The first thing we did was go to Mass at Mission Dolores, the oldest intact building in San Francisco. Going to Mass is a really cool way of experiencing a culture, as opposed to visiting a museum or seeing a landmark. Also, it's free! Parking was free at this church, too, on weekends. We did make a donation, however.
The next day we joined up with some friends of ours from college and toured Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. We had a lovely picnic, saw some fantastic nature, and swam in the river on the grounds at a spot called the "Garden of Eden." Very relaxing. Because we parked on the side of the road instead of going in the main entrance, we were able to save ourselves the parking fee.
After that we went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where we tried fried oreos (at least I can say I tried it) and road their "ski lift" ride to see the whole beach. Admission to the Boardwalk is free, but rides require tickets, ending up costing $3-$5 per person each ride.
On the Monday we visited Sarah's Vineyard, in 
Gilroy, California, where a family friend works. Tasting there is $5 each, and they let you walk along the vines--the pinot grapes were just starting to turn color! This vineyard is not in Napa or Sonoma--it's south of San Jose--but that made for a quieter, not-so-flashy vineyard, which was nice and welcoming. We ended up buying two bottles of their Cote de Madone Blanc, I liked it so much.
Turns out Gilroy is also the Garlic Capital of the World! And you can smell it when you drive into the town. We had just missed the Garlic Festival by one day! Unfortunately, on Mondays in small towns, we noticed that lots of the restaurants were closed, so we popped into the Visitor's Bureau, where a helpful lady named Pam pointed us to Mama Mia's, where we could try their Garlic Festival menu. We had a delicious garlicky meal.
We also visited Garlic World in Gilroy, a garlic retail store, and bought some garlic oil. Unfortunately, though, we were fooled: after we'd bought the oil and were in the car, I read the label, and it said "made in Maine." We did buy a Garlic cookbook though, and made sure that that was a local compilation, which it was. Very exited to try it out.
When we got back to Pacifica, where we were staying, we decided to check
out Twin Peaks and Fort Funston State Park, which offered beautiful views of San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean. Again, parking and admission were free!
For dinner we went to Taipei Restaurant, which is not actually in Chinatown, but offered delicious Chinese cuisine. A weird thing about the Chinese restaurants we ate at--we were the often the only ones in the restaurant! I couldn't figure out why this was. Perhaps people eat later than we did? Or maybe these restaurants just had really good take-out business? Delicious, nonetheless.
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