Quit Your Wine-ing! Part 4

Don't forget to read Part 3, in which we ate and drank our way through the world famous Napa Valley!

Hanging out in Sausalito (guess who left his sunglasses in the car?)!

Tuesday morning started very similarly to Monday; Chris and I were up early, so we grabbed coffee at the Napa Valley Coffee Roasters downtown, and we chatted with the proprietors of the Old World Inn, our home for the past few days, while we waited for Mom to join us for breakfast in the dining room (spoiler alert - it was delicious again).

The Cabernet House, in all of its daytime glory.

The Merlot House, where our room was, is slightly behind and to the left.

Banana caramel french toast with bacon and fruit!

After breakfast, we headed back to our room to finish packing, and before too long, we were on the road toward San Francisco.  Our phones were sending us weather alerts for dense fog in the area, and we drove through some of it:

Vines in the fog

Mom's view from the backseat - as you can see, while it was foggy,

it was pretty light, and we could see the road and other traffic without issue

Passing the entrance to the Sonoma Raceway

When we were planning this part of the trip, Mom asked if we could stop through Sausalito on the way back to San Fran; we'd never been, so we thought it was a great idea!  We parked near downtown, close to Gabrielson Park, and walked along the seawall down Bridgeway Road; we found some fun souvenirs, saw the sights, and eventually, stopped for lunch at Vicnio's Pizza.

"If I catch him, I can hug him, right?"

You can barely see Alcatraz Island behind us (in the center of the shot)

Looking south along Bridgeway

San Francisco and the Bay Bridge

I found more oat milk ice cream and couldn't pass it up -

it was even mint chocolate chip!

Enjoying our pizza lunch and the great scenery

Post-lunch, it was time to head back into the city proper, and we once again crossed the Golden Gate Bridge (did you know there's only a toll to cross the bridge southbound?  They don't make you pay if you're leaving the city):

Here we go again!

San Francisco from the Presidio area

The Palace of Fine Arts

Chris dropped Mom and I (along with all the luggage) at our lodging for the night, the Harbor Court Hotel, and then proceeded back to the Marriott Marquis to return our rental car.  Although we were a few hours before check-in time, the room assigned to Chris and I was ready, so Mom and I met the bellman there with the bags, and we relaxed while waiting for Chris to walk back to us (it was only a mile).  We ended up with a bay view room, and while those are sometimes just meh, this one was incredible:

The view's not too shabby, right?

That's the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island

Once Chris returned to us, we three ventured downstairs and caught the streetcar, taking it from the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero toward Mom's next requested spot, the Buena Vista for an afternoon Irish coffee.

Waiting to catch the streetcar in front of the Ferry Building

The Buena Vista is just across the street from the cable car turnaround

for the Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde lines

Our bartender with his line of glasses - this isn't his first rodeo

Delicious (I have a hot cocoa with Bailey's - no coffee for me)!

I kept trying to take selfies of us from bar level, failing spectacularly each time, but at least my efforts resulted in this highly entertaining video:

Well fortified by our warm afternoon drinks, we meandered just a few more blocks to Ghirardelli Square, where we found a seat inside the SF Brewing Co.  We knew dinner would be a lot of food, but we couldn't pass up their pretzel with mustard and beer cheese, as well as a few seasonal tipples.

I love the lady in the back of this shot, who is just trying to take a phone call

on her break, after making a jillion chocolate shakes for tourists.

That's Mom's pink drink on the left (I think it was a spiked tea of some sort),

my candy cane doppelbock in the middle, and a regular iced tea.

We settled up our tab and headed back to the streetcar stop, returning to the Ferry Building and our hotel, where we relaxed a bit before getting dressed up for our final dinner of the trip.

That's the 1886 Square-Rigger Balclutha (the boat) with Alcatraz in the background

Ding, ding!  Our streetcar has arrived!

Relaxing in the hotel room and enjoying the lights of the bridge at night!

For our last dinner in the area, we picked the House of Prime Rib, a San Fran mainstay since 1949; as the name suggests, prime rib is the main draw, and it comes with all sorts of accompaniments, including creamed corn or spinach, baked or mashed potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding.

We ordered cocktails to start - what Chris didn't realize was that his martini

came with a full shaker of extra - it was pretty much a pint glass of vodka.

Good thing we took an Uber.

MEAT!

(Everything was really delicious)

One more awesome meal to celebrate the birthday girl!

The next morning, we all made it home safe and sound and back to our monsters without incident, and all the wine that came home with us also survived the journey without issue (woohoo!).

Bea and Zoe are happy to be back with the rest of the family!

And that's a wrap on our trip to San Fran and Napa to celebrate Mom's 70th birthday!  We had a great time tooling around both the city and the countryside, and as you've seen, we found no shortage of amazing things to eat and drink along the way.  

Until next time, happy holidays from the Ferry Building:

Later!

Amy