6/23/09 – Birthday Travel in Northern California

We spent our first day doing a self-guided bike tour of Palo Alto, seeing Stanford University, California Avenue and University Avenue, which are all great spots in the city. Biking is definitely the best way to get around town here, and I am going to be a lifelong advocate for bike lanes wherever I live now. The next day we took the Caltrain up to San Francisco for the day, visiting the deYoung Museum and the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, and stopping by Ghirardelli Square and AT&T Park to watch the Giants game for a short while. The Academy of Sciences has a green roof and is seeking LEED certification for the building, which was absolutely packed will people when we went.

This green roof is complete with native plants and solar panels as both a practical and educational showcase for the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. They are seeking LEED cerification for the building.

Unfortunately, not all (not much) of California is conveniently accessible by just bike or public transit, so the next few days we hopped into my car to explore some more far flung locales. First stop on our way north was Muir Woods National Monument, a famous early U.S. National Park. The park is especially popular because of its close proximity to the Bay Area and of course its beautiful redwoods. It’s only when visiting these places that you realize the impact the preservation has across the generations. Because of the actions of a few, we are able today to walk past the same staggering sights that Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir and countless thousands of others were wise enough to save for us and for all time. The ultimate expression of this thinking came later in my trip.

Me standing inside of one of Muir Woods' famous redwood trees.

Next stop was a two-night stay near Napa Valley in the guesthouse of the family of one of my sister’s classmates at Richmond. The wonderful generosity of this family made our trip more enjoyable an economical. They gave us some really good tips on exploring Napa Valley, and armed with this information, we set out to taste some fermented grape juice! Napa has been a wine-growing region since the early 20th century but did not gain world-renown until the 1970s, when a few good Cabernet Sauvignons from Napa stunned French judges in a competition in France. One winery we visited was Sterling Vineyards, which included a fun tram-ride up to the top of a hill where the self-guided tour and tasting of five wines was waiting for us.  We also visited Jacuzzi Winery, which recently opened in Sonoma and had an impressive solar panel array near one of its vineyards.

A cool shot of our wine glasses as we toured the winery.

Last, and definitely not least on our trip, was a one night camping excursion in Yosemite National Park. The Yosemite Valley is one of the most wondrous places I have ever seen, complete with grand rushing waterfalls, the roaring Merced River, large coniferous trees and of course Half Dome looming large in the distance. We didn’t have much time to explore the park beyond the valley, but I was left with an indelible impression of a place that is at once humbling, inspiring and fragile. The park seemed to bring out the best in all of the visitors I came across, perhaps an effect of being surrounded by natural wonders that put us all in our place in way that is not found in our daily lives. It’s hard to believe the fate of Yosemite was ever debated, as its current status as a national treasure and wilderness seems its only rightful designation, but most of the blessings of our present are built on the battles of our past.

Coming around the corner of a windy park road, we caught sight of the iconic rock formation anf were compelled to stop and gawk.