that vacation I said we needed…
We actually took it. Jen and I went to California again for vacation. We started in San Francisco and ended up in Los Angeles, with a red-eye flight home this morning. While we were in San Francisco we had dinner and hung out with our friends Erich and his girlfriend Gina. We went to dinner and then to one of his hang outs. They gave us some tips on places to go and neighboorhoods to look at for our move. It was good to see Erich, and I wish we could have spent more time with them, but this was a fast track and we had some 370 miles to cover. The next day we cruised around San Francisco, going to Twin Peaks, a couple of neighborhoods and shopping downtown. It was a pretty good time, despite the $40 parking ticket we got while eating some good mexican food. That evening Jen and I both passed out kind of early. The next day we headed North to Muir Woods National Park which is one of the last standing Redwood/Giant Sequoia forests near San Francisco. It was absolutely beautiful and almost completely peaceful with the exception of some school kids making monkey noises. We hiked a couple of miles and decided that we will definitely have to go back, as there were some really cool longer trails to hike. After that we jumped on the California Hwy 1 and headed south along the coast. That was absolutely beautiful. We started to see the sun go down and it got really, really dark. We stayed in a cabin complete with fireplace in Big Sur state park. The cabin was awesome, it didn’t have a phone, TV or internet. It was a definite chance to unplug, I did download some pictures and backup my computer though, so I didn’t get withdrawal. We went to dinner at an awesome restaurant called Nepenthe which hangs on the top of a cliff just south of the lodge we were staying at. It was a full moon and slightly cooler night but still absolutely beautiful on the deck where we ate. We headed back to the cabin, started a fire and went to sleep. It was kind of funny, I passed out on the couch in front of the fireplace, and about 30 minutes later Jen and I both jumped up because we heard a loud noise. Jen was insisting that somebody was at the door, and I checked, but then figured out a burning log had fallen out of the fireplace against the fireplace screen. I quickly grab it (not the burning part) and put it back in the fire. We slept very soundly the rest of the night. The next morning, we got up, had breakfast and hiked a little on the trails in Pfeiffer State Park. The Big Sur Lodge is actually located in the park, so we only drove like 1 minute. The hike was beautiful, with Pfeiffer falls along the way and ending in a mountain-top view of the valley all the way to the Ocean. We continued on our way south. The roads and views all along the way were spectacular. I was having a hard time keeping us on track because I wanted to get so many pictures. I easily made up for it with my love for driving twisty roads. Our Ford Escape did pretty well because it was all wheel drive and quite nimble. Still wish we had the Passat though, it would’ve been loads more fun with a manual transmission. We finally got to Carpinteria around 6pm. It’s a little town, just south of Santa Barbara. We hung out for a bit waiting for the last of our group, then headed to a local restaurant for some excellent mexican faire. After that we headed back for some relaxation, which was well taken. The next morning, we all got up, had a bit of breakfast and then headed to Montecito. Montecito is an affluent Santa Barbara community (or city). In fact, it’s where Oprah lives. One of Mark and Michelle’s coworkers lives there in a very nice, yet somehow modest home. We then packed up and went on a hike up the Santa Barbara hills. It was once again a beautiful view and some good excercise. About 600 Calorie burn for me because I was wearing my heart rate monitor. We then headed back to Carpinteria and got ready for the Avocado festival. We had a couple different Avocado treats and then went back to Mark and Michelle’s for some more cocktails. Around 6pm we drove them all to Santa Barbara for the Paul Simon concert and Jen and I went exploring. They got home later and we waited and waited for a pizza that would never arrive….probably for the better any way. The following day we had a great breakfast, Mark and I watched the Packers almost win and then Jen and I headed for LA. We took a quick stop for some shopping at an outlet mall then we ended up at the Grove in LA. We met Jen’s friend Jill for dinner then finally returned our rental car and jumped on the plane home. It was a good time and we got to see all of our left coast friends. It made both of us want to move there even more. I took a lot of pictures, of which my 10 favorites are right here. The other 85 are on the Picasa Album link.
