So yesterday my aunt and I head out from Sacramento. The plan is to visit Half Moon Bay and then the Napa Valley. That's about as much planning as I'm apt to do. We left about 15:30 and drove to my apartment so she could take a look at it. Then we drove to Oracle so she could look at where I work. She was quite impressed with the buildings and kept gushing about the good Feng Shui because the building are pratically sorrounded by water: in ponds and pools and some inlets to the Bay.

Then we drove to Half Moon Bay via Highway 92. It's actually a bit of a distance from San Mateo. Up and down and winding around the hills, a lot of the way on a two lane road. By the time we got there it was 20:00 and the sun was setting, so we decided to push on past San Francisco and stop to eat. We drove up Highway 1 to San Francisco. The highway is right against the ocean at times, although around there the Pacific Ocean meets cliffs so there's a dropoff.

We drove past San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge. I must have gone over the Golden Gate before, but I can't remember when. Then we got lost and drove around in Carmel. It was dusk, but Carmel looked like a nice place. Quaint. The road we were on was divided with parking places in the middle. Very wooded, lots of stacked firewood. Eventually we turned around and got back to the 101.

We stopped just before San Rafael to check into a Budget Motel. But the room smelled rather musty so we passed and drove on to San Rafael. Before 21:30 we found a Days Inn and got a room. Then we looked for a place to eat in downtown San Rafael. We found probably the only Chinese restaurant in downtown and, although it had just closed, my aunt convinced the owner to let us eat there. We had some good sweet and sour baby-backed ribs, something I've never had before.

The next day we drove up to Novato. Got lost again looking for some Indian Museum, then we decided to drive to Napa. At Napa we went to the visitor center and got some info. Their recommendation was to drive up Highway 29 to St Helena or Calistoga, then back down, visiting whatever winery suited our fancy. Sounds simple enough.

A little harder to execute than I thought. Most of the road is two lane, and the winery entrances are not easy to spot. By the time you see the sign you have to stop or you miss the entrance, and I didn't want to drive too slowly and back up traffic behind me. So we drove all the way up to St Helena without stopping.

On the way back we finally stopped at Robert Mondavi Winery, halfway between Napa and Calistoga on the west side of the road. Most of the wineries had modest parking lots that looked like could hold 20-30 cars, with a few cars there. Robert Mondavi Winery has at least 100 parking places, and a lot of cars were there. Lots of people. We looked around and I took some pictures.

By the time we left it was after 14:00, and we wanted to get back before dinner. So we drove back to Sacramento. Not much of a trip, when I look back on it. I liked it, I got to drive a lot. It was kind of warm and I wasn't really in the mood to sight see. Steph later said she would have gone to Napa Valley, so maybe we'll do it again properly some other time.