San Francisco

After our day in Napa we returned to San Francisco for the weekend. We arrived at our hotel - the Renaissance Stanford Court. We got a great deal on Priceline...until we found out that it cost $45/night to park and saw that the room was in desperate need of a renovation. However, the location was great and when we arrived all we wanted to do was sleep.

On Saturday I got a map and found all of the spots we wanted to visit. We started off at the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Station. It was pretty neat. There were a ton of people, a lot of food and art vendors. From there we walked to Fisherman's Wharf. It was FREEZING cold and windy. We grabbed a bite to eat, saw a bunch of seals and Alcatraz Island and then caught a cab back to the hotel so I could change into something warmer!

From there we walked to Lombard Street. We knew we got there when we saw bunches of tourists in the middle of the road taking photos...so of course we stopped to do the same! Then, we walked to the house from Mrs. Doubtfire. On the way there we walked through a fair on Union Street. There were a ton of dogs there. It was really cool.

We found the Mrs. Doubtfire house. It was perfect - just as I had imagined it. We took some photos and then hiked up and down the hills of San Francisco to our next destination, the painted houses. They were really pretty and the park was beautiful.

Next on our agenda was the house from Full House. We found it easily and took more photos.From there we walked to Union Square for dinner. We ate at a little Thai restaurant and called it a night. I think we walked 7+ miles!

San Francisco was really beautiful, but there were some parts that were a bit shady. We liked our time there, but next time we might want to route our walks better to avoid certain areas!!

Napa Valley

Back to the trip!

On Thursday night we headed to Napa Valley after dinner at the Buckeye Roadhouse. The drive was short and we were glad it was! We arrived at our hotel, the Vino Bello in Napa, just after sunset. We were exhausted and had to get up at 4:45A to catch our hot air balloon ride in the morning. We walked around the grounds of the hotel that included a pool with views of vineyards. It was a very pretty hotel and our room was amazing. It had a mini-kitchen and a washer dryer. You could definitely make yourself at home if you weren't staying for just 8 hours like we did!

We got up super early, packed our stuff and checked out. We met the rest of our hot air balloon buddies at the Napa General Store at 5:30A. It was still dark out. We rode out to the balloon launch spot and were able to watch the crew inflate the balloons. It was pretty cool.

Each balloon basket fit 16 riders and one pilot. The flight was really amazing. Grant was a bit scared at the beginning, but he got more comfortable as the ride went on. We took a ton of photos. There were about 7 balloons all up in the air at the same time. It was neat to see!
After the hot air balloon ride we had a champagne brunch with the whole group back at the General Store. We got certificates of flight and had a mimosa or two! At 10:30A we were picked up by our fabulous wine tour driver, Sebastian. He was really amazing!! He drove me and Grant along with two other ladies to some of the most beautiful wineries in Napa Valley, Sonoma and Yountville.

The first stop was Artesa. It was our favorite spot for the wine. We bought two bottles of the Chardonnay. The winery was on top of a hill with amazing views of the valley. It was so pretty up there!!

After Artesa we headed to two more wineries and had lunch outside at one of them. It was SO beautiful. After lunch we headed to Chandon to walk around the grounds and then headed to James Cole and a couple other wineries. I think in total we went to 6 or 7 different wineries. It was pretty amazing. We even stopped at the Bouchon Bakery on the way back. We also drove by the French Laundry restaurant, the only 5 star restaurant in the valley. A dinner can cost $200+ per person!! Crazy!

We left Napa after our wine tour at about 5:30P. We were sad to leave because it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It was my most favorite part of the trip - other than seeing the Father of the Bride house! I definitely want to go back to Napa and I am sure we will! And when we go back we will call Sebastian. He was the best tour guide ever!!

Father's Day

I'll post a couple more trip posts after this one, but Penelope wanted to put up a post for her Dad.

