Exploring San Francisco's Mission District and Mission Delores on Foot

We walked by the financial district of San Francisco. 

We are visiting the United States and we have been in the city of San Francisco for a few days.

An old fashion street clock stands proudly on the street of SF.

Today we did one of my most favorite activities while on holiday - walking.

We always enjoy a walking tour of the city on our own without joining a tour or following other people's schedule!

 After  lunch at the Thai restaurant close to our hotel, we went to explore the Mission District passing by many beautiful buildings in the financial district.

We started walking from Market Street around the financial district.

The Mission District is situated at the Delores Street and 14^th Street area.

I just couldn't get the colourful  buildings we saw in San Francisco.

How often do you see a purple house or building?

We saw houses in this city painted in all kinds of vibrant colours such as purple, green, red, blue.

They looked beautiful indeed!

Old buildings and modern designed houses coexisting happily in this city.




















The residents seem to spare no expenses renovating and keeping these old buildings in excellent shape.

Mission Delores, San Francisco, USA

The Mission Delores  was the oldest building in San Francisco.

But it was destroyed in the 1900's and was rebuilt.




















Mission San Francisco de Asis is popularly known as Mission Delores.

Within the Mission, there are a number of things to see.

They are: a small chapel, the Basilica, a Diorama, a covered walkway, a museum and a cemetery.

We did not join the official tour but walked on our own to read and learn about the history about the Mission.

This historic site receives no public funding and relies completely on visitors' voluntary donations.

We started the self guided tour with the small original chapel built on site.

This building, completed in 1791, is 114 feet long and 22 feet wide with adobe walls 4 feet thick.

The baptistry is located midway in the chapel.

"To this day, parish baptisms take place here.
The first of more than 28,000 baptisms during the Mission Period took place two months before the official establishment of the Mission. The records are still preserved." Taken from the pamphlet given to visitors to the Mission Dolores.

We also visited the museum within the Mission. It used to be a classroom. Artifacts were gathered and displayed in this small but authentic museum.

We took a walk in the cemetery shaded by tall trees.

We learned about the founding father of this mission.




















One thing I did notice at this mission was that there were more emphasis and displays on the culture and life of the native people.

"While the Mission withstood the shock of the 1906 earthquake, the parish church was not so fortunate.

The present building was completed in 1918.

 In 1952, Pope Pius X designated it a basilica."

As we walked back towards our hotel, it was around 5pm and we were right in the smack of the rush hour.

 We saw a lot of cyclists getting home on the streets of SF. It was quite s sight.

Walking by the office of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, we saw the director of the organization out on the street giving the thumbs up to cyclists passing by and encouraging them.

We had an interesting conversation with him who share with passionately of the mission of his organization -

"For over 45 years, the SF Bicycle Coalition has been transforming San Francisco streets and neighborhoods into more livable and safe places by promoting the bicycles for everyday transportation."

Mission Delores, San Francisco

It is encounters like these, meeting with the local people and learning about their city and culture that makes our vacation enjoyable every time.

R.T.
Mission District
San Francisco
USA

Changing to a Different Hotel in San Francisco - a Good Decision for Us.

Week of April 3, 2017

Guest Lounge, Hilton Hotel, Downtown San Francisco

I had a really good sleep last night.

Thank God, my husband has been sleeping well and there has been no health issues with him on this trip.

My husband's favorite spot - the massage chair corner

He is enjoying this trip as much as I do as he is able to do all the things he wants to do.

Enjoying a massage from head to toe in the massage chair

Moving over to Hilton Hotel was a good idea as suggested by our son who really didn’t like the hotel we were at as it was too close to the less desirable district.

Dining Room, Hilton Hotel, Downtown San Francisco

The Hilton where we are staying  is a beautiful hotel with quite a few amenities and very close to downtown and everything.

 I stayed in our room and did some of my preparation work for the next weekend as I will be busy doing a few presentation.

My favorite spot at the hotel - the Reading Area

I got quite  a bit done as the wifi was fast which enabled me to do my work much more efficiently.

After I got my work done, we went out for lunch at one of the restaurants close by to the hotel.
We had Thai food and it was pretty good.

A very productive morning for me while on vacation!


