A vacation in photos.

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a redo - and an ending!

Back to Solvang, that day we headed to Oracle Headquarters, a bit of a personal Disneyland for dad. Since it was Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, the grounds were closed and quiet. We got pictures near some interesting Oracle signs then headed out once again. 

I really wanted to see CA-1, the Pacific Coast Highway. We arrived a little late, as the sun was close to setting as we approached the entrance. We were still able to drive around and see Bixby Bridge, and Pfieffer Big Sur State Park. It got unpleasant, at least for me, when we reached the scarily-cliff-hanging hairpin turns. As I was sitting in the front passenger’s seat, I had the ultimate fear of heights view of the crashing waves hundreds of feet below. It took a while to maneuver the turns but we eventually joined 101 and headed south to our hotel in Solvang.

I had read about Solvang, a Danish town online. It is a whole Danish themed town, complete with Danish restaurants, windmills, and cheese shops galore. When we woke up that morning, we walked around town. Luckily we had a beautiful day, we did some shopping and saw the sites. Dad bought espresso and Danish marzipan pastries. Randy searched for a beer tasting, but only found wine and declined. I bought a flower for my hair, and fresh chocolate.

Someone mentioned to us that there was a great casino on a nearby reservation. We went there and had lunch. We avoided the buffets in Las Vegas, but we really enjoyed the buffet at Chumash Casino. 

We left in the afternoon and continued our trip south. We bounced between CA-101 and CA-1 which was pleasant because we got to hop off the highway at Summerland and watch the sun set on the Pacific. We reached our hotel in Los Angeles later (late) that evening. We headed out to explore the area and had dinner nearby. 

In the morning we planned a day of all of the hollywood tourist traps- from rodeo drive to  the hollywood sign. we started the day at the mall, then went to rodeo drive and drove around beverly hills. As Sweet Tomato is one of our favorite restaurants in the south east, we decided to look up Soupplantation, their south west counterpart. We had a very healthy veggie buffet lunch there. Later, we headed north to the Griffith Observatory for pictures with the Hollywood sign. We toured the observatory as well. We ended the evening at Crazy Rockin Sushi, with Californian California rolls.

San Diego! The next day, we started driving south to San Diego. The weather was rainy and unattractive for picture taking. We had a late start that day, and ultimately reached a rainy san diego late in the evening. We had dinner at Hector’s Mariscos. 

On Friday we headed to Mexico. I spent the night before looking up online what we would face once we crossed the border. Randy decided he would stay in San Diego as his passport was expired and he didn’t want to risk being detained. He dropped us at the pedestrian bridge to cross the border. 

The entry from US to Tijuana is a turnstile. There are no agents, police, or immigration officers present. We walked through and changed money at a stand nearby. The woman who changed our US to Pesos spoke little English. We stopped at a cafe and had espresso before we caught a taxi into the shopping section of town. Our taxi driver recommended a good restaurant for an authentic Mexican lunch. After, we walked around Avenida Revolucion and the nearby streets. Dad found a sombrero and vest to buy, I was more interested in groceries. I bought fresh ground coffee, pomegranate soap, and tamarind candies. Before we left, we had a snack at an even nicer cafe in the middle of the Revo. I had Mexican hot chocolate, dad had a double espresso and we had a slice of pay de queso crema (cheesecake) and a pecan crepe. 

We called Randy to meet us on the American side of the border and waited to cross immigration. We all went to a big mall in San Diego. 

Dad woke us early on Saturday for the long drive back to Phoenix. We wanted to reach Apache trail before dark. Unfortunately we didnt count on the hour time difference, which put us at a bigger disadvantage. The weather was quite drab and unpleasant as well. We reached Apache trail before dark, but the rain was so bad i was afraid to take the camera outside. We left and went to check into the hotel. Randy and I went to Chandler Mall for a few and then dad joined us for a late dinner at Blue Ocean Caribbean restaurant. We’re clearly homesick if we’re seeking out Jamaican Curry Goat and oxtail in Arizona!

We packed, and packed, and packed - two weeks of shopping sure does add up! In the morning, we serendipitously found a Waffle House. It was the impetus for our trip in the first place. After a hearty brunch, we head to the airport.

It was certainly a trip of a lifetime. At times i felt like we were moving way too quickly, before we saw some sites, they were already gone. But we definitely covered a lot of ground. We ate at every restaurant we could think of, saw so many things, some people don’t see in an entire lifetime. From the shadowy canyons to the snow topped mountains, the brilliant sunsets, and shimmering pacific waves, i tried to absorb as much as i could with my camera lens and my eyes. 

