Trip East: San Antonio

Well...like I expected we had a long day of driving and then lots of sight seeing. So there was no time to blog. We didn't arrive to San Antonio until about 8:30pm (thanks to losing an hour changing time zones) and had to drive around trying to find a parking place. We knew in advance that parking was likely going to be a problem. We were staying at a hotel on the riverwalk right downtown where parking is limited. I called the hotel when we were on the way and asked about the parking situation. They said there lot couldn't accommodate us but to check out another lot around the corner might be able to. Otherwise, we were told to contact the city and get a permit to park our truck. It was 6pm so I think getting a permit would not have been possible. So when we arrived in San Antonio we drove to the other lot saw that it wouldn't work and continued driving around. Have you ever driven a 16' long truck that is almost 11' high with a 20' car trailer attached to the back around a city? Well neither have I but it didn't look fun at all. I was the navigator and nearly sent Graham down a one-way street! Whoops! Luckily we caught the sign just in time. Needless to say there just really wasn't a place to park this truck in the city so our solution? Get back on the interstate drive a few more miles on I-10 East getting out of the city and finding a hotel and parking it there. We found the perfect spot. Just outside a hotel there was an empty gravel lot that already had a big rig parked in it. So we parked our truck pulled the car off the trailer and drove the car into the city. We tried not to worry about the truck too much but we did check on it twice the next day.
Anyways, after the parking saga we got to the hotel and needed to find dinner! It was already 9:40pm!! We headed to the Riverwalk and walked around looking at all the restaurants. We finally decided on The County Line. They are known for the bbq and it smelled delicious! We were sat at a table right on the river!
The next day we woke to do some sight seeing. After checking on the truck we walked down to the Alamo. I must say this was a bit of a disappointment for me. I was expecting it to be bigger and more remote not IN downtown San Antonio. But we walked around, read some signs, and listened to a little history lesson.
Remember the Alamo!


Afterwards, we walked around on the riverwalk again looking for lunch. We eventually settled on a place called Boudro's recommended to us by the hotel. Once again we got a table right on the river. We ordered some drinks and some guacamole that they made right at your table. Then we split a lobster empanada which was also delicious!




Later we took a nap and then headed to the Natural Bridge Caverns. I had never been to any cave before so this was quite an experience!

The Natural Bridge

Going down!

I wish these pictures could capture how big and vast this cave really was!





For dinner we met up with one of my mom's work friends who had moved out to San Antonio. I've probably known him since I was about 7 years old. He brought us to La Fogata and it was packed so we knew it was going to be good. We had yummy (and beautiful) margaritas, good food, and great company.




That about wraps up our San Antonio adventure and it was by far our favorite place to visit!

More I-10 adventures coming soon!

Trip East: Las Cruces

Today we headed to Las Cruces, NM to visit the White Sands National Monument. Of course on the way we saw some interesting sights. Like this sign


and this sign



and cool rock formations


and a random bird statue


We couldn't go to the Missile Range Museum at the White Sands because they closed too early but I took this picture as a replacement


The White Sand National Monument was GORGEOUS and Graham took some awesome pictures! We did the Sunset guided tour and learned a lot about the dunes and the plant and animal life around it.






can you see the rainbow in the background?

I am so amazed at these pictures that Graham took with our point and shoot! Aren't you? If this economics thing doesn't work out.....

Anyways, after the White Sands we rushed back to Las Cruces to make it to dinner before the restaurant closed their kitchen at 9pm. We made it at 8:50pm. We chose to go to the St. Clair Bistro and Winery. St. Clair has about 80 different wines with most of them coming from New Mexico. The food was exceptional and the wine was wonderful as well.


It made me miss all the wine and wine tastings we enjoyed with Uncle Bobby :(

Tomorrow is going to be a full day of driving so I am not sure if there will be a post or not. Either way it won't be but a couple of days until our next I-10 adventure :)

Trip East: Phoenix

It's only about 4.5 hours from Palm Springs to Phoenix so we had a leisurely morning getting some much needed rest and even a little workout.

We stopped for lunch just outside of Palm Springs for a last chance IN N OUT experience. I'm really going to miss IN N OUT. It isn't somewhere we went all the time, about once every few months, but knowing that I won't be able to get it for a long time makes me want it ALL THE TIME!

Leaving IN N OUT it was my turn to drive...and maybe this is the appropriate time to request a little prayer because ever since leaving the bay area the check engine light has been on. Nothing seems to be wrong with the truck but it definitely makes me worry. Anyways, driving from lunch to phoenix you have to cross some desert mountains. We passed a sign that said turn off your air conditioner to prevent over heating for the next 10 miles. Ya'll it was about 110 degrees outside and they were asking us to turn off the A/C. We ignored it for about 10 seconds until the engine temperature kept going up. So we turned off the A/C and put down the windows. And the engine temperature kept going up and up and up. It was almost to the max (and I was going about 35mph on the interstate at this point) when we reached the peak and as I coasted down the hill the temperature went pack down. Phew!! I was sweating bullets and not just because it was 110 degrees outside. (You all will be glad to know that when we filled up for gas in Palm Springs I purchased 4 liters of water, plus we already had a liter, plus we had a cooler full of ice....so we were sort of prepared in case we had to pull off the side of the road for a little while).

I would like to add that we have had some great entertainment on the road. My co-workers and also my Uncle made us mixed CD's. I think we received 14 mixed CD's and they are all AWESOME!

The drive was beautiful. I don't know if pictures can really capture it.



A desert oasis

We finally arrived at our hotel in Phoenix around 6pm which didn't allow us to do much sight-seeing but did allow us to meet up with Graham's cousin Malcolm and his girlfriend Ashley for dinner!


