DAY 1:
Thursday,
My United flight leaves Newark Airport late - causing me to miss my connecting flight in Chicago by barely 10 minutes. Caren lives in Chicago so I decided to call her and rub-it in that I was going to California - that provided a good 15 minutes of entertainment.

Arrive in SF, and hop on the BART subway to my hotel The Adagio. Great, contemporary, bright room - you know how much I love big bathrooms with lots of white and stone too! I spent the rest of the day checking out the downtown SF area and shopping.

DAY 2:
Friday,
I feel jipped! What happened to that fabulous west coast California sunshine, beach weather?? I guess it doesn't apply to San Francisco and the Bay area - something about weather fronts and mountain/valley effects and whatever.

Before it starts raining I decide to walk the coastline of the SF peninsula (see the map image below). I started at the Bay by the Ferry Building and then walked all the way up to Fisherman's Wharf, past Alcatraz "the Rock", through the Palace of Fine Art and around to the Golden Gate Bridge; then got lost in the Presidio trying to walk down the Pacific coast...

...and of course it finally starts to rain... the gray skies, winding roads and not being able to see the ocean didn't help my sense of direction at all.
Thank goodness for my Treo phone - a few clicks and I was online looking at
Google Maps - I found the exact spot (see the Google map below and the loopy roads) where I was and 30 minutes later, I was back in the city eating Tortellini in mushroom sauce.

Later that night I went out for some fun and found Lombard Street - which claims to be the most crooked (serpentine) road in the country. that zig-zag road from the Lexus commercial. I made the mistake of walking all the way to the top - SF is notorious for it's hills - and it's not a joke. We're talking about streets with a 30 to 45-degree incline.

I actually believed the commercial when they poured snow on the street and drove the Lexus down the street like a slalom. But after seeing it with my own eyes, and watching tourists creep down the slalom at 3MPH - one guy daringly went down at about 10MPH - I now realize that the commercial was full of crap.

DAY 3:
Saturday,
This was my Napa Valley day. By far my favorite part of the trip - well maybe second to getting lost in the Presidio. I rented a Pontiac G6 (the car Oprah so graciously gave away to a hundreds of her show's guests) - but that i had to pay $60/day + $300 debit card deposit (which Avs holds for 2 weeks)... thanks for nothin' Oprah! :)
So I rented a car and headed out to wine country - goodness, I've never seen so many beautiful hills and valleys in this country before! Stunning!

My favorite winery was V. Sattui, a warm and friendly vineyard with amazing Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. To take a break from the fabulus vistas and wine - what else could I do but go watch Mission Impossible 3. It was showing in a cute small old-fashioned theatre near Napa in St. Helena - on the cutest little Main St. It was a whim. And there were barely 5 people in the place - that's part of what made it fun.

I spent the rest of the day driving back through Berkeley's campus and checkingout different views of the Bay area from some of the hilltop streets and neighborhoods. Lots of hills with expensive homes "looking down" on not so expensive houses.

DAY 4:
Sunday,
Spent half an hour looking for a gas station to refill the rental car - due to some "Bay-to-Breakers" race in SF that was blocking many of the roads (this is why I'm glad to not own a car in NYC). I had just enough time to grab some breakfast before checking out and getting to the airport for my flight - or so I thought. I ended up just missing the e-ticket check-in time.

So I waited a few more hours on standby for thevery next direct flight. I will say this about United, they definitely do their best to get you on your way if your plans get screwed up.
As always - it was great to be back in the city - landing in JFK is just one of those great feelings and cool perks that comes along with being a New Yorker. I may be starting to believe all that NYC is the best city in the world propaganda I think.