Last days in San Francisco

On Saturday 21st we went for a wine country tour to Napa and Sonoma. Taking a bus tour made more sense than going around in own car, since a) there were so many wineries to go to and we hadn't researched them, and b) drinking (even just to taste) and driving really didn't mix in our book. So, on a tour we went.

The bus tour was guided and driven by rather Ed Harris -looking guy who had a very incomperensible american-italian (?) accent and good story material for all the trip. We visited three wineries on the trip from a small, boutique-style winery to very large bulk-type winery producing millions of bottles per year. However none of the wines were so much to our taste that we would have bought them. Our stereotype of Californian red wines being light and not very full-bodied seemed to be reinforced (even though the ones from Central Coast we tried in San Luis Obispo had also full-bodied varieties. Oh well).

After the trip we did a quick visit to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. It clearly is San Francisco's most popular tourist attraction, with lots of people and souvenir shops and amusement rides. Not completely our kind of place, we headed to North Beach for an italian dinner, on the trip home we wondered the steep slopes of Russian and Nob Hill.

On Sunday 22nd we first went shopping, because we had only one day to go anymore, and shopping sprees weren't that effective in the centre; we needed a shopping center or a mall. We aimed for Hillsdale Shopping Mall 20 miles south of SF, actually pretty close to Milbrae where we spent the very first night of the trip. So, we got Patsy out of the parking and headed there. Hillsdale had good shopping to do, we managed to get clothes and shoes and stuff; also the Harry Potter book we didn't have time to get earlier. When we got back to the hotel, we noticed that a screw had punctured Patsy's rear tire, but luckily the leak wasn't that bad so we didn't have to change it (and luckily we had to drive only to the airport anymore).




As Sunday was our first wedding anniversary, so we had deciced to go eat well in the evening. Unfortunately our prime candidate for fine dining, Gary Danko, had no free tables so we decided to try something more local. We had actually become a bit bored of eating at restaurants, so we weren't in a hurry to try to book another "famous" restaurant. We went to Brick, a restaurant just next to our hotel, which looked like a pretty trendy one with californian style food but a bit mixed reviews on the net.

The food in Brick was found to be excellent! Really well made and presented, with very good service. The funny thing was that one of the complaints on the net, portions being too small, was actually a very good thing! For the first time on the trip (well, excluding Bouchon) we could eat all three dishes of the meal and not feel absolutely too full; in contrary we felt excellent. So all in all, a very good experience.

After the dinner we went to Top of the Mark (a restaurant on top floor of Mark Hopkins InterContinental hotel with great views of the city) for drinks. The city was at the time, and typically to the time of year as I understand, quite covered in fog, which gave it more atmospheric and dream-like ambiance. So a very successfull evening.

On monday we had our flight at 3pm, so we decided to do a bit of last-minute shopping, and went to Tamforan shopping mall which we remebered from the beginning of the trip and which happeded to be right next to the airport. The flight left mostly on time, and for some reason the flight seemed to go really quickly (we probably had gotten used to sitting ;), which of course was nice. Had a stop in Amsterdam, where we had lunch and immediately noticed the difference in service levels in European restaurants (to the benefit of American ones, of course) and did the last quick hop to Helsinki.

We arrived home on Tuesday, 24th at around 5pm, a good 29 days and 12 hours after leaving, bit tired, but happy!

Total number of miles by car: 5066
Final results of 'heppa' game: 27-27 (a tie, no less!)