Tourists in San Francisco and San Jose, CA

What a fun and busy area!  Thanks to my second cousin once removed (yes, I know what that means now) Dawn Newman and her parner Joe, Bob and I had a great time on a guided tour of San Francisco Saturday and San Jose on Friday.  Of course we got to see the Golden Gate Bridge and the down town wharf area but we also walked through China Town.  We had a quiche lunch in a small lunch cafe, toured the Cable Car Museum, rode one of the famous cable cars up and down the famous San Francisco hills and went through the farmer's market where you can buy some great olive oil for $174/gal.

Bob, Joe, Dawn

We drove by Golden Gate Park and stopped at the beach.  To swim there requires a wet suit so the beach was not very busy!  We saw many more hats and scarves than swim suits.  The air temp was mid 60s but windy by the beach so swim suits were not the order of the day.   It was a great temp for running around the city, however.

San Jose is bigger than we thought and has a great upscale restaurant/shopping area where we were treated to a very good dinner sitting outside watching the people and their dogs walk by.  An interesting twist to the meal: there is something call a wine "flight" sold: 3 servings of different wines - 2 oz. each.  But since they come in a regular wine glass, it looks as though the party has really begun when two or three people order the "flights".  You get a card to grade the wines in your "flight".  I have no idea what that is all about but I suppose that it is a tag along of the wine tasting that brings so many people to the area.  The "flight" was $13.00 for a total of 6 oz - the traditional "pour" - or serving of wine.  An interesting twist to ordering wine with dinner.

Just a note about the trip to San Jose - the GPS was a life saver!  We had to go on 5 different freeways and that Garmin told us exactly where to turn all athe way there and back.  I can't imagine we would ever have made it without that technology!  Also, we enjoyed seeing the windmills - maybe windmill farms? We saw these in TX as well and while I don't know much about them, I hope they are working because they add something very interesting to the landscape.  Trouble is, getting a photo is difficult as I see them as we're driving by at 65-70 mph.  

We had a great time and got back to the book store business in time to search for a number of orders so they can be ready to ship on Monday.  We fly out on Wednesday so have to wrap the fun up Tuesday.  I can find my card reader right now so I have few photos to put up here tonight - I'll add to them when I find it.

San Jose

Golden Gate Bridge in Background

A wine "Flight" is 6 oz per 3 glasses, remember?

Windmills topping the hill. Very impressive.