San Francisco

We left Montara, drove through Half Moon Bay and on to San Francisco.  At the suggestion of our host at the hostel we went to the Cliff House Restaurant for brunch.   We loved the history of this place and especially enjoyed learning about the Sutro Baths (magnificent public saltwater baths which first opened in 1896) - the ruins of which are next to the restaurant.

                                              Sutro Bath ruins 

The rest of the day we spent exploring the city.  So many fun things to see and do here: Chinatown, Fisherman's Warf, Golden Gate Park and our favorite tourist attraction Lombard Street (the crookedest street).  It was funny because we saw a great part of the city by trying to get to the top of this street.  Be aware if you've never driven in San Francisco before - you cannot make a left turn anywhere!

                                     Driving down Lombard Street.

Later in the day we left the city and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to our friend's house in Corte Madera.  Gotta love San Francisco!

(A fun book to read about San Francisco is West From Home Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder San Francisco 1915).

Point Montara

The next leg of our journey took us through Santa Cruz where we thought we'd stay the night, but instead we were inspired to continue traveling north.  We came upon a hostel with a hot tub on the cliff by the ocean.  We thought it would be fun to stay there, but they were not able to accommodate the six of us.  However, the hostel 20 minutes up the road could. This is how we ended up at the Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel.    We had great experience staying here.  It was incredibly "green" and clean, there were people staying there from all around the world, and we had a terrific ocean view from our private room.  The people in the room next to us were from Napa Valley and they said they come to this hostel every couple of months because they can't beat the view for only $65 a night!  

The view out our window.

The trail from the hostel down to the sand.

Up to Monterey

Outside of  Cambria we stopped by the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery near San Simeon.   The elephant seals looked like they were enjoying an afternoon siesta in the sun.

We also saw a pod of whales breaching and blowing along the coast as we traveled toward Big Sur.  Allie and Micayla were more interested in the squirrels though...

 We drove through Big Sur to Monterey where we stayed the night.  The next day we walked Cannery Row and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was fun seeing the sea jellies, sea horses, and otters up close and learning about the life and times during the days of the canneries.

SLO & Cambria

We left the beach and headed to the  Avila Valley Barn for berry picking.  The berries weren't ready to pick yet, so we decided to check out the newly renovated San Luis Obispo Children's Museum.

                    Nate had fun doing a magnet experiment with paperclips.

After some play time at the museum we continued north to Cambria and to Moonstone Beach where we collected beautiful moonstones, jade, and sea glass. 

Avila Beach

After a fun day in Solvang we stayed a night in Avila Beach at the Lighthouse Suites.  We had a great room with an awesome view of the ocean.  Nate had fun golfing on the little putting green.

                      We played around with their giant chess board,

                     explored the tide pools and saw big sand crabs,

                          and had fun swinging on the beach.   

We could have spent a little more time here, so we may make a return trip to Avila Beach someday.

First Stop - Solvang

The first stop on our road trip was Solvang.  Here we met up with good friends and went to a miniature horse farm called Quicksilver Ranch.  There were lots of foals nursing on their mamas.  All the horses were really cute!

 

Then we went for some Aebleskivers (kind of a cross between a pancake and a donut) at the famous Solvang Restaurant.   Yum!

After a visit to the Hans Christian Anderson Museum, we went to a nearby park that we had seen on our way to visit the horses.  The playground equipment was unlike any we had ever seen before!  It was a fun day and a perfect beginning to our trip.

Western States Road Trip

With our bags packed, car loaded, and travel boxes (containers decorated and filled with art supplies, mad libs, puzzle books, games, snacks, glee gum, magazines, travel notebooks, nature sketch journals, maps, and mileage charts, etc.) in hand we set out for our road trip last month.  We traveled up the coast of California, crossing the border to Oregon, then through Washington over to Idaho and Montana, through Utah to Nevada and then home - phew!  It was quite an adventure.  The kids said they felt a bit like the "Little Travelers" except that we were not traveling to another country and our travels lasted closer to three weeks vs. three months!  Over the next week or so, we will post some of the highlights of our trip; some of our favorite places we went to and some of the things we did.