December 28, 2011 was basically our last California vacation day. My brother and my dad played another round of golf at our hotel, Spanish Bay. My mom and I attempted shopping again after checking out of the hotel, but still didn't find much. We did, however, find my favorite restaurant of the trip. Cafe Demetra is a very tiny Mediterranean place within the Carmel shops with incredible food and service. Not only was my meal delicious, but it included free refills. If we had been there before they got super busy, we probably would have gotten free baklava (as I was so full, I let the fact that we didn't get any slide). It wasn't exactly cheap, but we got what we paid for: huge portions, AMAZING pita bread and tzatziki sauce appetizer, free bread (might've been the best bread of the trip, too), free Diet Coke refills, and free drinks to go. Also, they sang happy birthday to a 92 year old lady who was eating there. It was the best "happy birthday" thing I've ever seen a restaurant do. They announced it to the whole restaurant, played music up and down the entire isle (not just the Happy Birthday song) and everyone, including the 92 year old woman, my mom, and me, got a chance to wear a gypsy scarf and dance. It was so fun!! Too bad the golfers missed out.

We picked them up after and drove back to San Francisco, stopping at In and Out Burger, another place mentioned in the Meg Cabot books, on the way. I'd eaten there before, but didn't really remember it. This time the fries weren't good, but the hamburgers were. At least, that's what I was told. I was still full from Cafe Demetra to eat a burger. We found our hotel at the airport and finally had the time and energy to see Mission Impossible, which was pretty good as long as we didn't try to make perfect sense out of it.

The next day doesn't really need a blog of it's own. We got up at 5am and went to the airport. Flight to Dallas, drive to the grandparents in Denton for a short visit before finally heading back home to my kitties and puppies just in time for a date with my wonderfully patient boyfriend for New Year's Eve :) And I will finally get to see my friends again and give them their Christmas presents!! And I'm planing tea parties. Lots of tea parties.

December 27, 2011

This was, sadly, our last full day in the Spanish Bay/Carmel/Monterey area. There was no golf, so our whole family spent the day together. We took the Find A Parking Spot challenge around Carmel again, but with much more luck. We window shopped for a bit before starting our day trip up Highway 1, which goes straight up the California coast and is breathtakingly beautiful the entire way. 

Our final destination was Hearst Castle, but we made several other stops along the way. I believe we went over one of the world's largest arched bridges called Bixby Bridge. We also saw several beautiful beaches. We stopped for a snack at a bakery, and then drove up the road for lunch at The Nepenthe. There is usually a long wait there, but it's not for the food. I was told that many celebrities came to eat there, and I could see that everyone else did too, and it was because the restaurant is located on a cliff with a spectacular view of the coast. You would think such a famous and popular place could afford decent chef. You would be wrong. The food was not good, overpriced, and there were no free refills. Have I mentioned my issue with this? There was no non-fast food, sit-down restaurant in San Francisco or anywhere we stopped between Carmel and Hearst Castle that offered free refills. A Subway in San Francisco allowed only one. What kind of crap is that? (Spoiler alert: we found a  Mediterranean place in Carmel the next day that had free refills AND it was my favorite meal of the trip.) The least The Nepenthe could do is offer free refills, since that's all they could do right. 

We hiked off our lunch on a trail to a waterfall in a California State Park. There were several along the highway. Another one we stopped at had a steep path to a beach that has some jade for the taking. Our last stop before Hearst Castle was the elephant seal rookery. It's a beach where the biggest seals anyone has ever  seen come right up to the walkway. I guess to mate, but we just saw them huddled together. Apparently, one male will have several calves and they all sleep in clusters. If another male comes too close, they fight. Or, as we saw, they burp at each other and kind of... wiggle after each other... very slowly. But that wasn't a real fight, was I informed. When they're serious, blood is drawn. I preferred our comedy version.

Then, to end the day, it was Hearst Castle! Owned by What'shisface Hearst, CEO of... basically everything. William Randolph Hearst started out in the newspaper business, first inheriting the San Francisco Examiner from his father. What followed resulted in a castle somewhere, a ranch in California, and somewhere down the road, a kidnapped granddaughter, with whom you might be more familiar. 

