California Love

Right after I graduated, we left for vacation for a week in California. We both had frequent flyer miles that were going to expire soon and decided back in February that we wanted to use them to take a trip after I graduated for some much needed reconnection. Not only was I done with school but Charlie finished his horrible constantly rotating schedule at the Pentagon in April. We decided to go to California because, in Charlie's words: "Lets go as far as possible and get our money's worth on the frequent flyer miles". That and there were things we wanted to see and experience together.

We started the trip in San Francisco where we had two full days. We were super-blessed to have my sister let us use some of her "$50-a-night" perks at a Kimpton in the city. If you've never stayed in a Kimpton before- it's amazing! I stayed in one for work before Meg got her job and was THRILLED when she started working for them! In San Fran we went to Fisherman's Wharf, toured Alcatraz, rode a cable car, went to an Oakland Athletics game (the Giants weren't in town) and saw the "crooked street". On our 2nd day in San Fran, we ventured out to Sonoma for some wine tasting. This was one of my favorite things we did. It was so beautiful, the people were so nice and the wine was so good.

After leaving San Fran we drove down Highway 1 (known as the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH) to Monterey and went to the Aquarium. Another beautiful spot. We left Monterey and drove a bit further down to the Big Sur coast and took in some spectacular views hiking around Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park. We had dinner in the (tiny) town of Big Sur at a restaurant recommended to me by my work friend Alison who went to grad school in Monterey. After we ate we hit the road for what was supposed to be a 3 hourish drive to Atascadaro (a town outside of San Luis Obispo where I could get a room for $30 a night from my Holiday Inn points). The drive took longer because it was dark, the PCH is thisclose to the cliffs and very wind-y. Actually, come to think of it- I believe Alison said "it's beautiful- but don't do it in the dark". Yeah she was right.

The next morning we got up and drove about 3 hours south to Los Angeles. We met my friend Amanda there and saw the Walk of Fame (the stars), Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater (where the Academy Awards are held) and the Hollywood sign. Amanda was a wonderful tour guide and answered many of my questions. (I know very little about Hollywood and usually rely on my friend Tina for all the moviestar gossip). We said goodbye to Amanda and met up with Charlie's friend Becca for some drinks downtown. Then we went to a Dodgers game. You might be noticing a theme here. If you know Charlie, you're not surprised. The man L-O-V-E-S baseball and has a dream to visit all the major league baseball parks. Lucky me, right?! ;) He wanted to go to all 5 parks in California but I made a deal and said I could only do 2. Luckily we did the As first and the Dodgers second because the As game was horrible and the Dodger game was fun! We sat in the "all you can eat" section which I didn't think was a good deal but Charlie was determined to make it a good deal and consumed his body weight in hot dogs and nachos. (I jest- but he did have 3 foot-long hot dogs!).

After the Dodger's game we drove to my Aunt Bean's house outside of San Diego to spend our last two and half days. While in San Diego we went to La Jolla and hiked Torrey Pines State Park, saw the seals (I LOVE seals!), went to the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma (you can see the whole city), visited an In-N-Out Burger and saw the first mission built in California. We had been to San Diego together before a couple years ago so we took a more relaxed pace to this part of the vacation. We also had some great food! One night we went out with Aunt Bean and her friends Vann, Harold and Fred and had some yummy Caribbean food, followed by some See's chocolate! The next night Charlie, Aunt Bean and I went to a little "mom & pop" Mexican place in Encinitas. It was A-MAZING. I'd fly back to California for one of the enchiladas I had. And I don't like to fly. (Then why do I have some many frequent flyer miles you ask? That's another blog).

The vacation was an awesome time to just hang out together without worrying about school, work, etc. Of course, we missed our Paisy pups and brought her back a little doggy treat from Sonoma.

Thanks to Aunt Bean and Meg for providing us with free/cheap places to stay!