SF - Visitor's Tax

Today was Vee's last day of class, and our first day of having our own set of wheels. I called around in the morning to see about getting a fun car, like a Mini or TT, but none were available. So, once Vee was done with class, we took a shuttle to the airport, and eventually found our way, with quite a bit of frustration, to the rental car building. Part of the problem is that the name of the transporter was AirTran, so we were unsure if we were following signs to AirTran Airlines or to some sort of transporter. Anyway, we eventually figured it out. Alamo quickly got us into a silver Chevy Classic, and we were off to Napa. Since it was early afternoon, I figured we could make the trip pretty quickly, but because of numerous accidents on route 101, we were stuck in traffic for quite some time. We got through it without many expletives, and got to the town of Napa around 4pm. We really lucked out as we found out that every Friday during the Summer, there is an outdoor festival. Block after block was full of booths where retailers were offering their wares, restaurants were selling food, wineries were giving tastings, bands were playing, artists were displaying their works, etc. We dropped into a quaint little place called Annette's where we treated ourselves to a cappuccino, a chocolate ice cream, and four dark chocolate truffles. We sampled a few little breadsticks from a bakery's booth out in the street, a local beer from a place called Downtown Joe's, and continued walking around town. It was a beautiful night, with skies a perfect blue. One of the bands playing was a spanish-style flamenco 4 piece group that we really enjoyed. After a while, we wandered into a little Mexican restaurant where I had a shredded pork burrito and Vee had a shredded chicken tostada. It was 8pm by this time, and we decided to make the 70 mile trip back to the hotel. On the way, we encountered what I'll call the "visitor's tax". This is where you approach the southward side of the Golden Gate bridge and find out that there is a $5.00 toll only AFTER you've passed all exits, and where there is no other way to pay except cash, and their version of EZPass. I even pulled off at the "toll office" and they had no ATM and explained that I would have to pay a $25 fine for not having any cash. Lovely. $30 to cross the Golden Gate bridge because I have no cash, had no warning of the toll, had no exit to get off prior to the toll, no ATM to get cash, and no way to pay via credit/debit card. I was absolutely infuriated, but there was nothing more I could do. Onward we went, and made it back to the hotel in pretty good time. Tomorrow, we have to check out in the morning, and our flight out is not until 9:30pm, so we may find ourselves up in Sonoma. For now, sleep.