CALIFORNIA ROADTRIP

And that’s a wrap! Mike and I are back from our California road trip. We started in San Diego, made our way to Santa Barbara, then to Yosemite, and lastly ending in San Francisco. I just cant believe that I never went there before! It is crazy how much I fell in love with every single place we went.

San Diego is your picture-perfect kind of city. Blue skys, perfect weather, ocean lined beach front, and mountains off in the near distant. Out of the three major cities we visited, I would have to say that San Diego won me over. We stayed in the Northern part of the city in La Jolla, which I, being the naïve East Coast girl, was pronouncing it la-joll-a (oops!) I was quickly corrected by the Enterprise worker, and was certain I wouldn’t make that mistake again. We kind of did a little bit of everything in the short two days that we had in the city. We hit up the beach and pier for an hour, got some amazing gelato and sat out on the rocky beach for sunset, climbed the windy neighborhoods with our rental car, toured the MMS, went to quaint shops, and of course, went to Balboa Park.

After San Diego we were on our way to Santa Barbara. But, not before Mike and I had a couple meetings in outside of LA. I was fortunate enough to score a meeting with Kelly, one of the founders of The Woven Home. First off, if you haven’t heard of them, or checked out their website, STOP READING THIS and go check them out! They exhibit true California style with home décor consisting of rugs, pillows, blankets, and more. Kelly walked me through how they started their business and got going, gave me tips on my business, and of course, showed me some of their new products. (So obviously, I couldn’t resist buying one of their pillows!).

Heading to Santa Barbara, I really didn’t know what to expect. We decided to stay there because it was a good stopping point between SD and Yosemite (our next stop). We found this cute little AirBNB in the middle of nowhere on top of the mountains, a few miles outside of downtown. As we headed up the twists and turns of the dirt roads, losing our phone service, I knew this place was going to be awesome. Cute, quaint and remote. While we were in SB we went on a hike nearby our AirBNB and then headed into downtown. We walked around the boardwalk, sat out on the beach for an hour, and drove around looking at all the cool buildings I found online. I couldn’t forget to mention the winery and the taco bar that we went to for dinner, too!

Wednesday morning we woke up and made our way to Yosemite. This is what I was most excited for, as you can imagine. The mountains in the East Coast just cant compare to the vast mountain ranges that the West Coast has. Upon arrival, we set up our camp, and headed out on an afternoon hike. Little did I know that while crossing a river (Yes, water overflowing having the step on wobbly rocks), this just didn’t seem right to me. Now, Mike was a boy scout for years and has an amazing sense of direction, something I most certainly don’t have. Long story short turns out that we were actually on the horse path! But, nonetheless, we were able to cross paths with the actual trail and we hiked on. That hike was really amazing, as it led up to a staircase with a massive waterfall. The next morning, we did another waterfall hike, the Upper Yosemite Falls hike which was about 7-8 miles of trail. Getting up to the top of the mountain, we realized that we were not on the East Coast anymore. Typically, when you are at 7,000 ft, its freezing. Trees or grass cant grow, your bundled up in winter clothes, and the winds are really strong. Yosemite was nothing like that. We climbed to the top in t-shirts and sat on the rocks for a bit to take all of the scenery in. Yup, just what I pictured and more.

Our final stop was San Francisco where Mike’s sister and husband live. One thing that I can take away from the city is hills. Massive hills. My calves were so sore the next day kind of hills. I actually saw a woman pushing a baby stroller up the hill in heels! More power to you, but I know I couldn’t do that! Mike and I did a lot of the touristy things like going to the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s wharf and getting sourdough bread sandwiches for lunch. Mike’s sister even took up to Mure Woods State Park to see some massive red woods! Our last stop with them was Napa Valley. So, of course I was a happy girl. We went to Castello Winery, which was a castle built in the 70’s. We were even able to tour the winery before our wine tasting.

All and all, California was stunning and lets just say if my friends and family lived out there, I would move in a heart beat. But maybe someday! Who knows…

Cheers!

-H