Oh the absolute joy of time away with your best friend. I think almost anything would be fun if I got to do it with Mike.
As a thank you for launching a new program at work Mike's company gave us a little bonus to be used for a vacation. My parents wonderfully agreed to watch the kids and we ran as fast as we could to the airport.
Two days in San Francisco and two more driving up Highway 1 was a small taste of heaven. We saw Pier 49 (the seals) and ate fresh sour dough bread at least three times. We even went through the sour dough factory to watch the process. Pretty good stuff.
We were totally touristy (without the fanny pack) and rode the Big Bus around town. My hair really loved the freedom of the ride.
The bridges there are amazing. The engineer in Mike was loving seeing them all as well as the other architecture around town.
I made Mike eat at only local restaurants- best idea ever. Here we are at a classic Italian restaurant. We were stuffed the whole trip.
More bridges- I know I am weird but they are so cool looking. We stayed in Oakland and took the BART everywhere for the first two days. We rented a car to drive up the coast and that was the day we actually got to drive on the bridges instead of just gaze at them.
I swear I see this city in car commercials all the time now.
Our trip would not be complete without visiting Alcatraz. Such a cool place to see. The history of the whole city is amazing.
The drive up the coast offered amazing views around every turn.
Another part of our deal was not making any hotel reservations on the coast so we could drive as far or as short as we wanted to. It made for an interesting experience- driving through towns looking for vacancy signs. I am not sure that I will ever get Mike to do that again but it made it so nice to have no schedule or deadline.
Trees- I kind of forgot what they look like.
Mike had never been to the Redwoods so we crossed that off his bucket list. Here is our cute little Cube car driving through the tree.
The enormity of some of Gods creations is just awe inspiring.
On our way back to the airport we braved city driving in the rain to Lombard street. Mike nearly had a heart attack driving a rental on the rainy steep streets but neither we nor the car we harmed.
Last on the trip was a visit to the Oakland Temple. My goodness the flowers and landscaping were gorgeous. Not to mention the awesome view. Such a pretty place, we were sorry we couldn't stay longer. This trip was, hands down, one of my all time favorite vacations.
