Month: November 2017

Well, our eight weeks of travel has come to a close.  Although our adventure is not over because we still have to actually move to South Carolina, we can’t help but be a little sad (although we do love our family and friends).  When this all started, I wondered if traveling for so long or living out of a suitcase would get annoying and the answer is……no.  It turns out we are not those people who say “It was fun, but we were ready to come home” (although Carl did point out that we don’t actually have a home right now so that may be part of it).  We are travelers.  Everywhere we go just makes me want to travel more, see more, explore more.  Seeing the beauty of so many other places does make me even more excited to try living somewhere new which is definitely reassuring.

For now, we are in Illinois to spend Thanksgiving with our families.  Once the festivities die down, it’s time to reorganize our belongings for the move.  Since we clearly survived just fine living out of a suitcase for two months, we’ve realized we don’t need a whole lot and are planning to downsize even more before we head to SC.  Although I sense this part will be annoying, it should make things easier in the long run so I’m hoping for the best.

I plan to keep posting so, no worries, you can still follow how our moving progress is going!  (I also plan to keep inserting posts about past things so keep checking on that if you’re curious.)

Happy Thanksgiving and we love you all!

We finally made it to Oregon!

We loved California so much, we weren’t sure this was going to happen, but here we are.

We awoke today at an Airbnb property that was right on the Smith River in Crescent City, California.  We poked around the river bank then got invited in for coffee by our Airbnb hosts, Don and Martha.

After spending some time with them, we headed out to Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.  We did a quick trail there as our final scheduled redwood visit then continued toward the Oregon border.

Our next stop for the day was West Coast Game Park Safari where we got to pet a baby Bengal Tiger, a baby Siberian Lynx, and a Bobcat!!!!  So so cool!!!  We also got to hold ferrets and an opossum (they are so creepy looking, but when were we going to get the chance to do that again?!?!?!).

Once the animal petting was over, we stopped to eat at a tiny local seafood shack for some chowder (we’ve eaten chowder everyday on this trip), salmon fish & chips, and a dungeness crab sandwich.  I’m basically made of seafood and chowder these days.

We just made it to our destination for this evening in Yachats, Oregon.  Our room opens to the beach (which I’m sure will be a cool view in the morning when you can actually see).

We’re going to stay here two nights to actually try and have some time to relax since we’ve been on the go so much.  Carl already mentioned several fun things to do around here so we’ll see if relaxation or activities win.  There are just too many fun things to do!!!  (That’s a ridiculous “complaint”, I know.)

I finally started posting again AND started filling in the gaps with some posts about past stuff so be sure to scroll down and check out what I’ve added if you’re interested!

For today we detoured a little inland to checkout some wineries in the Napa valley.  Our day stated with a fantastic breakfast at Butter Cream Bakery & Diner in Napa (we haven’t been eating actual breakfasts much on this trip, but figured it’d be a good idea pre-wine tasting) then on to the Welcome Center for a map and some recommendations.

Our first winery was Robert Sinskey which was recommended to us by our waiter at Zuzu (where we had dinner last night).  The building had a grand rustic feel and we loved it considering what our house in Warrenville looked like.  We had a lovely chat with the tasting room attendant, Jackson, and got to try a few extra wines just because he liked us (or maybe he does that for everyone, but I’m going with he liked us).

Next we went to Mumm Napa which was especially exciting because we had recently toured the Mumm champagne house in Reims, France, as part of our Europe trip.

Our third wine stop of the day was V. Sattui which was recommended by the lady we talked to at the Napa Welcome Center because of it’s full deli (other wineries here aren’t allowed to sell food).  After our tasting we shared delicious Italian sandwiches in the picnic area.

Last we stopped at Castello Di Amorosa because the tasting room is in a medieval castle.  That was reason enough for us to stop there.  (Although built in 2007, most materials used were shipped in from Europe so the castle is authentically old.).

Post wine tastings (no worries, we were very smart and safe about our consumption and having to drive), we drove to Mendocino, California, which was a ridiculous route up and down narrow, windy mountain roads.

