Vacation's Over :-(

Why did it go by so quickly? So, yes, I'm back, and I'll try to remember all we did while in sunny California.
Day 1 (Thursday): Michael, Dwight and I arrived in San Fran around lunchtime, checked into the Westin St. Francis in Union Square, and ventured out to have lunch. This is the day Dwight and I dubbed 'the day Michael tried to drink San Francisco.' We ate at the Daily Grill, went to O'Reilly's for a beer, went to North Beach for wine at an adorable Italian restaurant and then after changing clothes, we headed to the Castro district for some (gay) bar hopping. Mikey and I left Dwight in the Castro district b/c we headed back to the hotel around midnight because the poor thing could not handle any more booze. He also woke me up in the middle of the night to order him ginger ale so he'd stop feeling like his head was going to explode! :-)
Day 2: Getting our bearings as to how to navigate around San Francisco proved to be a little daunting, especially since we were without transportation our first few days (we didn't pick up our rental car until Sunday). We were looking for a brunch place, and ended up having lunch at a place called Perry's - the food was so yummy. Of course, no bloody mary's today with lunch, as we did the day before, due to Mikey's sensitivity to alcohol. :-) We then caught a street car to Lombard Street, the crookedest street, and ended up at the wharf, where we walked, took photos, had coffee, and enjoyed the heck out of watching a man self-titled 'the bushman' hide behind some branches while crouched down on the street, and then he'd jump out at innocent passers-by. I have to say that was one of the funniest things I've seen - I could probably say the same for the people lined up on the opposite sidewalk watching! We ate at a little bayside Italian restaurant, where we had hot tea just to warm up from the boat ride we took around Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, then went back to the hotel to rest up before meeting Mikey's friend and his friends in the Castro District. We had Thai food (Dwight's first time) and then did some barhopping again - lots of fun!
Day 3: We had breakfast at Lori's Diner, which was super-yummy - pancakes, omelettes and hash browns galore! Then we walked around Union Square, went to Haight and Ashbury, which is similar to Pittsburgh's Southside, and I visited Amoeba Music, which is a record store I stumbled upon while in LA a year and a half ago. Then, we walked around the neighborhoods, looking at the houses and finding fun neighborhoods, such as Pacific Heights. Walking in San Francisco is great exercise, because of the hills, and we saw so many beautiful places. And the views! I don't think there is a bad one in the city. We had dinner somewhat close to our hotel, then decided to walk over to the Sir Francis DrakeHotel to have a drink in the Starlight Room, but we weren't willing to pay a cover charge! We ended up at Lefty O'Doul's for drinks, and met an interesting fellow, Jamie, who kept us all company until the bar closed.
Day 4: Mikey and I picked up our rental car, picked up Dwight and headed to Napa Valley. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge was breathtaking, and having brunch in the adorable town of Sausalito, by the water, was perfect. We first went to Mondavi for a wine-tasting of two wines along with a souvenir glass. Then we headed up to Sterling for a ride on the tram, a self-guided tour and five tastings. Our favorite stop was on our way back to Napa along the Silverado Trail when we stopped at Dutch Henry for NUMEROUS tastings, one out of the barrel, in fact, and an entertaining host in the aging room! We stopped at Downtown Joe's in Napa for dinner - I believe they had the best bloody mary's on our trip. Driving back across the bay at night was spectacular - the views are amazing. If I win the lottery I want to buy a vineyard and live in Napa Valley, having a little vacation cottage in Sausalito!
Day 5: Today we drove around the city, taking parts of the 49-mile tour that we had missed on foot or by taxi. We went to Twin Peaks for spectacular views of the city and bay and took lots of photos, we went to Golden Gate Park for tea in the Japanese Tea Garden, we drove alongside the Pacific Ocean and we revisited a few neighborhoods that we had seen in previous days. Of course, we started with breakfast at Lori's Diner again, and spent most of the morning in a coffee shop so Dwight and Mikey could access their email. :-) Our late afternoon was spent at the Bay Area office (so Mikey could put out feelers in case he does end up being able to move west) and we had dinner at the MarketBar in the Ferry Building in the Embarcadero District near the bay. The food was divine, it had a wonderful atmosphere and the service was impeccable! We went back to our hotel, did a little bar-hopping for our last night in the city, and ended up at The Cellar to spend part of our evening with the Karaoke Shark. Now, when Mikey is drinking, he's famous for singing Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" if there is a microphone available. Ironically, someone beat him to his favorite song that night! So, we were all spared Mikey's performance . . .once we got back to our room, we opened one of our bottles of wine and enjoyed it until we all drifted off to sleep.
