A Day on San Diego Bay

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

Off to a 3 Hour Sail!

Upon planning a long weekend getaway to meet up with some friends, I really wanted to sail and thought September would be a lovely time in San Diego. After reading several reviews, I stumbled across a 3-hour sail out of Shelter Island Marina with the option of sailing in the bay or out in the open water.

The marina is located approximately 5.5 miles from downtown San Diego. So, we just caught a quick Lyft and road on over. The marina is located right behind the Island Palms Hotel. The captain came out and greeted us at the marina and led groups to their boats. The best part about this tour is they don’t take more than 6-8 people! We only had 6 passengers plus the captain on our boat. We hung out on the bow of the boat and it felt like a private charter for the three of us. But of course….

Shelter Island is located within Point Loma in San Diego. It’s actually not an island at all, just an extension of a narrow strip of land. Shelter Island was developed in the 1950’s and includes restaurants, hotels, marinas as well as a parkland. The island is 1.2 miles long and a few hundred feet wide, although it seemed much larger.

Shelter Island Marina

The Port of San Diego controls Shelter Island, which is known as a “SuperYacht” destination due to the deep waters that house the over sized vessels. Somehow we missed the annual SuperYacht Fest held every September! The San Diego Maritime Museum displays two 19th century tall ship replicas along with mock gun battles during the fest.   

A sailing competition was taking place while we were in the bay. It actually seemed as if our little sailboat were in the middle of it all.  It was fascinating to hear the sails whip in wind and watch the teams transfer from side to side as the boats turned. During the 3-hour sail, we passed Point Loma Nazarene University and saw Baja California in the distance. The trip was so peaceful, we sailed past sea lions laying out on buoys. It was the perfect sailing day with sunny, clear skies and not much wind. We dressed a little too warm because the temperature was only 70 degrees that day and visiting from Hawaii, that seemed cool!

We booked the 3-hour sail through GetYourGuide.com for $98.00. They offer various sailing trips for those 13 years old and over. The company is based out of Berlin, so don’t be alarmed, as I was, if/when your credit card company red flags the purchased from a foreign country. It was legit and everything worked out fine; however, my credit card company did call me to authorize the on line, foreign purchase.

Tips~ The tour advertises beer and wine on board. Unfortunately, the beverages were brought on board just as we set sail so they were warm. We were really looking forward to a glass of chilled, white wine during our sail but didn’t finish it because it was warm. I did notice that a couple on our tour brought their own small ice chest with drinks and light snacks. I highly recommend doing that if you sail at noon. We had a light breakfast and were very hungry by the time we got off the sailboat at 3 p.m. Fortunately, there is a restaurant at the marina right as you step off of the boat and we were able to find some very cold drinks there!

Birthday Celebrations at Disneyland

Party on Main St

Birthday Sticker

Every child dreams of visiting Disneyland ~

After all, It’s Where Dreams Come True. So why not step it up a notch and have your birthday party on Main Street at the Plaza Inn??? For our son’s 5th birthday we decided to take him to Disneyland and party it up on Main Street. Upon arriving at the resort, tell a Disney associate as you pass through the gates about your special day and receive a Happy Birthday sticker.

Pat E Cake

Stop by City Hall on Main Street at Disneyland or Guest Services at Disney California Adventure Park to pick up a special birthday button to wear. Receive special greetings all day long while wearing the birthday button and/or sticker!!!!

The party will be hosted by Mr. Patrick Edward Cake (AKA Pat E Cake).

Two Disney characters will be sure to join the party. The celebration includes a Mickey-shaped cake with frosting and candy decorations, a party hat, punch in a special Happy Birthday cup and Mickey Mouse Plate.

Mickey Cake Decorating

Mickey Cake

Celebrate your special day at the most magical place on Earth!!!!!! Birthday Parties on Main Street are not currently available at the resort at this time, but there are new ways to celebrate in Disney style. The Mickey Mouse shaped cake is still available!!

Cake Time!!!!