So glad we decided to check out wine country today as every property is absolutely beautiful and it was a perfect sunny day for it!

This morning we got to tour Alcatraz (the famous jail on an island near San Francisco where Al Capone resided for a while) which was hauntingly cool.  You actually get to walk through the cellhouse and hear real life stories of things that happened in some of the cells.

After Alcatraz we got lunch at Pier 23 Cafe (Carl got the best fish and chips ever!) and headed to Muir Woods to see some giant redwood trees.  Carl says we’ll see bigger ones further north, but man are these things tall and have huge trunks!  It was a bit rainy and cloudy during our walk through the woods, but it kind of added to the fantastical feel of the place.

From there we drove to Napa which was not part of our original “plan”, but we thought more about it and couldn’t pass up checking out some wineries so that’s on the schedule for tomorrow.

In Napa we had dinner at Zuzu, a tapas place that turned out to be a bit nicer than what we were looking for, but the place that was recommended to us had a 40 minute wait and that was not going to happen.  Regardless of the fact that I was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt with a giant block “I” on it and clearly wasn’t dressed for a nice sit-down dinner, the food was delicious and I want more of it!

A former coworker of Carl’s who used to live in the area recommended we kayak at Elkhorn Slough because there are typically sea otters around and who wouldn’t want to see sea otters up close?!?!  Crazy people, that’s who.

I kept my wildlife viewing expectations low because you never know with nature, but we were in luck and saw tons of otters, seals, birds (less exciting when there are otters and seals around), and a sea lion!!  We got to see otters eating, swimming, grooming and just generally being adorable.  We even saw a couple moms with their pups which was just the icing on the cake!

After that it was finally time to leave the Monterey Bay area (such a fun place) and continue north to San Francisco.  On our way, Carl found a delicious BBQ place called Sid’s and after that we stopped for coffee and to watch some surfers in Half Moon Bay.

I can’t believe how steep the streets of San Francisco are!!  Interested to walk around more tomorrow and check out Alcatraz!

We stayed in the Big Sur/Monterey area for an extra day because this place is great!  We hiked at McWay Falls and Big Sur and enjoyed all the scenery to be had on the way to and from both on Highway 1.  Unfortunately, the trail we wanted to do at Big Sur was closed, but the alternate trail we took provided some good exercise due to the uphill climb so we’re considering that a positive.  To cap off our day we visited Andrew Molera State Park and the beach there was beautiful!  We stood in the water where the Big Sur River meets the ocean and watched huge waves crash against Molera Point.

Off to bed in Watsonville for kayaking at Elkhorn Slough in the morning!

Geez we’ve sucked at keeping this updated!!  Since our last post we’ve been back in Illinois to visit our fams and for a super fun wedding, had a lovely week in Oahu, hung out in Rocky Point, Mexico, for another fantastic wedding, and made it to stop one of our two week West coast road trip!  Hope to add more details soon, but wanted to let everyone know we’re doing great!!

Inserted 01/16/18:

After staying at a hotel near the Phoenix airport for the night, we were off to meet up with our friends Matt and Anna who flew in from Illinois so we could carpool down to our friend Salli’s wedding in Rocky Point, Mexico.  After loading into the sweet minivan Matt had secured for us, we were in search of breakfast and ended up at Chicken and Donuts which serves exactly what you would assume based on the name and it was delicious!  Before heading for the border, we picked up a friend of Salli and Victoria’s who was waiting on the arrival of some photography equipment to use at the wedding.  Once Emma was all settled in the van, we were Mexico bound!  The ride went smoothly and was fun.  Since we hadn’t seen Matt and Anna in years, there was a lot to catch up on.  Crossing the border turned out to be very easy and we made it safely to the houses Salli and Victoria had rented for their wedding guests.  The houses were beautiful and right on the beach!!!  We found our rooms and decided on who would run to Sam’s Club for food and beverages.  Anna and I stayed behind while Matt and Carl went for goodies. Anna and I lounged on the patio and watched the sun go down before the boys came back and we had a wonderful evening hanging out around the firepit drinking tequila and beer.