The Road Trip of Road Trips
 Frisco Days 4-7: So-yes-ma and Heading South As we had been invited up North to Sonoma to visit Nancy and Mike, we hauled all of our belongings onto the F train. Han and I gently and gracefully lowered ourselves into our seats on the tram (2 seats each) and tried not to take out any innocent bystanders as we exited. A smiling Nancy met us off the ferry we took to Larkspur and having so much to chat about, we completely missed our exit on the highway! Eventually though we made it to Ram's Gate where a beautiful glass of Chardonnay accompanied an extraordinary view. Nancy had a full day planned for us, largely involving wine and food, which suited us just faiiine. Benziger biodynamic winery was up next, where we were taken on a tour and managed to spontaneously ask preplanned intellectual questions. (The winery's total production, for those of you who were wondering, is 125,000 cases per annum.) After a brief dip in Mike's hand-dug pool, the farmer's market and Nancy and Mike's lovely friends awaited us. We ate schiatciata's (sketchatas) despite being full from Nancy's mucho good quesadillas, and gorged ourselves on queso dip also courtesy of Nancy - none went hungry that night. After a brief stint at Murphy's Irish Pub where Valerie, Nancy, Mike and Deepak tried (alas in vain) to get me to sing onstage, it was time for bed as we were to hit the road early next morning. A massive thank you to Nancy, Mike and Rudy for their hospitality!!! As much as we would have loved to stay longer, the road ahead beckoned and we headed back to San Francisco to collect our trusty steed, Tony the Toyota. Due to my excellent planning skills, a certain piece of vital paperwork had not yet made it into the country and Hannah had to drive solo for the first few days (much to my chagrin, and my mother's relief no doubt). The LA highways were insane - Hannah took to them with gusto, although she swears it's an experience she'll never repeat. But first, the winding Highway 1 stretched out in front of us leading us South through Carmel, Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Barbara and onwards to LA. The views were slightly marred by the rolling mists (see blurry photo). We ate at a restaurant called Nepenthe where the distracting views caused us to dawdle, and it became a race against time to make it to our campsite before dark and before the road was closed. Of the two, we accomplished only the latter, and ended up pitching our tent for the first time by car headlight. We awoke in the morning somewhat surprised to find ourselves in a beautiful setting with our tent still standing! After the shamozzle of arriving late the previous night, we decided to drive straight to Santa Barbara. We stopped only to see and smell some elephant seals- retreating quickly back to Tony's odourless embrace. We are ashamed to say that the afternoon in Santa Barbara was spent very lazily, watching bad tv reruns and venturing out only for some dinner: salad and mojitos, naturally. The next morning however, we were on it like a car bonnet, breakfasting and beaching it up; Butterfly Beach proved a lovely if lengthy walk. But a stretch of the legs was needed just before we bundled ourselves back into the car, and headed for LA.
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Diary Photos
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Wine tour |
 Sonoma smiles |
 We iz on a golf cart |
 Nepenthe |
 Californian coastline |
 ZE TENT |
 It's true. |
 Butterfly Beach, Santa Barbara |
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