Side Trips: Clear Lake

     It's the off season, and while others are dreaming of summer getaways to destination hot spots, budget travelers are living large, planning big, and going far on bank account fumes. Though every day may not be warm, golden, or even dry, the lack crowds and traffic (depending on where you go) keep the vacation buzz strong. So, if you're lucky enough to have paid vacation but aren't blessed with a large bank account, now's the time to indulge in a side trip. This time around, my side trip was a birthday gift from my sister: a trip to Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake in California.

     When the traffic is a little less congested, why not take the scenic route? My sister and I drove to Clear Lake via wine country instead of the more streamlined 101 route, which added a little time to the drive but also added lovely views and dining. After passing by several vineyards, we stopped for lunch at the absolutely charming and ever popular Gott's Roadside in St. Helena, which has plenty of outside seating for large groups and your furry friends. Yummy fish tacos and garlic fries! And you can watch the Napa Valley Wine Train from your table.

     For accommodations, why do the usual? We opted for train cars turned tiny homes at the pet friendly Featherbed Railroad in Nice (pronounced like niece), a caboose bed and breakfast that will just warm your soul. Each train car has a different theme, so whether you're on a trip with your girlfriends, a family adventure, or a romantic getaway, you're set here. Our car was the "tropicaboose": wood floors, stained glass window over the bathroom, two separate reading nooks with views of the lake in the cupola you climb up into (disturbance-free reading), and tropical decor throughout. A super delicious birthday cake (chocolate with raspberry filling) from a local bakery was waiting for me on the table. I experienced a charm overload when my sister pointed out a travelers' book where previous visitors wrote diary-like entries about their stay in the caboose and adventures at Clear Lake.

     Soon after arrival, June and her enormous, adorable dog Jake came to say hi and asked what we'd like for breakfast. She suggested Eggs Benedict, my fave, and let us know that videos, games, and books were available to check out in the main house where breakfast would be served the next morning. We then walked down to the lake and took in the views from a private Featherbed Railroad dock. Sigh.

     We arrived at the first of three delicious breakfasts the next morning around 9;30 and were greeted by owners June and Paul, and of course, Jake. The dining room? Charming. The Eggs Benedict? OMG! And then, with some advice from our hosts, we were off on adventures: bird watching at Clear Lake State Park, drives around the lake, visits to Clearlake, Lower Lake, and Lakeport, and lake walks to sunset watch. For wine drinkers, their are many boutique wineries in the area to visit, including the Boatique Winery in Kelseyville, where you can ooh and aah over beautiful boats after the wine.

     Bird watchers will especially enjoy this side trip. There was a group of vultures living in the trees above our caboose, and they're present throughout the area. Though they're not the most glamorous, they're still pretty awesome to behold. I got a close up on the dock, where a vulture was perched in the evening, and a close up of a Great Blue Heron on the shoreline beside the dock. We saw a Great Egret fishing in Lakeport and another at Clear Lake State Park, where we saw a variety of ducks and song birds. The whole experience left me contemplating the merits of city living and brought up fond memories of a small-town childhood.

     The whole trip felt like paradise, and because of the deals we got by going off-season, our wallets were able to relax and let their pennies loose too. When the tourists go home, this side trip is a definite miss-me-not.

The Napa Valley Wine Train

The food at Gott's Roadside was too good for a before picture.

Train cars ahead!

One of two Reading Nooks.

View of one Reading Nook from the other.

The Eggs Benedict.

Clear Lake State Park with its ducks in a row.

