Back on the Pacific Coast Highway!

Good Evening my precious Disciples!

Another beautiful day in the life of “An Italian Across America”.

We left Martinez, CA and the San Francisco Bay this morning around noon, after having a nice breakfast with our friend Doug in a very good spot where the locals go. I had a Club Sandwich that was quite good!

After driving for quite some time on I-680 and then I-880, we then arrived to the city of Santa Cruz, where people are apparently ALWAYS surfing! I don’t blame them, as they really do get some good surf up there.

After a little drive through downtown Santa Cruz, where we decided to put the top down and enjoy the warm California sun (not the air, that on the other hand was chilly!), we went back on California 1.

We headed south to the city of Monterey, CA, where we stopped at the local visitor information center.

You all know I sometimes go crazy for weird road signs, and if you paid enough attention, you might have noticed that from all the pictures you see on the Flickr website. In Monterey I found one of the nicest ones:

After we left the Visitor Center we drove down to famous Cannery Row, the waterfront Street in Monterey that was (a long time ago) the site of several different Sardines Canning Companies.

There’s nothing left of it, other than the buildings. The area is incredibly well preserved, and very touristy.

We then drove to the city of Carmel, and Carmel-By-The-Sea, where we visited the one of the many Franciscan Missions along the Mission Trail.

I fell in love with Carmel, it would be such a neat place where to live, but also so expensive! It reminds me of the Emerald Coast in Sardinia, and it honestly doesn't surprise me as many Hollywood actors also live here.

We left Carmel and went back on California One where, after a few miles on the road, we encoutered the beginning (or the end, depending on where you started) of the "Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park".

The wildfires of these previous days certainly damaged the area, but still, the place had something magical to it that I can't explain, so wild, and so beautiful.

This is how some of the areas along the Pacific Coast Highway looked like this afternoon while we were passing through:

We then stopped for some pictures at Nepenthe and Phoenix Cafe:

I also had to take a picture of one of the numerous signs indicating the distance from here to our next stop, Los Angeles (and Hearst Castle tomorrow morning):

This evening I don't have a very good Internet connection, so I better stop here, otherwise it's going to take me the whole night to upload pictures and keep writing!

Have a good night folks, I'm looking right now at the Pacific Ocean over the San Simeon Coast Line, smells like home...

Nico

Touring San Francisco...

Good morning my friends!

We left Doug's house in Martinez this morning around 11AM to go back to San Francisco. We put the top down, because it was sunny, and warm, and we figured it was going to be a nice day to have the top down. What we didn't know though, is that once you get through a tunnel that from the valley takes you to the Bay Bridge of San Francisco, the temperature dramatically drops!

We went for a very welcoming 85F to 61F! Now, that is a big change!

It's amazing to witness all the micro climates here in the San Francisco Bay, changes in temperatures, weather conditions, etc. It might be sunny in the valley, but still foggy 20 miles away in the bay!

We parked the car at one of those private parking garages at the Embarcadero ($29 for roughly 4 hours, thank you very much!) with the idea of jumping on a Grey Line sightseeing tour on a motorized cable car through the streets of San Francisco, and so we did!

I must admit the parking garage had a beautiful view of the Bay Bridge, would that be the reason why it was so expensive? LOL

I usually try to avoid any kind of tour as most of the times they don't really reflect the real soul of the place you're visiting, but this morning I had some pain on the back of my left foot, and we therefore needed a "Plan B"!

We also wanted to do a cruise out on the bay, but changed our mind when the temperature continued to drop to somewhere in 50s once we got close to the Golden Gate Bridge, which today was partially surrounded by thick fog.

The tour also gave us the chance to see the Golden Gate Bridge from some new and different angles, and I particularly liked the one in the picture up above which has been taken from the South-East side of the bay.

Here's another shot of the starting point of the bridge, right after the Toll plaza:

The tour also gave us some useful information on San Francisco as a city and as a community that we really appreciated, I must admit our tour guide, other than being very pleasant (as they always are) was also very knowledgeable.

We also got some great new shots of the city, like this one down below with Alcatraz in the background, and met some interesting people:

When the tour was over, after about two and a half hours, we went back to the car, paid the $29, put the top down, the heat on, and decided to stay in San Francisco for the evening!

