Travelleity: Zephyr Trip: Day 8

22 June 2011

Zephyr Trip: Day 8

Baker Beach

Japanese Tea Garden @ G.G. Park

Like all vacations, the final day seemed to arrive in a hurry. We slept in a little bit, then decided to hit up the Golden Gate Park for a few hours in west San Francisco. Golden Gate Park is a long rectangle oriented towards the Pacific Ocean; while similar to NYC's Central Park, G.G. Park is actually 20% larger. We lucked out in finding a free parking spot along one of the park's winding streets.

49er Roll

As lunchtime approached, we needed to address the fact that we had been in California several days but not had a bite of sushi. A little wandering south of the park led us to Hotei Restaurant, a nice little Japanese place. The sushi was delicious and fresh- especially their "49er" roll that included smoked salmon and paper-thin slices of lemon. So good.

Mine?!

We hiked back to Golden Gate Park, but after finding out most of the "mini-parks" within it cost $7+ per person [and don't even mention the $20+ museums], we decided to just hang out at the Shakespeare garden [with plaques listing all of his references to flowers/plants] and near Stow Lake with Strawberry Island and its electrically-helped waterfall.

Ring & Bridge - Reprise

We headed via car towards Baker Beach [with a brief fabric store detour], which is on the Pacific Ocean southwest of the Golden Gate Bridge. It sets up a beautiful view of the bridge and the Marin Headlands. It wasn't warm enough to attract any big crowds, but there were a couple bad surfers to entertain us for a bit.

Wandering around Viansa

Cas and I drove back across the G.G. Bridge, and made a beeline to the Sonoma Valley to squeeze in a wine tasting at Viansa Winery. It rained for a few moments on our drive- the only precipitation we saw while out in California. We sampled a few wines, then purchased a couple to take back to my Uncle & Aunt's home for the final dinner out west.

Our California Zephyr trip really worked out well- the Amtrak was on time, saw family in Denver & California, and overall the weather worked out. Already looking forward to planning another train trip, hopefully including a National Park or two. I think Cassie [or should I say "my fiancée"!] is now a lens-changing expert for SLR cameras too.