Tag: sfbay

You can get commercial information from NapaValley.COM.  For years, I found The Best of the Wine Country to be a useful guidebook to the area, but it’s out of date now.

Wine

Wine is the first order of business.  There are more than 400 wineries in the Napa valley, and more than 600 if you include Sonoma county. I have visited only a small number of these wineries.

Many wineries now charge between $25-50 for a tasting flight. Some offer tours, meals, or other attractions on site.  Most wineries have club membership with requires receiving shipments every 2-3 months. Members of the wine club typically get access to special events and free tastings.

There are a small number of wineries that offer free tastings or will wave the tasting fee if you purchase 1-2 bottles of wine:

• Buehler Vineyards, St Helena hills, Free but tastings requires reservations
• Heitz Cellar, St Helena, Fee waved if 2 bottles purchased
• Sutter Home, St Helena, Free
• Vincent Arroyo, Calistoga, Free tour and tasting for groups less than 4. Reservations required.

The Wine thief in Napa down the street from the Oxbow Market, is a wine shop that does tastings from a number of the smaller, independent operations. Well worth a stop.

Some of my favorites wineries

• Hess Collection (Napa, decent wine, small interesting modern art museum)
• Cuvaison (my favorite wine)
• Sterling Vineyards (Catistoga, tram to great view – wine not so good), 
• Hall (Saint Helena, some art, very good Cabs)
• Castellodi Amorosa (13th century Tuscan Castle, some tasty Italian style wines. La Fantasia is perfect drink for turkey sandwiches the day after thanksgiving, or casual outdoor parties).
• Clos Pegase (Catistoga, some interesting art).
• Frogs Leap (Rutherford, well done wines, good environmental stewardship)
• Mumms (Rutherford, good sparkling wines)
• Warm Springs Ranch (where the desktop picture on OSX Sonoma is from)

Sonoma / Mendocino

• Korbel Champagne (Russian River, nice flower garden)
• Buena Vista (Sonoma Valley, nice picnic area)
• Toulouse (Anderson Valley, Pinot Noir excellent, Gewurtraminer is nice)
• Fogline (Santa Rosa, My favorite Zinfandel)

Food

There are a large number of excellent restaurants. Many of these restaurants participate in “Restaurant Week” at the end of January where meals are provided at a discount rate. The Oxbow market is a high end food court, mike the ferry building in SF, North Market in Columbus, etc. Several interesting restaurants and food stores but nothing amazing.

Activities

Check of napa valley events for seasonal events and activities.  There are a number of popular activities in the area:  bicycling, hot air balloon rides, mud baths in Catistoga, etc.

Lodging

There are countless B&Bs in the area  Many are mediocre, but there are some which are outstanding.  There are some amazing resorts which are amazingly expensive like Meadowood, Bardessono, several Auberge Resort properties. Slightly cheaper include Milliken Creek Inn, Napa Winery Inn, Harvest Inn, Kenwood Inn, El Dorado, Rancho Caymus Inn, and and Honor Mansion.

San Francisco is a beautiful, world class city. There are numerous museums, places of nature beautiful, great food, and well known tourist spots. You could easily spend several weeks exploring San Francisco and only scratch the surface. The SF City Pass can be a good deal.  The greater SF bay area has more Michelin stars than NYC… for a list of them check out sf-eaters site. If I was going to try to stuff highlights of San Francisco into a few days I would recommend the following:

South of Market (SOMA) – Mostly

Take CalTrain to the city. Check out SF Modern Art. Thee are plenty of lunch options around the museum.  My favorite places are the Samovar Tea House and InSitu (closed) which is inside SF-Moma. If folks are worn out, head home, otherwise consider explore Chinatown and take a cable car ride. 

Golden Gate Park

Start by exploring the Golden Gate Req Area, Muir Woods (great redwoods), Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park.  In the park there are a number of museums such a California Academy of Sciences (wonderful for younger kids).

Unique Neighborhoods / Places to Walk

Each neighborhood is unique.

• Haight-Ashbury: for a flashback to the summer of love
• the Castro: for lively SF counter culture
• Russian Hill, Bernal Heights, Twin Peaks: for the views and the hidden stairways
• Glen Canyon Park

Pier 39 & Waterfront

The Pier itself is a tourist trap, and isn’t worth a lot of time IMHO, but it does provide access to the ferries which can take you to Alcatraz, Angel Island, etc.

