USA - Chico & San Francisco

Our next stop after Santa Cruz was Chico, a complete detour for one reason: Chico is home to Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (not that I'm bitter or anything). We were lucky to find a really nice Airbnb to stay in which was a bit of a home away from home, and the drive wasn't too bad. We were staying in a cottage by the creek which had a fully equipped kitchen so we bought some food from Trader Joe's and enjoyed relaxing on a comfortable sofa. Our host, Darcy, had left us loads of treats including fresh eggs and bread so we were never going to go hungry.

We had booked to go on a 90 minute tour of the brewery. It was interesting, but they have such a big operation that it was hard to sum it up in an hour! They are one of the most sustainable breweries in the world as they generate their own power and recycle almost 100% of their waste which is quite impressive to the reuse and recycling geek within me. We spent the final half hour tasting 8 Sierra Nevada beers, quite a few which we have never tried or heard of. After the tour, we went for some food and drinks in the bar that is on site. Following recommendations from some of the staff, we both had the burger with beer cheese and bacon. It was probably the best burger and fries that we have had on the whole trip. It was quite hard to take photos as the information was mainly conveyed through the talk rather than showing us what they do but here are some from our trip:

Sierra Nevada Brewery. Chico.

They are opening another brewery in North Carolina in the next couple of months so we might visit there soon as well!

On our way from Chico back to San Francisco, we stopped in Santa Rosa to have some lunch at the Russian River Brewery pub. Andy got to try the beers that he had been wanting to, we had some tasty pizza and all of this meant that I got to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge on our way back to San Fran airport with this view!

San Fran is the only place on our whole trip that we have been to before, so I already had quite a good idea of some of the things that I wanted to do which we missed out on last time.

Our hotel was pretty nice and right in the middle of Hayes Valley which has recently become quite trendy. We arrived just in time for tea so we went out for some Chinese (far too much food) and then a nice glass of wine. However, we were so full from the Chinese that we couldn't manage very much!

The next morning we were up bright and early to go on a trip to Alcatraz, which I had booked before Christmas. It was nice to get the first boat out so that the island wasn't too busy and it was incredibly interesting to learn about the history of the island and the lives of the inmates. I can see that it must have been frustrating to be imprisoned when you could see the city was not that far away. I also though that it was really fascinating that so many families (of the prison staff) lived on the island and they had a social club with a bowling alley and big parties. We also learnt about the Indian occupation in the 1960s after the prison was closed.

View of San Fran from the boat.

Alcatraz

Signs from the Indian occupation

Triple decker cells.

The recreation yard.

View from Alcatraz of San Fran

One of the holes used in an escape like in the film!

One of the old unused buildings on Alcatraz.

After our ferry trip we went and got some tasty food from the Ferry Building, as well as a famous Blue Bottle coffee.

San Fran Ferry Building

We then wandered round the shops and walked to the famous Painted Ladies on Alamo Square, before heading to out for a couple of drinks and some food.

San Francisco City Hall

Painted Ladies

On the next day I had set my heart on hiring bikes and heading over the Golden Gate Bridge which sounds less stressful than it actually was! Hiring the bikes was no problem, but the bridge was quite busy so it was hard work getting over. The views were quite spectacular, although it was the foggiest day that we had in SF which was bit of shame.

GG Bridge & me.

View from the SF side of the bridge.

The view from the north side.

We cycled to Sausalito, a pretty little town, where we had some tasty mexican food, and then we carried on to Tubaron. The bike ride followed the coast round so we had some great views of the Bay and city, as well as loads of birds.

A heron!

We then got the ferry back to the Ferry Building with our bikes then we had to cycle really quickly back to the hire place to get there before they closed. We'd had to wait for ages as they didn't have space on the first ferry for all of us which was a bit annoying, but on the plus side we got to see the bridge again as well as the Bay Bridge and Alcatraz.

Alcatraz and the GG Bridge.

Once we had returned the bikes we decided to get the cable car down the hill as we were tired out from our ride. The cable cars are a total San Fran institution and we knew that they'd be really touristy but I thought it was a good alternative to the bus! Plus we got to ride along and see a really beautiful sunset.

Sunset from the cable car.

SF sunset

Our ride down the hill.

Following this, we popped into the Cellarmaker Brewing Company's bar for a couple of drinks which were pretty tasty. We then went for some amazing Greek food at Hayes & Kebab to finish the day off.

On our last day in SF we went to the de Geary art gallery as they had a Georgia O'Keefe exhibition on. All of the paintings were beautiful, especially the landscapes of Lake George.

The de Geary.

The view from the observation tower.

At the gallery they were having a special annual event called Bouquets to Art where florists from across the city had chosen paintings and made floral interpretations of them. It was really cool, but meant that the gallery was SO busy - we could hardly move for old ladies!

After visiting the gallery we wandered up Haight Street, which is full of shops and cafés, and chilled out until we needed to pick our baggage up. In the evening we were going to catch the train to Portland.

We had to get a bus from the Ferry Building to Emeryville, where we then joined the Coast Starlight for our overnight journey. Coming from a family of train geeks, this was quite exciting for me! The seats were more comfortable than on a plane, as they reclined further and had footrests. There was a dining car, and observation car/lounge that you could go and sit in and just take in the view.

Andy enjoying the observation car.

Andy and his leg room.

The view out of the back window!

Snow!

We had to keep stopping as we would get stuck behind freight trains and one even broke down. Apparently this is quite a common occurrence and many call the train the Star-late Express. Even though we arrived two hours late and the journey took 21 hours, if you have the time I would recommend travelling this way as it was quite fun and very cheap!