Main attraction: San Francisco
Photo set

On Sunday, we traveled into San Francisco to see the sights. We got to visit Fisherman’s Wharf, see the Transamerica Building, and wave to a sea lion.

We also walked around the city quite a bit, seeing the smooshed-together-houses, tasting the excellent sourdough and looking over Lombard street.

Then we rode a cable car back to our car and headed back to Scott’s for some much needed rest. Hiking around San Francisco is hard work!

The next morning, we said our good-byes to Scott. (It was so good to see him!) Then, we traveled back through San Francisco, headed North. This meant we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. It was foggy, as usual, but I think the fog made for some neat pictures.

Our thanks go out to Scott for a great visit!

Next stop, Redwood National Park…

Main attractions: Jelly Belly Factory & Napa wineries
Photo set

After our tour of Hearst Castle, we drove into San Francisco. We had planned to take historic Highway 1, but due to the fires, were forced to head inland a bit and take Highway 101. We arrived at Scott’s place just in time for dinner. I finally experienced the legendary In-N-Out Burger.

The next day, we loaded up into Scott’s car for a day trip to Napa. Our first stop was 1 Jelly Belly Lane in Fairfield, CA. That’s right! The Jelly Belly factory. The factory has free tours and samples. Also, they had Jelly Belly mosaics, like the the one of Ronald Reagan below. I thought they were pretty incredible. Overall, it was a delicious stop. We came home with 6 lbs. of Belly Flops - the mutant-reject jelly beans (2 for Scott, 2 for Ali and 2 for us). They make a lot of other kinds of candy at the factory as well, including chocolates, fruit slices, and (to Noah’s delight) candy corn. Noah did enjoy the candy corn, but said that mine was better. What a good guy!

After our tour, we packed back into the car and headed towards wine country. It is a beautiful place, like the pictures of tuscany that you see all over the home stores. Scott is a bit of a wine aficionado and acted as an excellent guide. Our first stop was the V. Sattui winery. Noah’s parents visited last winter and invested in just a couple bottles of wine - giving the whole family access to the private cellar club. So, we headed down to the wine cellar for our tasting - and it was quite the tasting indeed.

We tasted and tasted and tasted some more. Most wineries will give you 2-4 tastes, but we well surpassed that at V. Sattui, trying nearly everything on the menu. In the end, we came home with some Pinot Noir (for Noah), Gamay Rogue (for me) and a smattering of white wines. After tasting, we decided we needed some lunch - particularly if there was more wine in our future. So we picked up some bread and cheese from the deli. Scott was also kind enough to open a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc - which went wonderfully with our cheese sandwiches. The best part was that the grounds of V. Sattui make a perfect setting for a picnic.

After lunch we visited a couple other vineyards, including PlumpJack, shown below, and Silver Oak. Then we had a delicious dinner at Uva’s, a little Italian place, before heading back to San Jose. It was a great day. Thank you, Scott :o)

Next stop, San Francisco…

Main attraction: Hearst Castle
Photo set

After Yosemite, we headed to the coastal city of San Simeon. It was devastatingly foggy/smoky when we arrived. However, the fog and fires did serve to keep the tourists at bay. Highway 1 was closed less than 50 miles North of San Simeon. This meant that we practically had the little coastal shops to ourselves and it made for a great nearly private tour of the Hearst Castle. While in San Simeon, we had some of the best pizza ever, from J J’s pizzeria downtown. This paired with some liquid aloha and a History channel marathon of Modern Marvels: Engineering Disasters made for a perfectly enjoyable evening.

In the morning, we packed up and headed to Hearst Castle. I warn you, the place is amazing and huge, so we have lots of pictures. Below are some of my favorites, a picture of the Neptune Pool (which is the outdoor pool), the dining room that inspired the Hogwarts hall in the Harry Potter movies, and the Roman pool (the indoor pool where the gold tiles are real gold).

William Randolph Hearst was a newspaper tycoon in the early part of the 20th century. He amassed sick amounts of wealth and used it, at least in part, to build Hearst Castle. The estate includes 3 guest houses and the main house, the most amazing gardens, a riding trail called the Pergola, and one heck of a view. We got to see the medium guest house and the main floor of the main house. I can’t even begin to impress on you how amazing this place is. It is covered, literally stuffed, with priceless antiques and art pieces including ancient roman facades, mosaics and frescoes, beautiful tapestries, ceilings and paneling from famous cathedrals and monasteries and even a set of sculptures from ancient Egypt. If you’re ever in the area, you simply have to see it. In the meantime, please enjoy our pictures :o)

Next we’re headed to Napa…

*Quick note: I added another review to my bookshelf. Take a look *

*Quick note: I have a new review of The Host by Stephanie Meyer posted on the bookshelf*

Main attraction: Yosemite National Park
Photo set

After our hike around the big tree meadow, we headed North, towards Yosemite National Park. The Sequoias grow all along this part of California and into Yosemite as well. The forest paired with the mountainous nature of the land made for another beautiful drive. As we entered Yosemite, we passed through a tunnel in the rock and were greeted by this amazing view.

