While in San Francisco, we booked a sunrise photography tour through Doc Miles Photo Tours. Doc is a professional photographer and also a great teacher. He knew several places that presented the opportunity for photos with intriguing compositions. He explained camera settings and helped me use light to my advantage – and best of all, he assisted as needed (which was quite a bit). If you are interested in a photography tour, you will find more information on his website. In addition to the sunrise tour, Doc offers other tours as well. I was very pleased with the results!

The picture above the blog title and the one immediately below are of the Bay Bridge, both taken on our photography tour. The Bay Bridge crosses the San Francisco Bay, connecting San Francisco to Oakland. There are actually two sections of the bridge. The western section connects San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island while the eastern section connects the island to Oakland.

The next three pictures are of the Golden Gate Bridge. The first two were taken in the early morning on our photography tour. Fog is common in the summer months. Cooler air from the Pacific hits the warm air farther air inland. You probably remember from your school days that warm air rises. As it does the cooler air fills in the space resulting in the fog. Fog can be especially thick in the morning and evening as you see in the pictures from my sunrise tour. The last picture was taken in the afternoon – there was still fog, but not as heavy as in the early morning.

On another day we arranged for transportation to take us to Muir Woods for the morning. There are several hiking trails, but the main one is the Bohemian Grove Trail which includes three loops, all beginning near the Visitor’s Center. We chose the one-hour loop as we would be traveling on to Napa Valley for the afternoon. It was a quiet, peaceful walk. Visitors were encouraged to speak in “hushed tones” and most everyone was respectful of this guidance. It was mostly boardwalk making it an easy walk.

The trees are coast redwoods and live within 50 miles of the California coast. The fog that sometimes hides part of the Golden Gate Bridge is what enables these trees to survive. The fog provides the moisture the trees need during dry spells. They can grow two to three feet in one year. Many of the redwoods here are 600 to 800 years old and seemed to reach up to the heavens. This was our third visit to Muir Woods and we have come away amazed each time. This is how Muir Woods became a protected area:

Even as far back as the early 20th century, most of the redwoods in the United States had already been lost. A valley called Redwood Canyon, located just outside San Francisco, was one of the few pristine redwood forests that remained.

This forest caught the eye of William Kent, a California politician. Kent purchased a large tract, including this forested area, and later donated it to the federal government to prevent a water company from creating a reservoir in the canyon. When President Theodore Roosevelt declared the land a national monument in 1908, it was Kent who insisted that it be named after the influential naturalist, philosopher, scientist, and author John Muir. 

https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/gentle-trails-and-soaring-trees-muir-woods

These are some more pictures we took in Muir Woods. In the first, our son and daughter-in-law, walked up a fews steps – it gives you a better sense of the height of the trees. The second picture is a group of trees known as the Cathedral Grove. The third picture shows a tree with a burl, which is a cluster of bud cells. They are dormant when the tree is healthy, but have the ability to create a clone of the “parent tree.” The last two pictures in this section are from an earlier trip and was taken from a trail we took with a naturalist.

If you decide to visit, the weather can be cool so think layers. Also, parking now requires a reservation. Check out National Park Service websites related to Muir Woods for more information.

After our stop at Muir Woods, we went on to Napa where we visited three wineries. By far our favorite was Paraduxx. We had been introduced to some of their wines at a Capital Grill event near our home. We sat outside where we learned about their different wines and of course sampled them. It was a beautiful day, very low key (no big sales pitch) and a wonderful experience. We could have spent our entire afternoon there. The first three pictures below were taken at the Paraduxx Winery.

We then went on to V. Sattui, a winery and deli. We got sandwiches from the deli, chose a bottle of wine to accompany our lunch and sat outside on their grounds. We could have also had a tasting here but opted to forego it. Lunch and the bottle of wine we shared was plenty. The last two pictures are from V. Sattui – this was another great experience. Our last stop of the day was the Charles Krug Winery. They seemed very focused on selling their wines and less so on service. It was an OK experience, but certainly not to the standards of Paraduxx and V. Sattui.

On a previous trip, we took the wine train tour. The cars date back to the early 1900s and have been beautifully refurbished. The wine train website describes a variety of options, including stops at selected wineries. Our tour did not include stops at wineries. We had a wine tasting and lunch aboard the train. We spent part of the journey in the club car (first picture) where we tasted different wines. At a designated time, we went to the dining car (second picture) where we enjoyed a gourmet lunch.

There are many options for visiting wineries. The wine train is one option. There are other tours that will take you to specific wineries. The tour cost often includes both transportation and winery fees. On our most recent visit, we chose a private tour with Cardinal Transportation – they assisted us with planning our day shortly after we booked and then provided the transportation on the tour day, including our stop at Muir Woods. We could choose the wineries we wanted to visit. This is a good option if you are willing to do some research. We checked out the kinds of wines the different wineries featured, their tasting fees (which were our responsibility on this tour) and also the geographic location of the wineries. We wanted wineries relatively close to each other so we could maximize our time at the wineries vs. traveling between them.