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West Coast

April 2019
We are off on a cross country journey to California, Nevada and Arizona. The last three driving states in our 50. We will finish with Hawaii and Alaska. Read more
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  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 5

    Pier 39

    April 16, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    When we got back to Fisherman’s Wharf, Paul had his heart set on eating at one of the outdoor seafood vendors for lunch. So we did. We ordered one of everything; lobster, big shrimp, little shrimp,fried shrimp, seafood salad, you name it. Perfect lunch on Pier 39.

    We dropped my sister at the Bart, the transportation back to Oakland and we are on highway 1 to Santa Cruz to see our friend, Paul Frat brother, Mark and his family. The drive so far on highway 1 is amazingly beautiful    Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 5

    Santa Cruz

    April 16, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    If you ever get the chance to drive highway 1, it is well worth the spectacular views. It winds along the coast revealing a coastline only seen in movies. Gasps at every turn. And this was only from San Fran to Santa Cruz. Along the way, we stopped at one pull off of cliff like rocks. While photographing the crashing waters below, Matthew appears in my viewfinder down below as he had made his way down the rock cliffs...ok, rocky...whatever unsafe, slip to your death or bloody end rock sides they are. “Matthew!” Next thing I know, Elizabeth is giggling and following him to their death. Literally, they are climbing rocks out to the crashing ocean where I can hear Elizabeth shrieking with joy at finding a crab in the tide pools (big enough to drown in). Ben tries to find a path down without dirtying his white/gray pants. Paul, so responsibly, leads him down another less steep path. Now my whole family has left me up here with a murderous man in a less luxurious van as ours who is sure to throw me in with his dog and I become a statistic. Didn’t happen. But, now my family is going to all die down there and I don’t even have keys to the van. Didn’t happen. It was so beautiful that I just took a bunch of pictures and tried to capture it into my memory. Everyone clambered their way back up and off we went to Santa Cruz. We were meeting Corn (Mark) and family around 6.

    We found our way to Fairfield Inn after some significant traffic in Santa Cruz. California sure has an abundance of cars and people and people in cars. We settled into the hotel and got ready for dinner. After the traffic, we decided an Uber was a better bet. We met Corn, Jennie and their kids, Presley, Sawyer and Colt at Hula’s for dinner. We had the best time. Our big kids entertained the littles. Our kids are so good with little kids. Their kids were so sweet. We got to have some great adult time with our friends. They are pretty “RAD” 😂. Yes they still say RAD here. Great dinner and drinks. After dinner, we made our way to an ice cream shop, where we spent more time catching up. We closed the place down. Since Santa Cruz isn’t a big town, we could find an Uber XL home so we had to take two home. I grabbed the two boys for safety. We all made it back. What a great night. Off to LA tomorrow down Highway 1 again. More to see. Good night for now    Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 6

    Monterrey, CA

    April 17, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Weather: sunny and 50s/60s/70s/80s

    States: California

    Cities: Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Pebble Beach, Carmel, LA

    Miles: 323 miles

    Hours: 5 hrs and 21 min

    Restaurant:

    Hotel/Home: Springhill Suites LA/Burbank

    Movies:

    Audible:

    So long Santa Cruz and hello highway 1. Well, it’s reputation certainly Ives up to itself. It is one of the most beautiful drives that we have ever done. It helps that we had a perfect day of blue skies,, 50s and 60s and the bluest waters you’ve ever seen We highly recommend the drive. You have every shad of blue on your right and every shade of green in the rolling hills and mountains to your left. There are some breathtaking hairpin curves where, at one second you have a lush barrier or guard rail and the next second it flattens out to a sheer cliff sending your mind to sure death. Gasp. Paul doesn’t like my gasps. We have passed through Monterrey, Carmel, Pebble beach and Big Sur. In Monterrey, we saw some sea lions basking on the beach. So cool. We stopped in Carmel for a sandwich.    Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 6

    Big Sur

    April 17, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    We passed through Big Sur which was beautiful. More winding roads and campgrounds and beautiful views. We needed gas. No, we weren’t on empty. We stopped for gas that was more than $6.00 a gallon. WTFuel?! Needless to say, we only purchased 3 gallons.

