One topic of discussion as these two high school chums reconnected was a vacation Angi and her family recently made to California. I could see the excitement in Vicki’s eyes as she related this part of their conversation to me. I finally interrupted and said, “We’re not going to the mountains in June, are we?” And that is how I found myself on a plane heading west the day after I wrote last.
I left it to Vicki to do all the planning and prep work for the trip. It is one of those things, like shopping for a car, that she does well. This trip is out of the ordinary for us. We’ve not done anything like this before: ten nights, five hotels, three flights (well, four because the flight home required us to change planes), and two rental cars. We traveled over 4300 miles by air and covered about 1000 miles on the road with an additional 300 or so miles of local driving around San Diego and San Francisco. We had a fantastic time!
I’m going to follow the pattern I’ve used before and tell about our vacation in several installments over the next few days. For now here’s an overview of our travels so that you can have the big picture.
Our adventures began two weeks ago on Sunday, May 29. We went to Sunday School and sat in the worship service long enough to see a friend baptized and then ducked out to get to the airport on time. We had a direct flight from Nashville to San Diego.
There are several firsts to note here. This was Nate’s first time to fly. (Well, he has been up in a Cessna 172 before, but he was four and we won’t count a small plane here.) This was the first time Vicki and I have ever flown together, and this is the first time we’ve ever flown anywhere as a family as well. This was the first time any of us had ever visited California. And this was the first time any of us had ever seen the Pacific Ocean. (I’m not counting seeing it from the air when I flew to Korea in 1992.)
San Diego was our longest stay anywhere. We spent three nights there. This beautiful city has a lot of fun things to do and we only scratched the surface. By Wednesday, June 1, we caught a short flight north to San Francisco.
Upon arriving in San Francisco we enjoyed lunch with Doug, a friend of mine, and then started the road trip part of our adventure. We drove down the coast to Monterey, then inland to the Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park, and finally looping back around to San Francisco by Monday, June 6. If anything, we didn’t do San Francisco justice as we only allowed a day and a half there.
Wednesday morning it was time to head to the airport and catch a flight home. This time we had to change planes in Los Angeles (so close to Disneyland, yet so far away!). We got home tired but full of memories of good times together and the fun places we had visited. The next day we jumped headlong into life as if we had never been gone.
The weather in California was great for us. Doug had warned us that the weather was cool, especially in San Francisco, so we packed accordingly. Those working in tourism there seem to be fond of quoting Mark Twain who once said, “The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco.” For the most part we enjoyed lows in the 50s and highs in the 60s and 70s. It was only in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains that we experienced heat approaching 100° and fortunately we weren’t in that too long. The only time I got a bit cool was riding across the Golden Gate Bridge in the open upper deck of a tour bus in the wind and fog. The rest of the time I wore my jacket simply because I didn’t want to carry it.
Unfortunately, we came back home to July-like temperatures and humidity. Our forecast shows the high 90s for the next several days. As a matter of fact, Nate is ready to move to California just for the weather alone. He said several times he, his future wife, and their two kids would be living out there when he grew up. Now he just needs to figure out how to make a living because California is expensive.
Another thing that has been different with this vacation has been eating out. That’s not to say we never eat out when we’re on vacation. You can’t avoid it when you’re on a cruise ship or in the Disney parks. On other vacations we are either renting a condo and have a small kitchen or we are staying with relatives and so eat in a lot. I’m going to mention our favorites simply because we want to remember them.
- For fast food we ate at In-N-Out Burger several times because we enjoyed their burgers and we don’t have this chain here in Tennessee.
- In San Diego we enjoyed Cafe Coyote in the Old Town and Filippi’s Pizza Grotto in Little Italy.
- Doug teated us to a delicious meal at the Elephant Bar Restaurant when we first arrived in San Francisco. That evening, still fairly full from lunch, we ended the day with desserts at the Black Bear Diner in Monterey.
- On the road we feasted at Colima Seafood and Mexican Restaurant in Visalia and Pete’s Place in Oakhurst.
- We enjoyed Wipeout Bar and Grill on Pier 39 in San Francisco so much that we ate there twice.
Joe
