California Re-Do, part 1

I'm trying to remember how this trip even started. Essentially, the pretense was for us to go out there and scope out possible places to live, as our entire family really would love to move out there (unfortunately, it doesn't look like it will happen now - housing out there is just too expensive). I know Mark and I were watching some shows about San Francisco on TV, and reminiscing about everything we didn't get to do in September. I also really, really wanted to go back to Disneyland, as the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain were both closed the first time, and we never made it to California Adventure. I also was really upset that I didn't have my DSLR before going the first time - it had been in the plan the whole time, then I decided to save the money and use a camera we had - worst idea ever!! That is definitely my biggest vacation regret of my life so far, as the piece of shit camera I took didn't actually capture a lot of the pictures of Andra's wedding. So, there were several reasons for us to go back. Originally, I was looking at summer and fall dates, since our flights in September were so freaking cheap. But nothing was really jumping out at me. Then I started looking at May. There were some decent flight deals, so we decided to just go for it!

I did a ton more research and planned out our trip essentially from start to finish, as that's what I do. The agenda consisted of flying into San Francisco, hanging out there for a few days, driving down the coast to see Big Sur, and then staying in the LA area for a few days before heading back home.

Pictures and story after the jump!


Very early on May 12th, 2010, my parents picked us up to take us to the airport. I was so excited - I just couldn't believe that we were really going back so soon! We flew from Tampa to Miami (efficient, right??) and then from Miami to SFO.

We flew over the Gulf, and I could see the oil spill even from 36,000 feet. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent picture due to the angle.

I think flying across the country is very cool. I love watching how the scenery changes relatively rapidly. We flew over this neat formation/thing that apparently is Bluff, Utah.

Then, I was surprised to see so much snow when we flew over Yosemite! In my mind, May is essentially summer, but I guess that doesn't matter too much on top of mountains!

Yosemite! You can see the waterfalls!

We landed around noon, CA time. We actually hired a car service to take us to our hotel, as it wasn't much more expensive than a cab, and we were afraid a shared van service would take too long. I was contemplating using the BART train, but decided it was too difficult with all of our luggage. So, we had a nice, relaxing ride into the city in our plush town car.

The hotel that William Shatner picked for us was the Westin St. Francis, an awesome hotel with a ton of history. It actually was built in the early 1900's, and survived the earthquake in 1906, but was damaged by the resulting fires. However, it's been restored/expanded since then.

Tiny bathroom!

Our "view"

We took a mandatory nap, then ventured outside. As touristy as it is, we wanted to go back to Pier 39, as that is how we started our last trip. After a little bit of confusion as to what direction the wharf was in, we got on the F-line street car towards the Embarcadero (I love this word - I wish we used it here!).

We had dinner at the same restaurant we ate at in September, Fog Harbor Fish House. This is the place where we had randomly run into Mark's aunt and uncle who were also on vacation. It had good views, and great sourdough, so we went back! After dinner, we walked around the pier and looked at the sea lions again.

There weren't nearly as many hanging out as there were in September!

After that, we stopped by some stores, I got a freaking $8 smoothie and eventually made our way back to the streetcar stop and headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep!!