We visited some more places, like this Russian Orthodox Cathedral on the West Side:

And we also went by some REALLY authentic places, like this one in the picture down below (Yeah, RIGHT! LOL):

We had dinner at a very nice and tiny Italian Restaurant called "Aperto". It had raving reviews on the Internet, and so we decided to give it a try.

Ity was exactly what we wanted, we were probably the only tourist in the whole place, all of the other people were locals from the neighborhood! I loved it! :-)

Tomorrow we get back on the road and drive south to San Luis Obispo, through Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, and hopefully many other things.

Now it's time to call it a day once again, hope you're having as much fun as I'm having.

Cheers,

Nico

Crazy California Weather...!

Ah, this California weather! These last few days is really driving me crazy. You have a great sunshine inland, you even put the top down, and then all of a sudden, once you get close to the coast, there you go, that thick northern California comes back to haunt you!
That's exactly what happened today.

We woke up late, and went for a tour of the wineries; we visited two, Blackstone and Kenwood, but to my greatest disappointment, none of them offered any guided tour of the property.

I decided today NOT to drink, and be the designated driver, so I let the co-pilot have some fun with the grapes, and I just browsed around waiting for him to finish his sampling.

In a little more than 90 minutes we were done with wine tasting and Napa Valley, and I know exactly what some of you are already thinking: "Oh my God, they are in Napa Valley and they only visit two wineries?!?! Well, if we would spend anyplace the amount of time we would really like to spend, well, it would probably take a few years instead of a 100 days for completing this trip!

I then plugged all the necessary information on the GPS to drive us to the north entrance of San Francisco, through the Golden Gate Bridge.

As I said before, we haven't been that lucky with the weather, it's been particularly windy and cold (but then I realize out there is almost always that kind of weather); but hey, at least we could see the bridge, fact that is absolutely something people cannot take for granted!

We took pictures of the Golden Gate from any possible angle, the first one being the picture I put up on top of this post which has been taken from down below.

From up the top of a hill:

From up the top another hill (closer, when we finally found a parking spot!):

We then made up our mind, and decided it was time to get back in the car and finally, after 27 years I've been waiting for this moment, drive through another beautiful American landmark and icon.

As soon as we got close to downtown, our next planned stop of the day was Steiner Street, where some outdoor shooting of the movie "Mrs. Doubtfire" with Robin Williams have taken place several years ago.

From there we went back to Lombard Street, to drive on the "Crookedest Street" in the whole Universe!!!

This is how the GPS show it on the mapl I thought it was cool, and I had to take a picture! LOL


We both drove down through Lombard St. inside the car the first time, then I dropped Hap at the base of the hill, and went back up for another ride, so that he could also take some pictures of the car descending the crooked road!

Here's the result (he's improving his photographic skills as you can see):

We then headed to Chinatown, and North Beach (San Francisco's Little Italy), where we stopped at "Victoria's Pastry Co". Sorry to disappoint friends in the West Coast, but some average pastry shops in Boston are way better than this! Next time you get to New England I'll take you to my favourite spot in Quincy, MA! ;-)

Chinatown on the other hand was a fun experience. Again as it happened in New York City more than a month ago, at times it felt like being in Asia, and not the United States Of America.

There was hardly any sign in English, and certainly not that many Caucasian walking up and down the streets of Chinatown here in San Francisco. I absolutely loved it, and wished this to be a good sign for any future trip to Asia in the years to come!

I also had the time to take a picture of one of the famous San Francisco Cable Cars:

Then, while we were walking around North Beach, guess what I've found?

Well, to the majority of you, this next picture won't mean anything, it would just be a table with a table cloth that instead of being of a uniform color, it has a map on it.

That map is part of Italy, and that part of Italy is where I come from! Yes, it's a map of Sardinia, and if you look on the left (the West Coast), you'll see the name of the city where I was born: Oristano.

It is a quite weird feeling to see the name of the town where I was born here in San Francisco, not quite exactly around the corner!

Something that I also had to really capture with my camera is the "Transamerica Pyramid" who is in my opinion together with the Golden Gate Bridge, a symbol of the city of San Francisco.

Here is one of the many shots I have taken, I think this is the best one:


This is a closer shot taken from the car while driving right beside the building:

We then went to Pier 33 to check on the Alcatraz Cruises.

