California Trip Part 4 {Napa Valley}

I'm wrapping up the recap and highlights of our vacation today with our day trip up to Napa Valley and Sonoma! Thanks for sticking with me for the past few days and letting me relive our vacation from last week. I know it deviates from the normal kinds of posts around here!

When I was originally planning our trip to California, I had no idea we'd be so close to wine country while we were up in San Francisco. (California was pretty much a foreign land to me before this trip.) Once I figured that out, there was no doubt in my mind that we'd make the quick hour and a half drive up there for at least half a day. I mean, we'd already driven 400 miles from LA to SF, so what was an extra 60?

Napa Valley and Sonoma are probably two of the most famous wine-making areas in the world, and I've always wanted to experience them in person. I'd heard it was a beautiful area, but I had NO IDEA it would be covered - literally covered - in vineyards. For miles and miles all you see are the most gorgeous rolling, green hills packed with rows and rows of grape vines. It's an amazing sight.

{view from Artesa Vineyards and Winery}

There are well over 1000 vineyards in the surrounding area and many, many cute little towns, so how in the world does one choose where to go on a short visit?

Well, thanks to a review from Kate (Centsational Girl), who lives over in Northern California and takes frequent day trips to various parts of Wine Country, I knew I there was one famous little town I wanted to visit: Yountville.

Yep, I took a photo of the post office to mark our visit. I know, I know, I'm cool. You don't have to tell me twice. :)

Yountville was made famous by Thomas Keller, chef extraordinaire (of The French Laundry fame). If you're a foodie (which I am not), you're likely to have heard of it, and if you aren't, you may have still heard of it! Though we only had a chance to breeze through, it is a charming town, and I'd love to go back some day. I'll start saving my pennies now to eat at one of Keller's restaurants there :). Kate does a much better job describing this adorable little town and what to do there than I ever could, so if you want more info, read this post.

We also utilized the friendly visitor's information center in Yountville to try to decide what vineyards to visit in the area. That was when I learned that there are over 400 vineyards along just one short stretch of road heading north from Yountville. Uh, what? Craziness! I felt overwhelmed. We just wanted to taste a few wines and experience some of the natural beauty of that part of the country. How could we possibly choose just two or three?

{Gorgeous grapes. We were told the harvest is only about a week away!}

Oh, and around the same time, I discovered that 99% of the wine tastings aren't free - they aren't even cheap! A tasting alone (not even including a tour or anything) at some vineyards can cost you $20 a person. Ain't nobody got time money for that. At least not us :).

So what did I do? I turned to my trusty iPhone and found an app (Winery Finder and Tasting Pass) that offers free or two-for-one tastings at certain vineyards in exchange for sharing about them on social media. Call us cheap, but hey, if it's there, why not use it?

That's how we found all three of our stops for the day - starting with The Hess Collection. Tucked back in the mountains off of windy back roads, we felt like we had found some sort of secret hideaway. They have a charming little garden area (complete with koi pond), a large art gallery, and a tasting room that has the feel of an old wine cellar. Our favorite wines there was by far were their Cabernet Sauvignons. It sure was fun to be able to taste a $40+ bottles of wine for nearly nothing! We're typically more $10 and under bottles of wine people. Oops, am I not supposed to admit that? Oh well, secret's out!

The second vineyard we visited, Artesa Vineyards and Winery, had the most breathtaking views. It was stunning. The wines were ok (Hess was better in our opinion), again with the Cabernets being the winners, but it was worth the trip for the views alone. (Side note: the first Napa Valley photo at the top of this post is from Artesa.)

You can see for miles from their vantage point up at the top of the hill.

Our last stop was Schug Winery. This one had a small, family-owned vibe, and we loved the friendly, laid-back servers in the tasting room. I thought both their reds and whites were lovely.

After Schug, we headed back to San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge. We loved our time up in Napa and Sonoma, and will definitely be making another trip there at some point. I'd love to spend an entire week there for a fuller experience!

