The morning of our anniversary, Mark took the wheel and we began our trek north up the Pacific Coast Highway. After driving along the water for a few hours, we redirected inland through the mountains, and ended up in the wine country of El Paso de Robles. Mark found an amazing bed and breakfast, Seven Quails, located on a beautiful vineyard. He'd also arranged a wine tasting tour and we visited three wineries: Mitchella, Tobin James, and Castoro Cellars. Somehow all of those little "tastes" added up to us getting pretty tipsy! The tour guide dropped us off, and our host and hostess offered us a private tasting of their own Seven Quails homemade wine. What a wonderful, memorable first anniversary with my incredible husband :)
After an exquisite breakfast of eggs Florentine and hot, homemade apple turnovers the next morning, we were back on the road continuing our journey north. We stopped for pumpkin fudge and pomegranate apple cider at Jack Creek Farms in Templeton, then got back on the PCH. The coastal views were spectacular the entire way. We admired hundreds of elephant seals at San Simeon, progressed northward along the cliffs, and popped in for a drink at Nepenthe in Big Sur. This region has to have some of the best scenery in the whole country! We stopped whenever we felt like it, and just soaked in all the beauty. Further on, we paused at Carmel River State Beach, then passed through Monterrey and Santa Cruz. We bought huge, delicious strawberries at Fambrini's produce stand, then moved on to Pigeon Point where there were a bunch of people surfing with parachutes. After that came Pescadero, followed by my favorite views of the cliffs at San Gregorio State Beach. As the sun was going down, we reached our destination of The Inn at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay. We grabbed dinner at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company and even got to watch the Vikes stomp the Packers!
We woke to a beautiful sunrise over the harbor, got packed, and ate breakfast at Three-Zero Cafe, a local airport diner decked out in airplane paraphernalia. It didn't take long to reach our final destination, San Francisco!! We located our hotel - the White Swan Inn, ditched our bags, and immediately hopped on a cable car. I'd been to SF before, but Mark had not. It all seemed so new and exciting... what an awesome place! Mark surprised me once again - this time he'd arranged for us to rent bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and down into Sausalito. It was an incredible experience to see this famed bridge up close, and even get a little exercise doing it ;) We took the ferry back, then met up with my Uncle Scott, who lives in the area. He took us out for a yummy Vietnamese style dinner at The Slanted Door restaurant.
On our final morning, we drove down super-curvy Lombard Street and walked around Fisherman's Wharf for a bit. We were reluctant to leave for the airport, but so thankful for such a wonderful trip to celebrate our first year together.
These are just a few photos from our trip - check out the rest by following the link "1st Anniversary in Cali" under Our Photo Albums on the right.
No way! Alex and I hit up Monterrey and Sausalito last summer on our first "kids-free" vacation to celebrate our upcoming 6th anniversary...it's so beautiful - we couldn't get enough of the scenery!! We did some of the same drive you did, too :-) So glad you enjoyed yourselves - it looked like you had a beautiful time!!
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