I read online that the cruises in the summer sell very quickly, and when I tried to book tickets for two on the official website, the next available day was July 29th! Well, we went to the Pier to see if maybe walk-ins were welcome, and if they reserved some tickets for people who show up at the Embarcadero, but no need to say we were out of luck!

As a consolation, I took some shot of the island from the pier, to me it only means that there's another excuse to come back to San Francisco!

We're now spending the night in Martinez, CA, with Doug a friend of ours I met in Massachusetts two years ago.

We had dinner at a very good and tasty Thai restaurant. I had my usual Chicken Panaang, out of this world.

I'm now ready to call it a day, tomorrow we have many other things to do, among them, try to get a hair cut, I almost look like Tom Hanks in Cast Away!

Good night folks,

Nico

...and the Wine is Bottled Poetry...

As Robert Louis Stevenson would put it: "...and the wine is bottled poetry".

Good morning fellows!!!

Another foggy morning in the life of "An Italian Across America".

What I like about California though, is that instead of staying cloudy and foggy all day, around 10/11AM, the morning mist goes away, to leave some space for a warm California summer sunshine!

We left Guerneville, CA at around 11.30AM after having breakfast downtown with Danny and his brother Jimmy, with our first stop of the day being only 30 miles away in Bodega, CA.

We wanted to see the "Potter Schoolhouse" of the famous Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds", and we did. It is now a private residence (and from what I understand, it's been this way for a long time already), but there's a small gift shop of the first floor where you can buy the usual things, T-Shirts, hats, wine glasses, beer glasses, cups, postcards, you name it.

We then decided NOT to take the drive down California 1 to the Golden Gate, because of the clouds of the Pacific Ocean (inland was absolutely gorgeous though), and instead drove back east to the town of Petaluma and Santa Rosa right after.

We then proceeded driving from Calistoga to Napa and Sonoma on Route 29 (and also the Silverado Trail at some points), what a beautiful day to have the top down and drive along the several vineyards and wineries.

As my brother would say, I can always snap a picture of "The Bug" in the most unusual places, and it almost feel like the car gives me a VIP pass to the most weird spots. Well, guess what, I put the car under the "Welcome To Napa Valley" road sign this time, and here's the picture!

Those who know me well enough, also know that I usually keep promises, and that is exactly what I did this afternoon when I called my friend Jerry on the phone (and he was reading the blog...) to ask me where he thought I was. He made no mistake, he knew I was at the Culinary Institute Of America at Greystone, in Saint Helena, CA, that he proudly turned into the masterpiece it is today.

All right, all right, let's not tell anybody at Johnson & Wales I've been here, I'm not sure they would like to know I've been spending time with the "competition"! I'm obviously joking, it was a pleasure to visit CIA here in California, for all of the above mentioned reasons and for the surprisingly wonderful location.

I promised Jerry I would have gone through the restaurant at the "Institute", and since he doesn't really trust me (I don't blame him!) he asked me to tell him what was on the big windows on the sides of the building. Not only I have an answer, I also have pictures: ROOSTERS is the answer!

We decided to stay and get something to eat (just a light appetizer) at the bar. The bartenders and waiting staff were very knowledgeable, and of course, being in the Wine Capital of the United States, I had no other choice that having, guess what? Of course, a wheat beer!

I know, I know, that was a mortal sin, but hey, I guess I have some German blood running through my veins!

Don't worry, we will have time to have some wine tomorrow once we're going to be touring some of the wineries in the valley, it's going to be fun!

Tomorrow is also the day that I'm going to see for the first time in my life, the Golden Gate Bridge!

Frank (a friend of mine from Palm Springs) and Denny gave us some tips on where to go to get some good shots of the bridge, and therefore I just hope the weather tomorrow will collaborate with us.

As they say in the song, "que sera, sera...whatever will be, will be", I'll keep my fingers crossed, and you do the same.

Good night wine lovers,

Nico

Avenue Of The Giants + California Coast Line

Another day in California...Hey, I'm getting used to that!

We woke up surrounded by low clouds, something that made me think about changing our driving plans for the day.

