Adventures in Florida: The Callihans Take Tampa: The Great 2022 California Expedition: Part 1

Hi Guys -

Glenn and I have returned from the trip of a lifetime. It took us forever to get all our photos downloaded, organized and cut down to a still insane but more managable number, so I'll do my best. Bottom line, although we were disappointed about not going to Yosemite, I think our trip was perhaps even better because of it...although we'd still like to see Yosemite someday - preferably when it is not on fire.

Because of the amount of photos, I'll try to keep my commentary brief but hopefully entertaining. I use the blog as our own photo album to look back on too so forgive me if I'm telling/showing more than you guys want to know.

Day 1

Day 1 was a travel day - flew to Detroit then on to San Francisco. I will say despite all the travel horror stories these days, our experience was as painless as could be. None of our flights were delayed or canceled, and we went first class all the way, so now, we are ruined for regular flights. It was so nice.

Here are some pics Glenn took from the plane.

Stayed in an awesome hotel at the airport. Our one travel snarl up was that we took a shuttle to the wrong Hyatt at first, and had to go back to one we were staying at, but it was only about a 5 minute drive. I will not show you pics of the hotel but it was super cool, with a toliet that lit up and raised the lid to say hello when you came near, and motion sensor lights along the base of the bed so if you got up in the middle of the night, you could find your way to the friendly toliet.

Day 2

San Francisco was COLD, foggy and drizzly in the morning. I should note that the people of this city have named the fog "Carl" which is hilarious. We talked about Carl a lot on the latter half of our trip.

So anyway, drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and stopped at Fisherman's Wharf which was kinda grungy...and did I mention COLD?

Then we headed down some of the steepest, twistiest roads ever to go to Sausalito for lunch. Sausalito was super cute.

We ate outside at a fabulous little Mexican restaurant, where EVERYTHING on the menu was gluten free - even mexican donuts with chocolate sauce for dessert. Omygosh - amazing. And we had the nicest waitress (Maeve)...in fact, almost everyone we met in CA was super nice and friendly. We felt very welcome.

After lunch we drove to Muir Woods National Monument (we had made reservations and booked a parking space in advance which you must do). It was gorgeous and a short, flat walk among the redwoods. While they were very big - it was their height that was truly staggering.

After Muir Woods, we had to drive to Calistoga to check into our rental house. First we pulled off at the side of a quiet road and took a much-needed nap. Then drove for about 2 hours to go to Calistoga to check into our rental house.

The directions to this place were crazy - like "Drive until the pavement ends and then head down the unmarked dirt road for a mile. You'll see a house number on the side of the road." See if you can see the number at the base of the tree below.

Then you go up a very steep and winding road to a coded gate, and our house is near the summit. My friend Amy was like, are you sure Glenn isn't planning on murdering you? It was VERY REMOTE.

We had both a coyote and a turkey run in front of us on the first day.

Also, note that the entire time we were in the Calistoga/Napa area it was crazy hot and dry. Like mid-90s the whole time. It did get cooler at night, but most of the time, HOT.

So anyway, this is the Hacienda.

The owner, Leigh, was a 78-year old woman with a love for jade plants and all things Mexican. We believe she was an ex-flamenco dancer and an artist - she had her own paintings hanging all around the house (along with many others.) She was eccentric and had a lot of crazy rules, but she was sweet. The house was also eccentric but we loved the place.

We sat out here most days and became bird watchers. More on that later. Not a bad view.

After getting settled in, we took a "shortcut" down the mountain that Leigh suggested - we should have known when she said never to take it at night and to "honk your horn" as you go around the bends that it was going to be a terrifying ride. We never took the shortcut again.

Had a lovely dinner on a patio in Calistoga (super cute little town)- which was only a few miles away but they were vertical miles. The food was great, there was a guy playing guitar, and we were off to a great start.

Day 3

Day 3 we went to the nearby Petrified Forest National Park - we drove on Petrified Forest Road every day. You all can look up the science on this, but basically a volcano erupted 3+ million years ago and the heat and gases and whatnot turned a redwood forest into stone. It was a relatively short walk in the woods - very pretty.

Afterwards we drove to Healdsburg - a super cute little town - had lunch and then had ice cream in the square.

Pretty much a lazy day on the porch after that, and then to a restaurant called Evangeline in Calistoga for dinner.

Day 4

On Day 4, we drove to Sonoma, which was another really great little town (Dad told me they had stayed there many years ago.) Had a nice little lunch and sat in the park and watched some ducks.

Later, we went to Tamber Bey Vineyards for our one and only wine tasting. It was in a pretty setting - a courtyard at a horse farm - but we were kinda meh on the whole wine tasting experience so that was the only one we did.

Later, we happened to find the brand new Four Seasons Resort in Calistoga for dinner. The place must have just opened because there was no signage and hardly anyone there. It was another amazing meal in a gorgeous setting.