Crossing the Bridge into the Vineyards
I apologize for the delay in days of posting. I literally have spent the last few days enjoying the city from AM to PM and so I would get sleepy but no more! I've returned to Dallas and ready to give you 3 more days of posting!
Lan's actually birthday was on Saturday so when she woke up I had a nicely wrapped present waiting for her! I love the gift wrapping paper (Buy it at PAPER AFFAIR in Dallas) She loves to bike so the wrapping was even more fitting to give to her. Of course, I wasn't ready so my hair is a mess again.
Her two gifts were a Martha Stewart Pies & Tarts Cookbook and some wide calf boots. She has been in search of the perfect boots that can fit her strong calves! And I got super lucky because I found some that finally fit her!! Yay!
Our day began searching for the famous winding road in SF which is on Lombard Street. You can actually drive through it which is more fun to experience than just looking at it. But knowing our traveling party, we finished the drive and took another jumping picture =)
Beautiful views of the cityscape and water - we were super lucky because the skies were clear, the weather was warmer, and the day just began!
Another stop we came to was the Palace of Fine Arts which is one giant park with an exploratorium next to it. Byoung kept mentioning the movie "The Rock" where the palace was a backdrop to one of the scenes in the movie - but sadly I was too young to know what that movie was -______-
We were photo trendsetters that day! The ledges that we each stood on are actually huge spots for plants. Since the cold season makes plant life so rare, we were able to step on it and take a picture. That crowd in the corner all did the same thing once they saw us =)
Are you tired of jumping pictures? I sadly have to warn you that, if you do, we have a LOT more coming your way.
So I had the brilliant idea to use the backdrop to make our own movie using Byoung's camera - I plan to post it once I stitch all the clips together! Stay tuned for that video!
Our real agenda was to stop by and look at the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and then visit Napa Valley.
To be honest, it's really hard to be extremely creative when photographing the GGB while in a moving vehicle. Our hotel is filled with amazing images of the same bridge which made me have to think differently. I really like the image above because I'm big on lines and a slight angle gives tension. Anyways, if you hate it - you try shooting it while in a car!
There are actually many spots to park into along the highway so you can get a good picture with the GGB in the background. It's too bad we were against the sun's light so we have all these sun spots in our images =(
This lady was walking around selling homemade churros to tourists which I think is pretty smart on her part! There are no food vendors in that spot - she probably banked lots that day!
We love eating churros. SoOoOo good!!!
We made it to our first vineyard after an hour of driving outside of the city. Welcome to my new chateau!
The cheeses are MT TAM, Midnight Moon, and one more but the Midnight Moon is the best!
I absolutely recommend going to a vineyard and doing a wine tasting. It's about $16+ to try about 6 wines with accompanying cheeses.
We visited a second vineyard called Artessa which happens to be a cool vineyard inside a hill!
We accidentally walked through their handicapped entrance which led us to this room with all these barrels of wine. As soon as you walk in you can smell the scent of wine instantly!
Since I'm not a big wine drinker, a lot of these wines really were "aggressive" so small amounts of it affected me really easily.
I really think that the wine was starting to do something to me - the picture on the right is UGLY!
Our last vineyard, The Mondavi Winery, was beautiful! It is one of the first vineyards in SF!
The downside to all these vineyards is the lack of crop growing during this time of the season. Lots of vineyards grow mustard seeds to compensate.
This vineyard had really cute spots for pictures so we took advantage of them all!
Hahaha I totally didn't realize that Lan shot this image of me eyeing Sam's wine =D
Lan shot some really nice pictures of me & Sam! (Can you see all my tiny hairs sticking out on the side??? I get those a lot)
Childhood Friends picture of the day!
The day was coming to an end and we really wanted to snap a photo with the vineyards regardless of the lack of grapes.
Laughing and jumping at the same time takes its toll on some people lol
We really had no time left to do anything else because the drive itself is an hour one way and another hour back. Wine and exhaustion just aren't good combinations together because I ended up turning off my camera off after I passed the GGB.
Last image of the day. Something about this bridge is just magnificent.