I am so blessed to see and do all of this with my dad and brother. I am sure I will be back on the west coast, I just don’t know when. For now, its back to reality! 

Neglecting my blogging duties!

The beautiful weather out here has me neglecting my blogging duties. The evening of our trip to the Golden Gate Bridge, dad's friend and old coworker Shavani prepared dinner for us. We went back to our hotel tired and stuffed.

The next morning we stopped at Aunty Shanta's house where she made us breakfast. We spent the morning with her family then headed out to Oracle's headquarters. We stopped and took some pictures then went to Starbucks.

Later we drove down CA-1, the Scenic Pacific Highway. Again, we had the good luck of seeing a beautiful sunset. We spent the night at Solvang, CA.

San Francisco!

From Visalia we were heading to San Francisco. The goal was to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. We woke up and headed to Fresno, where we had the best breakfast I've ever eaten at the Fresno Breakfast House. It was beautiful AND delicious.

We hit the road once again and drove three hours to Oakland and checked in to the hotel. Then we drove around San Francisco, from the Golden Gate to Sausalito, Lombard St to Fisherman's Wharf. We stopped for drinks at the Buena Vista Cafe. Our stop at the pier had wonderful timing since the sun was just setting and the sky was an amber pink. It made for beautiful photos!

Starbucks, YES! Ghost towns. NO!

The next morning we packed up and readied to head out to California. Much of the day would be spent driving so Randy found us a seemingly adrenaline filled stop along the way - a ghost town!

We drove out of Vegas and stopped at Starbucks (WE LOVE STARBUCKS). Randy and I bought cupcakes at a bakery next door and joined dad for lattes. We drove and drove ... and drove. A few hours later we were in Calico. Calico Ghost Town is the remnants of an old mining town that had been left uninhabited in its original early century conditions. Or so we thought. We didn't know the town had been renovated recently and most of the original buildings are gone and replaced by antique-looking-gift-shops. It wasn't my cup of tea. Afterwards, we went to Peggy Sue's 50s Diner and had lunch.

We finally settled in to our hotel in Visalia that evening.

"You can take all the DAM pictures you like"

Our first stop today was the Hoover Dam. Randy researched the best breakfast stop on the way and led us to The Coffee Cup which was featured on the Travel Channel. Then we went to view Lake Mead. This is the largest man-made lake in the US. It serves as the reservoir for the dam. We took a guided tour around the dam and took a lot of pictures in, under, and on top of the dam. 

We headed back to Vegas that afternoon so that we could take pictures near the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. Uncle Glen recommended we have dinner at Planet Hollywood so we parked in near by Paris Casino and walked over to Planet Hollywood. Three steaks later, we toured Planet Hollywood then went outside for the fountain show at Bellagio. We stayed for two shows, one performed to a beautiful Andrea Bocelli ‘Con te Partiro.”

We went from the Bellagio to Caesar’s Palace to Flamingo to Bill’s Saloon. 

Road to Zion

Kanab is a place where a lot of western movies were filmed. This was both helpful and disappointing. On one hand, we got to experience the Wild Wild West version of a Holiday Inn - down to cowboy boot themed lamps on the night stand and cowboy hat themed wall paper in the bathroom. But since this was a (summer) tourist town, nothing was really open in January. 

That morning, we asked the hotel staff for recommendations on things to see. They sent us to the Coral Sands Dunes in the national park. We saw what we think is a bald eagle, but the dunes were all covered in snow. We headed straight to stop number two in Utah - Zion National Park. 

Zion National Park was breathtaking - arguably the best park we saw (in Angie’s opinion). Compared to Grand Canyon National Park and Sedona, Randy described Zion as very ‘hands-on.’ This led to him climbing walls like some sort of tie wearing spiderman. We had lunch in a great little restaurant at the exit of the canyon, Cafe Soleil.

Our next stop after Zion was the road to Vegas. We stopped in Mesquite and played a few rounds of $3 Roulette at Eureka then continued on our way. We headed to check in to the LVH Las Vegas Hotel. We had dinner at Lotus of Siam then toured the strip. We searched for the wedding chapel featured in The Hangover. We went to Rio, viewed and took part in the live shows. Then we went to the Bellagio. Vegas is beautiful!