The Redwoods, San Fran, and Napa

Friday morning we started our day by going through the "Avenue of the Giants." It is a 31 mile back road through the redwood trees. We had a great time, it was such a beautiful drive. The trees are so much bigger than we could have imagined. One brochure describes the experience of seeing the redwoods as one that leaves you feeling insignificant. We laughed when we read this description, but it truly is a humbling experience standing amongst these enormous, (Ginormous, as Dan would say,) trees. We got out of the car a couple of times to wander the forest and to take some pictures. We even went to the tree that you can drive through. Our big Titan couldn't fit, so we walked through the big tree instead.

We got to San Francisco that afternoon, coming over the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped along the way with all the other tourists to take pictures. After driving around the city for a bit, (which was both beautiful and scary with all of the hills,) we met Dan's uncle, Dave for happy hour. We went to this cute place called Wine Bar and enjoyed some drinks with Dave and a couple of his friends. After a few Belgian beers, (which was a few too many for me,) we went to a great local Vietnamese restaurant for dinner.

Saturday we headed over to Sonoma and Napa for some private wine tastings. We went to three wineries and they were all way up in the mountains. The drive there made me sick, but otherwise we had so much fun. The tastings were at these peoples private estates. The views of Napa were just beautiful. The wines were also great, we tasted mainly cab sav, which is what these wineries mainly focus on. The last place we went to, we met with the actual wine maker who was giving us wine straight from the barrel with his little syphon. It was crazy! We then went into one of the wine caves, (that was filled with more barrels,) to enjoy a bottle of one of his wines that he just bottled and is not for sale yet. We felt like the whole day was surreal, we were so lucky that Uncle Dave has some great wine connections!

Sunday was rainy but we headed back into the city for some sightseeing and touristy stuff. We first took the boat over to "The Rock", Alcatraz. The audio tour of the prison was very informative and we got to learn about some very infamous criminals. After Alcatraz, we walked along the piers and saw the sea lions laying on the dock. They were very lazy and they were mostly sleeping.

Today we are heading to LA to see my Aunt Diane. We plan on staying with her for a couple of nights and seeing the sights around Hollywood.