From Today: Looking Back at Sonoma and the Fairmont

I'm feeling a little hazy today. I've been in LA for the last few days. Nothing too much to report on here (well, a little), but I do need to catch up on the posts leading up to my return. Last night I saw my childhood friend Amy. It was really fun, and I'm looking forward to getting to know her as an adult. It's been about nine years since we last saw each other. We're going to hang out again for hamburgers. Yum.

Anyhow, so Sonoma... I have some photos. We really had a lovely time.

On our way from LA, Ryan was reminiscing about stopping at Andersen's for their famous split pea soup as a child. We decided we should go too. I'm not a big split pea fan as a general rule, but I really liked this one. I can see why it's famous.


Velkommen... my family and I in front of Andersen's.


The interior of the restaurant. Ryan said it's looked like that for years.


There we have it... the famous Andersen's Split Pea Soup.


It's Hap-pea and Pea-wee :-)


They look a little different this time.


Hahaha.... :-)


Hap-pea and Pea-wee like flowers.

We continued our journey and arrived in Sonoma. We were a little surprised on arrival by the location of the hotel. The Fairmont Sonoma is located in a slightly run-down part of town. The reason for this is because the original hotel is over 100 years old. The neighborhood grew around it. The hotel itself, however, was lovely.




The grounds at the Fairmont- very well maintained.









I read some reviews on the hotel that weren't completely positive. We got a great deal- friends and family discount through a friend of Dave's- but the original prices at the hotel were really high. Our experience with everyone was great- despite the concierge who implied we were all fat. We enjoyed the wine-tasting in the afternoon, the pretty grounds, and the lovely rooms with jet tubs.

That first night, we headed to Mustards, a restaurant recommended by friends of Ryan's mom. I really enjoyed my blood orange cosmo, and the corn enchiladas were fabulous. Everyone else's meals were fantastic, but mine was a little disappointing. I selected the rabbit which the waitress said was one of her favorites, but the meat was quite dry, and the turnip puree almost completely tasteless. I think just a little salt and pepper would have made it better, but it didn't seem worth it to try. I don't want to scare anyone away from the restaurant though because I tried everyone else's, and apparently mine was the only dud. The steak was AMAZING!



Stay tuned for more on Sonoma- our day of wineries and a bit of over-indulgence.

The Road to Los Angeles and Universal Studios

From Sunnyvale to Los Angeles:

After leaving my cousins in Sunnyvale, I headed towards Route 5 on 152. It was a really nice day, and I enjoyed driving through all the farms. I stopped at this fruit stand and bought the most beautiful strawberries, tangerines, and a small bunch of garlic.





As I got closer to Los Angeles, I noticed the incredible color of this lavender field. It's always a challenge to get a photo of something through the window while driving, but you can get an idea of how amazing the color was from this photo.

I arrived in Los Angeles in the evening, arrived at my brother's apartment, and met up with my sister and mom. We ordered Dominos pizza online, and then went to Ryan's house to visit with his family. We were staying at a Best Western really close to Dave's apartment, so I got settled for the night, and we made plans to head to Disney the next day. The next morning, we weren't so excited about the drive through traffic to Disney Land, and we decided instead to hit Universal Studios. None of us had ever been there before- including my brother who lives in LA-, and we thought it would be fun to check it out.


Me and my siblings in front of the Universal Studios globe...


We couldn't resist! Dave was making his Ogre face. :-)




Jenn and Mom on the Universal Studios tour.


Me and Dave... I don't know what that face was for. :-)


War of the Worlds set...


Norman Bates from Psycho... he almost stabbed my brother. Scary.


The Bates Motel... Oooooo.




Whoville...

Jaws: Highlight of my Day


Unfortunately, though I took many videos, the announcer's voice covered many of our silly conversations. You probably wouldn't have enjoyed them as much as I did anyway.

Dave and I decided to go on the Mummy ride while Jenn and my mother got a table at Bucca di Beppo. Roller coaster-wise, I think the Mummy was the best. I wasn't expecting the sudden rush or the complete darkness. If we had time, we would have gotten back on line to go again, but we didn't want to keep them waiting long. Another cool one was the Shrek 4D... lots of little spritzes of water, shakes of the chair, and bursts of air that, with 3D glasses, made for a pretty interesting sense-encompassing experience.

After our huge late lunch at Bucca, we weren't up for much for dinner, and Dave had a John Meyer concert to attend. It was a really fun day, and I was quite content to spend the evening catching up on business on the computer. After all, we were going to be leaving early for Sonoma... Gotta love wine country.

Next- Weekend in Sonoma and back to Sunnyvale...

Sonoma soon... no internet access

We had such an incredible weekend here in Sonoma- wine country California. This trip is so full of contradictions. I spent one day in an old, sort-of clean motel, and then two days later end up in a 4 star resort. The Fairmont was really lovely. The funny thing is that internet was 14 dollars a day at the nice place and free at the cheap motel. I haven't been online all weekend. I'll catch up on blog, emails, resumes, and Facebook tonight.

Stay tuned for updates on Universal Studios and wine country.