From here you can see many of the park’s geographical features, like the waterfalls (they’re really small here, closeup coming soon) and half dome. There are lots of trails in Yosemite for the serious hiker or bicycler, but since we had a pretty limited amount of time we decided to hike out to Yosemite Falls before heading to our campground. Yosemite Falls cascades 3 times and crashes on some rocks making a really big splash. It was a pretty cool place :o)

On our way back, we saw what we believe to be a mountain lion. I have no photographic proof, but it was certainly a large cat that seemed to be stalking about. Please substitute this neat picture of a tree growing halfway up a rock wall for said cat.

After our hike, we headed to our campground, which after the superb campground at Sequoia, was a bit of a disappointment. First, it was on quite an incline (see below and to the right). Second, there were campsites behind us, meaning no privacy and that’s doubly annoying when the “neighbors” have whiny children. Also, we did not have as much canned food as I thought, leaving us with peanut butter and Hershey bars for dinner. Tasty, but sadly lacking in the nutrition one craves after hiking.

As a final note, this was the first day of the trip that we were able to locate penny smooshers! I am a huge fan of these machines and had hoped to find quite a few more on our trip. Unfortunately I fear they are going a bit out of fashion. So the appearance of smooshers considerably brightened my day and made up, at least a bit, for some of the campground mishaps. If you’re interested, ask me sometime and I’ll be glad to show my smooshed pennies

Next we’re off to San Simeon, home of Hearst Castle…

Main attraction: Sequoia National Park
Photo set

We woke up from our late night in Vegas (probably not really late at all by most standards :D) and enjoyed a spectacular breakfast buffet and then headed Southwest into California. Finally, we were in California. Our first Californian stop, Sequoia National Park. The road into the park is this incredibly windy thing that snakes its way up and up. Up until this point we had obviously done quite a bit of mountain driving, but honestly this road takes the cake. For all its snaking though, it is a gorgeous drive. Here’s a picture of the lake just outside Sequoia.

Soon, we were in Sequoia National Park. Noah told me that I wasn’t allowed to ask him what his favorite part of the trip was until we were in Idaho. When I finally got to ask him, he said “Probably Sequoia.” The best part is, I agree. This was the most amazing park we visited and we saw some pretty amazing things, but here, the trees just surprise you. You’ll be driving through an ordinary forest and all of a sudden this deep red trunk grabs your eye. And its huge. By the time we got to our campsite, our backs and necks were stiff from leaning into the windshield trying to seeing these amazing trees. Really, I loved them. I loved them so much I hugged one.

Do you see little me down at the bottom? That helps you know how big they are. And we got to see groves of them.

Sequoia also had the nicest campground I’ve ever been to. There are these boulders, nicely arranged to create separate parking and tent areas. The fire ring is made of small boulders and bigger ones are arranged to make nice sitting-around-the-campfire areas. The bear boxes are big. Bathrooms are always close. Plus, as a bonus, the stream on the right was just across from our site. The constant babble of the stream made for a nice serene place to camp.

After a good night’s sleep, we broke camp and hiked the Big Tree Meadow. We got to see both the General Sherman and General Grant trees on our way into and out of the park, respectively. The General Sherman tree, on the left, holds the world’s record for the tree with the most volume. It is around 36.5 feet in diameter and 275 feet tall. The General Grant tree, on the right, holds the record for the widest tree, at 40 feet across. President Calvin Coolidge declared it the Nation’s Christmas Tree in 1926. Both Generals are estimated to be between 1500 and 2000 years old, which is still pretty young considering that the oldest Sequoias live over 3000 years.

But, I think the most amazing thing about the trees, other than their size, is the way they thrive on fire. In their core, they carry a surprising amount of water that has been said to be ice cold to the touch. You can see what kind of internal waterways the trees have by looking at the fallen tree on the left. The Sequoia’s cones open only under high temperatures, such as those found during forest fires. In the wake of a forest fire, these trees are typically the only ones left standing and they take advantage of the opportunity to monopolize canopy space and fire-enriched soils. Truly they are survivors and a sight I wish everyone could see.

On a lighter note, we saw a pretty funny sign on a hike here. At several of the parks they had signs indicating you should “Give plants a chance” by not stepping off the trails and onto the plantlife. Someone at Sequoia, decided the “L” was optional. So all you hobos sitting in front of your computer in your boxers. Puh-lease…

Next stop, Yosemite…