We've been back from our tour through California for about a week, but it's taken awhile to get back into the swing of things. We still need to upload photos from the trip, but here's a quick recap of our trip...day by day. Sorry if this is too detailed for some of you:)
Saturday- We flew into Orange County and got picked up by Matt's good friend Mike. First stop was of course In N Out, where we laughed at Matt eating a burger with a knife and fork (more on that later). We had to go to the Coffee Bean for Ice Blended(s) and hung out for awhile before heading to the Dodgers game that evening. Before the actual game was the celebrity softball game, where Rob Lowe was the biggest 'star'. The Dodgers game was fun, with a good outcome.
Sunday- We woke up and got on the road for our trip up to Northern California. We took the Pacific Coast Highway and then continued along the coast. First, we stopped in Santa Barbara for lunch (yummy tacos) and to walk around the downtown area. The further North we went, the more beautiful the view of the ocean beside us, although it was a little foggy. As we went through the mountains for a couple of hours, I started to get a little antsy because you go so slow and cars were passing us tightly on a two lane mountain road, but I am glad that we did it once. The trip took longer than we expected, so we tried to get to Santa Cruz as soon as we could because we had to check into our hotel and meet up with Matt's friend from college, Ryan, who lives there. We stayed at The Chaminade Hotel, which was a neat place on the outskirts of town that we got for a steal (love hotels.com). We went to an Italian place in an area of town near where we stayed called Capitola and then Ryan took us to a neat, old school ice cream place and drove us around Santa Cruz. I really enjoyed Santa Cruz and would love to go back again.
Monday- After hitting Jamba Juice for breakfast, we drove north to Berkeley to walk around the campus and see the town. We then drove to Sonoma (which again took longer than we expected). In Sonoma, we stayed in Forestville, at the Farmhouse Inn. The area is the Russian River Valley and the Inn was the cutest and most peaceful place I've been to in....a year (since I was in Hawaii :) We settled into our room and enjoyed the pool before eating dinner at the inn's restaraunt. This was our semi official anniversary dinner, because even though our anniversary was Tuesday, it wasn't open on Tuesday. It was a really good, fine dining place and they gave us a copy of the menu that says 'Happy Anniversary'. Both mornings during our trip, breakfast was provided as part of the room rate. Since I love a good breakfast, the amazing things like french toast, eggs, and homemade breads were right up my alley.
Tuesday- Our anniversary! My favorite day of the trip by far. We got a map of local wineries in the Russian River valley and Healdsburg. We (mostly I) tried a few different wineries before going to eat and walk around Healdsburg, an adorable little town with cute shops and restaurants. We ate lunch at the Healdsburg Bar and Grill, where we had some great fries and I had a really good salad. Next, we went to a few more wineries on our way back to the inn and relaxed by the pool for awhile before we went back to Healdsburg for dinner. We picked the place, Scopa, an Italian restaurant, that day from yelp reviews. Wow! What a dinner.....This was probably our favorite meal of the trip and it was made even more special by the amazing service. The owner (wife is front of house and husband in the head chef) brought us champagne and homemade biscotti after she learned it was our anniversary. Really, it was an awesome evening.
Wednesday- Although we (at least I) didn't want to leave, we drove to San Francisco and checked in early at our hotel. We stayed at the Galleria Hotel in the Union Square hotel, which proved to be a nice location to get to many different sights. It's a cute, boutique hotel and the price was good. After walking around this area, I noticed a sign for the musical Wicked. We found the theater nearby (thanks to the IPhone- what would we have done without this?) and got there just in time to enter the lottery for cheap tickets that they drew an hour later. Luckily, we won 2 tickets...although they were not seated together, they were close and cheap. Very hungry before the show, we quickly ran to a nearby deli (thanks yelp) and made it back for the show. During intermission, we found 2 seats together. The show was so awesome. I am mad that I had never seen it before....we bought the soundtrack two days later and I love listening to it (side note- it works very well as cleaning the house music).
Thursday- Whew, what a day! We first lined up to take the cable car all the way from Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf. Walking around Fisherman's Wharf, we saw a place to rent bikes and ride to and across Golden Gate Bridge. They made the ride sound pretty easy and we thought why not? (even though I was not properly dressed at all). First, we rode the bike to the Embarcadero area and Ferry Market, where we ate at Taylor's Automatic Refresher (yummy burgers and fries) and then all the way back and over to the Golden Gate Bridge. Not too far into the drive did I realize this was not as easy as the cute pictures made it look like (i.e. San Fran has a lot of hills.....) But, Matt was very patient with me and we took our time and finally made it to the bridge. The views were amazing and I am so glad we did it. I wasn't expecting it to be so windy and so crowded. Riding the bike as pedestrians are also walking on the narrow walkway was not easy! We rode the bikes all the way back to Fisherman's Wharf, where my legs barely made it to the cable car that took us back to our hotel. As my legs began to get more numb, we got ready to head to the East Bay (Walnut Creek). Matt's friends from college live there and invited us to their house for dinner. It was a really nice evening and fun to get to know them better. That night, I realized that my hands and part of my arms were burned from the bike ride around town...and that by this point, I could barely walk.
Friday- We woke up (amazingly my legs were ok by then) and had one last walk around and lunch at the Ferry Maket at the Embarcadero, which we know we'd be obsessed with if we lived in San Fran. Tons of small markets with local cheese, meat, chocolates, etc...with little restaurants too. We had some great Asian food (fusion I guess). I had a Saigon pork sandwich and bubble tea, while Matt had rice pudding. Then, we hit the road to drive back to Orange County. The only stop we made was dinner in Santa Barbara, but it definitely seemed to take a long time and we happily arrived in Fullerton about 10pm. By that time, I was ready never to ride in a car again!
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday- The last few days in California were filled with a lot of great family time. On Saturday, Matt went to his dad's dental office to get his tooth looked at from his bike accident. That turned out not to be much, but he did need more dental work for other things, so he was back on Monday while Matt's mom and I got massages (one of the best I have ever received- thanks Joann!). A lot of family came over to Matt's parents' house for dinner on Saturday, and then on Sunday we drove to Matt's cousin Jen's house to hang out with family some more. We went bowling, I ate at Island's for the first time, and got to spend more time with the awesome Ella and Alex (among everyone else of course), which is always great.
Our trip back on Tuesday (after hitting In N Out one more time) was pretty smooth, one of the perks of flying out of John Wayne/Orange County verses LAX. It was a great trip and I feel lucky that we got to see so many family members, as well as friends that Matt doesn't get to see often.
Now, it's back to work! I'm back for meetings/planning all this week, and the semester starts on the 17th. I'm also starting my dissertation data collection this week. Exciting, but it will be a busy semester!
Pictures soon, I promise....