Redwoods, Trinidad, and Sunnyvale

Away I went after my stay at the Shooting Star Motel in Bandon, OR. While the accommodations were on the lower end of the spectrum of places I've stayed during this trip, it was mostly clean (it didn't quite pass the hair test, but, thankfully, there was just head hair and it may have come from the top bed cover), and a good place to stop for the night.

I google mapped LA and the driving time said 14 hours. I figured I could arrive around 10:00pm if I hurried and 12:00am if I took my time. It didn't work out that way... To make a long story short, it took longer to drive, I took longer seeing sites, and there was no way I was going to make it to LA before 3am. Luckily I have some very understanding cousins in Sunnyvale, CA who accepted my profuse apologies for being that annoying family member that stops in last minute. I gave them about a two hour notice, and they were so, so nice about it. Thanks, guys!

So anyway, my day... Arriving in the Redwood National Forest:



I found the touristy place with the skyride through the forest right off route 101. I'm really glad I stopped there because, despite the cheesy element, I learned quite a bit about redwood trees and saw some truly magnificent specimens.


Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe... you can tell how big he is by looking at the little girl behind his boot trying to climb up.


These trees are massive!




This is the side-cut of a tree by the entrance... they marked the rings with approximate years.


This tree is really interesting. It grew sideways, so to get more light, three smaller trees grew upward from the base.




This is the view from the top of the gondola... not the greatest photo, but it gives you an idea of how the forest is right along the water.


I've always wanted to be a tree hugger... this one was quite hug-worthy.


Isn't this amazing?


This is the cross section of a fallen redwood. The bottom was absolutely massive, but also really beautiful to look at.


Does my hug count?


See photo below for a description...




Similar to that candle tree, this tree also has several trees growing up from horizontal branches. It's massive and quite stunning.


This photo is of the cathedral tree. There are seven large trees growing out of one base in an arch shape. Apparently people book this as a wedding location.

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to pass through the redwood national forest. I'd love to go hiking here some day. Anyone want to plan a trip?

As I continued south on route 101, I decided I wanted to find a small coastal town for a late lunch. I checked signs and when I saw a few promising looking restaurants posted, I detoured off the road and headed into town.


View Larger Map

You can see route 101 in this Google Maps image and a small beach town named Trinidad. I ended up stopping at the Trinidad Bay Eatery and Gallery where I ordered the most fantastic crab melt (see image below). It was full of green onion, tomato, cheese, and delicious pieces of Dungeness Crab all grilled to absolute perfection. I enjoyed it thoroughly.



A short video from when I arrived in Trinidad. I love randomly finding cool and pretty places...





These photos are of the bay and the memorial lighthouse to those lost at sea. Places like this always remind me of my grandfather who served in the Navy during WWII. We sang the hymn (title? Is it the Navy Hymn?) that goes "oh hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea..." at his funeral. It will forever live on in my memory in this way, thus I thought of him at this memorial even though he wasn't, thankfully, lost at sea.



Trinidad is a place I very much hope to visit again someday and stay a week, or perhaps a summer... maybe if I ever decide to write a book, Trinidad can be my spot. It was beautiful, and I think it would be both relaxing and inspiring.

While I was in Trinidad, I realized how truly difficult it would be to reach LA that day. I started to worry about arriving at 2AM, and decided that maybe it would be wise, just in case, to call my cousins Erin and Drew. I'm glad I did. I had only, until this point, mapped out the town I was in that morning to San Francisco. I checked the full route much earlier that morning which timed me at around 14 hours total(that would put me there around 10PM or midnight with some stops), but I had only been monitoring the road to San Francisco on my phone. What I failed to realize was that San Francisco to Los Angeles is another seven hours or so. Oops.

So, I became that awful family member that just shows up one day and requests to stay the night. I can tell you that: 1.) They were very gracious about it... and 2.) I felt awful doing it. They said they were happy with the two hours notice and seemed relatively glad to see me. I just have to say... THANKS again guys!!!

So, happy to have a place to stop for the night, I continued through San Francisco(crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, see below) to the love town of Sunnyvale. Sound familiar? I keep wanting to write Sunnydale. Apparently this is the community where Buffy was based. Good stuff.



I arrived in perfect time (they had just finished dinner with their adorable three year old son) to be out of their hair, and to hang out a bit and talk. It was so nice to catch up. I haven't seen them since my sister's wedding three years ago. Drew convinced me to look at jobs out here. Not a bad idea. I'm adding it as a boost to the rapidly shrinking list of things I can do after Peace Corps.

Next post- Universal Studios... my life-long desire to see Jaws in action. ;-)

Portland-Japanese Gardens, City View, and the Coast

My last real post ended with me arriving in Portland late, and spending the night just outside the city. The next day, I ate my free hotel continental breakfast (I've had such a variety of breakfast quality over the course of this trip!), and left to do some site seeing. An old college friend of mine lives in Portland (but was headed out-of-town for the week) and recommended some good places to see in a short period of time.

