Spontaneous Vacation

My brother Chad announced a few months ago that he would be getting married in the Sacramento temple. Adam and I booked flights for the late August wedding, but we figured since we were already out there we might as well see some sights. We procrastinated the planning of this trip until the week before, but it turned out to be pretty amazing.

On Ryan’s birthday, we flew in to Sacramento. My aunt was gracious enough to let us stay at her place for the wedding. Before the festivities started on Friday, we went to Sutter’s fort and Old Sacramento. My favorite part of the fort was the blacksmith shop since we were able to watch a blacksmith at work. It was absolutely amazing to see the metal being shaped into something useful. We got a quick bite to eat at Old Sacramento before heading to the reception.
The reception was really nice and the food delicious. Heather is a gem, and we are so happy to have her in our family.

The next day was the groom’s luncheon and the wedding ceremony. Lunch was fantastic (especially since we practically got the bride all to ourselves), and the wedding ceremony was really tender and beautiful.
That evening, my wonderful Aunt Lorene pulled out the cookies and made us hot chocolate from scratch. Did I mention how much I like her?

The next day we went to church and headed out to start our adventure. We spent the night a couple hours from Humboldt Redwoods State Park and spent the whole next day hiking through the redwoods; they are spectacular! We hiked 3 trails along the Avenue of the Giants and it was beyond anything that I can even describe. The trees are so tall and there are so many of them you can hardly see very far at all. We got to see some famous redwoods like the Dyerville Giant which fell in 1991, but was 370 feet tall and 52 feet in circumference. We also got to drive through the Shrine Tree, and Ryan played in a house carved from a redwood. We definitely plan on visiting the redwoods again in a future vacation.

After the redwoods, we drove down the coast into Mendocino County. We got there just in time to eat dinner on a bluff overlooking the ocean as the sun set. The next morning we got up early while the tide was low to explore the many tide pools at pudding creek beach. We got to see and touch tons of little animals including starfish and anemones. After breakfast, we went to glass beach and a lookout point in Mendocino. The fog had set in and so we decided to wait for it to burn off so we could see the views. We toured the town of Mendocino, but it turned out to be a really pricey town with a large community of dirty hippies (clothing optional). We took our pictures on the bluffs and headed down the coast for equally good views without the undesirable company. We pulled off on the Navarro Trail, which was remote and had breathtaking views. After an hour or two, we reluctantly left the gorgeous views and headed for Calistoga.
Calistoga is in the Napa Valley area. We started off the day in the petrified forest, which was actually pretty cool to see. The forest was petrified when a volcano erupted and the silica from the ash replaced the cells of the trees over hundreds of years. The trail didn’t take as long as we thought it would, so we improvised. What do Mormons do in wine country?We go grape tasting. We took a tour of a winery and got to taste a bunch of different grapes that go into the various wines they make there.  We tasted Cab Franc grapes, Merlot grapes, Malbec grapes, Chardonnay grapes and a few others. I was partial to the Merlot and Chardonnay grapes. After the grape tasting, we stopped to see the Old Faithful Geyser of California. It wasn’t the coolest thing ever, but they did have a four horned sheep and fainting goats to feed.

The next leg of our trip was San Francisco. We stayed on the east side of the bay and took the ferry over to the city. We checked out Pier 39 with the sea lions before heading to Alcatraz. It was really interesting to see the cells and hear the stories of what had happened there. After a late lunch we headed to Fisherman’s Warf and went through the Maritime Museum. After that it was time to catch the ferry back to the hotel.

For the next two days we had a “hop-on, hop-off” tour bus that took us to all the famous sites of San Francisco. We could get off at any site and catch any later bus to continue on. We started the day going to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful day and we had amazing views of the city as we walked the bridge. We rode the rest of the tour bus route through Golden Gate Park, Haight-Ashbury, Alamo square, and other sites. Afterwards we went to Chinatown and had a great lunch at House of Nanking. We toured the fortune cookie factory and went to the Kong Chow temple, but after living in China, the temple was not impressive. It was fun to see the shops with dried everything (shark fin, sea urchin, sea cucumber, sea horse, abalone, etc.) and barter.

The following morning, we decided to take the subway under the bay and took the bus to North Beach/Little Italy. We toured the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral before hiking up the hill to the twisty section of Lombard street. We then walked through Ghirardelli Square to Hyde Street Pier and saw the old ships docked there. After lunch we went to Golden Gate Park. We walked through the prehistoric plant area where they filmed part of the ewok scenes in Star Wars and went to the Conservatory of Flowers. We weren’t really planning on going, but it was a cold, windy day and Ryan was done with being outside. The conservatory was having a special exhibit on “wicked” plants with poisonous and dangerous plants on display. The signs said it was a fragile environment in the conservatory so we needed to not touch the plants and even be quiet while in there. Ryan apparently didn’t read the sign because he either wanted to tear the leaves off of everything or scream when we wouldn’t let him. We took turns having one of us walk him around while the other stopped to read. Our subway trip back to the hotel ended our stay in San Francisco. We stayed the night at my Aunt’s house before heading back to the airport the next day. Ryan, exhausted from lack of naps during the trip, slept amazingly well on the flights home.
It was a great trip and we saw some amazing things, but it is nice to be back home again.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Ryan is now a year old. He is 28 inches still (10th percentile in height) and 21 pounds (25th percentile). Since we would be traveling on his birthday, we celebrated a few days early. He stuffed himself at his birthday dinner (he loves squash and zucchini), but he still managed to find the room to eat a whole strawberry muffin that I had made.
Ryan walks everywhere now and eats everything. He is still a great sleeper and gets about 12 hours of sleep at night and takes two 1.5-2 hour naps during the day. He loves playing peekaboo and he can show you where his ears are if you ask him. He calls us mama and dada now, and he is constantly waving at strangers. We are so lucky to have him!