Dinner with Jim and Charlotte

Friday, July 11 - For our last dinner on the road, we were fortunate enough to be able to have a home-cooked meal at the home of my uncle and aunt, Jim and Charlotte. They live in Torrance, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. When we drove down their street, Sandy loved how all of the trees line the street.

We had a great dinner with great wine and great conversation with family. The perfect way to finish up two weeks on the road. As an added bonus, we were able to give Jim and Charlotte a grocery bag full of snacks that we didn't get to on the road. We clearly overpacked in the food department, but better safe than sorry...

All in all, this was a fantastic trip. Several people have asked us in the past couple of days what the highlight of the trip was, and both of us honestly have a difficult time answering that question. As I said jokingly to Sandy last night, I guess it was either all great, or it was all horrible... But it really was all great. The only thing we think we would like to have done differently is been able to take a few extra days in a couple of the places in order to enjoy it more. We could have easily spent 2 nights in both Portland and San Franciso, and definitely would have liked to have had a couple of more days along the Oregon Coast. Otherwise, everything was great.

The two weeks flew by. Will we do another road trip? Well, there's still a lot of the country that we haven't seen...

Drinks in Beverly Hills

Friday, July 11 - We checked into our hotel, The Avalon in Beverly Hills, a mid-century modern hotel. It's got a great pool right off the lobby, and we ended up getting a great little suite with a kitchette and patio, which was a nice surprise. It gave us a little room to spread all of our stuff out to get organized for packing up for the flight home.

We met my friends Peter and Laura for a drink in the hotel lobby before heading out to my uncle's for dinner. The drinks were very "California" - very bright and colorful.

Lunch in Malibu

Friday, July 11 - My friend Maria from High School is also in LA, staying with a friend in Malibu. We were headed to Malibu anyway, so that was a perfect coincidence. Her friends live in Brentwood, but have rented a house on the beach in Malibu for the summer. Let me tell you, this was some house. It turns out that the house was used in the new Sex and The City movie (where Samantha had the Valentine's dinner, for those who have seen the movie). Since this house really needs to be seen to get the full effect (and even a camera doesn't really capture it), take a look at this video:

We then went to get lunch in Malibu at a popular Mexican place called Howdie's. We were hoping for a possible celebrity sighting in the playground right next to the restaurant, but to no avail. Still, this was a perfect first stop in LA. Sun, surf, friends, a good burrito and an amazing house.

The Final Full Day

Friday, July 11 - We can’t believe it. This is the last full day of the road trip. We hop on planes tomorrow to fly home from LA to NY and Cincinnati. We’re on the road now driving down US-101 for a stop in Malibu before arriving in Los Angeles, our final destination.

One funny observation: As we were driving through downtown San Luis Obispo, we noticed a big crowd wrapped around a corner. Upon a second look, I noticed it was the Apple Store. Everyone’s in line for a new iPhone, on sale today. Ours are waiting for us back in NY and Cinci. But maybe not until the next credit card cycle.

San Simeon

Thursday, July 10 - Unfortunately, the weather got cool and really foggy so we couldn’t see any of the views from Hearst Castle or our hotel, The Orchid Inn. Too bad, because it looks like the view should be spectacular. We can’t complain about the weather though, since it has been so great all along the way.

Hearst Castle

Thursday, July 10 - We arrived in San Simeon right on time for our 4pm tour at Hearst Castle. It took about 4 hours down the 101 freeway from San Francisco - such a great change of pace compared to the coastal switchback driving of the previous 2 days!

Sandy was all juiced up to see the home of William Randolph Hearst. One of his many vacation homes, actually. It was about a 5-mile drive by bus up the mountain from the Visitor Center to the Castle. We took Tour 1, which is essentially “Hearst Castle for Beginners.” Our tour guide Shawn was a nice guy, but liked to hear himself talk WAY too much. He definitely wanted to impress that he was THE authority on Mr. Hearst. Unfortunately, that was to the detriment of the tour, which lacked some of the detailed stats and information on the house, which we had hoped to hear.

Despite that, however, the Castle is amazing. You could definitely come back several times and take the different tours and see tons more. The scale of the place is amazing, and when you enter the main house - the “Casa Grande” - you really feel like you are in a European castle.
The crowd taking the tour with us was also an interesting - and diverse - crew. We had guys right of their Harleys, pierced and tattooed kids, and several international visitors. The guide (who had a security guard with him also), told us specifically not to touch anything and stay on the tour mats and not walk on the bare floors, but of course he had to ask one of the dudes to please not lean on the huge, priceless marble urn.

All in all, we loved seeing the place, and stayed to watch the 40-minute film afterwards called “Hearst Castle: Building the Dream.” Sandy suggested I take the photos from my apartment renovation last year and make it into a film called “Apt #12C: Building the Dream.”

The last thing we saw on the tour was his indoor pool, which was complete with byzentine design and tiles with gold leaf. The guide said that most of Hearst's guests couldn't swim, so this ended up being the employee's pool, or as one of his guests once said, "The nicest place to drown."