Other Sites

Cable Car, Fine Arts Museums of SF, San Francisco Zoo, Exploratorium,  

Other Information

• Info about mid-peninsula (Mountain View centric)
• Recommended eats in San Francisco
• Other posts about the sfbay area

Part of my visiting northern California series.

I would recommend taking two days to explore the area around Monterey.  If you had a lot of time you could make it a four day leg and continue down Route 1 to Hearst Castle / San Simeon, Morro Bay, San Louis Obispo, and then come back via Route 5 (and listen to the audio travelogue Invisible 5). For additional ideas I would recommend checking out  Monterey Tourist Info and Big Sur. I understand that monarch butterflies are once again wintering in George Washington Park in Pacific Grove.

MONTEREY DAY ONE

Under normal conditions, it will take approximately 1.5 hours to reach Monterey from Mountain View. [85 South, to 101 South,  to 154 West, to Highway 1 South. If you are going to the aquarium you can attempt to find free street parking, but it’s often easier to park in one of the city owned pay for use lots.

Aquarium: I would suggest starting the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Monterey has what might be the best aquarium in the world. I like it better than the aquariums in Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore, and Maui. It is easy to spend an entire day at the aquarium. Unlike many museums, the cafeteria actually serves reasonably tasty food at reasonable prices. I would recommend eating in the aquarium to maximize time. If you want to eat outside the aquarium remember to get your hand stamps so you can you can return.

Lodging: Once you are done with the aquarium I would suggest getting into a hotel and clean up after your day. There are a wide variety of hotels in the area. The cheapest options in the area are some of the “budget” nation chains how have hotel or motels 10-20 minutes north of Monterey on Route 1 in towns like Seaside. It is also possible to find reasonably inexpensive room in some of the small mom & pop hotels in Pacific Grove. Finally, there is the minimalist but pretty Asilomar. The Four Sisters Inns, The Centrella (Pacific Grove), and Tickle Pink Inn (Carmel) are nice, reasonably priced (for the Monterey peninsula) B&Bs. I would recommend not staying in any of the national luxury hotel chains unless you have a major discount. If you going to spend that sort of money ($250-400/night) I would recommend staying in out of the specialty hotels or high end B&B. Hotel Pacific sometimes has packages which makes it reasonably priced. At the higher end is the Old Monterey Inn, one of the most romantic B&Bs, and the Spindrift Inn which is a small luxury hotel. 

Dinner: Enjoy a nice meal in one of the fine restaurants on the area. I would recommend, passionfish (Pacific Grove, Sustainable sea food with a South American influence), Flying Fish Grill (Carmel, Mexico meets Japan),  Fishwife (Pacific Grove, good prices for good fish), Pacific’s Edge (south of Carmel, Continental, great view at sunset, pricy), Anton and Michael (Carmel, French inspirited), Patisserie Boissiere (Carmel, French Bistro) and Tarpy’s Roadhouse (near the airport, American food).  Many people like the cozy atmosphere at Fandango (in Pacific Grove) and the food at Fresh Cream.  I would skip Roy’s at Pebble Beach because it is no where near as good as a  Roy’s in Hawaii and can be quite noisy. I would also skip Montrio, which as a good reputation, but I found the food un-inspired.  If you want something a bit lower key stop by one of the places on Fisherman’s Wharf like the Old Grotto which serves calm chowder in a bread bowl. Places I haven’t tried but would like to visit sometime include French Poodle (Carmel),  and Cypress Grove (Monterey).

Evening Stroll: Enjoy the Monterey Coastal Trail which is a flat path which circles most of the peninsula.

MONTEREY DAY TWO

Point Lobos: A trip to the Monterey peninsula would not be complete without stopping at Point Lobos State Reserve, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The parking fills up as the day progresses. If there is a line to get in you can park by the beach just north of Point Lobos and walk in. The whalers cabin has a small display tracing the history and often overlooks sea otters playing and eating in the small bay. Cypress grove provides view views of the Monterey peninsula as you wander through a cypress grove. In the winter it’s possible to see whale migrating from the high points along the trail.

