San Francisco expanded from 100 inhabitants to over 10,000 during the Gold Rush frenzy of the 1840’s and 1850’s. Today, the city has over 800,000 residents. The San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose and Oakland, has over 7 million residents. Despite its hilly topography (the city has 43 hills, with elevations ranging from sea level to almost 1,000 feet. San Francisco was laid out on a grid map required expensive grading, filling and paving of early San Francisco streets. The numerous bay windows are due to city zoning, which permits a 36 inch overhang beyond the owner’s property line. The bay windows also allowed for views of the bay….hence the name.
On our second day, August 28th, we packed up early and hopped a taxi to bring us to our hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf. The Argonaut Hotel is in a grand building built in 1907 as the historic Haslett Warehouse which was used to store and can fruit. This luxury hotel was in the perfect location on Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 33 and Ghirardelli Square. We learned that the hotel is actually a National Park’s property and had the pleasure of taking a tour of the hotel and surrounding areas with a Park Ranger. This was a very informative 1 1/2 hour walking tour and we were so happy that we took it. It is available only on Sundays at 10:30 AM, so we lucked out when we saw the sign in the lobby.
The hotel decor was beautiful. 
After our tour, we spent the afternoon walking around the beautiful wharf area, enjoyed a traditional lunch of chowder in a bread bowl, before going to our orientation meeting with the Caravan Tour Director.
Of course, we had to go to Pier 39 to see the world famous sea lions. Shortly after the Loma Prieta earthquake hit San Francisco in October of 1989, a few California sea lions began to hang out on Pier 39’s K dock. By January, 1990, the barking sea lions started to arrive in droves and completely took over K dock. The Marina staff contacted the Marine Mammal Center for advice about the new loud slippery tenants. After much debate and research the experts recommended that the sea lions stay in their newfound home. Within a few short months, the number of sea lions grew to more than 300 and hit an all time record of 1701 in 2009.
We passed by a huge bakery with some very interesting loaves of bread. I think they would be a big hit in Florida!
Gator bread. 
On our first full day of the Caravan tour, (August 29) we enjoyed a buffet breakfast in a private room before boarding the coach for a sightseeing tour of San Francisco’s highlights. The weather has been perfect. Bright sunshine and around 65 degrees and best of all……no fog. We headed over the Golden Gate Bridge and made a photo stop at the Golden Gate Bridge Overlook. The bridge is an engineering masterpiece over two miles long. Construction on the Golden Gate Bridge began on January 5, 1933. The Bridge was completed and opened to traffic on May 28, 1937, almost 4 1/2 years later. The distinctive color of the bridge is a shade of orange known as “International Orange”. The color was chosen over the more traditional black or grey in part to enhance visibility for passing ships.
After this stop, we boarded the coach for the highlight of our day – The Cline Family Cellars winery in Sonoma. The temperature changed drastically from the time we left San Francisco. Suddenly it was 20 degrees warmer, which we were told is very common in this area. The Clines believe in sustainability and take pride in the fact that they do not use any chemicals in their vineyard. They actually use sheep to eat the grass and weeds rather than goats, because they say that goats eat everything, including the grapes, but sheep do not. The grounds were beautiful and the tasting was in a spectacular setting. Prices range from $20 – $25 a bottle and are available nationwide.
Afterward we headed back to San Francisco to take the Golden Gate Bay Cruise which sailed around the notorious Alcatraz Island.
Beautiful, although quite a windy day. But - again – no fog. We visited San Francisco years ago on a cruise and the fog was so thick you couldn’t see the Golden Gate Bridge when you were directly under it. Back at the dock, we walked around the wharf area and then had dinner at the famous restaurant, Scoma’s. Very good and very $$$.
Tuesday, August 30th - Today we left San Francisco and headed east into the Sierra Nevada Mountains on our way to Yosemite National Park. Established in 1890 Yosemite’s 1000 square mile park is an enduring legacy to the conservation efforts of naturalist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club. We had some time to have lunch before boarding our tram for a valley floor tour with a park ranger guide. We were disappointed that we would not see any of the California redwoods since the Mariposa Grove was closed.
We were fortunate to have another beautiful day…much warmer than our time in San Francisco. The photo below was taken at “Inspiration Point”, one of the most beautiful overlooks in the park.
Yosemite is known for it’s waterfalls, however with the current drought, the falls were just a trickle.
After the tram tour we had some free time in the park before boarding the coach to go to our hotel, The Yosemite View Lodge, which was located outside of the park. Located on the scenic Merced River, all of our rooms had balconies overlooking the river, fireplaces, hot tubs and a mini kitchen. The only problem was that it had not been updated for quite some time, so the rooms were somewhat outdated. The accommodations that were directly in Yosemite were nothing like we have experienced in the other national parks that we have visited. They were somewhat primitive and I’m sure they could not accommodate the number of guests and tours that Caravan needs to have. This was the first park that we didn’t stay in a lodge that was directly in the park. But, I can certainly see why. The Yosemite View Lodge was located about a 20 minute drive out of the park and was clearly the best accommodation in the area. Just needed refreshing.
