Griswold's California Vacation Part II

Saturday morning we woke up with the plan of heading to the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, and then "wine country."  Our first stop though was for breakfast at the Dipsea Cafe just over the bridge.  This place is stellar for breakfast, I highly recommend it.  I went with biscuits and gravy and they were delicious!  On our way over though there were numerous signs telling us that the parking lot for Muir Woods was full and that we'd have to take a shuttle.  I quickly convinced them that it would be better to just drive up, check it out and if we found a spot, great but if not we could at least see the coast.

Well of course there were no spots available but we did get to drive up route 1, stop at the Muir Beach overlook and endure some really strong winds at the top.   The view from this point is one of my favorites as is the drive as you continue down to Stinson Beach.  We didn't head any further than this though because we wanted to head to Napa.

Once we got to Napa we stopped at the first winery we saw, Viansa in Sonoma.  We all had about four tastings and the women helping us was very nice.  It was incredibly packed though so it wasn't too personal an experience, more of a quick description of what you were getting.  I tried four different reds, all pretty good but nothing worth buying in my opinion.  The winery itself was gorgeous and I was happy to see my Aunt very excited to be there.  She said that was exactly what she was expecting to see in wine country, and she even bought a bottle!

From Viansa we took off looking for another winery, only 20 miles away...or so it was thought.  It turns out that the Blackstone Winery does not exist anymore so no matter how long we look we weren't going to find it.  So we turned around and headed to the first winery we saw up on the left.  I honestly don't even remember the name of this one as we did not do any tastings but instead just stopped in, checked it out and then left for our next stop.

Next stop...the Petrified Forest (Scroll to 3:12)!  Only 20 miles away Nancy says; of course in the wrong direction from Monterey!  We made it to the wood-turned-rock landmark and enthusiastically toured the area for what only took maybe 30 minutes.  At this point though it was almost 4:00 and I needed to start working my way home.  So I took off as they journeyed back to Muir Woods to try and find a spot, walk around and possibly hug a redwood...and even though I wasn't there I heard it was quite the adventure!  I made it home around 8:30, having to stop for gas and food and immediately crashed; it was a long day.