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I'm thinking of a weekend in San Francisco in a month or two to see Napa Valley. I have frequent flier miles to burn up before the airlines cancel them <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Any thoughts of things to do out there?

There are lots of hotels and B&B's to choose from.

If you haven't been to SF, I'd save at least a day to explore the City, walk through Golden Gate park and maybe take in a show.

North of SF along the coast are some great hiking trails leading to spectacular views.

The obvious tourist attraction in the Napa Valley is winetasting. You can spend a day and hit them all, plus some great restaurants. You can also take a hot air balloon ride, or bike up the Valley.

If you're into golf, some of the best courses are here in the Bay Area.

And after all that, there's still shopping and more restaurants.

Hiking in Muir Woods makes for a nice day in the North Bay. If you have a rental car, heading up to Pt. Reyes is also a fantastic day trip.

One of my personal faves is to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge from SF down into Sausalito, do some shopping and lunch, then take the Ferry back to the City.

If you are headed to Napa, consider going a bit further north and checking out some of the many hot springs that are found in the area.

- Rae

I think the last time we were out there we went by Muir Woods but not actually in it. We'll be out for 4 days this time and two are probably dedicated to Napa Valley and visiting the wineries, but we'll see what the other days and evenings bring <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Any good sushi in the Napa area?

I haven't eaten out in Napa a lot, and don't have any specific sushi recommendations for there. I did find a good site that lists many of the resturant options for Napa County

http://www.mynapa.info/content/visitors/Dining.asp

It breaks it down by town, but not by resturant type. Nonetheless, it looks like a good depth and breadth.

- Rae

Hmmmm none look like sushi restaurants. However it did remind me that the wine train gets a lot of interest, and maybe I should ride on that to write it up.

http://www.winetrain.com/

Has anyone been on it before?

I can comment more directly about the Wine Train.

The train route is RIGHT along the highway, and a lot of the houses along the route have anti-wine-train placards facing the tracks. That is, they did when I went a few years back. Not sure if that has calmed down or not. That may or may not be pleasant for you.

If you go, try to eat in the first sitting. Seriously. Drinking wine all the way up, then cramming the huge lunch on the way back was painful. We all would have preferred to eat on the way up, then drink wine in the lounge car on the way back.

- Rae

Very interesting! I saw the tracks at one point by the road the last time we were there but I didn't think they went along it ALL the time, I thought that was just a fluke of some sort. That can't be a very pleasant ride! Hmmmmm. I'll look into it though and see. Thanks!

This is a bit late for your trip, but may help others. During my trip to San Francisco last month we ate at two very nice places near Union Square. One was the historic John's Grill. To be honest I wasn't especting much. It was fantastic! My husband and I shared a large porterhouse steak and salads and appetizer. Huge portions of food done just right. The house red was a nice Montepulciano. John's Grill was also featured in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon.

The other was Fino. A delightful Italian place connected to the Andrews Hotel on Post. Food is excellent and the wait staff friendly and helpful. The gnocchi gorgonzola is delicious, not heavy. Again, good portions and good house wine.

I'm a huge fan of the Maltese Falcon and the Big Sleep and such!! I didn't even think to re-read those before we went. Too many things to do, too little time. We did end up going to a great Japanese restaurant, Arigato. up near Martinez that was delicious. I loved visiting the wineries up in Napa for the weekend - we were visiting the ones that were in the famous 1976 Paris wine tasting, where the US trounced France.

Unfortunately I got very sick while we were there and it took me another few days to recover when we got back home, so that was a shame! But the weather was gorgeous.

Lisa,

so glad your visit to the Bay Area was a good one, and we have had some really good spring weather lately too.

I bet I had the same nasty cold that you had. Almost every single person I know, and their cats, have had it.

A friend of mine is getting married at the Gloria Ferrer Winery in Napa in September, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to hit anything else when I'm up there.

- Rae

I was amazed when we were there last month. It was sunny and only rained at night. It was warmer than my last summertime visit.

Weather in San Francisco is quite interesting in that it is usually between 50 and 70 degrees every day of the year, and by that I mean it covers that range every day.

Summer is often colder and foggier than winter in that the high valley heat pulls in the marine layer and the coast can't burn it off. Heat waves can hit into the low 100s in the City proper, but never last more than 1-2 days before "nature's air conditioning" (as the marine layer is called) comes back and plummets the temperature over 30 degrees in a few hours.

I've been joking with my new housemate that since she just moved from Chicago, the City is showing off for her. Her first day here, January 15, it was 5 degrees when she left Chicago in the AM, and that evening in SF she was walking around the Castro in a t-shirt with no jacket on due to our low 60s temp that night. We were all joyously stunned.

BTW, the quote "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" was NOT really said by Mark Twain, despite many attributions of this line to him. I don't know who said it, but sadly, I have to say it's true.

- Rae