Initially we thought about driving through the "Lost Coast Scenic By-Way", on the water for roughly 90 miles before hitting a mid spot in the "Avenue Of The Giants" Scenic Route, but then because of the poor visibility, and therefore, our security on California 1, I opted for a safer shift of directions towards the northern entrance of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, on Route 254, running parallel to Hwy 101.

It is definitely something anybody should plan visiting, absolutely the most scenic route I've ever taken so far during this trip.

The Sequoias in the park are absolutely amazing, I really have no other words to describe them.

Make sure to pick up a pamphlet before at the State Park entrance, as it will guide you through a total of 8 stations, with interpretative signs, to enjoy the journey through this beautiful park on your own.

For those of you who really have no idea of the size of this giants, here's a comparison with my car:

Our first stop has been"The Immortal Tree" which is supposed to be the biggest/tallest sequoia in the park. It's been estimated the tree is 1,000 years old (therefore, not the oldest of the park) and is currently around 250ft tall, though originally, as the sign at the bottom says, it was much taller. It has survived not only the test of time but also the 1964 flood of the area (marked with a fish at the height the water reached in the flood, pretty impressive), and a direct lightning strike which removed the top 45 feet of the tree (making its original height close to 300ft). The tree also survived numerous attempts from being cut, and it is therefore from its age and the perceived hardiness to the fates that the tree derives its name.

Here's a picture of the base of the "Immortal Tree":

Here's a picture of the section of another tree's trunk in the parking lot of the Immortal Tree:

One more shot:

A few miles later, we went through a nice detour, a road sign indicating a "driving through" Sequoia. I had to do it, this is one of those trashy touristy things that I have no shame in doing!

Here's the proof "The Bug" went through a Giant Sequoia:

And here is another one:

At the same location, you can drive the car literally ON a giant log. How could I miss such opportunity. So here they come, some more pictures!

The sign says that the log is 3,200 years old (according to the rings):

And here's the car ON the log (the sign says that it was hand cut in 1900:

Here is another random pics taken at a random spot on the "Avenue Of the Giants", just to show you how enjoyable it is to go through the whole route, from North to South or viceversa. Look at how small the car is compared to the log:

After we left Scenic Route 254, we got back on Hwy 101, which is, to be totally honest with you, a very nice and pleasant drive. What is even more interesting is that they're doing their best to improve the road infrastructure, which is certainly something very positive for people involved like me in the tourism industry.

Here's a picture of some of the major road work that is going on around visitors on Hwy 101:

And this is the strangest bike I've ever seen, who belonged to a guy that stopped to take some pictures of the same bridge you've just seen in the picture above:

We then drove another 70 miles to get to the starting point of our next Scenic drive, Mendocino (and its cape) to Jenner, 15 miles away from Russian River, where we're currently spending the night.

It's been a long long drive, I must admit that. We basically drove 140 miles on California 1, with not less than 135 miles of sharp curves overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

At some points I even got so much carried away with the driving that I earned a new nickname this afternoon: Mr Andretti II!

I couldn't help it, as the road was so inspiring with all its curves and the beauty of the ocean. And I didn't break any laws, as I always drove below the speed limit. What a beautiful ride.

Here's "The Bug" enjoying a technical stop on our way to Jenner on California 1:

And here is a picture of the same spot without the car:

The ride was really worth the 3.5 hours on the road just for that stretch from Mendocino to Jenner, as this other pictures down below might show you.

Slow down, steep grade!

"Pacific" Beauty:

"Pacific" Danger:

A few miles before getting into Jenner, we hit a sign telling us we were about to enter the Sonoma Coast State Beach (and in particular the Vista Trail), which led me to think we're actually already in "good California wine country"!

The last sign of the day gave us another important indication as to where exactly we are on the map, respectively, 10 miles away from Bodega Bay, and 72 from San Francisco where we're planning on being on Monday.

As I said, we're spending the night here in Guerneville, CA with our friend Danny who cooked a nice pot roast for us this evening and introduced me to the joy of Moose Tracks Ice Cream, and how to reach Karma through our tasting buds, in particular when we come across those miniature peanut butter cups mixed with delicious chocolate ice cream.

And with this culinary thoughts, I wish you good night for the 55th time, which means that we've been on the road, traveling through this beautiful country, for 55 adventurous days.

We keep on trucking, that's for sure!

Nico