8/24/2019 – 9/1/2019
For summer vacation this year we planned a local trip to San Francisco and Bodega Bay. Leading up to the trip we considered a few other options including Hawaii, Yosemite, and a more involved Northern California roadtrip but decided on the simplest itinerary:
- 4 nights at home with a day trip to Santa Cruz
- 2 nights at Presidio Lodge in San Francisco
- 2 nights at an ocean side rental North of Bodega bay
- 1 night back at home to recuperate
By the time we made up our mind the trip was only about a month away and we nearly missed getting our desired locations due to their occupancy getting booked. Luckily it worked out though.
For the first few days we just kind of hung around the house. We went to Santa Cruz on Sunday with another parent couple Megan recently met, and I caught a few fun waves at Capitola. We also went to a slightly awkward pool party Sunday afternoon for a co-worker’s birthday. Aside from that, we relaxed, napped, played with Jane and did some workouts.
On Wednesday morning we left Sunnyvale with a packed car and headed South to Santa Cruz. Our plan was to surf and return some squeaky flip flops I had purchased there a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the surf was flat and the return policy was strict so we left Santa Cruz after having lunch at Zoccoli’s Deli in downtown Santa Cruz.
Despite being a bit longer we took the coast highway North toward San Francisco. The drive was great and we did much of it with the windows down and seat heaters on. We made a quick stop at one of our favorite beaches in Half Moon Bay along the way.Since I had made all the arrangements I decided to keep our San Francisco lodging a secret from Megan. I was particularly excited to stay in the Presidio and had her guessing during the drive where she thought it might be. Somewhere around Pacifica she got close enough that I told her and soon after we were checking into the wonderful Lodge at the Presidio.
We had been to the Presidio many times in the past but I had never noticed the Lodge hotel which is situated at the Northern end of the Main Post Lawn, right next to the Walt Disney Family Museum which we toured two years ago. The Lodge is one of two large lodging options in the Presidio and we had an amazing visit. Our room was on the North East corner of the building so we had a direct view of Alcatraz and the Bay and easy access to a huge front porch which stretches the length of the building. Each of our two nights we enjoyed their wine and snacks on the front porch and got to watch the kite surfers and sailboats near Crissy Field. This was our first time with Jane in an official hotel and although we had a suite, there wasn’t a second room so we had Jane sleep near the bathroom. She struggled sleeping in the new environment but overall it went ok.
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01/11/2020
Wow, I’ve been neglecting the blog and never finished this post. Now I forget what else happened… ;/
We loved staying in the Presidio and went to a nice dinner at a Spanish style restaurant at the top of the main post. From there we went to our beach house for 2 nights near Bodega Bay. That place was awesome and really relaxing from what I recall. Phil had stayed in a neighboring unit and recommended it, and it didn’t disappoint. We had a stairway down to the beach and there was a lot of sea life in the rocks at low tide. I remember I got really into gathering sea weeds which I intended to make into a salad. Some pot heads from Oakland we met on the beach told me all about them. I also remember taking Jane out into the water at low tide one morning to look at some huge star fish which I really have fond memories of.
On the way back we went to the Sausalitio Art Festival which was a big disappointment. It was hot and much smaller than either Megan or I had remembered. And given the 70 dollar tickets and the fact that we didn’t find anything we liked it was kind of a sour note to end on.
Oh and the title of the post… sometime in the summer while we were planning the trip, a funny thing happened: we were walking to downtown Sunnyvale and discussing things we could do in San Francisco on the trip. I made the comment that we should go to the Tea Garden and that I had read an article about it recently and learned that it had been built for the World’s Fair which had been held in San Francisco one year. Megan then made the comment that the article I read must have been Jane’s book, S is for San Francisco which includes this for the letter T:
“T is for the Tea Garden that was built for the World’s Fair. It’s the perfect place to go for peace and some fresh air”