Lunch: There are several nice picnic spots in Point Lobos if you bring food with you. Otherwise you could backtrack ten minutes the the Crossroads shopping center which has Rio Grill  which is a very tasty Californian bistro, get a burger at R G Burgers, or try one of the other restaurants in the shopping center. The other option is to continue down to Big Sur. In Big Sur I would recommend stopping at Nepenthe for pricy sandwiches with an wonderful view or the Big Sur Bakery which doesn’t have a view but does have extremely nice selection of sandwiches, pasta, and wood fired pizza (and wonderful chocolate pudding sometimes).

Big Sur: There are a number of nice day hikes in Big Sur State Park as well as access to cold water beaches. The drive south of Big Sur is quite scenic. Around twenty minutes south of Big Sur is Julie Phiffer State Park which is typically a bit less crowded than Big Sur. There is a nice hike which takes you through some redwoods, past a small waterfall, under Route 1 and eventually gives you a very nice view of the Pacific Ocean.

Carmel: Eventually it time to turn around and head back to the Mountain View. Between Point Lobos and Carmel is a functioning Carmelite monastery. The chapel has a simple beauty. The grounds have a stations of the cross scatter though a modest but well maintained garden. A bit closer to Carmel, around the corner from the Crossroads shopping center, is the Historical Monterey Mission. If you have seen missions before I would skip the Monterey Mission… it’s sort of depressing, but you could check it out if you want to see a bit of California history. I normally skip downtown Carmel unless I am stopping for food. but it can be a fun place to stroll around and watch people. Carmel started out as an art colony but has turned into a place filled with rich folk’s second (or third homes). You can still find plenty of art galleries, but only extremely successful artists can afford to live in Carmel. You will also find a number of high end stores, and restaurants. 

Monta Loma (MLN) is a great neighborhood which has a real community. Long before nextdoor, the community had a website, mailing list and later a wiki. We have block parties, a gardening group, CERT team, etc. There was (and maybe still is) a babysitting coop. MLN is located near many high tech employers like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Apple. Google X is located at the edge of the neighborhood. MLN is close to Stanford, Foothill College, Stanford Hospital, Camino Hospital. Caltrain provides access to San Francisco, and San Jose is a reverse commute drive.

Monta Loma was constructed in the 1950s as affordable housing in a “California Modern” style by three different developers. It’s on the northern end of Mountain View, adjacent to Palo Alto, and Los Altos. The neighborhood is bordered by the roads San Antonio, Middlefield, Rengstorff, and Central Expressway. Originally the residence were people in the “trades” and “white collar workers” looking for starter homes. Many never “upgraded” because they loved the neighborhood. In the late 1990s the demographic shifted as the original residents retired to less expensive locations and the houses (now selling from ~$2M) were generally only “affordable” to people in high tech. Like the rest of the Bay Area, the neighborhood is multi-cultural with a significant number of people who were born outside of the USA. When I walk through the neighborhood park I often hear English, Russian, German, Mandarin, Spanish, Hebrew, plus a number of languages I can’t identify.

Transportation

Monta Loma well location for getting around the mid-penisula, or a place to explore the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

• CalTrain San Antonio Station provides transportation up and down the peninsula with connections to other public transportation include BART, the Santa Clara Light Rail system, and a variety of bus lines.
• Walk to San Antonio Center, The Village at San Antonio, and Monta Loma Plaza with a selection of stores, restaurants, fitness facilities, and a Icon movie theater.
• Bikeways routes to many local companies including Google, Stanford, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Lime used to has bikes by the train station, but I haven’t seen them in awhile.
• Cars have fairly easy access to 101, 280, and 85. There are a few cars in the neighborhood listed on Turo. Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis have small rental car offices within a couple of miles. In the past I found good rates from acar which is a local rental company a mile from the neighborhood.

Groceries & Supplies

Within a 1-2 miles of Monta Loma:

• Trader Joes: Quirky grocery store beloved by it’s patrons. Reasonably priced, small but well curated set of fresh foods, with a very tasty selection of prepared and frozen foods, especially their appetizers.
• Safeway: Smaller store located in neighborhood in the San Antonio Plaza, larger store is in The Village at San Antonio.
• Dittmers: Classic German butcher shop with excellent sausage, meats, and interesting collection of imported European food.
• Midwife and the Baker: Our local artisan baker.
• Whole Foods: Sometimes pricy organic groceries. Whole Foods has a nice selection of prepared foods. Whole Foods also has an Amazon pickup-drop off center.
• Crossroads Speciality Foods: imported European, middle eastern, and west African foods.
• True Value Hardware, Bruce Bauer lumber, Mountain View Ace Hardware
• Cost Plus World Market: Interesting collection of imported foods and household goods
• Walmart, Target, Costco: classic big box stores with just about everything you might need
• Drug Store: Safeway in The Village at San Antonio, Target, and Costco have “in store” pharmacy. The closest 24-hour drug store is now the Walgreens at Grant and El Camino.

