California Vacation

Ryan and I just returned from the most wonderful vacation to California.  After dropping the girls off at camp on Sunday, we drove on home.  On Monday, we worked, did laundry, cleaned the house and packed up.  Tuesday morning we headed on to the airport.  We couldn't wait!  We arrived in San Francisco about lunchtime, picked up our rental car and hit the road.  We stopped at Guy Fieri's Johnny Garlic's San Jose restaurant.  They had a menu overhaul since we were last there, but it was still pretty tasty.  After lunch we kept on driving south to Carmel until we arrived at Tickle Pink Inn.  Once we got into our room, we couldn't get over the view from our balcony!  Absolutely breathtaking.

 Every evening, there was a wine and cheese reception as everyone would gather on the back veranda and take in the beautiful views.  At times it almost like being in Italy instead of California.  

We stayed in "Sweet Sixteen," and we would definitely request this room again.

 I was perfectly content to sit in our living room and look out at the ocean.

 The sunsets from the balcony were lovely!

  The flowers everywhere were so beautiful!

 One of our days we spent enjoying the little town of Carmel.  It was a lot busier than we expected, but it was fun to simply stroll around and window shop; there were a few good meals enjoyed here as well. 

We spent another day touring 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach; we saw the famous "Lone Cyprus" and several of the attractive areas on this golf coarse.  We also drove along the Coastal Highway through Big Sur.  Even though we had visited this area before, it was still just as stunning and beautiful as we remembered.  You just want to pull off on the side of the road all along the way to take in the scenery.

 One of the places we did stop and hike around for a little bit was McWhay Falls.  Gorgeous!

 On Friday, we headed back North and decided to drive through Napa.

 We stopped at V. Sattui Winery for lunch.  We've stopped here just about every trip out to California.  They have a great store to buy delicious cheeses, breads and of course, wine.  Then you can eat those goods on their expansive picnic areas.  It was a great stop.

 After lunch we made another stop at The CIA, Culinary Institute of America.  We love this place!  It's a gorgeous building to admire, but really, I love to visit for the chocolates.  They are amazing to me.  It was a lot of fun to walk through and see the chefs in class and see where they make their famous foods.  They also had a cool cake exhibit going, so that was neat to see.

 We had a tough time narrowing down our chocolate choices; we couldn't help but repeat the "Tropical Ganache" one.  Not only are these jaw-dropping beautiful, but they taste incredible.

After our CIA visit, we finished the drive up to Mendocino where we checked into the always fabulous Agate Cove Inn.  We typically stay in the Sunstone room, but we went with Obsidian this time; not really sure we'll be able to stay anywhere else now.  This was the view from our little front porch.  Into the garden, with the picturesque main house on the side, lovely trees for shade and the ocean right behind that.  So charming.

 On our first evening in Mendocino, we were coming back from dinner when the most beautiful sunset ever appeared.  We pulled over into a parking lot to watch.  I've never seen one quite like this before.

 We took a little trip to Philo one morning to visit Husch winery.  They produce one of our very favorite wines, and we love that this is a multi-generational family business.  We stopped in for a tasting which was a lot of fun.  Of course, we ordered a case to be shipped home to remember our time!

 We took a little walk on one of the beaches and loved watching the waves crash onto the rocks.  No getting in the ocean here!

 One of our favorite things about Mendocino is visiting the headlands.  These cliffs are so beautiful.  I could just sit to watch and listen to the ocean all day.  This particular view was from the Botanical Gardens, but there are so many great places to enjoy them.

 I couldn't get enough of the flowers here.  We visited the Botanical Gardens which was a lot of fun.  Their dahlia garden was amazing.

 A selfie on the headlines closer to Agate Cove.  We enjoyed some wine and a sunset from here one evening.

 On Monday, we drove South to Sausalito where we were thrilled to stay at Inn Above Tide again.  The room sits right above the bay water and looked out at San Francisco, Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge.  We simply sat on our balcony and enjoyed that view for quite awhile.  We then walked around town to visit a few cute shops, and then we ate a delicious Italian dinner before we returned to the balcony to take in this fantastic sunset.  Purple, pink, orange and blue mixed together like I'd never seen.  We couldn't stop staring.

 On Tuesday, we had the morning to enjoy a lazy breakfast and packing up before leaving Sausalito.  We decided to visit the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge before heading on home.  It was a lovely day to be out admiring!

This trip was so much fun for us.  It was the perfect combination of relaxing and sight-seeing.  We enjoyed lots of wonderful meals, had many great conversations and made tons of fantastic memories together.  Until next time California!