Yes, if you caught on, Hearst had two castles. An ACTUAL castle - I can't remember if it is in Europe or on an island somewhere - and Hearst Castle in California - which was actually just his ranch!! It was built (but not completely finished) over 28 years, starting in the 1920s. If you did the math, yes, he was building a castle during the Great Depression. He actually created a lot of well-paid jobs by doing so, so I haven't quite figured out how conceited that fact made him. The castle was built to include his antiques, which he began collecting at the age of ten. I guess that's why it had to be so big. He had two guest houses. His guests were all famous people he'd invite to stay (but they weren't allowed to bring their own booze, and he made sure no one had more than two drinks of his own, which he locked up in a safe). He even had a huge theater in the main house, two swimming pools, and two libraries. 

TWO LIBRARIES.

The day after Christmas my dad and brother played golf at Pebble Beach in the morning. My mom and I got to sleep in and then test drive a car courtesy of the hotel! We got a red Lexus IS 350C. It was red too. Sound familiar? The only difference was it was a 2011 convertible. We had it for two hours, so we planned on shopping in Carmel, but there was NO parking in the entire city. Luckily, there was another stop I wanted to make in Carmel!
In high school, I read a Meg Cabot book series that took place in Carmel. The main character went to school at an old mission named after Junipero Serra. It was closed, but I still took some nice shots of the facade and garden.
Since there was no parking near the shops, we went back to the hotel for a little bit while the guys finished golfing. We did, however, still have time to drive on the scenic 17 mile drive. Then we made Dad find parking in Carmel so we could look at the shops before dinner. We tried a mexi-cali grill or something. It was good, but Mexican food in Texas is better.
We also drove down Cannery Row, the area made popular by John Steinbeck's novel of the same name.  We almost went to see Mission Impossible in that area, but the wait was too long so we went back to the hotel and crashed into bed instead.

Merry Christmas!! This was not the typical Christmas for my family because we were traveling. Almost everything was closed, so we spent the day traveling from San Francisco to the Pebble Beach area, where we will be staying for the rest of our vacation. I think I forgot to mention the reason for our vacation. My parents' 25th wedding anniversary was November 29th, my dad's fiftieth birthday is January 13th, and as a gift for those events and for my dad's Christmas present, my mom got him (and my brother) a tee time on Pebble Beach in California. If you are not a golf addict like my dad, you may not know, but Pebble Beach is a famous golf course where the pros often compete in tournaments. 


It was a nice, scenic drive, and along the way we stopped at the Mystery Spot. As the name implies, it's hard to describe accurately... But I can say the other tourists were REALLY annoying. They were loud and rude and got in the way. A lot. 


Anyway... basically, the Mystery Spot was so called because it gave the illusion of the center of gravity being off. It was all outdoors and up a steep hill. Our guide claimed that climbing the steep hill, as noticed by lumber jacks from a century or so ago, was a lot harder than it should have been. Then they kept having issues with buildings sliding off their foundations and down the hill. We entered on such building that appeared really crooked, but it was due to the fact that we were naturally leaning when standing on the hill. Inside the cabin, everything was pretty wonky. There was a pendulum that didn't swing equally and would turn  counter-clockwise instead of clockwise. Things that were supposed to be level, according to a level, would cause water to flow or a ball to roll a certain way. There was a ladder you could climb as if you were walking on a flat surface, and people of various heights would shrink or grow when switching spots on what should have been a level surface (again, tested by a level).  


After that interesting experience, we made it the rest of the way to our hotel, where a bagpiper played down the sun and we had dinner with a view.


Since most of the day was spent in a car, I only made it to 6,000 something steps.

Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve


Christmas Eve was primarily filled with a visit up to Telegraph Hill, home of Coit Tower and Mama's On Washington. Mama's is a TEENSY breakfast and lunch place that is very popular. Every single day, there is a line waiting down the street for a seat. First thing on Christmas Eve morning, we found ourselves in this line for about forty-five minutes. Luckily, I don't mind waiting for delicious food (especially since I had my DSi with me) and there was plenty to see and do while one person waited in line. My brother, dad and I found an open coffee shop (not too easy on Christmas Eve) across a park that made the most yummy caramel apple cider. It was even better when I sprinkled cinnamon on top. It helped me stay warm in line. Being the avid food lover that I am, I think Mama's was worth the wait - especially since they served large portions, and especially since the large portions were of sausage, pepper jack cheese, and bell peppers in an omelet. 