Restaurants

Within a mile of Monta Loma I would recommend

• Hobee’s: longtime local favorite spot closed. People love their blueberry coffee cake, but many of us eat a portion and bring the rest home. Branch in Palo Alto still open.
• Saaj: reasonably price fast/casual Mediterranean
• Armadillo Willie’s: Texas style BBQ
• Estrellita: Mexican, with traditional dishes from Chiapas and Oaxaca
• Pacific Catch: Fresh fish… there are better places but none closer
• Dumpling Garden: The closest Chinese restaurant. Food is decent. Best Chinese is in Fremont and Cupertino.
• Sushi Jin: Pricy but good sushi. Fish flown in from Tokyo.
• Dohatsuten Ramen: Ramen & Japanese “tapas”
• La Bamba: Mexican & Salvadorian which moved from the Monta Loma Plaza to a spot on Old Middlefield.
• Coupa Cafe: coffee, tea, light bites
• Poke Bar location inside Ava’s on Castro street is a bit more than 1 mile, but it’s the closest Poke place and one of Jackie’s favorite

Also within approximately a mile there are a number of other restaurants including: Rincon Sabroso, Baji’s Cafe, Wild Onion Bistro, China Wok, Fairchild Public House, Mendocino Farms, Dong Lai Shun, Veggie Grill, Boba Bliss, Mizu Sushi, The Counter, Chilli, Gen Korean BBQ, Wingstop, Sushi 88, Chef Chu’s, Esther’s German Bakery, Teaspoon Los Altos, Pasta Mart, Noodle Talk, Sushiko, A Good Morning, Veggie Garden

There are more options a short drive to Castro Street in Downtown Mountain View, Main Street in Los Altos, California Avenue in Palo Alto, and University Avenue in Palo Alto. For the best food you will want to head up to San Francisco or to the Napa Valley, but there are a number of restaurants in the mid-peninsula / South Bay I would recommend. Most are chef / owner operated:

• Flea Street Cafe (Menlo Park, Farm to Table). Vegetable tasting plate is always good
• Vaso Azzurro (Mountain View, Italian)
• Kappo Nami Nami (Mountain View, traditional sushi). Closed permanently?
• Amber (Mountain View and other locations, Indian)
• Vive Sol (Mountain View, Mexican). The guajillo chicken is excellent. The extended family also owns Fiesta Del Mar, Palo Alto Sol, La Fiesta.
• Cascal (Mountain View, Tapas). Generally prefer Joya, but Paella is good. Very noisy inside, outside can be nice.
• Gochi Fusion Tapas  (Mountain View, Japanese Fusion)
• Happy Lamb Hot Pot (Mountain View, Chinese hotpot)
• Cafe Nur (Los Altos, Turkish)
• Alpine Inn (Portola Valley, Burgers and wood fired pizza on Picnic Benches)
• La Bodeguita Del Medio (Palo Alto, Cuban)
• Joya (Palo Alto, Tapas)
• St Michael’s Alley (Palo Alto, Californian)
• Taverna (Palo Alto, Greek)
• Evvia (Palo Alto, Greek)
• Sundance (Palo Alto, Steak)
• Bistro Vida (Menlo Park, French)… feels and tastes like small bistros in Paris
• Rosewood (Menlo Park, Bar Food) Sliders are good, Jazz Saturday nights, interesting people watching, infamous for “Cougar Night” on Thursdays.
• Dish Dash (Sunnyvale, Mediterranean)
• Kabul (Sunnyvale, Afghani)
• Manresa (Los Gatos, Farm to Table, Michelin 3Star). Amazing food with a fixed tasting menu for a high price.
• Alice’s Restaurant (Woodside, Brunch & Burgers) At skyline drive and 84. Great place to stop while biking, hiking, or motoring near Skyline.

Fast food that is within a couple of miles includes: In-and-Out Burgers, Panera Bread, Five Guys, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Krispy Cream Donuts, Subway, McDonalds, Peet’s Coffee, StarBucks, Little Caesar’s Pizza, Panda Express, Chipotle, KFC, Taco Bell, Jack in the Box… I am sure there are others as well.

