Vacation - May 2011

James and I just got back from a wonderful vacation driving up from California. Evie got to spend the week with her Grandma so it really was a vacation for me as well as James. Boeing finally decided to move the airplane testing back to Seattle so James got to end his remote work and "move" back to Seattle. Since Evie and I already moved home in February there wasn't a whole lot to move back except to drive our car back. The car had been sitting there for three months while James was away so of course the battery was dead. We got a new one and drove up to San Francisco on Monday. We didn't get to the hotel until almost 10 so that was pretty much our first day of travel.

Tuesday we chose to stay in San Francisco and explore. What a beautiful city!! I loved every minute there. We woke up and immediately hiked up the hills a couple of blocks to the famous Lomard Street. We started at the bottom and hiked all the way to the top. It was a definite workout but so much fun. I didn't realize that people actually live in the houses on Lombard Street. We even saw a tiny driveway just as long as a little car. We came back later in our car to drive down the famous stretch of street. At the top was a stop for the also famous cable cars. On a whim we hopped on board and learned that it cost five dollars per person to ride to downtown San Francisco. We rode all the way to the end of the line and back to Fisherman's Wharf. It was so much fun! I discovered people actually use the cable cars as transport, not just a tourist thing. Fisherman's Wharf was full of restaurants and shops. We stopped at the Boudin Sourdough bakery. Very cool. They had a demonstration bakery as well which was great. After we got back to the hotel we checked out and headed over to Sacramento where we were so tired we collapsed.

The rest of the week we spent driving home. Along the way we stopped at several little eateries including a burger place in middle of the mountains. We stayed on I-5 until Oregon then we headed over to the coast. If you ever get a chance to drive the Oregon coast please take it! It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. I wish I could bottle the essence of it up and bring it home with me. I'd love to retire there. We stopped at the Tillamook cheese factory in our travels. This was really neat. They have an observation deck so you can watch the cheese being cut and packaged. We got some cheese curds and ice cream. This was James' first time eating cheese curds. He loves them! :) Wednesday night we stayed in a hotel casino so the room was really plush. Terrible internet connection but the shower was fabulous. Thursday night we stayed in a little bungalow on the beach in Long Beach, WA. This was a blast. We got there in the afternoon on purpose so we could spend some time on the beach before dark. Luckily we did because this morning was rainy and miserable on the beach. We spent a while walking on the beach and splashing in the frigid ocean before heading to dinner at a sweet little place owned and run by an actual professional chef. He was using his creativity to the max at this place. It was pretty expensive, more than it warranted I would say but very delicious too. James got a pork shoulder braised in Southern Comfort BBQ sauce on top of whipped sweet potatoes and jalapeno creamed corn with a bacon relish on top. It was amazing! I got a lamb in saffron curry broth. It was good but it had been cooked so long it basically tasted like any old roast cooked in the slow cooker with carrots and potatoes. Good but not unique.

This morning we drove home. It was so nice to see Evie again. She was very excited to see us too. I love how she just spasms with joy when we come back from a time away. She seemed way grown up in just a few days. She got more articulate and her voice even sounded deeper. That might have just been the allergies though. So nice to have our family and our stuff all in one place again after a year!!