The next stop was the top of Telegraph Hill, up an old elevator to the top of Coit Tower for another panoramic view of the city, bay and bridge. At the base of the tower, huge murals are painted all the way around the tower.

After the sightseeing, it was time for more food! We took a bus down from Telegraph Hill to Ghiradelli Sqaure, got free chocolate samples and saw some cool and cute shops. Sadly, the chocolate factory isn't actually there any more, but it was still cool. And I got a mug. I love mugs.

Then we cable-car-ed it back up to the famous part of Lombard Street, the world's most crooked street. In a book based on USA's tv show Monk, the OCD character wrote a letter to the mayor of San Francisco asking him to straighten the street out. Good times. 

Our last stop before dinner at Tadich Grill was the Ferry building, which consisted of mainly shops. Outside it, there is a small group of Occupy San Francisco protestors. And by small group, I mean six of them... Protest not very effective.... Inside the Ferry building was cool shopping and a few restaurants, but most of them were closing down for Christmas Eve evening.

We were a little worried about dinner because when we walked in, the place was disturbingly (for those of us who had bad experiences previously) to Sam's. The furniture was similar, as were the menus and the same bread was placed on our table when we sat down! The bread was luckily much fresher and it was overall a better experience. I had spinach and french fries again, but I'm not sure which place had better. 


Steps: When I got back to the hotel, I only had about 10,000 steps, but it wasn't very late in the day. After a short break, I went to the hotel's fitness center and got up to 16,302 steps. Almost on par with the other days... Plus I got to watch FRIENDS while running! 


Other stuff:

Almost a triple rainbow, but not quite.

Our morning dose of pug.

We couldn't figure this one out. The truck says something to the effect of we bring Hawaii to you, but it is dumping snow...

My family and I stopped Golden Gate Park, the largest man-made park in the world. We're not really sure what the "man-made" part entails, but it includes a Japanese tea garden, two museums, a cafe, and an amazing panoramic view of the entire city of San Francisco. 

The Japanese tea garden was very pretty, very old, full of history, but most importantly, there was hot tea. It was great for the chilly, but otherwise beautifully sunny day. We have been lucky with weather here because it hasn't been too cold or foggy. Instead, it's always been sunny and clear! That came in handy when we went to the roof of the museum to check out the panoramic city view. We also had breakfast at the base of the museum in the cafe that made amazing mini cakes.... so of course we couldn't resist.

Then we went back to Garrett's favorite spot in San Francisco: Chinatown. My mom found the secret alley where there is a fortune cookie "factory." At least, there was one lady making them, another guy charging .50 cents for pictures and handing out "samples" AKA fortune cookie rejects (they cooked too much to be folded, but were just like regular fortune cookies). There will also be a video of that. Basically, a machine poured a pre-measured amount of dough into a little pancake-maker looking thing which cooked the cookies just enough to where they could be folded before they cooled and the lady would place a fortune inside. 

We walked around Chinatown more and stumbled across a really long line. It caught our attention and we ended up waiting about an hour for freshly made egg custard mini pie things... that were REALLY good. It seemed to be a local secret... at least, we were the only non-Asians in line. And apparently we had really good timing, because the bakery had been closed for six months (just because they know they'd be that popular when they opened back up).


Our dinner was happy hour appetizers at an oyster bar but it was definitely filling. We walked it off with shopping! I got to go to H&M for the first time and I really liked it. I didn't find much on this particular trip, but I definitely want to go to the one in Dallas now. We also explored the 2-building 8-story Macys nearby. We didn't buy much, but it was still fun.


Pokewalker steps: about 19,000
This was December 23rd. I've been posting one day after, so it's actually Christmas right now. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Also, this happened.

I'm going to make it short and sweet because I'm exhausted and all my fact checkers are already sleeping.


Yesterday we rented a car and took it to a redwood forest (not THE Redwood Forest) called Muir Woods, which we hiked around in for a while. To get to it, we got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, so we also visited Golden Gate park before going.to the woods. I was able to take my customary canon picture that I will post later.