Nearby Points of Interest

• Mountain View Library is a nice place to study (or use your laptop), the Santa Clara County Library in Los Altos has a better kids section
• The Mountain View Library card can be used to get into a number of museums if you visit mountainview.discoverandgo.net
• Computer History Museum
• Stanford: architecture, the arts, free lectures, etc
• Fioli Gardens

Nearby Parks

• Monta Loma Park – tiny park used by families with pre-school aged children.
• Rengstorff Park – community pool, skate park, picnic area with grills
• Eagle Park – community pool, large fields
• Shoreline Park – Where Mountain View meets the bay. Picnic area, kids play area, small “lake” where you can rent small sailboats and paddle boats. A couple of small restaurants, a historical house you can rent for gatherings all connected by a multi-purpose path which goes from near the SFO airport down to Sunnyvale.
• Shoup Park – Los Altos. A pretty redwood grove with a small creek, picnic area with grills, and a “party house” that can be rented for gatherings.
• Rancho San Antonio – Closest park into the Santa Cruz foothills. Rhus Ridge is the closest trailhead. The parking lot is typically full. Often need to park at Foothill College and walk to the trailhead.
• Wunderlich Park – A bit further (in Woodside), but one of our favorite. Nice hikes including the possibility of a mid-hike lunch of Alice’s Restaurant on Skyline drive.
• Bicycling – Not a “park”… a number of good road bike routes. I understand the Santa Cruz hills have a number of great mountain bike paths, though I have no personal experience.

Children

Activities

• Palo Alto Junior Museum
• Community School of Music and Arts
• Hidden Villa

Health Care & Emergencies

Dial 911 to reach emergency operator on any local phone / cell phone

The two closest emergency rooms are about the same distance from our home.

• Stanford Hospital: 1199 Welch Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94304
• Camino Hospital: 2500 Grant Road, Mountain View

The two biggest medical practices in the area are Sutter Health/Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) and Kaiser

Other Information

• Monta Loma Neighborhood Association: History, information for people who live in the neigherhood.
• Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos City Websites
• Greenmeadow is the nearest community in Palo Alto. The have a community pool that accepts memberships from outside the neighborhood, but is quite expensive
• Palo Alto Online is published by The Palo Alto Weekly and has a lot of useful information.
• Notes about Living in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Suggestions about vacationing in the greater San Francisco Bay Area

… with a focus on the mid-peninsula.

There are a number of general websites which cover the bay area including Yahoo Bay Area, SFGate (Chronicle & Examiner), San Jose Mercury News, CitySearch SF, Yelp and Craigslist.  This post is mostly about living in the SF bay area. I have a separate post about visiting Northern California as a tourist.

Mid Peninsula Neighborhoods:  The best public schools in the middle peninsula seem to be Cupertino (especially the magnet schools), Palo Alto, and the Mission District in Fremont.  Mountain View and Los Altos metrics aren’t as good at Palo Alto High School, but the kids are a lot less stressed. I think they hit an ideal balance of encouraging kids to excel without weighing them down with too much. Girl’s Middle School, located in Palo Alto, is an excellent private school. Across the Bay is Fremont which has a very high Chinese population and excellent schools. See the California School Dashboard for school performance numbers… but remember that these numbers are more an indication of the social-economic status of the kids than the raw quality of the education. The more investment parents make, the better the kids experience.

Weather:  The weather in Mountain View is great!  It’s normally sunny with comfortable temperatures.  I joke that we don’t have weather, we have climate.  Every now an then it will get below freezing in the middle of a winter night.  The temperature crosses 90F several times a year.  It rains periodically between Nov-Apr… but the sun will often come out on the same day. Most of the year you can plan outdoor activities without concern that the weather is going to spoil your plans.  If the weather in Mountain View is too boring, cool off 10-20 degrees on the coast by Half Moon Bay, head to Pacifica for some fog, or go inland and get baked in the central valley.  If you need snow, head up to Lake Tahoe.