Have you been up to wine country? What was your favorite part? What would you recommend we do on our next trip?

That wraps up our trip to California! Hope you enjoyed reliving our trip with me. I'll be back tomorrow with some Lovely Links to kick off the weekend!

California Trip Part 3 {San Francisco}

San Francisco. How do I describe it? It's such an eclectic city full of personality. We had a blast exploring it and we barely scratched the surface. We covered a ton of ground in just under two days, and I've got a bunch of highlights for you today! These are places I'd definitely recommend to go, eat and explore. I don't think we had a bad experience the entire time we were there. #longpostalert

After our journey up the Pacific Coast Highway, we arrived in San Francisco in time for dinner. We chose Pizzeria Delfina as our destination, and it turns out many others had that night as well. It was a popular place! We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table on a Wednesday night. I can't even imagine what it's like on the weekends. It was so, so good though. I'm such a pizza lover (it's a problem), and this definitely satisfied my appetite.

The next morning we chowed down on some baked goods and sipped coffee at Destination Bakery (yum!) up the street from where we were staying in Glen Park, and got a few business-y things done for CSW Designs and the blog before we headed out to explore the city.

Our first stop of the day was the Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadero downtown. What a sight!

Besides gazing at the outside of the gorgeous building itself, the inside was full of food vendors, fresh food markets, and specialty shops. It's a great place to grab a quick lunch, putz around, and take in views of the San Francisco Bay. Many of the shops and eateries are local to San Francisco, and have flagship locations elsewhere in the city. {Side note: this is also where the big farmer's market is, which is a big SF attraction.}

We had lunch at Cowgirl Creamery inside the Ferry Building Marketplace. Total sucker for cheese of just about any variety. Can't. resist.

A few other favorite spots were Acme Bread Company, Blue Bottle Coffee (I didn't love their coffee, honestly, but loved their logo...design dork alert.), Biscuit Bender and Miette.

{Biscuit Bender}

{Miette}

The Embarcadero area surrounding the Ferry Building is a great place for views of the Bay Bridge as well:

{Bay Bridge to the right}

After lunch, we hopped on one of the historic street cars to get to our next destination: Fisherman's Wharf. 

Whoa, holy tourist alert! Fisherman's Wharf is a major San Fran attraction, and the folks down at the wharf have capitalized on that. If you're looking for a touristy place, this is it. We weren't totally into all that, but it was worth a trip - even if only for a few minutes. The views are outstanding, so we spent most of our time avoiding the cheesy tourist shops and instead spent our time looking out over the Bay.

See that flag to the right of my head? That's an America's Cup flag. The epic sailing competition is being held in the Bay this year, and it was one of the coolest things we got to see. It was a huge highlight for Charlie, who grew up sailing, to see these blazing fast boats fly on the water. And I mean fly. They certainly don't look like your run-of-the-mill sailboat...but apparently this design makes 'em fast as lightening!

If you go to SF between now and September, definitely make a stop at the America's Cup area on the Embarcadero near Fisherman's Wharf. Spectators can enter the "park" for free and wander around when the official races aren't happening, which is what we did, and we had a blast watching the different teams practice out on the water.

Next, we headed over to Union Square and wandered around a little bit. The park there is really pretty, so we grabbed a couple of glass bottle cokes (which seemed to be a "thing" in SF?) and took in the surroundings.

{Cheers!}

Then it was off to ride one of the historic Cable Cars! So iconic.

We rode the California line all the way to the end, and then took a bus over to Alamo Square Park, which is where the "Painted Ladies" houses are (the ones from Full House). Pretty cool seeing the beautiful Victorians in person after watching that show as a kid! There are "Painted Lady" houses all over SF though, so honestly, it wasn't all that different from many other parts of the city.

After all this activity, eventually we made it back "home" to our neighborhood and had dinner at a local restaurant with a friend. We were pooped, but it was great day! That was our only full day in SF (sadness).