Day 6: Sadly, Dwight had to fly home this day. We had room service, packed up, checked out, and drove him to the airport. Mikey and I then went to San Jose to have lunch with his friend, Khanh, and I had Vietnamese food for the first time and it was delicious. We got a tour of the beautiful City Hall and had a chance to attend a city council meeting. Once we got on the road we made our way to Route 1, the Pacific Coast Highway and headed to Monterey. Along the way we stopped outside of Santa Cruz for a walk through the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and I have to say that redwood trees are some of the most majestic works of nature I've seen in awhile. We checked into our hotel, changed, and walked over to Cannery Row for some window shopping and then dinner on the water at Fish Hopper. Our hotel was adorable - Best Western's Victorian Inn with a big room and a fireplace. And the shower was hot (one complaint we all had about the Westin in SF was the water wasn't hot enough).
Day 7: We did the 17-mile drive through Pebble Beach, stopped in Carmel-by-the-Sea for brunch (no sightings of Clint Eastwood, though) and then continued our breathtaking drive down the coast. We stopped in Big Sur, gasped at every turn and bend in the road, and were hoping to spot some whales. We didn't see any, but we did see plenty of sea otters and stopped in San Simeon for elephant seal watching. We also passed the TreeBones Resort - this looks like such a cool place to stay! We saw the Hearst Castle from the PCH, and completely fell in love with the entire area. Once on the 101, we made our way to Ventura County, north of LA, where we had dinner with Shelly and then headed down to Orange County to check into the Marriott in Newport Beach.
Day 8: While Michael was at his conference, I did laundry, sat by the pool, read a book and ventured out to Balboa Island. I also had a car accident on Balboa Island when a guy opened his car door into the Kia Sportage we had rented as I was driving down the street. Not a good part of the trip - I was pretty freaked out considering I totaled my car less than a year ago, but I recovered well and let the insurance company take care of it. We went to dinner at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine in Fashion Island that night with a friend of Mikey's from another chapter. I'll have to say that the food we had on our trip was SO good - since I only eat seafood and no other meats, I was pretty happy with all my selections, from dungess crabs to scallops. :-)
Day 9: This was the only day I really slept in, and I also decided not to drive because of the incident from the day before, so I walked over to Fashion Island and shopped. I was going to catch a movie, but there was nothing showing I wanted to see. It was just nice to walk around in a t-shirt and jeans while my friends in Pittsburgh were complaining about the snowy weather! (Though I'm now suffering my penance for enjoying it so much because it's FREEZING here in the 'Burgh). A bunch of us had dinner at PF Chang's that night, and Shelly drove down to stay with us, meeting us by the pool for some wine (we were trying to finish 2 of the 3 bottles we had left so I only had to bring one home and someone else had one from Santa Barbara). We actually stayed up late, talking and drinking wine, and it was fun meeting new people from all across the country who had fun stories to tell. Plus, watching Mikey impersonate a lot of them was a riot.
Day 10: Shelly and I, with some other folks, went to Corona del Mar for breakfast and then we walked out on Main Beach and strolled through the elegant neighborhoods. Afterwards, Shelly and I went to Balboa Island, having a Balboa Bar at Sugar 'n' Spice, then we took the ferry over to the peninsula so we could take a boat tour of the area. We enjoyed the tour, especially since we saw all the sea lions! (By the way, I will share photos at a later date.) We had dinner on the Island at a local Mexican bar, then went back to the hotel to hang out a little more with friends. Then Shelly and I went bar-hopping, from Corona del Mar to Balboa Peninsula. We had a lot of fun, I'll have to say!
Day 11, which was our last day, was spent saying our goodbyes, hailing a cab to the airport, and then boarding flights to take us back to our cold hometown. My flight had a lay-over in Atlanta, so I had a late lunch and talked to my best friend from college, Julie, while she drove back to Atlanta from Tennessee. And though I was happy to get home, I was NOT happy to be faced with such cold weather!