NAPA!!
My girlfriend Marie Josee and I needed to get out of dodge for a while and what better place for a couple of whino’s than Napa? She and her husband had just been there in the past year but, as I found out for myself, Napa never gets old.Since we had to fly into San Francisco anyway I begged her to go back to Alcatraz since I had never been there. Of course I had heard so much about it and seen all the movies, the prison has become larger than life! But as with anything with such a reputation one never knows what it’s truly like it unless you see it for yourself. Alcatraz is run by the National Park Service and they do a phenomenal job! The tour was not only extremely fascinating but easy to follow along as you could start, stop and rewind your audio tour anytime you wanted. Visitors can go at their own pace which, for me, is exactly what I need. I’m one of those geeks that likes to gawk for a while plus I’m the first to admit that sometimes it takes me longer than most to absorb information especially when it’s information I’d like to remember. Don’t make my mistake, though, and assume it’s easy to get tix. We almost didn’t get on the boat because we didn’t buy tix in advance. We had planned to go Friday night but by the time we flew out west all those tours were booked. Thankfully we found one in the morning still open but that pushed back out trek up north to start our wine experience. When you go, get tix in advance and everything you should expect right HERE. If you end up spending the night in San Fran, make sure to check out Vesuvio’s for a cocktail. Great reputation and people watching.
We stayed the night in the Adante Hotel. Booked it on Hotels.com. Great little hotel for not a lot of money. My only beef was that they claimed to have internet. I had to go to their small lobby to log on and when I couldn’t the desk guy says to me, “Mac’s aren’t my thing.” Whatever. Also, their so-called breakfast in the morning consisted of instant coffee….and bread. Yum…..or not. In the morning we hopped on the trolley. You have to be incredibly strong to drive on of those suckers! 
We went and had breakfast at Castgnola’s at Fisherman’s wharf. Try the soup! Then we meandered down the wharf and hopped on the boat. Did the Alcatraz tour and it knocked my socks off!!