Cake, cake cake. Kids and adults love to celebrate their special day with an amazing, decorative cake!!  Disneyland offers an array of custom cakes which can be delivered to any full-service Disneyland theme park restaurant. So go for it~ surprised your loved one on their special day with the delivery of a custom Disney cake. Rest at ease and let Disney handle the planning. Contact a Disney Vacation Specialist at (714) 781-3463 (DINE) for more information.

Choose the cake~

There are three types of cakes to choose from ~ Mickey or Minnie Mouse-shaped cake, Disney Princess Cake or Disney Signature Cake. Custom design the cake for that special person in mind by choosing from a variety of cake, filling, frosting options and a personalized message.

Celebrations while staying at the Disneyland Resort

Birthday Dining

Mickey & Minnie

The Disneyland Resort offers special birthday celebrations which include an individual party cake to be delivered for room service or while you are dining at their full-service restaurants. The birthday boy or girl may choose from a Disney Princess Jewelry Box or Disney Pirate Treasure Chest individual-sized party cake. Regardless of which theme you choose, your little one will receive a special surprise along with the cake! Still want more celebration??? Have your hotel room decorated exclusively by Disney for your special day.

Disney Resort also offers a themed gift basket which may be delivered directly to the hotel room of the birthday boy or girl. This is a great option if you know someone who is going to Disneyland for his/her birthday but you will not be with them. Just call up a vacation specialist and have the basket delivered to the room!

You can never go wrong with a Disney Gift Card to say “Happy Birthday!” Disney gift cards can be used at the Disneyland Resort for merchandise, meals, park tickets and special experiences.

Disneyland offers special arrangements for graduation night, weddings and picnics

5wheelsto5star was featured in the March 2014 issue of Destinations Travel Magazine

Apple Hill, Camino, CA

Apple Hill Pumpkin Patch

Apple Cider samples at Boa Vista Orchards

Fall season is synonymous with apple pie, chili, cider, pine trees and cool temps.

Pumpkin Time

Growing up in California we would head to Camino each year in October to experience Apple Hill. Apple Hill is much more than just apples, they have bake shops, ciders, pies, fishing, berry picking, pumpkin patches, trolleys, hay rides, train rides, wineries, and Christmas trees all in the beautiful pine tree setting. Our kids absolutely loved it, as growing up in Hawaii really doesn’t have any of those things. The only apple pie you will find here is at Costco over the holidays.

Apple Cider at Boa Vista Orchards

Apple Hill is located in the western Sierra Foothills in El Dorado County,

Apple Hill

about an hour drive from Sacramento. It is the perfect place to spend the entire day. Apple Hill is located in Camino, California off of US-50 past Placerville if you are coming from Sacramento. You will see several Apple Hill exit signs: the Schnell School Exit 48, Carson Road Exit, Camino Exit, Cedar Grove Exit 54, and Pollock Pines Exit 57. The orchards are pretty easy to find as each participating farm has a big, red apple on the sign. When you arrive at Apple Hill, grab a map!!! There are 48 growers and 7 Christmas Tree farms. The map will indicate the activities and shops offered at each farm.

Bavarian Hills Orchard

Each orchard is numbered and the map will indicate how to get to each one. Obviously you can expect that there will be apples at apple hill but do you know about all the apples that you will find there? Visitors can enjoy picking their own apples from the tree or from a convenient container. Among the variety of apples available are golden delicious, granny smith, pippen, pink lady, rome beauty, fuji, gala and mutsu just to name a few.

Caramel Apples

We stopped off at Bavarian Hills Orchard #11- where they had great bratwurst. It was a small orchard with not a whole lot to do but each orchard is unique and offers different things. My daughter purchase a black and white sketch of a cougar that she still has in a binder. Apple Hill is a driving excursion. You can drive from orchard to orchard, park and walk around. There is a trolley that will take you around to the various orchards. Apple Hill is open on weekends year round, but most famous for the Fall and Winter season’s October Festivities, Christmas Tree cutting, and pumpkin patches. Some orchards do not open until Labor Day weekend.

