A Week in California

I love INTA.

I don't know much about it except that the annual convention falls in May (end of school year for us) and my husband needs to attend said convention.

Oh - and he prefers to take me with him.

Last year I got to go along to Boston, and this year we went to San Francisco.  Minus kids.  Enough said.

We don't do a lot of dates through the year other than special occasions.  But I love that we've been able to make up for that by taking a week away together the last two years (much thanks to my parents for having the kids stay with them)!  Unfortunately for me, next year the convention will be in DC, so no travel for us.  I guess we'll have to come up with another idea for a getaway.

Anyway, here are some of the (800+) pictures of our trip. Yes, my husband said I was going a little camera crazy.  But I argue that I rarely get to have a camera in my hands without little hands pulling on me, so I wanted to take full advantage.  And there was so much beauty to capture all around - I couldn't resist.

On Sunday after visiting SF Bible Church, Stephen's brother picked us up at the hotel and we drove north out of the city. We stopped at a vista point that gave us a spectacular view of the city, the bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as the ocean on the other side. 

We continued north to Muir Woods National Monument where we got our first glimpse of the enormous redwood trees.  Although I spent a few years in Arizona, I am definitely an east coast girl.  So this was all new to me. But these trees were enormous. Many of their trunks were 20 feet in diameter!

On the way back to our hotel, we drove down Lombard Street which is perhaps the curviest street in the world. This picture was taken from the top of Coit Tower on another day.

We hadn't been to Buca di Beppo for years, so when we learned that there was one close to our hotel, we had to go. Given that we have a child who is allergic to cow's milk products, a family dinner at a place that serves family-style meals (and all of them containing cheese) would be impossible for us.

We had the best salad EVER. Their Apple Gorgonzola Salad was amazing.  Amazing. I think I ate nearly the whole thing. We've already tried to replicate it here at home, but it's just not the same.

When the convention was over and Stephen's business was done, we had a few more days to enjoy. We took a boat-ride out to Alcatraz island to see the famous prison.

Here's one of the cell blocks.

An outside view - I never realized that it was quite a beautiful place. We were surprised at the many flowers and birds that graced those shores.

Here is Stephen in one of the isolation cells on Cell Block D.

The island isn't too far off the city's shores.

Remote and isolated, but so close to civilization

We saw a number of ships passing through the Golden Gate into or out of the bay.  And they were BIG.  But this one was the biggest of all.  It was simply immense. (And made by Honda. Honda? I didn't know they were in the ship-building business.)

When we returned to the city, we made the obligatory ride on one of the well-known cable cars.  It was not a quick ride. We waited in line for quite a while, and then when we did get on and get going, our cable car got stuck on the top of Russian Hill! 

It had to make a turn at the top of the hill, and it lost momentum to get us up over the "hump."  So we had to sit and wait for a big truck to come and give us a push. Sounded like this sort of thing happens all the time, but for us, it was a little crazy.

 Since the business-stuff was over, we checked out and got a rental car and drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Monterey.

Stephen said that driving this little convertible was kind of like driving a large go-cart.  And the trunk was too tiny to fit our suitcases, but we did manage to squeeze them into the backseat.

We stayed at a place right on the beach on Monterey Bay.

 We checked in there and then continued driving down the PCH to Big Sur. We hadn't planned on driving any further south, but the beauty of the coast was just incredible.  And I really wanted to see the Bixby Creek Bridge.

 Here's the Bixby Creek Bridge which is between Monterey and Big Sur.

 We had another fantastic dinner that evening at the Chart House in Monterey.  The last time I had crab cakes that good was at the Chart House in Scottsdale, Arizona!  And they were just as good as I remembered. (I know - I need to try some of the Maryland crabcakes, but we don't make it to the east side of DC too often).

We watched harbor seals playing in the water throughout dinner and wished that the kids had been there to see them too.  I stopped wishing the kids were there when dessert arrived, though, because I might have had to share my delicious Key Lime Pie with them. YUM!

The next morning, we wandered around the beach a little bit before packing it in and heading for the airport.  We seem to have a track record of finding interesting dead things on the beach, and this trip was no different.

This was some kind of dead whale being eaten by seagulls.

 And that was the end of our getaway.

So fun!

So good for our marriage!

I highly recommend a vacation just for two (especially if the firm foots most of the bill)! ;-)