Side Trips: Old Town Sacramento

     The great thing about living in or even planning a visit to the Bay Area is that there are so many attractions you can make a side trip to or visit along the way. One of my favorite side trips is to Old Town Sacramento. Granted, it's touristy, but in that awesome take-you-back-to-family-vacations nostalgic way. It's like visiting a carnival and running to the Ferris wheel, cotton candy in hand, no matter what your age. You just gotta.
     Old Town Sacramento, as its name implies, offers a trip into California history and the Gold Rush that created Sacramento. There are several museums where you can pick up California trivia, including a car and a train museum. You can even catch a ride on the Sacramento Southern Railroad and see an old diesel train in action. Or if the river calls your name, you can tour the Delta King riverboat that started making trips to San Francisco and back in the late 1920s. Eat at the restaurant on board or even choose to stay the night as the riverboat also functions as a floating hotel.
     Just walking through the 20+ acres of this national and state historic landmark is a walk back in time with the cobbled roads, the horse-drawn carriages (yes, you can ride them), the historic buildings, and glimpses of the original city level (Sacramento was built up due to flooding). There are trails along the river that allow great views of the Ziggurat (which turns out to be just an office building, sorry to say) and the historic Tower Bridge, which opened in 1935 and was painted gold in 2002. In one of the tunnels that connects Old Town to downtown Sacramento, there's a lovely historical timeline to consider as well.
     If you don't care about the history of Old Town, there's plenty of shopping and dining. I got an adorable Totoro wallet at one of the gift shops (attention Studio Ghibli fans), and a lawn ornament of a T-Rex eating garden gnomes for my mom. Many of the gift shops offer a great selection of collectibles from Star Trek to Doctor Who. And I always like to fill a couple bags with hand-selected salt water taffy from one of the many candy stores to share with folks back home. In terms of food, I like to keep it casual with fish tacos from Railroad Fish & Chips, a variety of international fries from the Spud Shack, or pizza from Annabelle's Pizza & Pasta, but there are restaurants and cafes and even bars of all shapes and sizes to suit your tastes.
     Old Town Sacramento also hosts a variety of cool events throughout the year, including Gold Rush Days, a Mardi Gras celebration, a music festival, Halloween festivities, a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, and more. Visit the town's website for more info: http://oldsacramento.com/.
     Driving and parking at Old Town is surprisingly stress-free. In the town itself, you can park with change or credit card at one of the meters (and there are change machines everywhere where you can get quarters) but there's also a parking garage right next to the action. Bathrooms are not only plentiful but convenient. Most are separate from businesses so one doesn't need to ask permission to use them, which any Bay Area resident will appreciate as a rarity. Although tourist traffic gets heavier in the early afternoon, the crowds are not nearly as stifling or annoying as in San Francisco or other Bay Area tourist locales.
     If you want to feel like you're getting away from the city but still enjoy the comforts of city life, Old Town Sacramento is definitely a Miss-Me-Not.

The Ziggurat

Tower Bridge

View of a train car.

The Delta King

You can visit the original city level through that gate to "Pioneer Park."

