Vacation – the rest of the story

Since I got such an overwhelming response to continue (thanks Patty) I will finish the vacation narrative with highlights from the rest of the trip.

From San Francisco we went to Sonoma and I tell you, we were glad we were not headed on the opposite direction. It was Sunday and there was almost a continuous line of cars heading from wine country down to SF. People returning from a weekend in the vineyards. Speaking of vineyards, they were everywhere sometimes they looked the size of a gas station on an acre of land and it would be St. Bob Winery. We drove over a narrow twisty mountain road (the sign said trucks not recommended) that separated Sonoma valley and Nappa valley. We stocked up on more bread and cheese and hit the wine trail. We stopped at Robert Mondavi and the Franciscan where we took a tour. After the tour we had a delicious picnic lunch on their grounds.

Then it was back through San Francisco and down the coast. One of the things that always amazes me on this drive is how FARMS go right up to the cliffs on the ocean. I would expect multimillion dollar homes not cabbage and cows. We Passed through miles and miles of uninhabited coastline then down to Santa Cruz. We continued on until we hit Monetrey. There was a lot of fog so it wasn’t as stunning as it can be but still it was very beautiful. That night we had a fun dinner in an English Pub.

The next day we drove through Big Sur. Although that is the name of a town it’s more of an area. It’s pretty remote and there are a string of state parks. We stopped at one to see the redwoods and climb a trail to a waterfall. After such strenuous activities, more bread wine and cheese was required. We finally ended up in a little town on the coast called Cambria and checked into the Fog Catcher Inn for a few days.

The next highlight was Hearst Castle. It was just a few miles up the road in San Simeon. It was a fabulous place, I highly recommend a visit. They don’t make em like that anymore at least in this country. The Neptune Pool is truly impressive, it uses some kind of mind control and forces you to take pictures of it. I think I got about 20 before the pushy tour guide forced me to rejoin the group.

Later we traveled south to Pismo Beach a little beach city that reminded me of Wildwood NJ. They have some kind of Sand Dunes State Park which we tried to visit but you really can’t see the dunes without a 4wheel drive vehicle, our Kia mini van was not up to it. So we did the next best thing – we road Segways! Yep, Katie and I jumped on the gyro balanced 2 wheel transport and leaned, tilted and swerved our way around the rental building. We even went off road on in the weeds and ruts. Linda and Sarah were the film crew. There was only one accident when our Segways got to close to each other and tried to mate. No harm, no foul, we were back in the saddle in no time 2wheeling over giant 2x4s laying in the gravel (ok so maybe they were just 2 inches by 4 inces).

The final leg of our journey lead us to Anaheim Ca. home of Disneyland. We had been there many years before so we knew what to expect. We were FastPass professionals (FastPass is Disney’s version of ride reservations). We road all the E-ticket rides several times, drank the $5 sodas and bought the mouse ear hat. A good time was had by all.

So that’s our story. Thanks for reading and may the road always rise up to meet you.

For all the gory details play the slide show below