The next morning, we hit up the famous Tartine Bakery for breakfast. GO THERE. It was so, so yummy. I had their fruit brioche and C had one of their quiches. I'd definitely get a sweet and a savory treat so you can experience both...my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

After Tartine, we headed north across the Golden Gate Bridge to start our journey up to Napa Valley...which is the subject of tomorrow's post! Stay tuned :).


A few thoughts on San Fran before I go:

• San Francisco can be an expensive city. This is especially true for lodging. Decent hotels in popular areas cost more than we wanted to spend, so we actually rented out a one bedroom condo through airbnb for about half of what we would've paid for a hotel. It was in a convenient location, clean, and worth doing the digging (research) to find. If you want more on our experience with airbnb, feel free to ask in the comments or shoot me an email!
• The MUNI public transit system is great. Besides the awesome history that goes along with the street and cable cars, they've done a really good job connecting the city through the buses and light rail systems. We didn't move our car the entire time we were exploring the city. Buy an unlimited rides visitors pass (A one day pass cost us $14 plus $3 for the Clipper Card. The cable car ride alone cost $6, so it's worth it!) if you think you're going to utilize public transit frequently throughout the day to explore the city. It saved us a lot of hassle and we didn't have to worry about having a wad of dollar bills with us at all times to pay the fare each time we hopped on a bus or train. We managed to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time thanks to easy public transportation access. 
• The fog. Like clockwork, it rolled out every morning around 10am, and rolled back in around 5pm. It was totally bizarre to me. If you're planning on taking in any views from scenic overlooks, don't even bother unless it's between the hours of 10 and 5. Obviously, the weather can vary, but our experience was that we had bright, sunny days after the fog left each day. So wait to take your photos then!

Questions? Thoughts? What did we miss in SF? I need to start making a list for the next time we go...because there WILL be a next time. I feel like we barely scratched the surface of this awesome city!

California Trip Part 2 {Driving Historic Route 1}

Hey y'all! Thanks for letting me gush about my California trip this week...you're are the best. I promise I'll be back to my regular design/DIY post material next week!

After our time Los Angeles, we packed up our rental car (a super sexy Nissan Altima...in white...oh yeah) and headed out in the early hours of the morning to drive up the coast. We were really pumped about this part of our trip because we had heard that driving up historic Route 1 (also known as the Pacific Coast Highway) was something everyone should have on their bucket list...and we were not disappointed.

Our first stop was just north of San Simeon in Piedras Blancas to see this rookery of Elephant Seals (yep, that's the name for a group of seals!).

They are HUGE. And hilarious to watch. I just stood there, fascinated by their odd behaviors including dueling each other at the edge of the water, and laying dead still on the beach except for the occasional flipper movement to throw sand on themselves. (You can read about why they do that here.) I even took a video of them because their behaviors were so cool/odd. You get to hear my awesome video voice, which always makes me cringe :).

The elephant seal overlook is super easy to access from Route 1. There are signs a couple of miles out directing you to a parking lot where you can stop and take a short walk to see them. There were lots of people there, but for good reason. These guys really are amazing to watch. There are volunteer docents there to answer any questions you have about the seals, which is a nice perk. I'd say it's definitely worth a ten minute stop, especially if you're an animal lover like me!

I insisted we get a photo with the seals in the background too, although they're hard to make out here:

After our quick stop, we headed on up to Big Sur, which is chock full of amazing views of rolling hills and steep cliffs dropping off into the Pacific Ocean. Every time we went around a bend, we went, "OOooo! Look at that!" You'd think it would get old, but the views really were unbelievable.

We definitely had our fair share of stops and took a bunch of photos. BE CAREFUL though. Driving is crazy through there because of all the curves, narrow lanes, and crazy tourists like us trying to quickly pull of to take photos.

In addition to photos of the natural scenery, we also snapped a few photos with us in them along the way. We pulled off on a cute little rocky beach and got a few there...

