Thursday Thirteen #25

Thirteen Things About My Vacation

Whew, what an amazing trip! My friends and I played tourist non-stop and had a blast. There were only a few things on my to do list we didn’t have time for.

 This is a picture of Lombard Street, which is very narrow and snakes its way down a steep hill. Driving in San Francisco is insane! The streets are really steep and the lanes of traffic are narrow. Add in cable car tracks and traffic and its enough to drive your blood pressure through the roof!
  The Golden Gate Bridge is incredible to see in person. We got our first glimpse of it from a high vantage point after driving up the coast. The second picture is of me and co-author TK Winters.
 Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco has nothing to do with a wharf other than seafood restaurants. It was very crowded, but still a fun experience.
 The sea lions at the wharf are a sight not to miss. They bark at each other over prime spots on the floating docks and frolic in the water to the delight of the tourists like me.
 We went to San Francisco on a week day to avoid the large crowds expected for Fleet Week on the weekend, but still got to see the Blue Angels practicing. It’s very difficult to get a good picture because they are moving so fast, and man are they ever loud.
 The train ride through the redwoods was not operating so we took a drive to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Pictures really don’t do the trees justice.
 Navigating on a trip is always fun. In fact, my navigators didn’t give me a lot of confidence when they kept turning the map one direction and then another. We had a GPS unit in the rental van, but she sometimes took us in circles and gave weird directions, hence her nickname “the GPS Bitch”. Lol!
 We did a lot of driving along the coast around Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, etc. The coast is beautiful. We saw incredible juniper trees sprouting out of rocks and pampas grass almost twice as tall as we are.

 In Santa Cruz, an eclectic little town, we found a Borders that had a copy of Savannah’s Vision. I signed it and put it back on the shelf for some lucky reader.
 The Winchester Mystery House is a trip! We couldn’t decided if Mrs. Winchester was more than a bit touched in the head or a genius. The rambling house is full of oddities, but also some innovative efforts at conservation. The tour is fun for both kids and adults.
 We bought a star map and drove around Beverly Hills but didn’t see anyone famous. Of course, we had to see the walk of fame and Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive, and went on the Warner Brothers VIP Studio Tour. I highly recommend the tour. We went on the back lots where ER was filming at the time, saw the coffee shop from Friends, the outside ambulance bay set for ER, and went in the sound stage for Two and a Half Men.
  In Buena Park we went to the Pirate Dinner Adventure. It was a lot of fun. The pirates sang, danced, fought with swords, swung on ropes, etc. We rooted for our pirate and had a nice dinner.
 In Long Beach, we went to the aquarium, and the very cool area of Rainbow Harbor. Even saw the Queen Mary where the 1930’s luxury cruise ship is docked and has been turned into a hotel.
 My trip to California was wonderful and I hated to see it come to an end. I miss my friends so much that we are already planning another joint vacation for next year. This one will be in the Smoky Mountains.

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