Events: Any given day the question is not if there is an interesting event, but do I have time for one or two.   Movies (mid peninsula), Shoreline Amphitheatre, Stanford Lively Arts, Palo Alto Weekly, SF Arts Monthly, MetroActive, SF weekly, BestofBerkeley, Los Altos Online, Cuportino Parks and Recreation,  American Conservatory Theater (ACT), Berkeley Rep Theater, BayArea Concerts.  You could also check dothebay,  zvents and upcoming for various events. Kid friend events are covered at chatterblock. I appreciate Oak Guild trying to get good dialog going on tough issues.

Museums: Our family really enjoys the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park and you have Fine Arts Museums of SF right around the corner.  SF Modern Art is excellent. The Exploratorium is one of the best science museums in the world.  Adults as well as kids will have a great time.  Where else would you find The Tech Museum and the Computer History Museum but in silicon valley.  Younger children will enjoy the Children’s Discovery Museum (San Jose) and the Bay Area Discovery Museum (Sausalito).  The Coyote Point Museum has good exhibits about ecology, a tiny zoo, in the midst of a very nice park.  Palo Alto Junior Museum is a grear place for the under five set with a few exhibits which change periodically and a small collection of animals.  The Canter Museum at Stanford is small but often has interesting exhibits.  

Outdoors: There are a lot of good hiking which is covered at Bay Area Hiker, Gurmeet.net Hiking and Kevin’s Hiking Page. Our favorite local parks are Wunderlich County Park (close by, mostly shaded hiking with food stop .5 miles off trail at Alice’s Restaurant), Henry Cowell State Park (redwood and path by San Lorenzo River), Muir Woods (great redwoods), Sam MacDonald County Park, Memorial Grove County Park (closest redwoods – off Alpine, near Sam MacDonald), and Natural Bridges State Beach (old link) in Santa Cruz for the butterflies, tidal pools, and the interesting geology.  Of course there many other state parks & beaches which are fun to visit. There are a number of excellent Meetup.com groups and local Sierra Club chapters that sponsor group hikes. Some other resources can be found at Bay Area Backcountry, Ridgetrail, and Midpeninsula Open Space. It can be fun to mix geocaching. into some hikes. Trail runners should check out the site trailstompers. Check out doing miles if you are looking for longer day hikes. The book  Camping and Backpacking the San Francisco Bay Area by Matt Heid provides complete list of places you can camp in the Bay Area. There are a number of local zoos: Happy Hollow in San Jose (good for small children – rides included in admission), SF Zoo (our favorite… lemurs exhibit is really great), the Oakland Zoo, and Deer Hollow Farm (farm animals) located at Rancho San Antonio County Park.  We also like outdoor ice skating Oct-Apr at  Winter Lodge in Palo Alto.  Webb Ranch off Alpine Road is a great place to learn how to ride horses.  Alcatraz is always interesting and Filoli Gardens is a beautiful site to visit.

Food: [This section is will be updated soon. Some more recent notes on my great meals page.] tend to agree with reviews found in Zagat SF.  Michael Bauer maintains the SF Chronicle Top 100 restaurant list.  Chez Panisse (Berkeley), Lark Creek Inn,  Pearl’s Cafe (Fremont), Eos (SF), Cafe Kati (SF), Banana Leaf (Milpitas), 369 Shanghai Restaurant (San Jose), Darda (Milpitas), Restaurant Gary Danko (SF), Zuni Cafe (SF), Aqua (SF), Isa (SF).

Transportation:  I try to use mass transit when possible, so when I head up to SF I use Caltrain.  I don’t have daily exposure to commute traffic since I walk or bike to work, but I understand traffic is pretty awful these days, especially 85 north in the morning, and 85 south in the afternoon. Google Maps is likely the best way to see how traffic is moving.  The San Jose Airport (SJC) is more convenient than SFO when I can get flights there.  SJC – AirportMonitor lets you watch flights in real-time.  When we fly out of San Francisco Airport (SFO), we often use SkyPark Airport Parking.  Sometimes fares out of Oakland Airport are cheaper than SJC or SFO.  If you mostly use mass transit but need a car periodically check out Zipcars, Getaround, and Turo.

Churches & Service: My recommendations on good churches page. See Volunteer Info Center for links to most of the organizations which operate in the bay area.

Higher Education: Colleges in the area include Stanford (Campus Map), UC Berkeley (UCB Extension Continuing Ed),  Foothill/DeAnza, San Jose State, Santa Clara University, and UC Santa Cruz (UCSC  Extension Continuing Ed)

Government: Bay Area Governments has links to city & county governments and other useful info.

