travellin' route 101

Travelling US Route 101 on our way to Carmel by the Sea ... California really does have it all!

The photo journaling reads:

California really does have it all ... from huge traffic tie ups to buses that accommodate bicycles; from huge pumpkin patches to feather grasses dotting the landscape.  Not to mention the birds, plentiful and beautiful.

10s

burger joints and more

San Francisco's cuisine is nothing short of superb. Rarely will a meal be any less than mouth watering or the ambiance be anything short of charming. This trip was no exception.  We even found a couple of burger joints that were fantastic!

Shortly after arriving in Pacifica and after registering at the hotel, our next order of business was to find a place to dine.  Nothing fancy, but certainly something good.  Just around the corner from the hotel we found a quaint little place called Rock n Robs (450 Dondee Street, Pacifica, CA) decorated like a 50's diner. Mouth watering burgers and good ole fashioned shakes. The service matched the quality of food --- excellent!

We chose the Best Western's restaurant, the Restaurante Portofino, for an evening meal. Fabulous Italian food paired with wonderful California wines. The view was spectacular with the wall of windows looking out onto the ocean where we enjoyed watching the sun's decent into the water creating a vista that is always unique.


Rock n Robs, Pacifica, CA



Restaurante Portofino, Pacifica, CA

do you know the way to San Jose?

Picture two outstetched hands, palms towards the heavens.  In one hand a 2 1/2 hour direct flight to San Francisco, in the other a 6+ hour flight with two stops to San Jose - guess what we chose!

Arriving in San Fran we had about five hours before we could check into our hotel in Pacifica which meant a lot of sight seeing time!  We had been to the bay area the year before - yup once again hit by the "hey ... take me with you" bug. That meant that this trip could focus on the surrounding areas of San Fran and not just in the city itself.  Although the sights like Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz and of the Golden Gate bridge still drew us close.

We stayed the Best Western Lighthouse hotel in Pacifica, California. An ocean view room with the sounds of the pounding surf to calm and rejuvenate us.

Best Western Lighthouse Hotel

View from our balcony

excursion to Muir Woods, a tree-lover's monument

Muir Woods, California

Muir Woods ... impressive, awesome, peaceful.

The drive into the woods though is wild, with crazy hairpin turns and some steep drops.

It reminded me of the trip I took with my sister to Kalispell, Montana.  We took the Going to the Sun Road - a drive I would recommend as the scenery is incredible, but if you don't like heights, and scare easy - you are probably better off not to take this route.

Muir Woods was named for the conservationist, John Muir who said,

"This is the best tree-lover's monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world." 

hey ... take me with you ... really!

An email announcement of a laptop crop at Adobe headquarters in San Jose isn't something that everyone would jump at.  As a matter of fact it's probably one of those bits of information that would make the average person just press the delete key on their computer and move on to the next email.

For me though it triggered that impulse - the almost uncontrollable urge to shout "hey ... take me with you!"

And so began our trip ... we discovered we did know the way to San Jose. Along the way there we also discovered a few other places much to our delight.  As the next couple of days unfold ... so will this trip ... along with photos, once I can figure out where they disappeared to on my laptop!  Stay tuned we travel US Route 101 on our way to San Jose and to the laptop crop.