California Dreamin…..

Greetings from the golden state! We arrived in California the day before the family joined us. The drive from Las Vegas to San Diego was a bit surreal. It was bumper to bumper for the entire journey. I have never seen traffic quite like that. Amazing and surely a hint of whats to come. All that said, Randy and I really liked California and were surprised at how beautiful it was and how different all the various regions were. A lot like the way we have to explain that we live in the mountains – closer to Canada than Manhattan.

We spent our first night in California in San Diego. The kids were arriving the next morning and we wanted to be sure we would be at the airport in time. We stayed in the gaslamp district – which is a pretty and quaint area, filled with little shops and restaurants. Randy had been mentioning that he wanted his hair cut short. I suggested that we had the time, so lets find a barber. Well, we found one on the next block…..Kutthroat Barbers. We kind of stepped in to the shop before looking at it…..it was filled with young men, getting haircuts that are a bit different than Randys usual cuts. Gangsta style is what was advertised! A super nice young man assured us that he would make him look good! Feeling totally out of place and not wanting to make anyone else feel weird, I decided to walk around and see the sights. When I returned, Randy was still in the seat so I just leaned up against the front of the building and looked at my phone. Next thing I know, a young man had just opened the passenger door of the purple car parked in front of me, and a duffle bag tipped over and about 10 bricks of $100 dollar bills spilled out on the sidewalk. The kid was saying I’m so sorry man…. Well, I have zero experience with this situation. I decided it was time for me to move on and totally abandoned waiting for Randy and walked toward our hotel. Randy arrived five minutes later looking awesome with his new do! I’m not sure if I want to try and get my hair cut anytime soon….I may just wait to have Eve fix me up upon arriving home!

Wanted to update you on our quest to avoid chain restaurants and hotels. The restaurants have been very easy. We’ve only had to eat in a chain once and that was at the Indian reservation and we had a choice between a McDonalds, KFC and Dennys. UGH! I need to amend this statement. We arrived in Eureka, Ca a little after 8:00pm and most things were closing down, so per the advice of Henry Noble, we stopped at an In and Out Burger joint and thought of you while we downed our burger and fries. It was a good burger. We liked all the toppings. Their fries were so-so but that might have been the kids frying them. We have had two incredible lodging experiences in southern California. Pendry – theres a total of 8 of them worldwide and we were able to stay in 2. They’re really nice and I would recommend them to everyone. The one in Newport Beach was beautiful and we could stay using points. A funny thing occurred while we were there. Every member of the staff that we encountered, engaged with us. A lot! When we had dinner, the hostess, bus person and the waiter kept coming over to us and chatting with us. Over and over again. They weren’t doing that with any other table. All I can think of is that perhaps they were not accustomed to having clientele that would engage with them. The bus boy was from Brazil and his mom owned a small Brazilian restaurant. The waiter was former military and a member of the fire brigade that fights the California wildfires. Talking with them was totally natural for us, but I’m guessing not so normal for them.

We have been trying our best to drive north on Highway 1 in California. It’s pretty sad to drive along Malibu and see all the damage caused by the wildfires. Miles and miles of chain link fence line the highway. I hope that they can restore their losses and that they escape this dry season without harm. We were both surprised how much industry along route 1, lots of farming too. We took a detour to a place called Solvang. It’s a town that was founded in 1911 by 3 Danish immigrants who shared a dream of establishing a Danish town. Well, it’s exactly what Solvang is. Its adorable and it’s hard not to believe that you haven’t been transported abroad. There’s 6 danish bakeries in this tiny town and we had a fabulous pastry before leaving town. I don’t remember how or why we found it but so glad we did!

After we left Solvang, we stopped in Paso Robles at the Justin Vineyard. We were introduced to that wine by our good friends Gary and Susan. Their oldest sons name was Justin and I think thats why they first tried that wine. It was a beautiful vineyard with a Michelin Star restaurant – which of course was fully booked! That can be a problem when you don’t plan out your trip more than 20 minutes in advance! LOL! We were able to have a tasting and decided to invest in a bottle that we can open on a special day sometime in the future!

It was the weekend of the Masters that we drove to our next destination – Monterey California. It was pouring! We haven’t had much rain during our trip and after seeing all the forests that were burnt along the coast, we were happy for the Californians that they were getting rain. I noticed that there were a lot of golfers in the lobby of the hotel when we were checking in and the Masters was on the TV. Little did we know, we were at Pebble Beach! So we’ve been to an NBA game when we were in Cleveland….I suppose being at Pebble Beach during the Masters doesn’t count as a PGA event, does it?

We left Monterey and headed to Sonoma to spend a few days tasting wine. Sonoma was where Mexican general Vallejo served as the bridge between the mexican colonial era and the creation of California as a state. We visited three different vineyards and one Sonoma tasting bar. We chatted with some people in the tasting bar and they gave us some great recommendations for vineyards to visit. Imagery vineyard was the first stop. ( A funny side story – a few days before, I read an article about the increase in rattlesnakes bites and 2 deaths in California this spring due to the early warm temps! I hate snakes! Actually, hate is not the correct word…I’m afraid of snakes. They seep into dreams making them nightmares that usually result in a reactionary leg cramp that wakes me and then Randy during the night. Now I am aware when I’m walking around, to be careful near rocks, plants, stumps, basically anywhere outdoors. We arrive at this vineyard and theres a beware of snakes sign on the path. I mention it to the wine steward and she proceeds to tell us how the other day, a big, fat snake came right in thru the open door and she ran right out of the back door to her car! I was happy to find a kindred soul!) We visited VJB vineyard. Two italian american brothers made plans to start a vineyard to make authentic Italian table wine for their mothers restaurant to serve. Sadly, one of the brothers died tragically and the other decided to honor the life of his brother by opening the vineyard in his name. It was like a visit to Tuscany. They had a terrace with gelato, wood fired pizzas, a food shop with olives, oils, pastas, cheeses….. all beautifully prepared and displayed. Last but not least was a stop at Ferrari Carano, beautiful gardens and terrace, lovely chilled Fume Blanc (french name with Italian grapes) and no snakes!

I’m sorry this is such a long blog and I sincerely hope that I am not boring you, but we stayed in a very cool hotel. It was totally old school, non chain lodging but had an interesting history. It was the Eureka Inn. It had a great hall feel to it with portraits of all the famous people who have been guests of the Inn: Shirley Temple, Steven Speilberg, Robert Kennedy, Ladybird and president Johnson, Ty Cobb, Humphrey Bogart, Boris Karloff, Herman Wouk, Jack Benny, Walt Disney, Hoover, Ford and Regan! That’s just a few! You could tell that the Inn had been quite spectacular in its day, but sadly that day has passed.

The next day, we headed into the Redwood National forest. Rebecca has always spoken highly of her trips into the Redwoods. I never quite understood her passion when discussing the area, that is, until now. The national parks that we visited in the south were pretty incredible. The hoodoos, the dunes, arches and canyons are pretty special, but this forest was spiritual for me. I can’t really describe the feeling I had being dwarfed by these living giants. Redwoods typically live between 800-1500 years old but they have discovered some well over 2,000 years! If you look at the really big ones, you’ll notice that they grow in a cluster – they know that together, they are stronger and more likely to survive. Even those that aren’t healthy and have fallen over and been caught by a neighbor, often end up with new growth shooting out. It may not be their growth, it might actually be another species but together, they have created this symbiotic, living forest. Its like how you feel when you’re surrounded by your family or friends. I felt safe here, like all was well in this world. I didn’t even look out for snakes.