Bradley and I took advantage of a freelance business trip of his to San Francisco to spend a week with my sister and her husband.  This was our third visit out there (it makes trips so much more doable when you have a place to stay:)  and we tried to find new things to try instead of revisiting past adventures.  In the city, we went to the California Academy of Sciences and the Conservatory of Flowers (free admission with our garden membership!).  The first was interesting, but the insane number of children left us exhausted and frustrated.  The conservatory was really nice – I only wish we would have been there at the right time for one of the guided tours.

We also wandered around the Mission district a bit and ate at Tacolicious, the Bi-Rite Creamery and Delfina Pizzeria.  There were quite a few cute local shops to browse in this district and it is not touristy at all.

My sister had some friends over for game night while we were there and baked up some pizzas we had gotten the ingredients for at Zachary’s Chicago Pizza (third trip, third time eating Zachary’s – what can we say, it’s that good!)  One night we ventured over to Berkeley for some southern/Louisiana cuisine at Angeline’s Kitchen.  We were a little wary of trying southern food in San Francisco, but we were very pleasantly surprised.  I would highly recommend it to anyone planning a trip to the area.  Another new experience for us was an Off the Grid meetup of food trucks!

Angeline’s Kitchen

Food Trucks at Off the Grid

 Salted Caramel at Bi-Rite Creamery

We decided to revisit Sonoma since it has been over three years since our first time there.  After checking some Yelp reviews, we ended up at a small winery’s tasting shop in downtown Sonoma instead of taking a tour.  Westwood offers tastings of five wines that are slightly older than what we usually receive on tours.  One of the appealing things about their tasting was that it offered a 2005 Pinot Noir.  For a few years, we have been wanting to buy some wine from the year we were married to save and enjoy on milestone anniversaries.  We knew it would be more fun to have a little back-story of how we got the wine than just pulling it off the shelf at the grocery store.

For two days, we went south to visit Monterey and Big Sur.  Our first stop was Point Lobos Natural Preserve.  This was a really nice park – we saw Sea Lions, Harbor Seals and Sea Otters, all playing in the water and resting on the rocks out in the ocean.  We took a free guided tour that pointed out a lot of vegetation in the park – native and non-native.  We also drove the 17 mile scenic drive at Pebble Beach.

The Monterey aquarium was wonderful – we enjoyed watching the feedings for the penguins, the open seas tank, and the sea otters (adorable!).  Big Sur was our biggest disappointment.  The park has very few signs posted to direct you to trails and attractions.  Several of the bridges were out and ultimately we were unable to find the Gorge nor the Waterfall that we were looking for.

Point Lobos

 17 mile drive

 Big Sur

 Secret Lives of Seahorses at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

A final stop on our trip was the Company Store at Cupertino.  It is the only place to find Apple logo merchandise.  In addition to shirts and other novelties for Bradley, we picked up a little souvenir for our niece!

Find info from our previous San Francisco adventures here:
Visit 1
Visit 2

Bradley and I decided to take a trip for our anniversary this year.  I was a little over long distance vacations after Yosemite and Cancun, so I asked if we could choose a local destination that we could drive to easily.  Savannah was one of the places we had talked about going for a while now, since neither of us have been since we were very young.  We are also excited to take a trip to Charleston at some point in the future.

Savannah is a slow town with most stores and attractions closing by 5PM.  We visited the Davenport House, Wormsloe Plantation, climbed the Tybee Island Lighthouse, walked River Street and generally wondered around the historic downtown district.

The lighthouse has 178 steps and tours are self-guided.  My thighs felt those steps for days!  The Wormsloe Plantation has a 1.1 mile drive back to the site that is lined the entire way with live oak trees covered in Spanish moss.

The Spanish moss is so iconic of Savannah.  Pictures simply cannot capture the magnificent beauty you get in person.

There were 24 original squares in Savannah, and we saw most of them on our trolley tour the first day.  This is the large fountain at Forsyth Square, the largest square.

All of the squares had large old live oaks draped in Spanish moss.

A big part of our trip was all about the food.  Savannah has some of the best southern cuisine around.  We used Yelp to help us find the best and brightest places to try.  Besides our very favorite meal of the trip (mentioned yesterday), we visited Vic’s on the River, the Olde Pink House, and Alligator Soul for dinners.  We did happen upon Paula Deen’s Lady and Sons without much of a wait, so we tried it for ourselves.  The food was very southern and very good.  If you did not grow up on this food, it would blow your mind.  Same goes for Mrs. Wilkes’ Boarding House – the food is served family style at 12 person tables that you share with those in line next to you.  Just like a southern family reunion or church potluck.  We had hummus and a sandwich at Zunzi’s that was very good – it is considered South African cuisine.  I got my seafood fix at The Pirate House.  We also tried the pizza at the highly recommended Vinnie-Van-Go-Go’s.  I was a little underwhelmed due to the fact that the pizza place next to our house, Big Pie in the Sky, is so amazing that nothing can hold a candle to it.

We have been back from our California visit for a couple of weeks and I should post some pictures from the trip.  We,  along with six other family members including my parents, visited my sister and her husband.  We also met up with my cousin and her family on the second half of our trip at Yosemite!

During our San Francisco visit, we spent a little time at Pier 39 (still not a lot of sea lions this time either).  One day was spent strolling around the San Francisco botanical gardens – lots of interesting plants I have never seen and a fun hummingbird encounter!  We also spent a day in Napa since we toured Sonoma on our last visit.  We were able to get into the tour at the Hendry Vineyard, which is a 2.5 hour tour and tasting.  It was very interesting and more involved than any of the other wineries we have been to.

Pier 39

Botanical Gardens

Napa

Cakebread Winery

Hendry Ranch Wines

There were fourteen of us at Yosemite.  I really enjoyed having other people to explore with, but we could also do our own thing if we wanted.  We stayed in Curry Village, which has permanent tents on wooden floors with beds and screen doors.  That is my limit when it comes to ‘camping’.  The waterfalls were SO beautiful.  Evidently, there is record snowmelt this year, so what was a trickle the last time my parents visited is now this:

Lower Yosemite Falls

Half Dome

Yosemite Falls

Curry Village

On the way to Tuolumne Meadow

I have never shared the system I use for storing medication when I travel.  You never know what your body is going to do when you are out of routine and normal diet, so I like to keep a good little array of pills with me on vacation.  But I don’t want to carry a big bottle of each kind.  I have had this little compartmentalized flip-open box for years, so long that I don’t remember where it came from (probably Wal Mart).

It is a great size for light packing.  I wrote the name of each medication and the recommended dosage on the lid of each compartment.  This way I never worry if I am using the right amount.

I thought this might be helpful to anyone that has ever been caught on vacation with an upset stomach or stuffy nose and no medication.  I leave this filled at all times, so I can just toss it in my bag and I am ready to go!