More I-10 adventures coming soon!

Trip East: Palm Springs

We sadly left the bay area this morning to head to Palm Springs. Instead of taking the ugly I-5 we took scenic 101 and it was beautiful!!
We're going to miss you Pacific Coast!!

9 hours later we arrived in Palm Springs and let me tell you...it is HOT!!! H.O.T. hot. I don't know what we were expecting, but not this! I guess the bay area has turned me into a fair weather girl! I need 80's! Even at 10pm it was still 95 degrees.

Aside from the heat we've been able to enjoy the scenery. We took an aerial tram up Mt. San Jacinto. The tram climbs about 6,ooo feet of the nearly 11,000 foot mountain. It was crazy steep and really high above the ground. To top it off the platform of the tram rotates 360 degrees as you go up so you get a full view of everything. It was insane!

Can you believe this?! Steep, scary, and absolutely beautiful.

After our tram excursion we went downtown in search of dinner and I think we hit the jack pot! The ambiance was great, they had live music, and great margaritas and guac!


Tomorrow we continue on I-10 East for some more adventures!

It's so hard

to say goodbye......(said in a sing song voice).

We have packed all of our belongings and our apartment is empty. The truck is loaded and we are on our way. Thanks to some very AWESOME friends of ours we were able to have the truck packed and the apartment cleaned in under 3 hours. We had spent weeks packing all of our stuff up and were ready for the helpers when they came, but we couldn't have done it with out their help! So... thank you helpers!!

Matt and Kathy (my bosses); Polly, Berilac, and Dru; and Danny and Amy!! Our wonderful moving crew in front of the moving truck!

The month of July

The month of July has been filled with us doing as much as possible before we leave California! We went to Carmel, CA to visit with Graham's Aunt and Uncle for The 4th of July. Graham's Aunt Becky and I participated in the local sack race while we waited for music to start up again.

I came in 3rd in case you didn't catch that ;)

hanging out waiting for the music.

Graham and I also visited Lake Tahoe one last time where we experience paddle boarding for the first time.
I am going to miss this lake with the beautiful mountains!

Graham trying to tip my paddle board

Even little one got in on the paddle board action!

We also went hiking up in Squaw to see some waterfalls. There was still snow so they waterfalls were awesome!



But I think waterfalls are best displayed in video

And finally we've been up to a LOT of packing


We are coming right up on the move so stay tuned for posts about our trip back East!

Summer Time!

Well it finally got HOT here in sunny California, instead of just warm. How do we cope the heat with out a/c? With fresh strawberry lime margaritas of course! The strawberries have been DELICIOUS this year and we've been going through 2-4 lbs a week!
Yum!!
Enjoying them out on our porch :)

In other news the packing has begun in full force. We've started packing up all the stuff that we're considering long term--that is the stuff we can do with out for a couple of months while we look to buy a house. That way we don't have to unpack everything!

One car down...

We sold the BMW on Saturday! Graham is sure missing it. He loves his luxury vehicles.


I thought it was a boat so I was glad to see it go!

Inverness

On Father's Day weekend we headed two hours north to Inverness/Point Reyes National Seashore. The Institution where I work owns a cabin there and they rent it out to their employees year round. It is a cute little cabin with a large deck overlooking Tomales Bay. This year we invited Bob, Ethel, Matt, and Nat to join us. We are going to miss them SO bad when we move away that we are trying to squeeze in as much time as we possibly can with them!
Graham and I arrived at the cabin around 6pm Friday night. It was nice having it be just the two of us. There is no internet or TV so we entertained ourselves by doing a puzzle! I always forget how much I enjoy doing them! I think I'm going to have to start building my puzzle collection :)
Anyways, Matt and Nat were the next to arrive Saturday morning and we went to do three hikes. First we hiked up to Sky Camp.
Graham, Nat, and Matt
Up at Sky Camp. I guess you can't really see it, but that is the ocean behind us.

Then we went to Point Reyes Beach
The Pacific. It's always so cold by the water!

Then we found an adult sized see-saw


After this photo was taken, I was afraid Graham was going to jump off sending me crashing to the ground..so I decided to pre-empt him, but instead of jumping off gracefully I ended up falling almost face first into the sand. NOT the effect I was going for.

And finally we went to the short Earthquake trail which is along the San Andreas Fault line (not as cool as you would think because there isn't a crack in the ground or anything like that). But there was this fence that used to be one long fence until the 1906 Earthquake shifted the ground 16 feet!
You can see the second part of the fence in the back.

That evening Bob and Ethel arrived for dinner. We enjoyed Filet Mignon with roasted vegetables, rice pilaf, salad, and lots of wine!


(I had this really awesome video of a game we played there...but it is refusing to load correctly :( )

The next day we woke up to a pancake breakfast provided by Matt and Nat and then went out for two more hikes. One to McClures beach and the other to Chimney Rocks.
On our way to the trailhead we spotted some Elk
The jumbo star fish at McClures beach. They were everywhere!
In the distance near the water's edge you can see a baby seal making its way to the water before Matt gets to it.

The hike to Chimney Rock was absolutely beautiful. There is really nothing like it. It was also a little scary because it gets pretty windy out on the point and you walk on a pretty thin stretch of land and all you can think about is..what if an earthquake happens right now??
Drake's Bay looking towards Drake's Beach

More elephant seals. Love them!

Walking towards the point.

After our morning of hiking we stopped to pick up some fresh oysters and headed back to the cabin for lunch. It was a gorgeous day so we ate outside on the deck!
Matt trying to convince Nat to eat an oyster!

Before heading home we stopped into Point Reyes Station with Bob and Ethel for some coffee and a little window shopping! It was a perfect ending to a perfect weekend!!