SWT Tours: Senior Women's Travel: San Francisco and Art and Wine in the Napa Valley

Top : Oxbow Public Market in Napa offers outstanding casual dining
Large pix: Vietnamese Pho, one of the best , Slanted Door , Ferry Building San Francisco
Big chair relaxing: Me & Len at Cornerstone Plaza in Sonoma
Gott’s : just the best hamburger in the world. Believe me!

San Francisco is rare among cities. Its beautiful natural setting, its rollicking history, its contemporary vibes and fine cuisine make for a fascinating visit. In Napa Valley, the prime wine growing area of the United States, we highlight wineries that showcase fine art with their wine. Sip and sample fine wines as you drink in great art.

Day 1
Arrive in San Francisco ... transfer on your own to our conveniently located hotel, carefully chosen to be “on the flat.” As I’m sure you realize, San Francisco and its hills can be a real challenge.

Part of San Francisco’s appeal is its fascinating history – the Gold Rush, railroads, Asian immigration, earthquakes and fire. We’ll get a quick history lesson as we walk through some of the city’s most interesting areas including Union Square, Chinatown, the Barbary Coast and North Beach. Then there’s a thrilling ride on the Powell Street Cable Car followed by an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista Café.

Day 2
Victorian Homes two-hour walking tour …San Francisco still has hundreds of beautiful Victorian Homes. You will see mansions, gardens and a Queen Anne Interior. This is billed as an easy leisurely tour with no hills to climb.

Light lunch and time to tour the fascinating Ferry Building. Everything from high-priced chocolates to artisanal breads to caviar.

We’ll have dinner in North Beach, famous as an Italian community with lots of good Italian restaurants. After dinner, we’ll attend a performance of Beach Blanket Babylon, a review that’s been running for more than 20 years. It’s a very funny satire of what’s happening in our world today and it’s famous for its wit, music, as well as outrageous headdresses and costumes.

Day 3
Free to shop or go to a museum on your own. We’ll give you our list of favorites.

Depart mid-afternoon for the Ferry Building and a one-hour ferry ride that will take us to Vallejo. We’ll be picked up by Hilary in a minivan. She and her bonsai expert husband, Len, are dear friends and have lived in Napa for 20 years. Hilary will be our companion/guide and the minivan will be our transportation for the remainder of our trip.

We will check into our hotel close to the Napa River. There’s a trolley shuttle that leaves from the hotel every 20 minutes for downtown Napa, five minutes away.

In the evening, we’ll check out the new Oxbow Public Market, which opened in February, 2008. I love it…fantastic ice cream, superb coffee, tea, spices and olive oil . You can choose from a half dozen olive oils, buy a glass bottle for a dollar, and have it filled with your olive oil of choice from a barrel. My two bottles of olive oil, a Sonoma Valley and an Italian Blend, wrapped in bubble wrap and carried in my suitcase arrived home safely. Dinner at the Oxbow Public Market.

First stop, the Hess Collection with fine contemporary art featuring some of the giants of our era such as Frank Stella and Robert Motherwell. Donald Hess, art collector extraordinaire only exhibits the art of living artists, currently about 20 of them. When one dies, he goes on to another artist. In addition to the art, we’ll also sample a few of their fine wines.

Then we’ll visit Francis Ford Coppola’s winery, the Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery. Besides wine to sample, there’s an interesting exhibit of movie memorabilia connected with the director’s films.

Our final winery stop is Clos Pegase. The founder of the winery, Jan Shrem, is a perfectionist. Every detail of the winery follows a theme uniting wine with art.. It’s name Clos Pegase, comes from clos (courtyard in French) and Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology, brought to life on its label. Michael Graves designed the winery with a courtyard entrance and 20,000 square feet of caves. There’s an impressive sculpture garden, too.

The small town of St. Helena is a great shopping destination. Lots of specialty shops you won’t find anywhere else -- a good mix of clothing, design, home accessories, art galleries. (New York, Paris, and yes, St. Helena are my favorite places to shop.)

We will dine at Go Fish, stylish and low-key with wonderful food, the latest restaurant owned by Cindy Pawlcyn, who also owns Mustards Grill, a beloved valley favorite for almost 20 years.

Day 5
Morning visit to the di Rosa Preserve, a unique art complex with over 2,000 works of art by some 900 Bay City artists. The art is fun, funky and wild set in buildings and in a lovely landscape. You’ll love it!

Lunch at Boon Fly Café at the Caneros Inn, a luxury resort that is composed of individual units designed to look like farm buildings. Are its architects successful in creating an idealized farm? You be the judge. Subject to availability, we’ll have access to one of their cottages for the afternoon. Spa treatment allowance of $75 buys you a manicure or pedicure; your choice in manicures or pedicures are unusual to say the least: warm goat milk, grapeseed and guava or sweet ripened apricot and chardonnay. Intriguing. Or use your allowance toward other expensive spa treatments. Sit by the glorious pool or just relax in the cottage with a glass of wine and some local cheese.

Cost
$2,500 (USD) includes hotel for 5 nights (single occupancy with no single supplement), all activities specified in the itinerary, 3 dinners, theater ticket, ferry to Vallejo, minivan transportation in Napa, $75 spa treatment.

Price does not include airfare, transfers to and from airport, breakfasts, wine and alcoholic beverages, coffee stops, and personal expenses.