Wow, 10 days down, only 6 more to go. For whatever reason, this trip feels like it has lasted a lifetime. It’s been a few days since I posted anything because I have just been so worn out each night when we get in from our daily events, I just don‘t have anything good to say then. At least tonight, it’s almost 2:30 am Pacific Time and I have a slight bit of energy left to spend some time documenting the past few days.
I feel like I am starting to lose steam at this point. Maybe I will get a second wind when we arrive in Yosemite National Park tomorrow. Hopefully getting out of the hustle and bustle will help with that.
I last left you with our events leading up to the second half of the PCH/California 1 adventure. As we drove up the coast there was amazing scenery with the ocean, mountains, and agriculture. There is something so amazing about having the ocean to your left, mountains to your right, and agriculture right around any bend. We stopped at many different points taking pictures of whatever was beautiful at the moment. We traveled to Monterrey and did the 17 mile-drive through Pebble Beach. Just stunning! Someday, I might just learn how to play golf if it means being in fabulous places such as this one. This part of the trip made me fall in love with the northern parts of California.
We made it into San Francisco between 6-7 pm last night and checked into our swanky little boutique hotel. Which might I add, I just happened to miss the complementary wine hour they have each day. I hate when things like that happen. As I have a love-hate relationship with cities (love everything about big cities, hate there is not much of anything green and traffic is a nightmare), I was ready to go exploring as soon as we arrived. We instantly made our way down to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner at Alioto’s. I also got some of the famous Boudin Sourdough Bread. This is why I could never go on a low-carb diet, that stuff was amazing. We headed back to the hotel, as we were both very exhausted. I do have to mention that I love San Francisco. It’s just a little to chilly for me here being that it is August, but the way of life is just different than any other big city I have been in. I would list this as my 3rd favorite city in the U.S., trailing behind NYC and New Orleans of course.
Matt chose to sleep in, as he does every morning, so I took it upon myself to go and see the city. Matt has been to San Francisco before, so he was not interested in the “City Highlights” 2 hour tour. With me being an early riser, I jumped on the Muni bus and headed to Pier 39 to catch this guided tour. I pretty much was the only person in the tour group younger than 75. Oh well, I suppose I am an old soul, so it worked out perfectly. I got to see all the “main” attractions in a condensed version. Matt finally got up and about and starting strolling the city taking pictures. We met at Pier 39 around 11:45 to head to the much anticipated In-n-Out Burger for lunch.
So everyone raves about this burger place. I will admit, the food was good, but I still can’t figure out what all the hype is about. Either way, Matt photographed my In-n-Out debut and I am sure he will post it on here at some point.
I have been on a fast food hiatus for 10 days now and the only thing I really miss that much is my Sonic diet cokes. I hate bottled diet coke and since the Miata is without cup holders, no fountain cokes for me. Thank goodness there is a 7-11 right by this hotel and I have been able to get my fix the past few days.
This afternoon we headed North to Sonoma/Napa Valley to play at the wineries and vineyards. We drove through beautiful wine country, taking in all the aspects of the wine making process. We stopped at multiple vineyards, I did some tastings, and left with bottles of wine I hope we have room for in the tiny trunk. Downtown Napa reminds me of our trips to Vermillion, South Dakota that always happened this time of year. We would all head north for the Family Reunion/Roy Jorgensen’s annual birthday extravaganza. Some of my most favorite memories are from those trips.
We came back into San Francisco for the night. We stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge and took a stroll down Lombard St. I had to stop at a Walgreens to get some soap, as we are almost out. To my surprise, damn near everything in the Walgreen’s around here in under lock and key. I didn’t realize health and beauty items were the most desired items when deciding to steal from a drug store. Screw the cash in the register, grab the Dove….
So tomorrow (Tuesday) marks two special occasions. One is that it is Myles birthday and he is turning 3 years old. I hope my Mom has something special planned for his big day since we aren’t home to celebrate with him. I think he deserves a full steak dinner, but don’t tell Matt’s dad I said that. We will be celebrating with a party upon our return. Celebrations will also occur at his school as always. The chosen party favor for this year are tennis balls, his absolute favorite. All “classmates” at school will get one to take home. There will also be cupcakes for the school staff with little fondant beagles on them. This is so the reason why I can’t have children….
The second most exciting thing is that we are headed to Yosemite National Park (Judge and Melissa Alcorn’s home away from home). I would have never thought in a million years I would be taking a vacation to a national park, much less three of them on one trip. Matt has various hikes planned for us, so I hope to capture everything wonderful about this place, the Alcorn’s have been raving about for years now. I will not be doing any extreme activities like they do, but maybe this is a start to getting away from the traditional vacation way of life. Adventure Tourism I think is the coined term for this type of vacation. I might regret saying that after tomorrow‘s actitivities. I must admit, I am afraid of those damn bears that keep eating people there this summer. In preparation for the next two day’s activities, I practiced my “bear response” with Matt this evening. He thought it was funny, I was being serious.
Hope all is well with everyone. I haven’t watched any TV in ten days, so I feel so disconnected from the world, yet at the same time so connected. Curious to see where that takes me.
Happy Trails.
