Dallas-Fort Worth Nesties
saramc27
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
That Darn Travel Bug....
With the start of a new year and renewal of vacation time, the travel bug is starting to bite. I think we want to stay "domestic" this year and visit a city we have never seen.
One option that we are throwing around is San Francisco/Napa Valley area.
Ever been there? Tell me all about it. When to go, where to stay, how long to stay, must do's, how to get between the city and Napa.
Obviously, if we decide to make this our destination, I will do all sorts of research, but I wanted to start with my experts first!!!
Re: That Darn Travel Bug....
Ugh, I want to go there sooooooo badly. I wanted to do an Anniversary trip there.
Or maybe skiing.
But those are both out the window now! I was thinking Virginia Beach or the Keys...
This isn't helping!
Bio
San Francisco is seriously my favorite place in the country!!
We stayed at Union Square at Sir Francis Drake hotel for several days. It was nice and centrally located. The trolley stops right outside the door and there is a Walgreens right across the street too which was convenient. Also, there was this awesome little breakfast place called Sears Fine Foods that is reallly old and famous for their silver dollar pancakes. It is right across the street as well. We ate there nearly every day.
You can take the trolley to Fishermans Wharf, China Town, North Beach etc. Anywhere you want to go. We ate at this great Italian place in North Beach called Vicoletto that our concierge recommended. It is a small little place, but the food was divine.
We did a lot of sightseeing, but my favorite part was biking across the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito. It was incredible and riding down the hills on the other side into Sausalito is just breathtaking.
We spent a night in Sausalito also. A REALLY luxurious inn called the Inn Above Tide. It is right on the water and the views of San Fran from the other side are stunning. Sausalito and Mill Valley are both really cute little towns. Not a lot to do but relax, though.
We went to Napa on our last day and visited a couple of wineries. We didn't plan it very well, so I definitely want to spend more time there next time we go. You can drive to Napa (around an hour, maybe less) from San Francisco. It was an easy drive.
So uh, that is probably more than you wanted to know...but hey, there it is.
BSN- LOL! Your post made me laugh because when people start talking about travel, I always start dreaming of all the places I want to go, too!
Tiffany- Your post is AWESOME! Be prepared for lots of questions from me if we decide on this destination. Here are few to start:
-What time of year did you go? Would you go again at that time or another time of year?
-Would we need a car in San Fran? Would we need a car to/from/in Napa or are there transfer services from the city to the wine country?
Haha, I will be happy to answer all that I can.
We went in September and it was very nice. We needed just a light jacket, and in the afternoon it was warm. I would say the lows were probably in the 50-60's and highs in the 70-80's. It rained a little bit, but just for an hour or two each time.
I don't recommend having a car in San Francisco at all. It is terrifying (to me) to drive with those street cars. Plus, hotel parking was nearly $30 per day at any hotels I looked at. We did take the BART train to the airport and get a rental car for our last day, so we could drive around Napa. I don't necessarily recommend that, but we did it because we get the rentals for free.
I know they have wine tours/buses/etc. Even some sort of train. I don't know many details about them, but I am sure there is plenty of transit available to/from the city. Maybe someone else will chime in on that.
My uncles and their wives both lived in the Bay Area and I loved visiting them. I was too young to drink but they drove me through Sonoma Valley and it was beautiful!!!!! In SanFran, you can visit Alcatraz which I've always wanted to do. You can reach Monterrey very easily too and visit the aquarium there. You can also maybe catch a glimpse of Clint Eastwood if you go to Carmel; he was the mayor there for many years.
Our big vacation this year is a cruise at the very end of June. It's looking like we'll be able to go to DW again in October and I am really hoping that I can force a long weekend up to NYC again. However, things might not turn out that way.
Right now, my travel bug is blessedly silent, but that won't last long. If we go three months without a trip, I start itching. We try to take one big trip with the kids, and one non-work trip every year. This year all those are late summer and in the fall, so there's quite a stretch coming up with no traveling for Chelsea.
I LOVE SanFran. Mack's never been, and it's on our list of places to go together soon.
I LOVED SanFran! Luckily I was visiting a friend in San Jose so she drove me everywhere. I would not want to drive around there like Tiffany said. We went driving around Sonoma, I was told it's just as nice but a little less expensive than Napa. I was there right before or after Christmas and it was ok weather-wise, but I wish I had gone when the vineyards were green. It was still beautiful though!
PS- If you do go to Sonoma, my favorite places were the Hanna winery, and Gundlach Bundschu (pronounced like gun-lock-bun-shoe).