Angel Island

     There are many ways to enjoy (and even not enjoy) Angel Island. You can take a quick day trip (via the ferry or your own boat) and just hang out on the beach at Ayala Cove with a picnic lunch or a barbecue feast. You can take your bike via ferry or rent a bike or Segway on the island and hit the Perimeter Road loop. You can even camp overnight. However you choose to experience it, you can't skip Angel Island.
     And here's why. First, the island provides a valuable opportunity to learn about and interact with Bay Area and United States history. The island was home to the Coast Miwok people long before anyone else set foot there, and the island was used for military purposes for most of the United States' wars; Camp Reynolds was built during the Civil War, the East Garrison housed soldiers from the Spanish-American war and welcomed troops returning from World War I. During World War II, soldiers shipped out from the island, and German and Japanese prisoners of war were kept there. And during the Cold War, the island housed the Nike missile site.
     Besides holding the shadows of wars pasts, the island provides a glimpse into the darker side of United States history. One of Angel Island's nicknames is the "Ellis Island of the West" because it served as an immigration station from 1910 to 1940, and almost a million immigrants from all over the world suffered there while waiting for permission to pursue the American Dream. Many had to endure long and complicated tests meant to bar them from completing their journey, and the living conditions were miserable with living quarters stuffed beyond capacity. Some Chinese immigrants stalled on the island due to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act carved poems into the walls of the barracks to voice their misery. Those touring the Immigration Station today can still see one fully preserved poem and the ghostly outlines of others that have been lost to time and paint. The island's history encourages a greater respect for the struggles and suffering of immigrants and anyone who has been the victim of racist attitudes and unfair laws.
     On a more positive note, Angel Island offers sweeping views of San Francisco Bay and its various bridges, especially on a clear day. You can see the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge, Bay Bridge, and the Golden Gate from various parts of the island. You can look across the Bay to Tiburon, San Francisco, and Alcatraz. You can watch every kind of ship imaginable sailing to and fro. And you can see a variety of wildlife from various birds and deer to sea lions and whales. Angel Island is one of the best places in the Bay Area for taking souvenir photos or even professional ones.
     Finally, Angel Island is a pretty cheap but pretty dramatic Bay Area experience. You get to cruise the Bay, enjoy the beach, picnic and camp, hike and sightsee, and get an historical brush-up all in one affordable trip. The ferry ride will cost you the most, but you can pack as much food as you can carry onto the island. Entry to the U.S. Immigration Station costs just $5 per person, and if you choose to walk Perimeter Road, you have no other costs. The beach at Ayala Cove is lovely, though the water can be a little murky. And, thank goodness, there are nice bathrooms.
     The last time I visited the island, I went with my sister and dad, and this is how we did it. To avoid the traffic snarl and parking drama of San Francisco, we made the lovely drive to Tiburon, one of the cutest and most charming little coastal towns you'll ever visit. We paid just $5 to park for the day near the ferry stop (don't make the mistake of parking in the pricier lot after the roundabout). We went on a weekend day because the ferry service is extended on those days with a final departure from Angel Island at 5:20 p.m. versus 3:30 p.m. on weekdays, depending on the season (visit www.angelislandferry.com for a full schedule breakdown). As I said, the ferry ticket will probably be your priciest item. From Tiburon, the round-trip ticket will set you back $15, and it's CASH ONLY. Keep in mind that the ticket from San Francisco is $18. Arrive early if you want first pick at seats and locations because that line gets long in a hurry. We took the first ferry departing at 10 a.m. Easy peasy.
     Once on the island, you have to choose how to experience it; by bike, by tram, by Segway, or on foot. But first, if you brought a lot of things you don't want to haul around the island, there are lockers near the café you can rent. For the active and adventurous, biking or walking the Perimeter Road is best (be warned, the loop is about five miles long, and has a few inclines and declines that will make those muscles burn). For those who want a more leisurely experience, the Segway or tram are the best, though they'll cost you. A Segway is $68 per person, and the tram is $15.50 a person.
     We wanted to keep costs low and set our own pace, so we chose to walk Perimeter Road. We went left from Ayala Cove and climbed a long and fairly steep staircase to get to the path. If you go this way, you'll feel every stair, but this is the fastest way to get to the Immigration Station. We chose to tour the Immigration Station and the area around it. There are more stairs, but it's worth it. To get inside and see the living quarters, mess hall, and poems carved into the walls, the cost is $5 per person, again CASH ONLY. There's a large group of tables in front of the Immigration Station where you can enjoy your picnic lunch, which we did, imagining what immigrants must have thought and felt while eating in the same place.
     We then walked to Fort McDowell, where you can wander among deserted buildings, including a hospital, and feel the history sifting under your feet. If you take this route, make sure to stop for a bathroom break because it's the last restroom until Camp Reynolds, and that one isn't easily accessible for the exhausted. The views and photo ops were amazing on the five-mile trek around the island, but I have to admit, that tram looked lovely around mile three.
     Once we dragged ourselves back to Ayala Cove, we sat on the cement wall near the beach to enjoy some refreshments. Kids played in the sand, people moved about their boats anchored in the cove, and families chatted happily around picnic tables and blankets on the grassy expanse above the beach. If you didn't pack a picnic lunch, there's a tiny café near the ferry stop. Hanging out on the beach until a ferry arrives is a nice way to finish your Angel Island experience.
     We caught the 3:30 ferry back to Tiburon so we could make the short drive to Sausalito and do some shopping and dining. Sausalito is also a charming and bustling little place that has plenty of boutiques, restaurants, and lovely views, but it's also pricey. And it has a lot more tourists than Tiburon. This is the place where people who bike the Golden Gate stop to take the ferry back to San Francisco, so there are a lot of people and a lot of bikes. Pack extra food and picnic on the shore near the ferry stop if you want to save money.
     Everyone says to only do Angel Island on a clear day, but a clear day can be hard to come by on the Bay, and you can't always match your day off with the fine weather. We planned well, but the forecast was still wrong the day we went with cloudy skies for most of our trip. However, this turned out to be nice because the cooler weather made for a more pleasant walk, and the views were still amazing. If you visit or live in the Bay Area, Angel Island is most definitely a miss-me-not and a nice break from the crowds.

Foggy Views in Tiburon

Inside the Ferry

 

Shortcut to the Immigration Station

The Immigration Station

 

A Poem in the Wall

The Golden Gate on the Horizon

Perimeter Road

 

Ghostly Ruins

 

Back at Ayala Cove

Bye, Seagull

Bill Dan Balancing Rocks in Sausalito