Caramel Apple time

Next stop- caramel apples!!! Many of the orchards have an enormous selection of  caramel apples. One farm that we stopped at even had a machine to slice each apple so that the kids could all share.

Got our beanies!

My favorite was caramel apple pie which was an apple dipped in caramel, then half dipped in cheesecake and rolled in graham cracker crumbs. They even had apples with gummy worms on them. Sky is the limit for caramel, chocolate and candied apples at Apple Hill!!!

When we first arrived to Apple Hill, we were much colder than we had planned for. It was breezy and with all of the pine trees, it seemed as though we were never in the sun! Fortunately, there are all kinds of crafts for sale so the first stop was to buy the kids beanies. I can honestly say- they never took them off!! I would recommend bringing extra change of clothes and jackets. We just had zip up sweatshirts and that really wasn’t warm enough.

Headed over to High Hill Ranch for some eats!! High Hill Ranch was the largest farm we went to that day. The restaurant was appealing because it was inside and we were cold. They had hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, wraps, nachos, veggie options, chili dogs, but the thing I remember the most- the smell of their hot pies. You can order pie by the slice but I must warn you-  choosing just one is impossible!

Pies

Pie, Pie, Pie!!! High Hill Ranch offers the following pies:

Sour Cream Apple Pie This pie is similar to  the Sour Cream Apple Pie except that sour

High Hill Ranch

cream is blended in with  apples, cinnamon and sugar. Available baked fresh frozen and  baked.   This pie has walnuts in the topping.

Sour Cream Apple Berry Pie  A  wonderful delight you can enjoy for any special occasion or family  holiday meal. You can eat this pie cold at room temp. This pie has  walnuts in the topping . Available baked fresh frozen and baked.

Dutch Apple Pie This pie is covered with a streusel  topping. Apple filling is cooked up with a special blend of cinnamon and sugar. Available fresh baked or frozen baked.

 Caramel Apple Pie This pie is made with our Homemade High  Hill Ranch Caramel. This pie has a crumb topping with pecans in the  topping. Available fresh baked or frozen baked.

Sugarless  Apple Pie Our sugarless apple pie has no sweeteners added to it. Just tasty naturally sweet. Available fresh  baked, or unbaked frozen. Our apple juice is one of the flavors used in  this pie.

Pie Dough Balls If you like to make your own pies, we can  supply the crust. Comes in a bag of two balls, one for the upper crust  and one for the lower crust. Best kept frozen.

Berry Pies Our berry Pies are made with  fresh  Marion  berries. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, you have quite a treat.  Available baked, unbaked or unbaked fresh frozen.

Apple berry Pies Available baked, unbaked or unbaked fresh frozen.

My favorite thing about pies at Apple Hill is that you can order a slide hot to eat there and then take home an entire pie frozen, plop it in your

Fudge Factory Farm

freezer and eat it later. We bought several pies.

Don’t miss the Cider Mill!!!!

The Cider Mill, also known as an apple press, at High Hill Ranch was started in 1960.  “We take pride in our Apple Juice. Our Apple Juice is made fresh and it is unpasteurized . We use the apples right off the trees which are hand picked. It takes about 10 pounds of apples to make one gallon of juice. We use about 4 bins of mixed apples which weigh about 900 lbs per bin. 700 gallons of Apple Juice is made many times through out the season it takes about 3 hours to make that many gallons.”

Find out more information about High Hill Ranch at http://www.highhillranch1.net/

The Fudge Factory is a family owned farm, like many of the farms at Apple Hill.  They offer customers over 75 different flavors of fudge, fresh baked cookies, homemade hot fudge and caramel sundaes, fresh peanut brittle, English toffee, a wide variety of chocolates, and over 15 brittle, English toffee, a wide variety of chocolates, and over 15 different kinds of candy coated apples.

