We have lived on the Monterey Peninsula since the middle 70s...on occasion we would make trips to San Francisco to see a play, attend a conference, a sporting event, or have a meeting with someone. We also had our moments in San Jose, Silicon Valley, Marin, Napa and even occasionally, the east bay. But, our visits were brief. Yes, we had seen the Golden Gate bridge and visited Fisherman's Wharf for lunch. And, I had driven down Lombard Street, and I knew about the Gold Rush and the 1906 earthquake, mostly because I knew the influence it had had on my beloved Carmel.
But, we got the chance, through RVing, to be in the heart of the bay area on an extended basis. And, our first move was to find THE quintessential guide that would tell us the best places to go and how to get there. We didn't just want a listing, or even Yelp reviews, we wanted complete information and maybe even a video in order to make a decision on whether we should go there.
Bottom line, we couldn't find one.
From Land's End to Santa Cruz - I'll give you a good example. There is a beautiful 50 mile drive on the coast, via highway one, from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz. Every few miles there is a different beach, generally owned by the State Parks Department. I have taken that trip many times over the years, and more often than not, just tried to make the journey as fast as possible. But, I think it was someone telling me about the elephant seals and Ano Nuevo that made me wake up to the fact that I might be missing a lot on that trip. I went on line to find a listing of all the beaches...I went to the State Parks website... there is no listing. In fact, I Googled and searched for hours and could not find any place that would give us a listing of the beaches along the coast. So, we started at Land's End and went to each and every beach, all the way to Santa Cruz, videotaped it, researched it, and learned that each one has a story. That is just one of the chapters on RVing the Bay Area DVD.
Yes, there are great websites that concentrate on one aspect of the bay. San Francisco Travel is among the best. There are some really good books and pamphets at their visitor's center as well. There are sources for biking, mountain biking, boating, fishing, hiking, eating, hotels, and on and on. But, no one place where I could learn about it all.
Discovery is fun when you get to a new destination. But, you don't want to spend your entire time at a place, trying to figure it out. And, oh, that terrible feeling when you get home and realize that you missed something that you would have just loved to have seen!
After our exploration, we realized there was no guide, and certainly no video guide, to the entire bay area. There is now. It's called RVing the Bay Area and we produced it. It is 8 hours of over 100 chapters, exhaustively researched and meticulously produced. If you are interested in the bay area. You should have it. There is nothing else like it.
Buy it Now on Line....Click Here