Hey guys, this is Penelope! I was so excited to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad today. He's the best Dad there is. Mom and I went shopping for a good gift for him. I wanted to get him something he could use every day because my Dad is very practical. So I asked Mom to take me to the cell phone store. I guess I should tell you that my Dad's cell phone was one of my favorite chew toys. I really liked the antenna. =)

My Mom and I found a phone that had no antenna for me to chew allowing my Dad to have a phone that would last a long time. We got it activated and gave it to him. He really liked it!

In the morning today I wanted to have a nice family brunch. I asked my Mom if we could take Dad out to breakfast. There is a great cafe that we can walk to from home and eat at outside. Mom said that would be a great idea. The three of us walked over to the restaurant and got a great table outside. Everyone around us fell in love with me because I am so cute. The waiter brought me a bowl of water while Mom and Dad ate. It was a lot of fun to go out as a family.

After brunch Mom and Dad decided to take me to Grandma's house to go swimming. I didn't like that much, but enjoyed seeing Uncle Max. =)

Anyways, happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!!

~Penelope Alexis Zaccardi-Clem

Pebble Beach and Muir Woods

We left Monterey pretty early in the morning and made our way to 17-mile drive. It was a beautiful drive through forest, amazing homes and scenic golf courses. The drive culminated with a stop at Pebble Beach. We parked and walked around the grounds of one of the most storied golf courses on the West Coast.

Our first stop was the putting green just in front of the Lodge. After taking a quick photo we headed to the Pro Shop which was already filled with 2010 U.S. Open merchandise. Just in front of the Pro Shop is the first tee. We walked around in a few more shops and then made our way the 18th green. The hole is right along the coast line and absolutely stunning. This stop made me reflect on my life at the TOUR. I'm going to miss working in golf.

We left Pebble and headed North to San Francisco. The drive was easy and beautiful up the Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped a couple times to take more photos along the coast.

On our way to Muir Woods we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge! I was so excited to see it in person. It was a lot bigger than I pictured it being. We pulled over at a parking lot just after we crossed the bridge to take some photos. It was FREEZING cold and super windy. From the photo spot we could see the bridge and downtown San Francisco.
We made our way to Muir Woods to see the redwood trees. It was a really beautiful forest. We walked through some of the paths and found a 2.6 mile trail.We were sad when we found the sign saying no pets. Good thing we didn't bring Penelope. We missed her so much though! We started walking up hill. The up hill part of this hike seemed to last forever. The trail seemed to taper off a bit at the top of the hill. We looked around and saw a sign that said "lost trail." We took that back down the hill, through the forest.

While we were hiking we saw a little waterfall and took a photo of it for Grant's brother Ed who is a professional waterfall photographer. ;)

At the end of the hike we saw a bunch of people gathered round ahead. We approached the group and saw 2 deer right by the trail! They were SO close to us. We watched them graze with the rest of the group for about 10 minutes and then headed to the car, ready to get some dinner and make our way to Napa Valley.

On the way to Muir Woods we saw a restaurant called the Buckeye Roadhouse right by the Golden Gate Bridge. We decided to grab dinner there on our way to Napa. There was quite a crowd for a Thursday night, so I thought it must be good and it was! It was so good, in fact, that we decided to make dinner reservations for the next night when we'd be returning from Napa to San Francisco.

Hearst Castle and Monterey

Wednesday marked our last day in LA as well as our two-year anniversary. We celebrated by driving up the coast to Hearst Castle. We passed Santa Claus Lane and made a pit stop in Santa Barbara on the way. Santa Barbara was pretty, but there were a lot of homeless people hanging out around the beach. The pier was big enough for cars to park and trucks to drive down to make deliveries to the restaurants, museums and shops located at the end of the pier. It was a nice place to stop.

As we were driving down the Pacific Coast Highway we stopped pretty often to take photos. It was so scenic. The ocean looked like it went on forever.

As we approached Hearst Castle we made a stop in Cambria for lunch. We ate at a cute restaurant called Robins. It was surrounded by antique shops and other local hot spots.

After lunch and a little shopping we headed to the castle. As we approached the castle we saw Zebras roaming the countryside along the PCH. It was crazy until during the tour they told us that Mr. Hearst had a zoo including zebras that still roam the grounds today. Pretty cool!