Almost forgot to mention: We saw that they were setting up for some big dinner event on one of the patios of the castle. The guide told us it was $1250/plate. When we turned on the TV back in our hotel room, they were covering the event on the 11pm news. It was the 24th Annual Central Coast Wine Classic. Maybe next year.

Fires in California

Thursday, July 10 - As we drove down US-101 from San Francisco to get to San Simeon, we could definitely see the direct smoke from the fires around Big Sur rising from behind the mountains to the west. The sky was so dark that it looked like a thundercloud reached all the way down to the ground. However, the haze from the smoke gave the sky an orangey cast - very spooky. When we stopped and got out of the car, we could actually see little white flakes drifting down from the sky and landing on the car. Ash from the fires, we assume.

Good Morning San Francisco

Thursday, July 10 - At the recommendation of Michelle at 8th St. Wine Co. in Boise, we tried booking a room in San Francisco on Hotwire.com. Fortunately, we got a really good hotel at a great price: Hotel Triton near Union Square.

Because we wanted to take a cable car ride but only had a couple of hours before we needed to hit the road in order to get to Hearst Castle in time for our tour, we decided to take the cable car down to the Ferry Building to grab some breakfast there. Here's a video from when we were on board:

We had a great breakfast outside. It was a perfect morning. The waitress said, "Enjoy the San Francisco sun -- it's kinda weird to have it out. As we were driving out of town, we made a quick trip to the top of Nob Hill just to see the views down the street. Fifteen hours in the city really isn't enough...

Hello San Francisco

Wednesday, July 9 - As we've been driving through all of these beautiful places across the country, we've been talking to our families every day along the way. Unfortunately, many of the times we've been on the phone, we get cut off because of a bad signal.

"We're going into a valley, I might lose you... Mom, are you there?"

Or, they will try to call us, and will get voicemail.

"Sorry I missed your call Mom and Dad, we were along the coast/in the Badlands/in Yellowstone and couldn't get a signal."

Finally at one point, Sandy's mom said, "You kids are city kids - hurry up and get to the city!"

Well, we were pretty darn excited when the Golden Gate bridge came into view.

We ended up eating dinner at an Italian restaurant called Tiramisu which is down an alley off of Kearny St. with several other restaurants.

Lunch in Mendocino, but the road keeps curving

Wednesday, July 9 - We thought that we would have some easier roads to drive once we hit the coast, but we were wrong. However, we kept motoring through, because we heard that one of the towns coming up, Mendocino, was a great resort community , so we decided to have lunch there. We decompressed a bit, took some Advil, and breathed in the fresh ocean air to rejuvenate for the last few hours of driving.

But the road just kept on curving after that. Take a look at this picture. You can see see the road winding up and down the mountains and around the gulches. That line on the hillside across the valley is also the same road. The scenery was awesome, but after 4+ hours of averaging 35 mph we needed some straight roads. So, we hopped on a road to take us across Sonoma County to get on the freeway into San Francisco.

Switchback Mountain

Wednesday, July 9 - After going through Redwood National Park on US-101 (which we had been on ALL down the Oregon coast), we were excited to hit the Pacific Coast Highway: California Highway 1. That meant that we were on the final stretch of the trip. Little did we know what we had coming in front of us... You have to go up and over the mountain before you get to the coast. It was definitely the toughest driving we had on the entire trip. The switchbacks as you go up and down the mountain are unbelievable. Many of the curves are marked as 15 mph, and they were not kidding. You REALLY have to go 15 mph. Not only are the roads narrow and winding, but huge trucks are on them too! This driving was not just exhausting, but it also made us a little bit green around the gills...

"Oh my god, another curve?" "I gotta open the window; I don't feel very good..."

"The air is smokey, I gotta close the window. It's giving me a headache."

"A 6% grade downhill? Gotta put the car in low gear."

"Oh my god, there's no guardrail. Don't look down."

We were so happy when we finally saw the ocean. We immediately got out of the car to get some fresh air.

Drive-thru tree

Wednesday, July 9 - Yes, of course we did it. :)

Tripod in the trees

Wednesday, July 9 - Since it was so quiet in the forest, we decided to put the tripod on top of the car and take a picture of the two of us in front of a Redwood tree. Plus, Sandy's been carrying it in her purse the entire time, and we hadn't used it yet. Good thing our new rental car has a sunroof.

Redwood forest

Wednesday, July 9 - Because we had a long day of driving ahead of us, we got up early to head out for our tour through the Redwoods. Our first stop was the visitors center where the huge Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues are. Look how tiny Sandy looks!

The Redwoods are really beautiful. We were there early in the morning, and felt like we almost had the forest to ourselves. The picture of Sandy in front of the tree with the fence is the "Biggest Tree."

