California Dreaming (Part1)

We are back home and living off memories of a wonderful trip together!

My sister, Carole, hooked us up with a travel agent from Brownell Travel in Mobile. Her name is June Griffith and she is our favorite person!! June has a knack for planning the perfect trip based on your time frame and interests, not to mention she is just a phone call away in case you run into trouble or want to make a change to your itinerary.

Here is the trip she planned for us broken down into three parts:

San Francisco

June arranged our flights to San Francisco and our rental car. We arrived around noon on the first day, and drove to our hotel on Nob Hill. This location put us right in the middle of historic neighborhoods, parks, churches, shopping,  and restaurants. We were able to enjoy Grace Episcopal Church, Huntington Park, street cars passing right in front of our hotel, and beautiful views of the bay. Now if we had been planning our own trip, we could have spent hours trying to choose the right spot and making the reservations. It is just so great to let June send you an itinerary based on your discussion with her!

Huntington Park

Grace Episcopal

https://www.gracecathedral.org/

Katherine, check out the yoga!!

 June arranged for a tour of the city that afternoon. We met Sean, our guide, in the lobby and he whisked us away to see the sights. You know how when you travel on your own, you drive by so many cool things and say, "Wow, I wonder what that is?" Well not only did we not worry about navigating the city, but every question we had was answered by Sean while he also gave us the history of California and San Francisco.  Everywhere he drove us, he asked if we wanted to get out and spend time there or if driving through was enough. Picking up on our "Oohs and Ahas" over the landscaping, he stopped by a small public park for us to take pictures. Honey and I enjoy the horticultural sights as much as the historical!

And the whole time, Dad was is the front seat asking a zillion questions with Sean answering every one. Perfect!!

Chinatown

The Bay Bridge

and

evidence that a large portion of San Francisco was built on landfill after the 1906 earthquake and fire. 

Those roller coaster streets!

Lombard Street, the "most crooked street in the world".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_Street_(San_Francisco)

One of the buildings built for the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939.

The next morning, Sean met us in the lobby and off we went over the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods.

https://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm

Muir Woods is an old-growth coastal redwood forest located twelve miles north of San Francisco. It is part of the National Park Service and named after naturalist John Muir. Time slows down as you walk into the company of trees that are 500 to 1,000 years old.

Some of the Return of the Jedi background shots for the planet Endor were taken in Muir Woods

Then it was on to Sausalito, a seaside community surrounded by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area where we ate lunch and did some shopping. I was surprised to find that I hadn't taken even one picture in Sausalito, but here are a couple from Wikipedia.

On the way back to the hotel, Sean drove Dad by all the old World War II barracks and landmarks, giving him a West Coast perspective on that time period. Sean had tuned into my father's history interests and modified our tour accordingly- how awesome!!

The next day we left San Francisco for Yosemite; more on that tomorrow!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

-Mark Twain

I don't know of any other city where you can walk through so many culturally diverse neighborhoods, and you're never out of sight of the wild woods.
Nature is very close here.

-Gary Snyder

The Golden Gate Bridge's daily strip tease from enveloping stoles of mist to full frontal glory is still the most provocative show in town.

-Mary Moore Mason

The Bay Area is so beautiful, I hesitate to preach about Heaven while I'm here.

-Billy Graham

Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart.
You want to linger as long as you can.

-Walter Cronkite