...And up on a high point overlooking the ocean as well. Had to throw in a silly pose to change things up :).

And look at this little squirrel creature. He was quite bold and practically came right up to me...I think he's used to having tourists feed him. Sorry little guy, your'e cute, but no food from me.

Oh, and before we move onto our next stop, just a little couple of tips if you're planning a trip out there to Big Sur. At least coming from the south, there's only one real pit stop before you head into the park. Try to avoid filling up on gas there because it was $5.79 a gallon! (Price gouging much?!) We only needed a little bit, but it still hurt our wallets. Arg.

And there's no cell service anywhere. We have Verizon, so I don't know about other carriers, but I typically think if Verizon has no service, no one else does. So either bring a paper map if you're making any planned stops or hike specific trails, or have your route planned ahead of time. We didn't really have to do any of that since we were basically driving through, but we would've been in trouble had we needed Google Maps. You don't realize how dependent you are on technology until you can't use it!

Our final "real" stop along Route 1 was in a beautiful little town called Carmel-by-the-sea. Oh how we adored this little place! It felt like a Hampton's-style resort town, but with a west coast flair. It had gorgeous (expensive) houses, lots of shops (also expensive, ha!), and amazing beaches. There's white sand there people! I didn't know that existed on the west coast.

I was drooling over some of the charming houses there, including this one:

This is one of the typical Carmel style homes called a "fairytale cottage." Doesn't it look like it's straight out of a (duh) fairytale? I mean, that roof! Unbelievable. There's lots of similar architecture like this downtown in the city center as well. I wish we'd had time to wander through all the streets.

We had a late lunch there at a cute little Italian delicatessen called Salumeria Luca.

So, so yummy. Can you tell we liked our sandwiches? We picked them up to-go and ate in a park in the middle of town.

Before heading onto our final destination (San Francisco!) for the day, we did stop at the public beach in Carmel to dip our toes in the water, and get a view of the famous Pebble Beach golf course that's nearby.

Carmel is definitely on my list of places to go back to one day. So is Big Sur. Dang, we could've spent two weeks in those places alone!

I'll be back tomorrow with highlights from our couple of days in San Fran. More stories to come!

California Trip Part 1 {Los Angeles}

Happy Monday morning to y'all! I don't know if you noticed, but I was pretty quiet here on the blog last week. I tried to disconnect as much as I could since, surprise!!, Charlie and I were in California for an eight day vacation! I did my projects for the "5 Days of Book Page Crafts" series ahead of time, so all I had to do was make sure my posts went up (reasonably) on time while we were gone :). It was wonderful doing nothing but relax, hang with friends and family, and be a tourist for a week!

You'll have to excuse me for the next few days while I commandeer my blog for trip documenting purposes. We just had an amazing time and I don't want to forget what all we did and saw. Plus, if you're planning a trip to Los Angeles, San Francisco, or the Napa Valley area, you might get a few tips on things to do and see. We went on a whirlwind tour up the coast! Here goes the highlight reel...

But first, I wanted to say a special thanks to all of you who entered the giveaway from CSW Designs. I picked a winner last night...and it is...Randa L.! Congratulations! She'll be receiving a onesie of her choice :). In case you didn't win, but would still like to purchase one for a special little one, head on over to the website and pick one out. Thanks again for entering!

Alright, onto our Cali trip! We started off in LA visiting friends and family, and they showed us all around their city. I didn't even need to plan this part of our trip because they were such awesome hosts. Since we'd never been to LA before, we thought, what better way to kick off our trip than with a celebrity homes tour? Haha. I usually hate these kinds of things since they're so cheesy, but y'all, this was such a great way to get out and see a ton of the major Hollywood sites without having to navigate a city we'd never been to before. There are about a million companies that do these tours, but we chose to go with Ultimate Hollywood Tours based on their great reviews on Trip Advisor. And it was great!