R.T.
Tuesday
Day 4, San Franscisco

Castello di Amorosa - a Lovely Castle Winery in Napa Valley Region

There are numerous wineries in the Napa Valley region in California.

Today, we visited this famous wine making region. We left San Francisco in the morning and stopped at one of the restaurants in Napa Valley for lunch.

After lunch, we drove to visit another famous winery in the region.




















The winery we were going to visit was located  about 20 minutes away.

We drove by a lovely little hamlet called St. Helena.



















Though a small town, St. Helena was humming with activities and quite a few visitors.

My husband suggested that we went to the Castello di Amorosa winery housed in a medieval castle replica.

So off we went!

Visiting this castle winery was not in our plan and we had to go out of the way a little bit.

However, I really didn't care where I was. As long as I am with my loved ones, anywhere I go and anything I see is beautiful to me!












 I squealed with delight as we were greeted by beautiful tall trees leading us to this castle winery.

These majestic trees reminded me so much of our pleasant visit to the Tuscany region in Italy a few years ago.

We arrived at the Castello di Amorosa winery in the late afternoon. The winery celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

This medieval castle replica was funded and built privately by one of the local wine makers.



Evidently, much research and careful design went into the designing and building of this castle winery.








 The castle is surrounded by a moat.

Castello di Amorosa - a Lovely Castle Winery, comes with a moat, in Napa Valley

It even has a drawbridge leading into the castle building!

How I wished we were here years ago.

Our children would have been thrilled to see this castle as they were fascinated by knights and castles during their elementary school years.

There was a guided tour as well as wine tasting offered by the castle management for a fee of  US$40.00 per head.

But if you missed the guided tour, you could still go for the wine tasting at a lesser charge.

We missed the formal guided tour but took a self guided tour of the castle and the property around it.






















This castle winery has been designed to imitate the Medieval life as much as possible.

 It has a farm with a few goats kept behind a small barn and with some chickens
roaming freely nearby.

Strolling around in these lovely castle buildings, I found it hard to believe that these buildings were rebuilt as replicas since everything looked so authentic.

These buildings and courtyard looked every bit like the ones we saw in Italy where we visited a few years ago.

I distinctly remember visiting a church in Assisi with very similar
architectural design such as these arches with flower containers placed underneath them.











What impressed us a lot was the details in many of these buildings. One particular room which wowed us was the Great Hall which was the centre of life during the Medieval period.

 Great Hall of the Castello di Amnorosa Winery, Napa Valley

Apparently, people in the area can rent this room and host their special events in the Great Hall of the Castello di Amnorosa.




We ventured down to the cellar for  some wine tasting.




















We passed by the gift shop selling various wines and other souvenir items.

Our friendly hostess at the wine tasting session

There were quite a few people enjoying the wines produced at this particular winery.

Out host was very helpful and friendly.

Cheers! Wine tasting at the  Castello di Amorosa winery in Napa Valley

For each person who signed up for the wine tasting session, he/ she was given five different drinks of their choices.





















We met a lovely couple from another part of the U.S. at the tasting session and enjoyed a great conversation with them.


Some of the locally produced wines have garnered awards.

 We learned that these wines are only sold at this winery without being sold elsewhere. The winemakers of  Castello di Amorosa have established a thriving business making and selling their own wines directly to the public from their gift shop.

After the wine tasting session, we still had some time before it closed.




















We toured the castle property a little bit more and climbed the stairs to the top of the castle to have a better view of the surrounding area below.

View from the top of Castello di Amorosa, Napa Valley, USA

We had a really good view of the courtyard and vineyard below us.





















We knew that we wanted to visit a vineyard in Napa Valley.

But Castello di Amorosa was not on our itinerary. My husband discovered it by chance after we picked up some brochure in the region.

Sometimes, in life, we cannot plan everything.
Once in a while and by chance, we will come across some amazing thing that would wow us.

Castello di Amorosa was such an awesome experience for us.

We enjoyed the visit tremendously and glad that we spent some time there with our loved ones and share some precious moments with them.














We drove back to SF at around 9pm; we were tired but had an absolutely enjoyable day!

R.T.
Castello di Amorosa
Napa Valley, California
USA