The McGrath Family Chronicles: Go West Young Man!

Last month we headed west with our twenty two pound little bear to Oakland, CA to visit with Uncle Jimmy! Ten days was enough to allow us to hit all sorts of sites! We headed to Napa for a wonderful day full of wine, killer food, and amazing views and Gus was great from beginning to end. We drove down route one along the coast, stopping in Santa Cruz for a night at a great little B&B, driving to Monterey for lunch, then past Big Sur to Cambria, which was the next town down from a herd(?) of elephant seals. August loved these guys, and though they were simply lounging on one another, they were also barking a bit and August shouted right back at em'!

One afternoon we took a day trip to San Rafael and Tiburon which was a great little high end town on the bay. Over the weekend we were there we managed to hit Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, a wonderful free four day concert series in Golden Gate Park. August loved this as there was a ton of people to watch and lots of girls to flirt with! That night we took advantage of being in the city and hit up The Stinking Rose (where I had had dinner with friends twenty years prior) and City Lights bookstore. Alas, we didn't manage to get a photo of Gus in front of a nudey bar, though we thought about it as they were rampant in that area.

Last days were filled with a trip to Muir Woods and lunch at the Pelican Inn, and a tour of Uncle Jimmy's amazing efforts to preserve the history of Mt. Tamalpais overlooking San Fransisco. Last but not least we managed a dinner with an old friend Melissa and her family. All in all not too shabby of a list for toting around a little bear of a boy for ten days!

If the photos below aren't enough for you, here's a link to a complete slideshow of our escapades;
shutterfly california family photos

Next time we're there? The waterfront, the Haight, Yosemite and maybe even the Russian river valley.......watch out Uncle Jimmy......