traveling in CA

The day after the wedding was sunny on the Monterey peninsula. We lucked out for breakfast, there was a fabulous cafe and bakery right across from the hotel. I would certainly make a point of going back to the wild plum the next time I was in the area.

Then we spent a couple of hours wandering over pebble beach in the wind and sunshine. I was amazed how not crowded it was and parking was easy. We then headed north on 1 to San Francisco stopping for a good sandwich at Emily's. Another delightful find. After Santa Cruz there was again very little traffic, clouds increased as we headed north. The views were spectacular and the beaches all fairly empty. There were several near misses with other autos, my heart got quite the workout.

Soon we were in front of our hotel unloading and absolutely delighted. We booked it through Hotwire and it certainly worked out great. Small rooms, clean, friendly, very European in the vibe, great decor, lots of extra touches including a pillow menu. We would definitely go back. While it was still light, we found the parking garage, strolled around a bit and I realized I was getting some blisters from the sand at the beach earlier. We were pretty tired from the past 3 days, so we just went into a random Japanese restaurant up the street. My bowl of Udon was way too big, especially since there was no way of taking it with me.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel which was fine. Our waiter was pretty poor but all the other hotel staff were great. Then we took a fun walk through the city to the Ferry Building and all around that area. There were so many great places to eat lunch it was hard to choose but I had a scrumptious sole sandwich from somewhere.

We hopped on a bus [going uphill] and went over to Chinatown and wondered for a few blocks then back to the hotel for vacation naps. That may have been the only time the room felt a bit small, but for such a short stay it wasn't really an issue.

Next up Berkeley and dinner at Chez Panisse