We took the Garden Tour, meaning that we spent most of our tour outside. It was BEAUTIFUL! The castle was huge and there were several large guest houses as well. We were able to tour the largest guest house, all of the gardens, the outdoor pool, tennis courts and indoor pool. Despite being the youngest people on the tour by far, it was a lot of fun. The flowers, the view, the stories about the Hearsts and the architecture were all amazing.

After our tour we drove up to Monterey to stay the night. We easily found our hotel and made it downtown for dinner. As we walked down the main strip every restaurant had representatives outside giving away samples of clam chowder, shrimp scampi or other house specialities. We chose a seafood restaurant right on the water. It was a nice spot for our anniversary dinner. While we were eating we noticed a fishing building located just out the window...Randy's! We were sure to get a photo of Randy's after we left for our favorite nephew in South Carolina, Randy.

We were pretty exhausted after all of our driving, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

City of Angels

Grant and I left sunny San Diego after dinner on Sunday night. Grant was at the wheel for all of 30 minutes before he started almost falling asleep while driving. I took over and Grant slept most of the way to LA. We drove to Pasadena where we set up shop until Wednesday morning.

We drove up to the house where Grant's friend Nathan is staying while in Seminary. The house was really cute and we fell in love with Pasadena. When we got to the house we were exhausted, but managed to stay up for a good while catching up with Nathan and his brother who was in town visiting as well. We met Nathan's roommates Brady and Chris (who owns the house). It was a good time.

Grant and I woke up fairly early on Monday, excited to check out LA. All over LA were these beautiful blooming trees with purple flowers. It was really really pretty to see them everywhere. First on our agenda was finding the Father of the Bride house, which happened to be located just 5 miles from Chris' house! We found it easily. I was so excited. I wanted to jump out and give the house a big hug! We took several photos and then went to our next stop: the Walsh house from 90210. This house was just about 5 miles away as well. It looked familiar despite the fresh coat of white paint on the exterior. On the way back to downtown Pasadena we found the Rose Bowl!

Brady gave us some great recommendations for lunch and we headed to Aux Delices for lunch in downtown Pasadena. It was a cute French sandwich shop in downtown Pasadena. We were able to shop in downtown Pasadena after lunch. I found some really cute stores and bought some shoes and jewelry. After lunch we headed to Beverly Hills.

We were driving down to Beverly Hills with the goal of stopping by Kitson to buy my sister Tess some goodies for watching Penelope during our trip. We drove up and down Sunset Boulevard and over to Kitson. I got Tess a Kitson t-shirt and beach bag. We saw some cool restaurants and beautiful homes in Beverly Hills. We parked and walked around a bit and then had dinner at Il Sole on Sunset.

That night we spent some time with Nathan, David, Chris and Brady.

On Tuesday I had to go and get some drug tests done for my new job...it was not a fun experience. The first Quest center I went to would only do one test and didn't give any advice on where I should go for the other test...so I called Quest and got an address for the other center location to finish my testing. It took me a while to navigate through Pasadena to find the other center. I parked and walked into a waiting room filled with people. In all it took about 2 hours to get both tests done and get back to Chris' house. Not the highlight of the vacation!!

When I got back we had lunch and then went to Griffith Observatory. It was up in the hills with an amazing view of downtown LA, Hollywood and the surrounding hillside including the "Hollywood" sign. It was really amazing and beautiful. We spent some time there had a bit to eat and then Nate took us on a driving tour of his new city. We drove around Beverly Hills and Mulholland Drive. It was nice to have a driver who knew his way around the city!!

That night was our last night in LA. We had dinner with Nate and David at a great little Thai place and spent the night watching a movie and getting our things together for the next leg of our trip.

Traveling

I'm blogging tonight from my 5th hotel room in the last 8 days. I'm in Indianapolis. Tomorrow is my first official day at my new job. I have training for much of the day, but will post more about our trip through California and to Vegas. It was a really fun week and a half, but we were excited to get home and see Penelope! We missed her SO much!!

I've posted some new pics on flickr - so check them out!