to get a boat to take a tour of the bay & get up close to Alcatraz to take some pictures, but decided to forgo the trip once we saw how awesome the pics of Alcatraz were going to be with our new zoom lens.

Also took a few pics of San Fran from the pier.
Walked up to Ghiradelli square and did some shopping.... Mike picked up some caramel chocolates. I believe you can get them an most grocery stores, but they are heavenly.
Found a cute shirt in a store that I will HAVE to buy if Mike and I ever have kids... The obligatory shot of a cable car. I liked this one because it was green. ;c) After that bit of walking around, we headed out of San Fran up the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1, also known as the PCH), over the Golden Gate Bridge.

We just kind of meandered up the coast, seeing sights like this:

Once we got to Napa, we checked into the Marriott and I immediately relaxed. What can I say, any Marriott is like home to me. Mike and I cruised around downtown Napa looking for a place to eat and he was such a nice boy - he acquiesed to go to a sushi place with me. I was so excited, I took a pic of him with his chopsticks and texted it to some gal pals to share my wonderment. Of course, he ordered Domino's when he got home, but he ate Beef Teriyaki and he liked it!

Then we went back to the hotel and plotted our plan of action for that week in Napa....