We have completed our California Adventure and we are home again.
This trip was much more than we could have expected or planned.
As we had planned we started in San Diego and worked our way up to San Francisco, approximately 500 miles.
The first night we stayed at the Hyatt in San Diego – we had a first-floor suite which was very nice.
The drive up the Pacific Coast Highway from San Simeon to San Francisco was breathtaking, the pictures could not capture the breath of the vistas, the twists and turns up and down the mountainside with the Pacific down the side the whole way.
View of the Pacific Coast Highway 
In San Diego we stayed at a very nice hotel Downtown San Diego – I got breakfast every day at a little Starbucks Cafe
San Diego
Patrick Foley – We visited Megan’s cousin Patrick, daughter Kelly and granddaughter Harper. It was delightful to spend time with these members of our family – they live in Oceanside, California which was about an hour from our hotel.
San Diego Zoo – it was all that you hear about.. conversation is in its blood.. you can tell. The Giraffes were so close that it was amazing.
USS Midway – we stopped at the Midway on our way out of town.. this was a wonderful experience.. there were people who had served on the Midway or similar vessel giving first hand explanations of the area we were in. One that stood out was this man that is about our age, had served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. He was covering the special exhibit on helicopters.. he explained how helicopters worked. A great man.
San Diego Zoo 
USS Midway
Orange / Anaheim
Our next stop was Embassy Suites in Orange, California, near Los Angles.
We visited the Getty Museum – the trip up to the Getty was quick, about an hour.. the return was something else. The Getty was the second highlight of the trip, the size of the complex was amazing, the pieces shown were simply amazing.
When we were completing our tour of the Getty I got a call from our friend Yungchai, this was to be the best day to visit with her…. That was around 3:00 in the afternoon.. It took us almost two hours to get back to the hotel.. the GPS in the car could not locate her address, Google Maps said Exit 7 on Interstate 405…. I set the GPS to go back to the hotel… after at the hotel and the GPS found the address…. We had a wonderful visit with Yungchai.. went to a Mediterranean Restaurant and had kabobs which were delicious.
Since we had such a bad experience with the traffic we did not want to go back into LA the next day, so we went to Disneyland… this was different than we had planned.. but was a really nice detour. The Adventure Park Entrance is just across from the Disneyland Entrance, so we bought Park Hopper tickets.. started in the Adventure Park and after half the day went to Disneyland – we had a very nice day here.
San Simeon
Hearst Castle 
This was our longest drive between cities – 250 miles.
The target for this stop was the Hearst Castle – which was the estate that William Hearst built – we did two tours – the Grand Rooms Tour and the Cottage / Kitchen Tours – the massive size and grandeur of the estate is incredible. The gardens, pool and the art and antiques included were massive.
We had a delicious dinner at a local restaurant.
Route 1 from San Simeon to Carmel is the most scenic portion of the Pacific Coast Highway, which was wonderful.
Carmel
Tickle Pink Inn
Could there be more of a dreamy place than the Tickle Pink Inn.
Our first day in Carmel was spent at the Immediate Care Facility in Monterey, Megan got a pain in her side late on Sunday and it is suspected she has diverticulitis. She had a CT Scan on Wednesday, we are still waiting for the results.
*** Update – Megan has diverticulosis which apparently flared up (which would be called diverticulitis), the CT scan showed the diverticulosis (which is pockets in the colon) is common – the diverticulitis is when they became inflamed… she probably had some minor inflammation that went away by the time of the CT Scan. She will check with the doctor here next week.
We had a delicious lunch on Sunday in Carmel the day we arrived.
The Tickle Pink Inn had a breakfast every day and a wine and cheese event every afternoon. We met several people at these times. A young navy sailor who had a love for cars – Mustangs to be specific – he was there celebrating his 21st birthday with his wife and parents – he had a Mustang GT that he got a good deal on through the dealer he was working for. We also met a couple around our age, she was Japanese and he was American – they met in Houston and were married for 30+ years.. the young sailor was from Texas as well.
We were able to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which was amazing.
Monterey Aquarium 
San Francisco
This was our last stop
We spent Thanksgiving here – we had Thanksgiving Dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had a wine pairing with my dinner which included one wine with each course. Zinfandel, Pino Noir and a desert wine – I finished the first glass and half of the other two. The dinner included two large slices of turkey, stuffing, cranberry and carrots. The dinner was great and so was the service.
On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day we went to Muir Woods – this is a national park that includes a forest of redwoods that are thousands of years old…. We could only get a 3:30 pm time for parking…. This was amazing, I had visited this park with a collogue after one of our Safeway Meetings around 2006….
Friday – we were not able to get reservation for Alcatraz… so we walked over to the ticket booth, but they did not have any stand by or alternative available. We walked to Pier 39 and found our way to the sea lions of the pier on floating docks.. but first we had to go through an arcade like group of stores restaurants targeting the tourists. After we went through the stores we made our way to Ghriladi – Megan had a hot fudge sundae and I had a vanilla shake. We then spent some time in Ghriladi Square which are a bunch of stores.. we bought sweatshirts and a hat.
We walked over 15,000 steps and 6.5 miles
We had dinner at the hotel – I had Duck, Megan had a burger
Muir Woods
What a wonderful adventure!!! Loved seeing your photos each day. Some really beautiful locations.
Didn’t know that Megan wasn’t feeling well! Hope all is OK!
Welcome Home!
Thanks – Megan is OK.. has a small issue that seems to be under control