Vacation: The Nor Cal Edition

Nice To See You Again, Pacific...

Vacations always seem to come just when you need them, don't they? I guess that's because we plan them that way, but still, we needed this vacay...bad. Typically with vacation, I am counting down the days before I go. I have every day mapped out, restaurant reservations confirmed, and plans A, B, and C on paper. I know, I am so "fly by the seat of my pants". Look, it works for us. I get to carefully orchestrate the perfect symphony of activities that will culminate in the most beautiful vacation ever experienced and Mike gets to be surprised on a daily basis about what we are doing. And lest you think I am completely rigid, I always have options for us and am more flexible than I sound. This time around was different. I have been so busy with school, internships and volunteering (i.e. begging for jobs), that I didn't have time to do my usual research and development sessions for this trip. It was literally the day before when I realized that school was over and now it was time to pack for a week away in Northern California! The big things were squared away like hotel reservations, car rental, and loose plans with family and friends, but I didn't even have a consolidated itinerary...in a notebook...with all confirmations and travel documents...and contact information...and restaurant reviews. I know, I know, I am a complete control freak. Anyway, valuable lesson learned: Overplanning a vacation turns out almost exactly the same as a loosely planned vacation. With one exception, without all the obsessive planning and coordinating, I had no time to build the trip up to unreachable expectations, so anything that happened good or less good, was just gravy. My whole belief system about planning and execution is crumbling around me. (Assumes fetal position).

Regardless, it was a fantastic trip filled with great friends and family, terrific food and drink, and glorious, wide open spaces filled with green things and clean air. It was also accompanied by that familiar feeling we get when we visit somewhere we love (and we looooove Nor Cal), where we have a daily discussion of if we could live there, where exactly we would want to live, what the pros and cons of living there would be, before we ultimately decide that it's not a decision we need to be making right now.

We spent a full week blowing around the Northern California coastline with a stop in Sacramento and the East Bay for reunions with friends and fam. We made sure to set aside several days of time for the two of us because, as I said, we sooo needed it and as I'm sure anyone who lives far from home knows, it's easy to get caught up in trying to see every person you have ever known while you are in town for a few days. Following are pictures from our week of (mostly) bliss.


I Left My Heart Here


Good Friends, Good Food at One Market Street in San Francisco


Does It Make You Want To Throw Your Arms Out and Twirl?


Our Room at the Glendeven Inn in Mendocino