Back to reality...

Reality being laundry, mostly, and work again on Monday...

But we had an amazing time, and accumulated many, many happy memories, including:

• many wonderful animals at the San Francisco Zoo, including baby tigers playing together;
• going to a Giants/Cubs game at San Fran's beautiful new ball park;
• Alcatraz, which was very powerful to see up close, and hear an award winning audio tour of the cell block, narrated by former prisoners and guards;
• Pier 39 with it's many beautiful and unique shops and restaurants, where we saw celebrations of July 4th;
  
• City Lights Bookstore, where I bought a copy of "Howl"
  
• The San Francisco Farmer's Market in the Ferry Terminal - a most amazing gathering of wonderful food and drink;
• The Golden Gate Bridge, which we wouldn't have seen except for one beautiful clear afternoon;
• Our rental convertible, which we drove to Sonoma for our trek, and then back to San Francisco via the coastal highway;
• Incredible trekking through Sonoma valley - this really is the best way to see the California countryside;
• tasting, talking and learning considerably more about wine than we did before, and meeting many humble and kind people who were eager to share their gift for wine-making;
• Twelve beautiful bottles of California wine brought back across the border to be the start of our wine cellar.