But first, some wine..
As Mike and Stacey were reluctant to sign our tenancy agreement we decided that we should explore some more of California....so we headed for San Francisco via Napa Valley and Sonoma County. We had done some basic research and this suggested that there are some good cycling routes in the areas mentioned. It was a shame however that we had to set off in the rain, and it poured down solidly for several days. We stayed in the Discovery Inn at Napa for one night and managed to have a mooch around both Napa and Sonoma, and they are really lovely places especially Sonoma. The country side is of course emerging from Winter so the fields and hills are relatively bare and the vines at just dark brown stumps - miles and miles of them, but one can imagine how impressive the views will be once everything springs back into life. We hope to come at another time when everything will be showing (bet it gets really heaving with tourists too). The weather was so bad that we opted not to get on the bikes in wine country.
From Napa we headed for San Francisco. Quite a few Americans that we have met through Mike and Stacey (and also people that we have chatted to in bike shops) advised us to sample the cycling around the North Bay area of San Francisco. This includes places in Marin County, Sausalito, Mill Valley, Muirwoods and Tiburon. So we booked into a Travelodge in Mill Valley. Mike and Stacey advised us to check out Angelino's an old school italian restaurant in Sausalito and near to the Francisco Ferry landing. We got quite lucky because we worked out that a couple of blocks over from our motel there was a bike path that runs through Sausalito and across the golden gate bridge into San Fran. So we took that, stopped off to book a table in Angelino's and then headed for Fishermans Wharf in San Francisco. The weather had improved by this stage. It was presidents weekend - a national holiday in the US so the path was swarming with pedestrians and cyclists. The path itself was really good the only problem was that lots of the cyclists were lyrca clad posers speeding along and racing each other and others, shouting things like 'left, left, left' as they overtook (on the left). The 15 mph bike speed limit was consistently ignore. We reckoned that any half decent competitive cyclists would be out hammering up hills in some remoter area rather than terrorising pedestrians and leisure cyclists on this trail. However thanks to a kind and knowledgeable Welsh guy who is a regular visitor to San Francisco we manage to cycle through the Presidio area and on to the Waterfront - called Fishermans wharf. We had to pretty much turn around straight away as the light was fading. Still it was a reasonable ride totalling about 45 miles all told. It also left us wanting to return to San Francisco and Marin County - from what we saw they are lovely, fascintating areas to explore. We also took the opportunity to go to the cinema to see Kings Speech before it swept the board at the Oscars. Wonderful film - made us proud to be British! We left singing "theres only one Bertie Windsor.." Things went slightly down hill after that though: we cruised the area very slowly looking for a takeaway only to be pulled over by a patrolman. He sourly asked Mark "do you know what to do at a Stop sign sir?". Thankfully Mark resisted the temptation to be a smart ass and replied with a straight bat "yes I do officer". The officer then informed him that he had run a stop sign. The street lighting was non existent and the sign had been partly hidden by a tree.Also the fact that Mark had not had anything to drink and was English meant that he was only given a warning - phew!
The next day we cycled into Sausalito for our meal at Angelino's which was wonderful.
Whilst on our way back to stay a final couple of days with the Watsons we followed the recommendation of a couple who we chatted to on a chair lift on the slopes. They advised us to check out Stinson Beach near Mill Valley. Its a lovely little seaside village - a bit of a hipsters and motorcyclists hang out in the Summer. Signage on the beach advised us to be watchful for sharks as a great white had recently attacked someone in six feet of water!
We then had an uneventful drive back 'home' to Folsom and as ever a warm welcome from the Watsons.
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