Not-quite-luxury accommodations

Tuesday, July 8 - We called ahead to Crescent City, CA to get a hotel room to make sure that we had a place to stay. We made a reservation at the Anchor Beach Inn. Their web site made the hotel look OK, but you know where this is going… Actually, the room wasn’t too bad, but the view of the campers outside of our window was something that words could not describe… Also, in the picture of the sign, check out how eerie the smoke from the fires makes the sky look when the sun is setting.

Gas Report - Price Update

We decided to fill up right before entering California for two reasons: 1. All stations are full service in Oregon, so it’s nice to have someone fill it up for you; 2. Prices were likely to be much higher in CA. And boy, were right. We paid $4.33/gallon (minus 3 cents/gallon discount with Sandy’s Kroger card at a Fred Meyer station), and after we went over the CA border, the first station we saw had regular priced at $4.71!

Arriving in California

Tuesday, July 8 - As we got closer to California, you could definitely see more smoke from the forest fires, as you can really see in the photo of the Welcome to California sign. We were hoping for a little more dramatic sign as we entered our final state. This was a bit worn, too. We were very happy to arrive, though. We also appreciated the Thank You sign from Oregon.

Dinner with the locals

Tuesday, July 8 - We stopped in Gold Beach, OR to grab a quick bite before finishing up the final stretch to California before it got dark. If you like fried food, you’d be in hog heaven at the Porthole Cafe. Otherwise, not much noteworthy here, except that the restaurant had one of the Tsunami Hazard Zone signs that we also keep seeing along US-101. It's a bit of a scary sign.

Also, we've come across several art deco WPA-built bridges in Oregon. This one is in Gold Beach.

MORE Coastal Views

Tuesday, July 8 - OK, so the coast is beautiful and all, but it is taking us FOREVER to get down highway 101 along the coast. There are stoplights in every little town. You know we’re going a little crazy in the car when I take a picture of myself to show-off my new sunglasses… For you web kids out there, I think this may qualify as my first Web 2.0 self portrait.

We also heard a pretty funny ad on the radio, which could have easily been one of those fake ads that they do on Saturday Night Live. It went something like this: “ Is your dog so hyper that you can’t control him in public? Have you tried dog obedience school and doggy day care to no avail? Do you just wish you could take your dog on a walk without him pulling on the leash all the way? Then you need to try POISE, the new calming dog biscuits. POISE biscuits are non-addictive. POISE. Because a happy dog means a happy family.”

We couldn’t make this up. Honest.

Lunch with the Locals

Tuesday, July 8 - We stopped in a town called Yachats (pronounced YA-hots) for lunch. One of our guidebooks suggested LeRoy’s Blue Whale Restaurant, so that’s where we went. We knew we were in for some local color when we walked in and we saw a grandmother-type paying at the cash register with the following ironed-on to the back of her pink t-shirt: “Poor Spellers U-Night.” Loene was our server, and she brought me the "BLTTSS-um Good Ragmop" sandwich (pronounced “Blitz” = BLT + turkey, swiss and sourdough) and brought Sandy the Carnival Burger.

Coastal views

Tuesday, July 8 - The views along the Oregon Coast are amazing. It was a perfect morning, except that it was a bit hazy, probably due to the fires in California. There are some very cool rock formations, like the Devil’s Punchbowl, and beautiful views from some of the heights, like at Cape Perpetua. Here’s a video from there:

RV 4 Rent

This photo is from a few days back but just remembered that we wanted to throw it in as a point of interest. We have been seeing these lovely “CruiseAmerica.com” RV’s all over the country! Each vehicle comes with a different mural. Must be a new trend that we somehow missed. We’re kicking ourselves for not getting one of these awesome rides… ;) Sandy's suitcase would definitely fit in this vehicle.

Dinner on the ocean

Monday, July 7 - We finally reached the Pacific Ocean! Very exciting to make it here -- a milestone. Since we didn’t leave Portland till after 4pm, we wanted to make sure to get dinner in before it was too late. We took a scenic drive to Cape Meara outside of Tillamook. We stopped in this little town called Oceanside, and put in our names at Rosanna’s Café. We started to talking to a couple who came out of the restaurant, and they asked where we were from. When Sandy said she was from Cincinnati, the guy said, “No one is from Cincinnati.” Then he smiled -- “I’m from Hamilton.” We got talking about schools, and he said that he went to Miami of Ohio. I said, “I went there, too!” Such a small world.

We did notice there was some kind of rivalry going on in this little town because there were several signs in the front windows of the houses that said “Boycott the Anchor Inn” and “You Won’t Find Me the Anchor." Boy, there’s definitely a story there. By the way - the Anchor is closed. Hmmm. We sat in the window at Rosanna’s. I got grilled Halibut, and we watched the sun set from there. Then it was back in the car to find a place to stay. We ended up in Lincoln City. Not nearly as far as we wanted to get , but we wanted to spend a little more time in Portland. We figured we could make up time in a couple of days, since we weren’t going to be able to drive down the California coast after Monterey due to the fires around Big Sur.