    There is a good chance that we are going to cut in to an inland freeway to pick up time and have a little more relaxed drive. It is tiring driving these winding roads. Paul was trying to throw rocks over a cliff with Elizabeth and Matthew. He was terrified they were going to fall off. “Matthew!” “What?” “Do you have to grab a rock off the side of the cliff?” Grrrr. On we go.

    WE CAN’T GET OFF HIGHWAY 1. HELP! It is exhausting driving the turns and it takes forever. It is beautiful but a long way. We found a route inland. Just before the turnoff was another pull-off with tons of people. We glance at the beach and there are hundreds of Sea Lions or Sea Elephants or whatever. They look like rocks on the beach. I told the kids to get out of the car, they have never seen anything like it. Both Matt and Biddy thought they were rocks. Ben was sleeping. Maybe a quarter of a mile of these beasts. So cool. That made the last part of highway 1 worth it before we got off.

    We started out around 9:30 and we don’t expect to get into LA until 7:30. It has been a nice day, but when you’ve had enough, you’ve had enough. I was getting car sick too. We are meeting Cody, my nephew in LA tonight. He is coming up from San Diego and spending a couple of days with us. Yay. Two nights in LA will be nice. We don’t have to pack up    Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 7

    Warner Brothers

    April 18, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Weather: sunny and 80s and gorgeous

    States: California

    Cities: LA (Burbank, Pasadena, Beverly Hills

    Miles: 20 miles

    Hours: 1hr

    Restaurant: Lanstra’s Bistro, In and Out Burger

    Hotel/Home: Springhill Suites LA/Burbank

    Movies:

    Audible

    What a great day! It was an all around great day. The weather was sunny and warm. We started out at Warner Brothers. What a great tour. Thank you Wendy and Kevin for telling us to do it. We really liked it. Now, we are all movie and theater people so we really enjoyed seeing where movies we love are made, costumes, sets and the hope of seeing someone famous. Which we didn’t. It is a tour on trams but we also got off and went into prop buildings and costume displays. Super cool. We saw movie and tv sets that would blow you mind to think they were filmed there. I am so glad we did this tour. The boys got their super hero stuff and Biddy and I got our Friends and Ellen. We finished with a coffee at Central Perk.    Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 7

    In and out burger burbank

    April 18, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    For lunch, we HAD to stop at In and Out Burger. I tell you, the driving and parking here is nuts. People do whatever they want. They will legit cut across lanes of traffic to turn and double park you to get a burger. Paul did a terrible parking job at In and Out only because he saw a people double parking people in the lot. He stuck our monster van way out so no one could park us in. We saw driving and parking like this all day. Craze.Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 7

    Beverly Hills

    April 18, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    After lunch, we did a little sight seeing and star searching in Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive Baby. No stars. We passed a couple of restaurants from some of the shows I watch. Tom Tom and Pump. Pretty cool. Paul somehow remember the address of his uncle who lived in the hills of Beverly Hills so we drove up the winding roads to find it. We found it but it didn’t look the same as he remembered. Still fun to explore. After some exploring, we headed back to our hotel to freshen up before dinner at our friends house, in Pasadena.Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 7

    Pasedena

    April 18, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    After a quick stop at the hotel, we braved traffic to head to Pasadena to our friends, the Lanstra’s, house, Al and Emilie. They live in a cool neighborhood in a cool house. They have movies filmed in their neighborhood all the time. The house across the street was a set to Cruel Intentions and a couple other movies and in the other direction, the show, Benson. They have movies filmed so often that the studios pay them just to park in front of their house. Emilie said it gets a little annoying. We had an awesome dinner with their family.. The kids swam a little and we caught up. Great time.

