RoamingRajuDuring the spring of 2005 we took a family vacation to San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, and Napa Valley. Both kids were quite young at the time (ages 7 and 3), but we had a really great time. We decided to check out the city of San Francisco first. Once we arrived in the city, we picked up our rental car and drove straight to our hotel—Hilton Fisherman’s Wharf. This was a small hotel, but it was right in the midst of the tourist district of the city. Everything was close. San Francisco is a beautiful city—correction, it used to be a beautiful city before all the homelessness and cleanliness problems popped up in the past five to ten years.
Anyway, there is so much to see in the city. We started by walking around the Fisherman’s Wharf and decided to check out Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum. My son had fun at this place. We spent some time at Pier 39 and just enjoyed the view. The next day, we checked out the Golden Gate Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge Park. The park is actually a lot more fun in my opinion. My college friend and his family met up with us at the Golden Gate Bridge—both our kids were of the same age, so everyone had a lot of fun.
We decided to go to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory at Ghirardelli Square. Boy, that was fun! I had huge ice cream for dinner! How cool is that? After dinner, we decided to rent one of those tourist cards and drive to the famous Lombard Street. San Francisco is a very hilly city. Although I come from the mountains, we never have stoplights on a steep angle like in San Francisco. I was stopping at a stoplight on our way to Lombard Street and I could feel the car moving backward. It was scary, to say the least. I was not used to driving with the parking brake in one hand so that the car does not move back! Anyway, we finally made it to the top of Lombard Street and it was time to go down the curviest street you could find. Driving down Lombard Street was a really amazing experience.
The next day, we decided to check out the world-famous Alcatraz Island. If you know the history of the island, you know that it was a prison. It is an island where the government built a prison known as the Rock. Apparently, no one who escaped Alcatraz could make it out alive—three prisoners tried but drowned in frigid water and never made it to the shore. This was an interesting experience. It turns out the prison was built by the prisoners!
The next morning, we started to drive to Yosemite National Park. It is quite a drive from San Francisco. Along the way, we saw gigantic wind farms—this was a novelty back in those days! California was certainly ahead of its time in harnessing wind energy. Finally, we arrived at the park. We were staying inside the park at one of the National Park hotels called The Ahwahnee. This property is incredible. It has a granite façade! How amazing is that? We were taking it easy the first day due to the long drive. In the evening, the hotel had a campfire and smores so that was fun for the kids. After the campfire, my son and I had signed up to go Snow Shoeing. We bundled up in our winter gear (although it was the end of March there was a lot of snow on the ground). It was our first experience with Snow Shoeing. Our guide took a group of maybe six or eight of us through the thick forest into an open area. I had never seen more stars in my life! Away from the city lights, on a clear night, it was just beautiful to watch.
The next morning, we visited El Capitan, Half Dome, Glacier Road, and other landmarks. It was quite cold so we were mostly enjoying these from our cars. We could not hike due to the snow on the ground, but that was okay. Just the nice fresh cold air in your face was refreshing enough.
Fanciest Hotel I Have Ever Stayed At
The following day, we drove to Napa Valley. Again, this was a long drive. Accounting for stops for the kids and lunch was an all-day affair. We were staying at the Hotel Villagio at the Estate Yontvally. This was quite possibly the fanciest place we have ever stayed. Their housekeeping was so cool, they changed the shower curtain every day! Who does that? We were really impressed. Compare that to post COVID travel in the US where you are lucky if they even take your trash out during your stay!
After all the sightseeing over the past five to six days, we decided to just relax in Napa Valley and enjoy the vineyard views and walks. Napa Valley has some of the very best Italian restaurants in Northern California. We had Italian food every day we were staying in Napa Valley!
Salesman At Work!
Although we were relaxing, I did want to take the kids to Safari West—one of the very few animal safaris in the US at the time. So I called them to book a time slot for our visit. It turned out they were closed that day for some reason. It was the last day of our trip and it also happened to be my son’s birthday. So I requested to talk to the manager. When the manager called back, I explained to him that this was the last day of our visit and it was my son’s birthday and he was really looking forward to watching the animals. I don’t know what happened, but he told me he would call me back. A few hours later, he called back and said they will make an exception and open the park for us. He said one of their board members would give us a private tour! Gloating is not my thing but, I was really proud of my ability to convince people right about then!
We had an entire afternoon at Safari West the following day. Safari West is certainly worth a visit. Nowadays you can stay within the park right in the thick of things with the animals. I highly recommend it. That was the last day of our trip. Spring Break was coming to an end. The following day, we drove to San Francisco for our flight back to Denver.
This was certainly one of the better Spring Break trips we have taken. California is what I call an all-weather state. You can go surf and skiing on the same day. What is your best Spring Break memory? Please do share in the comments below. Hope to run into you one of these days on the road…
