Fifty First States: Day 18 – An Offer We Couldn’t Refuse…

So, was anyone wondering what we decided to add in this morning as our ‘previously mentioned unscheduled stop’? You should have guessed that being in wine country it was vino related. But movie related too? Well, knowing us, that shouldn’t come as a surprise!

Driving past the many vineyards yesterday Joe mentioned something about Francis Ford Coppola owning one in the area. We didn’t think much more of it until I saw the sign fly by as we were cruising down the 101. A quick bit of investigating online taught us that they were open for public tastings in the morning at a time that fit nicely into our plans. It seemed stupid to resist!

As well as trying some of the excellent wine from their colorful bottles, there was also a good amount of movie memorabilia from Francis Ford Coppola’s career; including one hell of a trophy cabinet. I wouldn’t mind coming home to all that wine and all those Oscars everyday!

The grounds were under renovations, but it still looked like a pristine piece of property. There was something relaxing about just drinking in the views over the vineyard. We could have spent all day enjoying the Coppola’s wine, but instead we took some for the road and moved on.

As if we hadn’t yet had enough giant trees, we took a trip to Muir Woods. Sadly they weren’t as dramatic after being through the Avenue of the Giants, but hey, big trees are big trees any way you look at them (likely that’ll be skyward though). We even got to see more deer. Nature seems to be our friend on this trip…except it may have brought back my newly discovered allergy…not so friendly!

When we were getting an oil change yesterday a woman also waiting offered us a helpful tip on how to get amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay. Boy, she wasn’t kidding! I wish I could go back and thank that lady again as we’d have missed out on this completely if not for her…so, while you’ll likely never read this, huge thank you random oil change lady!

Continuing our busy day we stopped into the Cartoon Art Museum, who sadly didn’t allow photos inside. This was a slightly disappointing visit as what they had on show wasn’t overly impressive, although our opinion of the small museum may have been influenced by the terrifying drive into town. San Francisco drivers are nuts and both our nerves were completely frazzled by the time we parked! I think we’ll be mixing it up between walking and public transport for the next two days!

We started this trend by walking to the financial district where there was an art house cinema showing the Joaquin Phoenix movie ‘I’m Still Here’. The movie was weird…really weird. May need a little time to process that one. Oh and our dinner in the pictures looked great, but really it wasn't…Chalk that up to the power of photography!