Back across the bridge, my family and I had lunch in a town that doesn't like tourists to the extreme of removing all the signs to the town (we said, "Challenge accepted"). We briefly visited a beach and then raced to see a lighthouse that was about to close.


It was about a mile up an un-drive-able road and then at the bottom of 308 stairs... we got there just in time to peak inside the lighthouse before it closed. We hung around looking for elephant seals but didn't have much luck. After another race back to San Fransisco to return the rental car, we stopped at Sam's, one of the places we tried before that was closed, for dinner. There was questionable service (they gave us bread that was sitting on a table nearby), but my spinach was YUM and I made a Christmas tree with it. I think at some point we stopped at a very overwhelming 4-story urban outfitters as well.


Steps: aprox 20,997


Btw, health pros recommend 10,000 steps a day.

I don't remember anything we did until we ate donuts and cream cheese danishes. I do remember this day ended with my entire family going to jail, though.
Just thinking about the food brings it all back. The sustenance (or sugar) gave us the energy to find and board the cable car. It was kind of like a roller coaster but without any kind of safety harness. We weren't going that fast, but Garrett, Dad and I were hanging onto the outside of the car (Mom got a chair) and the hills were huge. We were also super close to the car traffic.


Our roller coaster dumped us off at the Museè; Mecanique. The admission is free, and the building was full of antique toys and games, some from the 1800s and up to the '90s, and a lot of them were powered without electricity. They were typically used in old amusement parks. To see any of them actually work, you to pay the machines quarters, as if in an antique arcade. There was a jukebox that read music by the holes in the paper and played all the instruments, including drums, piano, tambourine, triangle, etc. Another interesting one demonstrated a miniature french execution. I promise videos when I get home.
I almost forgot lunch! We had delicious and super filling bread bowls with clam chowder at Boudin's and toured their bread bakery. ILOVEBREAD. Apparently the bread we had could be hundreds of years old because the bakers always saved some of the previous day's yeast to use in the next day's bread. They've been doing that since the bakery began.
We walked to Pier 39 for lunch and SHOPPING... two of my favorite things. There is a really cool earring store ; I went to a few years ago that I wanted to take my mom. There were several other cool stores I'll go into detail about later because I may have bought some presents there....


And then we all went to jail. Well, first we had to walk to Pier 33 and get on the boat to Alcatraz for our tour of the prison, which was pretty interesting. Highlights:
- only five prisoners successfully escaped (meaning their bodies were never found)
- only one prisoner escaped and made it to mainland before being recaptured and tried for escape, where as the rest of the 36 escapees throughout the prison's lifetime were recaptured on the island and tried for attempted escape
- al capone was the first high risk prisoner sent to Alcatraz
- "machine gun" Kelley was another high risk prisoner sent to Alcatraz and his case was the first high profile one to be taken on by the then-recently established FBI headed by J Edgar Hoover
- I got pictures of where prison guards dropped grenades to stop an attempted escape. Frag out!


No more spoilers. After the boat ride back, it was time for more food. We hiked around the hilly city for places Mom had coupons for, but both ended up being closed... it was basically my worst nightmare. Luckily we found Hunan's Home in Chinatown and it was delicious!!! We walked it off the 18 blocks or so to the hotel and I snuggled into my nice warm bed and had some really weird dreams for the second night in a row...


Oh, and naturally, I brought my pokewalker. I took 18,335 steps before midnight and about 2,000 steps after (Texas time. And it automatically resets at midnight). ( By the way, on an average day, I usually get about 7,000 steps.)
TO BE CONTINUED...

I know I failed at the Alaska travel blogs, but on my defense I was gone a month and took over 5,000 pictures. I still plan on going back and making those blogs. In the meantime, California blog!


Day one was mostly travel. Flying out.of Dallas was way cheaper, so first thing in the morning we roadtripped it up to Dallas and hopped on a afternoon flight to San Francisco. It was a smooth, no-stop flight, so naturally when we landed early, Mom's suitcase was missing. I don't think that had happened to us before, but it turned out to not to be a huge deal; it was back to us by the time we finished dinner.


We ate at John's Grill, which was a setting in The Peregrine Falcon novel. We were too tired and full to do anything else, so that concluded day one.