Hall Wines Napa Drive to Oregon

On my way to Portland, Oregon from San Francisco area I decided to finally see Napa Valley. Still amazing how much I didn't see while living over there.. so I had a friend who works at Hall Wines and decided to stop by for a tour and some good wine.

Hall Wines actually has two locations, the lesser known one up a curvy road was probably my favorite so more of the pictures will come from that section.

Alcatraz, Haight Street and Twin Peaks in San Francisco, CA

All of the years I lived in California, and especially for the small amount of time I lived in San Francisco, I wanted to visit Alcatraz and never did. It was always the cost that kept me away, but when you're on vacation you expect to pay for things. I did visit California a few years back and still didn't see it, but I vowed that the next time I visited I HAD to see it. So I did!

I read that the tours sold out so it was best to purchase the tickets in advance. We did, and we almost regretted it. We just barely made it on board before leaving! I had to run with my bag (with my laptop in it) slamming against my back..not fun. I would've been very disappointed had we missed the boat.

It wasn't the nicest day out, and it sprinkled here and there, but since most of the guided audio tour was inside, it worked out okay.

Here's a picture of leaving San Francisco on the ferry.





And here's arriving at Alcatraz..finally.





Walking up to the building where the tour begins.





Here is the recreation yard, part of the cell house, an empty library (sad!), and a guard station.





Not all of the cells were in such bad shape, but this one really caught my eye.





And apparently the kitchen had those black borders where the knives were meant to be so that they could tell if one went missing.





I decided to take a picture of some etchings..





And then the tour ended and we started back to the line to get on the ferry. I liked the fact that you could go at your own pace and explore on your own if you'd like. If I ever went again, I'd like a human guided tour at night. Reminds me of the Winchester Mystery house when I lived in San Jose. I did the morning tour, and I heard they had a night tour and I found that interesting.. Something about night tours!





After Alcatraz, we decided to go to Haight St.





And from there we were close to Twin Peaks and I'd never been, so my friend directed me. I didn't realize how low the clouds covering the city were until we went up there. It was incredibly foggy so we had to wait for some of the sky to clear to get some pictures.

Mojave Desert & Death Valley

Heading to Vegas today, I decided to stop by the Mojave Desert, and if I had time Death Valley. Though I really didn't have time for Death Valley, I did fit it in anyway. I'll have to return because there was more to do there than I had thought.

After stopping by the information center, and passing this old post office, I headed into the park.





Most of the roads were for four wheel drive vehicles with a high clearance. Unfortunately I was driving no such vehicle, so I couldn't see much of the park. I did drive down a dirt road to the Kelso Dunes.





After driving around and realizing I wouldn't be able to see much anyway, I went to Death Valley. I arrived so late in the day that nobody was around to show my national park pass to. Oh well! It really was a great time to arrive since the sun was about to head down.

Los Angeles and Typhoon Restaurant insects

A quick warning..this post involves insects appearing as food on a plate! It's not as bad as it may sound, honest.

But first..I took a picture from a window in my friends building in LA.





And now for the fun part.

Pictured here are the delicious Thai-Style White Sea Worms served at Typhoon Restaurant in Santa Monica.





This is the Chambi Ants, which really just taste like potato sticks.





And since neither of us had tried this before, we decided to have some frogs legs. My friend didn't like them, but I did. I thought they were similar to the chicken wings you get at a Chinese restaurant, only (according to my friend) more "slimey".





And finally, a picture of the restaurant itself. It's empty because we actually arrived when they were closing! They were so kind to serve us.