Two days ago was our last day in the Sonoma/Napa area…
Our first order of the day was to check out the ‘Seed Bank’ we had noticed the first day we were in Petaluma. “Seed Bank?”, you may ask… No, this is not a specialty clinic we used to fund our trip… The seed bank is simply a store selling seeds, which happens to be located in an old bank. Very nice building, full of seeds, and plant-lovers… I have to say this is not my idea of a great time, but Allyson was in heirloom-heaven!! (I haven’t told her that importing seeds into Canada is illegal… Will break the news in a few days…)
While in Petaluma, we checked out a photography gallery, for good measure. Some very nice stuff, which I will talk about in an upcoming post.
We then decided to check out the ‘Valley of the Moon’ winery, in the Glen Ellen area. Some very nice wine, of which we grabbed half a case…
We then went for a special tasting at Figone’s: Olive Oil! Yes, we did taste it, all 10 varieties of it… I felt well-lubricated after that! We also tasted some balsamic vinegar. Delicious!! We ended it up with half a case of olive oil and balsamic vinegar…
We moved along on the same road and stopped at another winery to rinse our mouth with some wine… We grabbed another bottle, a Primitivo from Collier Falls Winery. Are you guys keeping track of how much wine we’ve got?? I think we are close to 24 at this point… It is going to be tough to smuggle that much across the border… Provided our exemption is 2 bottles per person, we need to drink 20 bottles before the end of the trip… Doable!
We then proceeded to head south to San Francisco, less than an hour away from Napa.
An uneventful drive until you reached the GG bridge (nice of them to name a bridge after me!). This bridge is impressive and the view of the bay amazing!
We found our hotel in the Fisherman’s Wharf area and quickly checked in. A few minutes later, we were strolling on Fisherman’s wharf (along with thousands of tourists…). After the tranquil week in Napa, seeing so many people all at once was a little overwhelming!!
Amongst the souvenir shops, ice-cream parlors and camera stores, we found a gem: a gallery exhibit by Rodney Lough Jr. The funny thing is that when we were in Petaluma, the gallery curator told us about this photographer and insisted that we step into his gallery in San Fransisco! I am not sure I have enough words in my vocabulary to describe the work this photographer produces! It is out-of-this-world!! He mostly uses a large-format 8×10 film camera. I’m sure most of you have never seen such a camera, and would think it belongs in a museum if you did, but it remains far superior in many ways to what modern technology can achieve. Imagine a film negative measuring 8 inches by 10, compared to a 35 mm negative, which measures 1.4 inch by 0.7. The advantage of a much larger negative is that you can produce very large prints without significant loss of image quality. Rodney Lough Jr does take advantage of this characteristic and all the prints he exhibits are simply HUGE! When I look at his website, it doesn’t even start to convey how impressive his work is. Being right here in his gallery is the only way you will understand what I am raving about!
After this photographic hot flash, we returned to our hotel. Our New-York family, in town as well, called us to have dinner in Little Italy. We all met for some good food, wine and laughters at Colosseo’s, and then retired for the night.
Yesterday was spent discovering San Franscisco a little more. After another stroll on Fisherman’s Wharf and on the various piers, we rode the famous Cable Car on the hills of San Francisco. No way I would walk in this city! You don’t realize how hilly it is until you stand at the top of a street and look down! Spectacular!! We passed the famous Lombard Street, the most famously crooked street in the world!
It would take weeks to properly get to enjoy this city, but this 1-day tour was a good way to get acquainted. I will be back…
For dinner, we decided to enjoy some seafood at McCormick & Kuleto’s. Very nice food and a great view of the bay!
Another great couple of days in California!!
Later.
G.