High Hill Ranch

$$ saving tips: Bring warm clothes and change of clothes and then you won’t end up purchasing clothing items like we did. Purchase a caramel apple and have it sliced there by the machine and everyone can share it rather than purchasing for each child and then throwing it away. There are free samples all throughout apple hill. We even had a sample of cider beer! The cider beer is very sweet – different than I expected. Apple Hill is a great place for kids to run around, pick up pumpkins, plop on a stack of hay, play in the pond- there is so much to do that doesn’t cost money. The food was pretty reasonable and you must try a slice of pie. Purchase a pie to bring home, it is much cheaper than eating slice after slice. Although when the pie is hot, it’s difficult to walk away. Check out the activities and map on line and plan your day in advance. Memories to last a lifetime.

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San Francisco, California

Pier 39, San Francisco

Fisherman’s Wharf Sign

I was born and raised in Sacramento, CA not far from San Francisco. I really do love going back to the

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Bay Area to visit Pier 39 in the city. This time I was able to take my daughter with me so she could experience all the touristy things I did when I was growing up. Last October we visited the Pier and I forget how cold it can be. Maybe it’s living in Hawaii the past ten years that makes adjusting to the chill of San Francisco that more difficult. We were all bundled up and still freezing on the ferry- burrrrr!!!! Many tourists visit San Francisco every day just to see the sea lions. There is actually a story about how the sea lions began on Pier 39 Marina.

After the Loma Prieta earthquake hit San Francisco in October 1989, a few California sea lions began hanging around the PIER 39 K-Dock . Then in 1990 they began arriving in groups to the K-Dock, which frustrated the Marina tenants. The Staff at the Marina consulted The Marine Mammal Center to come up with an alternate solution for the sea lions home. After going back and forth on the issue, it was decided that the sea lions stay in their new home- the K-Dock. PIER 39 Marina is an ideal living situation for the sea lions due to the supply of food from the Bay and an environment which protects them from predators. As of November 2009, there are 1702 sea lions at Pier 39’s K Dock. The number will continue to rise and fall with the seasons but they will always have a home there.

Lefty’s

Lefty’s- The Left Hand Store

My daughter is left handed and was absolutely thrilled to see that there is a store at Pier 39 for leftys!! She literally went through every item saying, “Oh my gosh I need this”. You can find all kinds of gear at Lefty’s San Francisco – The Left Hand Store.

Left handed notebook

They have pencils, pens, scissors, notebooks, binders, coffee mugs, can openers and just about everything you could want designed just for the lefty’s in our world. The store even sells left-handed guitars and has the names of all of the famous lefty’s on the wall- mainly artists, inventors and musicians. It is a great store for gifts- since we all know someone who is left handed.

Fisherman’s Wharf is famous for all of their seafood restaurants which have views of Alcatraz, Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped off at the Franciscan Crab Restaurant which is on Pier 43, just a short walk down from Pier 39.

Franciscan Crab Restaurant

They offer seafood favorites such as Dungeness Crab, Crispy Crab cakes, Seafood Antipasto, fresh oysters, and steamed mussels. The Franciscan Crab Restaurant has freshly made  burrata (Italian cheese) and salumi (Italian cured meats). My daughter, who is not a big fan of seafood, ordered alfredo pasta and loved it, while I ordered a crab sandwich which was on fresh baked, crunchy bread. The Franciscan was originally built in the 50’s but has recently been remodeled. There are pictures of all of the famous people who have eaten there as you walk in. No matter where you sit, you can see the San Francisco skyline.

Dryer’s Ice Cream

When walking around the Pier don’t forget to grab an ice cream at Dryers!! Even though it was freezing that day, we still had to grab our ice cream in a waffle cone. We pretty much ate our way through the Pier. You will have to choose as there is also The Candy Baron, Chocolate Heaven, The Cup and Cake Café and The Fudge House!!! That is just to name a few of the sweet treats.

Wipeout Bar & Grill

And of course, she had to pose in front of the Wipeout To Go window!! We actually did not eat there but it was a very cute place with long lines for pick up. It smelled great! Wipeout Bar & Grill is a California Surf-themed restaurant which includes indoor and outdoor dining and a variety of food from seafood to burgers.

