Adventures in San Francisco and Napa Valley

San Francisco

We spent another terrific day in downtown San Francisco. First, we sampled some tasty Chinese cuisine at Hunan’s Home in Chinatown. The service was fast and the food was delicious. We walked down to the financial district, admiring the amazing architecture of San Francisco’s various buildings. Ever the tourists, we felt obligated to ride the cable car up California Street. The views were incredible.

After the cable car ride, we wended our way through the crack dealers, homeless folks and prostitutes on Ellis Street. Thankfully, we were left alone.

In the evening, we joined my sister and husband for an excellent meal at Saha’s Arabic Fusion restaurant.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, we would have been lost without our iPhone. We made liberal use of Google Maps to find our way around. We also made extensive use of the Yelp! mobile app to inform our dining choices.

Napa Valley

On Friday, we borrowed my sister’s car and drove out to Napa Valley. We used Twitter to crowd-source winery recommendations. We first stopped into downtown Napa and got some terrific advice from the young lady at the Tourist Information Center. She gave us some great coupons and deals for the wineries in the area, and also tipped us off with an informative chart on some local spas to check out.

Upon her recommendation (and my Twitter buddy Scott Yoshinaga – of Nemu Nemu fame), the first stop in Napa was a visit the V. Sattui Winery. For $10 we were each able to sample 6 wines.

After a healthy buzz, we made our way to the food section of the V. Sattui Winery and chowed down on some delectable sandwiches and pasta. As a cheese connoisseur I was amazed with the variety of cheeses that were on display.

There were so many great wines it was hard to choose. In the end, we bought a bottle of V. Sattui’s 2010 Moscato. (I’m glad my wife and I have the same taste in wine…)

After enjoying a wonderful outdoor lunch at V. Sattui, we visited the Greenhaus Day Spa in downtown Napa.

Our Christmas treat to each other was a one hour couple’s massage. It was just the thing our muscles and bones needed after spending a week on our feets. Once again, we consulted Yelp! and its ratings were right on the money. We had a great time at Greenhaus, full of wonderful memories. Highly recommended!

Today was easily the best day we’ve spent in California.

–Krishna

Krishna December 24, 2011