A week of new adventures...

May 2008 marks the date of my graduation from university. On the 17th I will receive my Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in journalism and a minor in studio art. After that day I will begin making my way into the real world. So what is a girl to do with drastic life changes looming in the distance? Travel. She should travel.

I may not be graduating for another two months, but I decided that Spring Break would be a fabulous time to see sights I have never seen before. With my best friend Amanda on board for a trip, we decided on California, as neither of us had ever been. From there we pitched around ideas of what city to visit, until the idea was given to us of driving down the Pacific Coast Highway. So we booked two one-way tickets, on in two San Francisco and one out of San Diego, we rented a car and we took off.

The PCH or Highway 1 is breathtaking, both in its beautiful views and its slightly frightening turns and sheer cliff drop-offs. It's similiar to riding a rollercoaster.. All the tension and build up while rounding the mountains, then a relaxing moments driving through berry farms, vineyards, and dairy farms.

As I said, our vacation began in San Francisco.
After a quick change of planes in Denver, we arrived just before lunchtime, giving us most of the day to explore. We quickly hit up Chinatown, after a drive through the "historic" sites. We found what is rumored to be the first Fortune Cookie Factory, but is definitely one of the oldest where the cookies are still hand-made. Two women make about 20,000 a day!

After that we headed to Fisherman's Wharf and in Ghiradelli Square we discovered a small cupcake shop with heavenly treats and the softest icing I have ever tasted- Kara's Cupcakes. They have only two locations, both in SF, and their ingredients are virtually all locally obtained and organic from Californian farms.
I selected the Rasberry Dazzle- a chocolate cupcake with sweet rasberry buttercream. It was positively divine and a must if you are visiting the city.

Of course, our trip would not be complete without driving across the Golden Gate Bridge and just simply taking in the lovely architecture which makes the city so unique... and of course, there are the hills, Lombard Street, and fighting to keep your car from rolling backwards.

After a night's stay in San Mateo, we drove to the in San Jose. It is a gorgeous Victorian home built by the late Mrs. Sarah Winchester, who inherited the Winchester rifle family fortune. After her baby and husband died, she saw a psychic who told her that the spirits of those killed by the rifle were attacking her. He said the only way to avoid the spirits would be to move West and build a house that she never finished. So for 38 years, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, she built. She oversaw everything and had a working farm as well. She included windows in the floor, doors that lead to walls, and stairs to the ceiling in her design to confuse the spirits. It's really amazing and so worth visiting.

It was after this that we were finally able to make it down to the PCH. It's probably the most beautiful from Santa Cruz to Monterey.
In Monterey we visited their Fisherman's Wharf and had a divine seafood dinner at Isabella's. Everyone along the wharf was begging us to choose their restaraunt, but I think we chose well.

The evening was spent at the Howard Johnson, which is nothing like most HJs. It was more like a sad, seaside motel. But we did drive by a few lovely bed & breakfasts, such as The Green Gable. The next morning we had an organic breakfast at the Wild Plum Cafe & Bakery. It was delicious. The eggs were better than most restaraunt eggs - they were real. Also, it was reasonably priced. If we weren't so full afterwards we would have tried one of the scrumptious looking muffins.

After a quick walk around Cannery Row, we drove on to Big Sur. There we were supposed to find a waterfall that runs in to the ocean. I'm still a bit confused by it, but I believe there is a Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and a Julia Pfeiffer State Park. Anyway, we visited the first, but should have driven on the the second. We did fina waterfall, but it wasn't too powerful and it runs into the river. Overall we hiked about 5 miles in 3 hours. We find a fabulous view from the top of one mountain, with more mountains to one side and the ocean to another side.

The hike wore us out, but we were spurred on to the Hearst Castle outside San Simeon.
Unfortunately, we missed the last tour by about half an hour but I hope to go back one day.
That Tuesday was our longest travel day, but we made it into Santa Barbara by nightfall. Hotel Oceana was our stay for the night. It was really pretty and just across the street from the ocean. Unfortunately, it was a bit too chilly to enjoy the water the next day. We did however visit the Mission.

On Wednesday, the PCH took us into Malibu. There we had lunch at Geoffrey's. The view was gorgeous (that seems to be a constant comment that I make). The restaraunt is mostly outside and we sat the balcony overlooking the ocean. It is definitely on the high-price side, but you pay for the view and the we both enjoyed our food as well.

Malibu is very pretty and all located along the coast. Santa Monica was just as nice. We walked along the pier and the beach, passing just by the tents holding a film crew and Adam Sandler... sadly, there was no view of him.

Our evening that night was spent in Torrance, just by Redondo Beach.
We decided to spend it in and watch a movie. My friend Hunter came to visit us. It was great to see him as I haven't since my semester in NY.

Oh this is getting long... but it was a week :)
Moving on..
We visited Beverly Hills first on our full day in LA. We got Jamba Juice and walked Rodeo Drive, followed by a large cupcake from Crumbs. Mainly it was big and messy, but it was good too. We were searching for Sprinkles, but somehow we missed it.
Afterwards we attempted a drive of celebrity homes.. unfortunately the map we had was for more D-list celebs. So we made our way to West Hollywood. We drove along Sunset Blvd, saw the stars along Hollywood Blvd, and viewed the imprints in front of Mann's Chinese Theater. It was rather dissapointing though. It's dirty and we happened to walk up on the end of fight, after being surrounded by school groups.. But at least we can say we saw it and the sign. My favorite part was shopping at H&M on Sunset. I so love that store :)

For fabulous Italian food in Torrance you must try Aliotta's Via Firenze. As the menu says, the dishes will take you back to Italy (I suppose even if you are like me and you've never been). The exterior is deceiving as the interior is charming and warm. Try it, you'll love it.

So there, most of the week was finished.
Friday we drove out to Riverside and met my cousin Zach for lunch at his school, California Baptist University. It was so good to see him.
After that we drove in to San Diego, hoping to lay out on Pacific Beach, only to find that it was much cooler than LA... so much so that we were wrapped up in sweatshirts. But it gave us time to drive around the City and over to see the Hotel del Coronado. I hope to stay there some time.
Our hotel was supposed to be in San Diego, but it was actually about 30 minutes away.. We did try out the hot tub, before showering and heading out to the Gas Lamp District. There we had a rich souffle at Bella Luna.

Our final day was spent at the San Diego Zoo. Amanda wanted to see the pandas :) We bought a value pass so that we could take a bus tour and got a quick overview as we only had 2 hours. We did miss the monkeys, but we took a gondola or "skyfari" trip over the zoo.

For lunch we had In-And-Out, which was what I really wanted. It was really good, but just like any Mom-and-Pop shop. So definitely a bonus for fast food. But we took the drive-thru since we had to drop off our car... did I mention we drove a PT Cruiser.. hmm... that was something else.

Well, our plane brought us back. And though I miss the rolling green mountains of California, I plan to go back soon and check out everything I missed, including Disneyland!