We traipsed all around the Hollywood Hills, saw a ton of celebrity homes, and hit a ton of tourist attractions (including the Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, the La Brea Tar Pits, the Chinese Theater, and the Beverly Hills Hotel) within about two hours. And this was all from the comfort of our open top touring bus. I'd highly recommend going with one of the open-top bus tours. You really get a great view of everything for photos, and with it being around 80 degrees and sunny (with a breeze), being "outside" was great. Here are a few photos I snapped while we were on our tour...

A Frank Lloyd Wright home:

The Beverly Hills Hotel:

A lovely fuzzy photo of a Rodeo Drive sign:

The Chinese Theater (looks much nicer when it's on TV and not surrounded by barriers, ha!):

That afternoon, we headed out to Griffith Park Observatory for a hike (with my cousin, his wife and their baby girl) since it has incredible panoramic views of the whole city. You must do this if you're out in LA! It will be crowded and busy, but there's good reason. The Observatory itself is beautiful, and so are the views. I hear they have open telescope nights where the public can go and see the night sky. We were (obviously) there during the day, so we missed that, but I'm sure that would be a cool experience.

I'd definitely suggest taking one of the nearby trails and hiking to the top to escape the craziness - it really clears out and you'll pretty much have the whole summit to yourself so you can see LA like this:

Whoa, baby. Hey there observatory off in the distance. And the city behind it.

You also get a great view of the Hollywood sign on your way up so it's a good spot for photos with that iconic landmark. Can you spot it to our left through the LA haze? ;)

Here are all five of us at the summit. Incredible views (and incredible company!).

The next day we all headed out to Manhattan Beach for brunch at Manhattan Beach Post. The food and atmosphere were stellar. The restaurant occupies the space that used to be the Manhattan Beach post office, and it really pays homage to its postal roots. I wish I had taken more photos of it, because it was gorgeous. Even the menus played into the postal theme. They arrive at your table in envelopes with your party's name on it. (I'd suggest making a reservation if you go. It was packed!)

Then it was time for relaxation on the beach. I took in the views of the wide expanse of beach, the Pacific Ocean, and the gorgeous houses along the edge.

I also snapped some people photos - I especially loved photographing the littlest one of the group and her parents:

Aren't those sunglasses hilariously cute? I can't get over them...

C and I got in on the photo action as well:

Love this little one! Isn't she just the cutest? It was so great spending time with family for a couple of days.

During our final two days in LA, we spent our time with some friends who are almost family. Here we are at dinner (Golden Road Brewery) one night with them and their little boy, who is absolutely adorable:

And here's the inside of the brewery:

It was a super fun place to eat, try a couple of their beers, and hang out. I'd recommend taking a trip there as well if you're in the area!

One fun part about spending time with these dear friends was that our friend, Sarah, who is a cast member on Grey's Anatomy, took us on set with her and gave us an inside scoop on what it's like to be on the show. (She plays April Kepner in case you were wondering.) We saw all the sets and trailers, met a ton of the production crew (who were so, so nice, by the way), watched them shoot a scene, and even met a few of the actors who were shooting the scene that day. It was such an amazing privilege to be there with her, and I am so grateful she was willing to take us and show us around! There is a LOT that goes into making a TV show people, it's truly an amazing production.

Here we are with the actors we met on set:

I tried not to be starstruck. They're all so nice and just normal. You know? Like they say...Stars! They're just like us! Sorta :). I have nothing but great things to say about everyone we met.

I think that about wraps up our time in LA. All in all we had a great time exploring the city, seeing some sites, and spending time with wonderful friends and family. I had no complaints and everything we got to do was fun, fun, fun. It's such a huge city and we barely scratched the surface with the activities we did, so I think we'll have to go back again soon to see some more!

Have any of you been to LA before? What highlights did we miss? (Don't tell me I missed too much or I'll be sad!)

I'll be back tomorrow with some photos and favorite parts from our drive up the coast on historic Route 1. Even though we took the whole day to do the drive, we definitely wished we could've spent more time doing it. It was amazing!