California 2013 - Round 2 - Day 1 & 2

September 11, 2013 (Wednesday)

Yahoo - time for another trip! This adventure heads us back out to California. We hopped on the plane at DTW only to have to sit and wait for more than an hour due to computer problems on the plane – not fun since the plane was probably over 90 degrees inside. In return, we got to watch any movies we wanted for free. Regardless, we made it without any other issues, just later than we had hoped for.

September 12, 2013 (Thursday)

The stay at the Days Inn in San Bruno was not as good as the previous stay. The room was fine but the breakfast was pretty bad – there was hardly anything to pick from. The hotel was completely booked for the night, that may have been the problem but, they really needed someone to keep a better eye on keeping the breakfast station replenished.

San Francisco Maritime NHP

Leaving the hotel, we headed to the San Francisco Maritime NHP site, which is in the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood. There is a lot of parking in the area and it is pretty cheap (under $10 for the day) if you arrive by 9AM. We visited this site quickly on our last trip, but this time we went onto the ships/boats. The biggest ship, the Balclutha, has short videos inside which tell the story of what the boat was used for over the years. There is a $5/person (free under age 16) charge to enter the boats, but it is free to walk down the pier and view the exterior.

Since, we were in the Bay area for a wedding, we had to go pick up Mike’s suit in Mill Valley (Jos. A. Bank). There were other locations around but, we decided that that location would probably be the easiest. The coat sleeves were too short and the store made us come back the next day to pick it up – this of course made the plans for the next day change.

While in Mill Valley, we had lunch at a place called Pizza Antica, which is in the Strawberry Village Shopping Center. We split a Caesar Salad and pizza. The pizza had sweet corn, bacon, arugula and basil on it – a weird but yummy combination!

After lunch, we headed to Berkeley to check into the hotel – Holiday Inn Express. The hotel was relatively new and in excellent condition. We were in a king size bed room and the room was very spacious. The workout room was decent, but there was not a pool. The surrounding neighborhood was a little hit-or-miss. A few buildings had graffiti but all in all it was okay. There was a very tasty ice cream place right down the block called Foster’s Freeze.

The Thomas - one of the many starters!

The wedding was held at the University of California Berkeley Botanical Garden. We headed there for a short rehearsal before heading to the rehearsal dinner in Napa. The rehearsal dinner was at the restaurant that the groom works at – The Thomas. The dinner was on the patio, which was quite lovely. There were portable heaters to keep us warm in the evening chill. The food was served to us family style. There were many choices and all by the looks of what was left over from our table everyone loved pretty much everything.