Do You Want to Live Here?: If you are thinking about moving to the bay area, the McCormack’s  Relocation Guides and/or Relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley could be useful books. The SFBay is a vibrant, multi-cultural area filled with interesting people who have come from all parts of the world, an active art and music scene, lots of great restaurants, and countless outdoors activities.  Within a few hours drive in a car are wondrous destinations: wine country, Lake Tahoe (skiing, hiking, etc), rugged ocean coastline and beaches, and incredible parks like Yosemite. There is nowhere else on the planet that can match the SFBay area for high tech opportunities: a combination of world class universities, a critical mass of high tech companies, a culture of collaboration, and 70% of the world’s VC money.  There is a dark side: the area’s materialism exemplified by the pursuit of wealth, and the busyness of people which make forming authentic communities difficult.  On the other hand, I have noticed the materialism and pace of life which has characterized the SFBay has been spreading throughout the USA, even into the mid-west where there are not as many opportunities, and companies haven’t figured out that an accelerated life means companies need to be flexible.  The cost of living in the SFbay is very high… mostly because of the high cost of housing. Some people have raised an  alarm over price of homes, suggesting that housing is a bubble which is about to pop. Right now monthly rents are significantly cheaper than what mortgage payments would be for a similar home. My personal belief is that unless someone already owns a home in an expensive market, purchasing a house in the bay area does not make good financial sense at this time… but I could easily be wrong since I still can’t believe how much people are paying today. Pay in the bay area is a bit higher than other areas, see salary.com, payscale.com, salaryscout.com, or indeed.com for real data, but this doesn’t cover the added cost of housing.  [Unless you are moving into the area from a location with equally high priced housing, you are going to be renting.]  People from small cities or towns complain that buildings are packed to close together, there are too many people, and that house lots are measured in feet, not acres.  People from large cities complain that the area is too spread out without adequate mass transit.  The Bay area is very secularized, with less than 5% of the populate attending religious services each week.  We are hopefully done with rolling blackout and liquification during earthquakes for awhile.  For another take, a survey of people about best things about the bay area.

The following recommendations I have given friends from outside northern California who were planning a vacation here.  Northern California Best Places has a lot of other ideas, though it’s a out of date now. These days you can get a “look” at many places through Google Street View, and if it’s not, maybe the SF virtual tour will have it. I also have some notes about living in the sf-bay area.

Transportation

Your first and last day will most likely involve an airline flight and transportation to/from the airport. The San Jose Airport (SJC) is a smaller airport which I have found typically is the easier to get in and out of. The San Francisco Airport (SFO) is the largest airport and typically has the larger number of flights to any given destination. Sometimes fares out of Oakland Airport are cheaper than SJC or SFO.  Relative to Mountain View, SJC is 20 minutes, SFO is 45 minutes, and Oakland is around 60 minutes. It is possible to get to Mountain View from SJC via Light Rail (though it’s slow), or from SFO via CalTrain. A taxi/uber/lyft will typically be around $25 from SJC, and around $50 from SFO.

Areas to Explore

Most people think to visit the typical tourist stops such as Chinatown, Pier 39, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc.  Make sure to visit some of the incredible parks in the area.  Whenever I have friends visiting for a more than a few days we will spend at least one day south around the Carmel / Monterey area with a  mandatory stop at Point Lobos State Park, and one day north in the Golden Gate Recreation Area (especially Muir Woods). Below are areas I would recommend visiting if you have time, in rough, priority order.

• San Francisco: culture, museums, food, parks. 2-3 days.
• The general SF Bay Area and Mid-Penisula
• Napa Valley & Wine Country: Wine! Food! 1-3 days.
• Santa Cruz and Coastline: Redwoods, butterflies, sea lions, beaches. 1 day.
• Monterey Penisula & Big Sur: picturesque coastlines, world class aquarium, and good food and art boutiques. 1-2 days.
• Yosemite: One of the most spectacular parks in the world. You should spend at least three days and visit the Valley floor, Marapoa Grove,  and Tuolumne Meadows. 3-4 days.
• Tahoe: Tahoe is pretty… but unless you have a lot of time, I would skip Tahoe so you have more time as Yosemite. 3-4 days.
• Northen California Redwoods: If you have another 3-6 days, head north of San Francisco. There are a number of cute towns along the coast, and the wonderful Redwood State & National Parks region just below the Oregon border.