    Ben drove us home. EEEk. Still not used to that. We don’t like to drive even with one glass of wine. He did great. I have to try not to be a back street driver. I cant help it. I am the momma. I worry. Cody is still with us until tomorrow.. It’s been great seeing him. I will have to hold the hug a second longer when I say goodbye. I hope to see him sooner than later. Now we are off to bed for our next adventure in LA and then to Vegas tomorrow.    Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 8

    Hollywood Sign

    April 19, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Weather: sunny and 80s and 90s and gorgeous

    States: California, Nevada

    Cities: LA (Burbank), Las Vegas

    Miles: 269 miles

    Hours: 4 hrs 22 min

    Sites: Hollywood sign

    Restaurant: Other Mama

    Hotel/Home: Fairfield

    Movies:

    Audible: Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly

    Our alarm went off at 6:45. I wanted to forget the alarm and go back to sleep but not as much as i wanted to go on the hike. Our plan was to eat a meatless breakfast for Good Friday and hike to the Hollywood sign. I researched how and where to access the trailhead for the hike but I was nervous that it wouldn’t be that easy. It actually was easy.We arrived around 8:30 AM. Blue skies and 60s increasing by the minute which is why we started early. We parked and started up the dirt trail. It was a bit challenging. We try to hike on every trip. Every hike is very different. The first part of this hike is fairly steep but then levels out a bit midway. We had a few drinks last night and i didn’t hydrate as well as I should have. I did fine. Cody and Ben hiked ahead, Paul and I in the middle and our two little skinnies in the back doing a little complaining. Then, Elizabeth got Jessie on face time and it was like she was on the trip with us. Though, she was in a mud mask and less out of breath than we were. Thanks Jessie for distracting Elizabeth up the hill or mountain. It was a nice hike up to the iconic Hollywood sign. We hiked up to the first good viewpoint of the sign, about an hour/hour and half up. You can go all the way up to view the sign from behind but no one seemed too interested and we wanted to get on the road to Vegas. Al told us that traffic would get bad on a friday out of LA to Vegas. Funny though, there was more complaining going down than up. We figured they were too out of breath going up to complain.
    We finished our hike which everyone enjoyed and said our goodbyes to Cody and got on the road to Vegas. Traffic was minimal until we got outside of city limits where there was an accident that set us back 45 minutes. Ugh. It was pretty bad. One car up on the side of the hill and one upside down in a ditch. The rest of the trip was uneventful.

    We checked in to our hotel and headed to Uncle Stone’s condo. He lives near old Vegas. He took us to a cool, off the strip restaurant called Other Mama. Delicious food.We ordered a bunch of small plates and big and shared. The kids are adventurous eaters. We went back to Uncle Stones to hang a bit. I was so tired from waking up so early and the hike and the drive. To bed early for a long day of exploring the strip. Good night.    Read more

  • TravelerWest Coast
    Day 9

    Pubic Us restaurant

    April 20, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Weather: sunny and 88 and gorgeous

    States: Nevada

    Cities: New York New York

    Miles: 0 miles

    Hours: 24/7

    Sites: Fremont Street, The Strip, Shark Reef

    Restaurant: Public Us, Excalibur, Mercato Della Pescheria

    Hotel/Home: Fairfield

    Movies:

    Audible:

    Rested and ready to...Vegas Baby. At least a kid friendly version. We met up with Stone (Paul’s brother) for breakfast. He took us to Public Us restaurant. It was sooo good. Stone always has good restaurants. It was a cool little local restaurant with yummy food. I had the best homemade gluten free bread with an avocado spread, tomatoes and smoked salmon. The boys got some beautiful french toast and waffles. Elizabeth got some kind of breakfast burrito. Paul got a lovely oatmeal with fruit and nuts. He loves his oatmeal. Stone got some delicious looking egg skillet. It was all good and the atmosphere was nice.    Read more

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