San Francisco Carousel

Just catching a ride on the San Francisco Carousel at the Pier. This carousel was handcrafted in Italy and hand-painted with famous San Francisco landmarks which include the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, Chinatown, Lombard Street, Alcatraz and the California sea lions. The carousel has 1,800 twinkling LED lights, 32 animals to ride and spinning tubs!!! While riding around the carousel, you can see the famous Pier 39 promenade.

Boudin

I love Boudin Bakery Cafe!!!! The smell alone will literally draw you in- just follow your nose and it will lead you to the hot, sourdough bread baked daily. Stop in for clam chowder, chili or the soup of the day in a sourdough bread bowl or fresh sandwiches and salads. It’s just not the same to buy a loaf of sourdough at the airport on your way home. They had a lot of great gifts in their gift store such as: pancake and waffle mixes, spices, sauces, syrups, and more. Check it out.

 

Red and White Fleet

Off to Alcatraz on the Red and White Fleet!!!! My daughter had read about Alcatraz but had not seen it up close. Due to time constraints we were unable to take the Alcatraz walking tour but we did take the Red and White Fleet around the island.

Red and White Fleet

The historic Red and White Fleet is the first fleet adventure in San Francisco. The Red and White Fleet is the only tour boat to offer a head set in multiple languages. The family owned business started out offering bay cruises from Pier 43½.

We took a Bridge to Bridge tour which included views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Bridge, Coit Tower, the Ferry Building, Transamerica Pyramid, Palace of Fine Arts and around notorious Alcatraz Island. It is so relaxing to sit there and listen to the tour while being able to take pictures. It is very windy and can be cold if you choose to sit on the outer deck. The boat tours are easy to just hop on as they depart up to 17 times daily from Fisherman’s Wharf. The Red and White Fleet offers a lunch tour at 12:30 where you can bring your own boxed lunch on board or a 5:45 p.m. sailing which offers a bar.

Golden Gate Bridge View

View of Alcatraz

To find out more about pricing visit http://www.redandwhite.com/

SF Flower mart

Going to the City for a special event? Try stopping off at the San Francisco Flower Mart!! Martha Stewart named it “the best flower market in the country”. The flower market is open to the public Monday-Saturday from 10am-3pm.

 

SF Flower Mart

The flower mart contains over 50 vendors who sell cut flowers, greens, foliage plants, blooming plants, silk product and all floral supplies. Walking through the flower mart is an experience in itself. We were overwhelmed with the aromas and colors of the flowers. It’s a great experience, even if you aren’t planning an event. I highly recommend visiting the San Francisco Flower Mart!!!

http://sfflowermart.com/

$$ saving tips: Parking in San Francisco is very expensive. Many of the parking garages charge by the hour. When exploring the Pier the last thing you want to do is monitor your time. Look at taking public transportation into the City or car pool with others to split the cost of parking. If you are not familiar with driving in SF, there are a lot of one way streets and most of the parallel parking fills up very early in the morning. If you choose to drive to the City yourself (Good Luck), there is a website that tells you about the best parking in the area at http://sanfrancisco.bestparking.com/. The Pier really doesn’t have a season, there are constantly tourists there and events happening. Most of the restaurants on the wharf are very expensive – so try eating there for lunch rather than dinner. The lunch menus are often more affordable. The Franciscan does bring complementary sourdough bread to the table. There are a lot of things at the Pier to do for free!! Walk around and window shop, take pictures, visit the sea lions and see the landmarks. We were lucky as the Blue Angels were performing the day we were there. The Red and White Fleet offers a complimentary Ghirardelli Specialty Ice Cream Sundae with every full price adult or youth ticket for the California Sunset Cruise. “The World Famous Specialty Sundae” features two scoops of vanilla ice cream overflowing with freshly homemade hot fudge, whipped cream, chopped almonds, and a cherry. The sundae is a $9.50 savings!

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