The following morning (Wednesday, 8/31), we boarded our coach and headed to Monterey for some free time to have lunch and do some shopping at Cannery Row. By the 1920’s harvesting sardines had become a major industry in this area. The plants built to process these sardines were collectively known as Cannery Row. The local sardine population declined rapidly in the 1940’s under mysterious circumstances and soon after Cannery Row became a ghost town of empty warehouses. At one time, Monterey Bay teemed with so many sardines that the ocean glistened like silver from the schools of fish swimming below the surface. In the early 1900’s Cannery Row had 27 sardine plants and shipped more than three million cases of sardines annually. Later, boutiques and restaurants, art galleries and tourists replaced the fish factories, making it what it is today….a trendy destination for tourists.
We enjoyed lunch at one of the local pubs before we boarded the bus to take a tour along the coast on Pacific Grove’s Sunset Drive, followed by Monterey’s famous Seventeen Mile Drive. We made a stop at the Pebble Beach Golf Course before heading to charming Santa Barbara and Carmel By The Sea.
The famous photo above is called “The Lone Cypress” and is widely seen in magazines and travel guides. After a short stop at Carmel By The Sea, we traveled to our next hotel, Embassy Suites in Seaside. We were unable to go to Big Sur because of the fires, but we were happy to hear that the Hearst Castle has reopened after being closed for a few days for the same reason.
Carmel By The Sea was an interesting little artsy village. The homes have no street addresses, so the residents must go to the post office to pick up their mail.
Thursday, September 1, 2016 - Today we continued our drive along the Pacific Ocean on our way to Hearst Castle. Stopped to see the Elephant Seals resting along the beach. Males grow to as much as 5,000 pounds and 16 feet long, while females can be up to 1,800 pounds and 12 feet long.
Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California. In 1919, Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) hired San Francisco architect Julia Morgan to build a hilltop house on what he called his “ranch at San Simeon.” Their collaboration on the project lasted until 1947. Today, Hearst Castle is a California State Park, which for more than 50 years has shared the Castle’s story with millions of visitors.
The site of Hearst Castle was originally the Hearst family campgrounds, which encompassed more than 250,000 acres and included miles of coastline, from Big Sur to Cambria.
William Randolph Hearst originally built the structure to house his collection of medieval and renaissance treasures. Eventually, Hearst built the castle into his dream home. The castle was the “in” spot for Hollywood celebrities. Frequent visitors included Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant.
It was a beautiful clear day as you can see by the color of the sky. Our guided tour was extremely well done as we walked around the grounds and through the castle. The drive from the visitors welcome center up the winding road to the castle was around 7 miles. At the top, the views were extraordinary.
After our tour, we continued our coastal drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to our hotel in Pismo Beach….The Hilton Garden Inn. Caravan Tours does a fantastic job with hotels. We were surprised with a complementary happy hour in the lobby of the hotel where we enjoyed socializing with our fellow tour guests.
Friday, September 2, 2016 –
We traveled along Ocean Avenue continuing South with views of the Santa Monica Pier, which appears in many Hollywood films and TV shows, including “Baywatch”. Our first stop was the Santa Barbara Missions.
Afterwards, we made a stop in the quaint town of Santa Barbara. Interestingly, we picked up lunch at a Jersey Mike’s Subs. We used to live 3 miles from the original Jersey Mike’s in Point Pleasant, NJ. So we had to get a photo of this sign. In the lower left corner, there’s a small photo of Bradshaw Beach…….our old stomping ground. Spent many a day at that beach. Funny to see the sign here on the opposite coast.
Our last stop of the day was The Getty Villa….a recreation of a first-century Roman country house buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. This world famous museum features the art and culture of ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria.
Our last two nights would be at the glamorous InterContinental Century City in the fashionable West side of Los Angeles, near Rodeo Drive and adjacent to Beverly Hills.
Meanwhile, a hurricane was forecasted to make landfall in New Jersey on Sunday, the day we were scheduled to fly home. So, after much discussion we decided to change our flight to go home one day earlier, hence we would miss our last tour day. We were supposed to go to a behind the scenes tour of Sony Studios, go to Grauman’s Chinese Theater, stroll Hollywood’s most famous sidewalk, the walk of fame, and go to the Kodak Theater, home of the Academy Awards. Also, we were to drive on the Sunset Strip to Beverly Hills along Rodeo Drive. We also discussed staying an extra day, but according to the weather forecasters, this storm was likely to remain stalled over New Jersey, so we went with plan A. The storm never came. We came home to s brisk wind, but no rain at all. Meteorologists were dead wrong. Lesson learned.
Meanwhile, back at Nanny Sue’s, Lily Mae also had a great vacation with her new friends, Lacey and Bear. Although we hate to leave her for too long, she seems to do very well with Nanny Sue……who sends us photo’s and video’s daily. Wonderful. The first photo is called “The Stare Down”.
Some final thoughts
1. Don’t listen to the weather forecasters.
2. Watch out for large spiders!
