Since we had a wedding to go to in California, we decided to stay in the Golden State instead of returning to Boise and having to come back. So here is a run-down of the wonderful times we had awaiting Angela's wedding...
7/7 - Julie and Dina met us at hotel - had fun dinner at El Tarasco
7/8 - drove to Santa Barbara, picked up Nonni’s car. Over the next few days, we wound down from our trip - did laundry, hung out, saw Cyrus, had dinner with Julio and Madeline and Barbara, Scott, Caelun. Watched World cup with Stefan, had Sean and Jeannie over for a drink, went to dinner at Argentine restaurant - Stefan and Alex joined us, and Sean and Jeannie came back to the house afterwards. Went to Barbara’s house and had a BBQ - with some rain - joined by Rick, Billy, Amy and Nico, Gia and Lucca, and Scott’s kids - Seth and Skyler.
7/12 - got rental car, drove to Belle’s house. Had dinner at the Organic Café in Paso - Gary, Marian, Kathleen, Greg, Cody, Taylor and Sawyer joined us. Spent night at Belle’s.
7/13 - went out to the Vineyard for a lesson in Gary’s soil. After 4 hours, we drove up the Big Sur coast to Ronald and Cheri’s. She had a great Salmon dinner prepared for us. Nice evening. Next day, walks along the cliff, went looking for rings downtown S.C. and in Capitola… had lunch at Seabright Brewery - Salmon and chips and great beer. Had dinner at restaurant on Seacliff - Ronald’s birthday dinner - outdoors - very nice.
7/15 - Our anniversary! Had small breakfast with Kaplans, then hit the road up the coast to San Francisco. Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and took a photo - another world landmark visited - stopped for a quick lunch at an organic café in San Rafael, and pulled into Ukiah late afternoon. Had dinner at Patrona’s - local, organic restaurant. Nice time, but Joanie didn’t like her meal.
On Friday, we drove to Mendocinco and walked around - looking for rings again. We then hooked up with Jaynie Beyer Blake and her husband Greg at her old café - Café 1 in Ft. Bragg.. Nice organic, local lunch and then went back to their house for a tour of their garden and pot green house. Pretty amazing. Drove back to Ukiah and then down to Hopland where we had dinner with Joe and Angela at the Crushed Grape. A great dinner, great wine on the deck - listening to the Russian River Ramblers - who played some great New Orleans Jazz. After dinner, we played Bocce on their championship courts. A fun night.
On Saturday - we took it easy. Hung out by the pool, had lunch at Mendocino Brewery - the first organic Brew Pub in the nation - good lunch and nice IPA. Then went to Nick and Angela’s wedding. A longish drive down a country road to a beautiful home - but it was way too hot for an outdoor wedding. Got some shade for awhile after the ceremony, but dinner was blazing for the first hour, then finally the sun set and a good time was had by all. A great couple and we got to visit with a long list of Joanie’s relatives. Got home late and went to bed cuddling - our last night on the road on this greatest of vacations!
Sunday – started off slow and then packed up for our final leg of our journey. We drove down to Hopland and had Brunch at the Crushed Grape, and played another game of Bocce. Great fun in the blazing heat of the morning. We then met Marc and his girls, Mariah and Amelia in Berkeley, and walked around and ate at this great little Mexican restaurant. After a fun time with them, we drove to the airport, returned the rental car and after a short flight home, Ryan picked us up. We went directly to Bitter Creek, where we sat outside and we all enjoyed excellent beers and some of the best fries on the planet. We then drove home, greeted our overgrown front yard and Kona and Guido, and went to sleep in our bed for the first time in about 35 days.
An incredible vacation… but we have a great home to return to.