His first suggestion was Japanese Gardens, and I wasn't disappointed. It was the perfect day for something like this. Many of the trees started flowering, and everything was lush and green. There was a mix of dark clouds and sun which just had a stunning effect on everything. I brought my umbrella, but it turned out to be completely unnecessary. The pictures will speak for themselves. I was able to get so many lovely photos, I just can't share them all.

























Isn't it lovely here? I have at least 20 more photos of the gardens, but I had to pick and choose a wide variety. I have some videos too...



Part 2:


The most interesting thing about the Japanese gardens for me was the planning involved. Each tree, each path, each smaller garden was planned so precisely and so beautifully. If you ever hit Portland and the weather is nice, it's worth a few hours to stop and see it.

Next I headed down town to have some lunch. My friend suggested I check out the Portland City Grille for a good panoramic view of the city. It's located on the 30th floor of a bank tower (forgot the exact name), and it was indeed a lovely view. We were getting those same dark fluffy clouds mixed with sun. It was a challenge to take photos because the dirty windows were getting a bit of a glare, but I took a few...


The menu was quite nice- a bit on the pricey-side for lunch, but I can see it being a nice place for a business lunch. I didn't mind the splurge for a lovely view. Actually, they even had a business lunch section with 3 courses for $15 and $5 glasses of wine. That's really not bad, and the selection looked good, but I was eying(??? that spelling seems right but looks wrong to me) the crab cakes on the appetizer menu. I wasn't sure they would be enough, so I ordered a spicy tuna roll off the sushi menu.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the spicy tuna roll. It was quite massive. I have a large mouth, but these were too much. I hate having to bite into a sushi roll, but this one was impossible to tackle otherwise. Fortunately, it was well-made and held together despite having to eat it in two bites.

I did get a photo of the crab cakes:

They were excellent! Mostly crab, and completely delicious. Totally worth the $15 for which I could have ordered a complete business lunch. The sauce is a kind of vinaigrette which was also excellent with a bit of a kick. I highly recommend these.


Here's the view I was talking about. I got a few more photos, but you can see me in all of them through the window glare. This one is really subtle and I liked it. Can you spot my face?

After lunch, I headed back to the car and left Portland. I started south on 5 and then cut over on route 20 to route 101 planning to find a hotel a little bit south along the coast.


I reached the Pacific coast in Newport around 5:00pm, and I was ecstatic. It felt like a road trip milestone... from one coast to the other. I watched this video after the fact, and unfortunately a little cell phone camera does nothing to capture how pretty it was. The video does capture my mood driving along... I couldn't have been happier.



I was tempted to camp since there were a few state park campgrounds open with spaces, and plenty of other people for safety, but the state park just wasn't far enough south, and I didn't have enough cash on me. I arrived in the small town of Bandon, Or, and began looking for a hotel. I couldn't find anything under $53 plus tax. I was tempted to just take what I could find, but it was just too much. I sat in the parking lot at one of these hotels and used their wifi to find a cheaper hotel. Nothing really came up within a hundred miles. Even the Motel 6 was $45 plus tax, plus their $2.99 wifi charge and I would have had to drive an extra hour.

The woman at the desk of one of the hotels said that it would be difficult to find cheaper than $53 at this time of year. This surprised me because no one was full- vacancies absolutely everywhere. If someone showed up offering to pay up to $45 at 9:00 at night, and I had empty rooms in my independent motel, I would think it would be smart to take it... especially if a room only cost $53 plus tax to begin with, but the rates were rigid. Unfortunately, so was my budget. I won't always be staying in hotels, but there are many stops where I won't know anyone. If I spend an average of $40 per night at hotels and stay 30 nights (perhaps that's a high number of nights, but that cost is a pretty low average hotel rate), I'm still spending $1200 just on places to sleep. That's a lot for someone on a small budget without a job and a very finite amount of money saved. So it had to be less than $50.

I decided to keep driving. I passed an expensive looking place, but the further I got away from the touristy "historic" town center, the more promising it looked. I ran into a quirky-looking place called the Shooting Star Motel. You can see what I mean by quirky right here on their website: http://www.shootingstarmotel.com/. The man who ran it was a super nice guy who just seemed really happy that I stopped in to stay there. He gave me a great deal straight away (he included the tax in the $45 rate). He gave me the choice of three rooms, and said "this is an older motel, but we keep it clean". The floor and bathroom did look really clean, and I was happy with it. Free Wifi, too.

When I said the guy running the place was super nice, I mean he went overboard (he may have been of middle eastern descent... I thought so, but I can't be sure). He kept offering me food when he discovered I had been driving a long way. He assured me it was safe there knowing I was traveling solo. He even offered to have me over for some dinner and said he had chicken in the oven. When I politely declined even his offer for pound cake, he said, "Well I need to give you something. How about something to drink?". He then offered me about everything in his fridge. I finally agreed on an orange crush, and he gave me directions to a place where I could do takeout and the local grocery store. It reminded me in some ways of Moroccan hospitality, and it was welcome for a weary traveler.

Stay tuned for my trip the next day through the Redwood National Forest, and my stay in Sunnyvale, CA.