The day before Christmas eve, we had an early afternoon flight but we had to leave our house around 9am because of the crazy way we were getting to the airport. Since we didn't want to pay to park our car at the airport, and we didn't have anyone to give us a ride (the airport's over half an hour away, so it'd be quite a favor to ask someone to take us), we had to find a way to get there without it. We took a cab to the Andover train station, which was only ten minutes away, then took the commuter rail to the city, where we transferred to the T and took the T to the airport. We got there good and early and getting through check in and security was remarkably chill.
Then they announced that they were overbooked for our flight, we decided to go for the deal - fly out the next day, first class (!), and get two free tickets to anywhere in the continental US. They put us up in a hotel (the Hyatt) and gave us meal vouchers for fancy the hotel restaurant (only $15 each, and the entrees were all $20, but it was a big help!). It was a really nice hotel, we'd be getting into San Fran around 9 am the next day, and since we were just going to get a hotel for the night in SF and then drive down on Christmas Eve, the delay didn't actually inconvenience us. In fact, it saved us the cost of staying in a hotel in San Fran!
The next day, though, we did have to get up at 4am to make our flight (good thing we were only five minutes from the airport!). Flying first class was a lot of fun, if a bit odd. They put a linen napkin on our trays before serving us breakfast! It just seemed like silly little things to make you feel special. Having the extra elbow room sure was nice, but not worth four times the cost of a seat in coach!
Once we were in California, our adventure really kicked off with a beautiful drive down the coast on highway 1. It was long and winding (sometimes so twisty-turvy that I got a bit queasy), but it was gorgeous. We met up with James' parents and brothers in Arroyo Grande, and we had a lovely - if brief- holiday weekend with them. On Sunday, John and Dave went back to Orange County, and James and I drove the four hours through some of the most desolate, ugly and dried-out parts of California that I've seen, to get to his hometown. We visited with Ben and Katrina Willett, James' friends from high school and now my friends too, and their four wonderful children. Sunday evening was spent catching up and then playing a rousing game of "speed scrabble" with Ben and Kat after the kids went to bed, and on Monday we brought our MacBook over and spent most of the time playing with Photobooth with the kiddos, which was hilarious.
(It's worth mentioning here that James and I took advantage of being back in California by having lots and lots of good Mexican food. After photoboothing for hours, we went to one of the two most popular Mexican joints in town for dinner, and the next day we went to the other for lunch. So good! Massachusetts Mexican food, unfortunately, is lacking.)
After our trip to Porterville, we went back to Arroyo Grande overnight, stopping on our way there at the beach
in Cayucos to explore the tide pools. The next day we drove down to LA, a spontaneous trip, so that we could ring in the New Year with my brother. It was awesome to be able to spend some time with him. We stayed over at his place, on an air mattress and his couch, which mean crappy sleep but we got to maximize the time we spent with him. We took him out to IHOP in the morning and spotted that Dog the Bounty Hunter guy having breakfast! That was a pretty random LA celebrity sighting, especially since we were in LA for less than 24 hours, and nothing like that had happened in the year or so that we lived together in El Segundo!While we were down in the LA area, we also visited Brook and Jake Gotberg. Brook is a friend of James' from high school (and the younger sister of one of his groomsmen) and they moved from Cambridge, where Brook was studying law, to El Segundo so I became friends with them too. They couldn't come to our wedding because Brook was due to have their baby right around then. We finally got to meet baby Alice, who is just the most adorable baby ever! I really enjoyed getting to hold her and feed her pureed prunes - I'm not ready for babies yet myself, but I am ready for my friends to have them so I can cuddle them!
Then we drove back to Arroyo Grande for the night, where James' parents were waiting for us (they go there every weekend). We spent the evening and the next morning visiting with them, then in the early afternoon we drove up to Monterey to go to the aquarium. Since we got a late start, we decided to go to the aquarium the next day, so we went to the beach to enjoy the sunset and then out to dinner at a fabulous Afghani restaurant. We went down to Cannery Row and had dessert - James got an ice cream cone and I had LA-style frozen yogurt, which is something I miss! Yum yum.
The next day we went to the aquarium, which was a lot of fun, then we drove up to our hotel in Daly City, right outside of San Fran. We took the BART into San Fran and went to a restaurant on Pier 39 for dinner. The next morning, James and I went to Muir Woods which was fabulous and a place I've wanted to visit for a long time now. It's amazing how close it is to San Francisco, but how completely remote it is! We went to Berkley for a late lunch, and then went to Nob Hill to check into our hotel, which is James' aunt's timeshare. James' parents very generously covered our two-night stay there. We returned our car at the airport, saving us two days of renting, which was awesome, and then took the BART back. We had dinner at a cozy little pizza place right by our hotel - we had gone there with his parents on our first trip to San Fran together, so it was a bit nostalgic.
For our last full day in California, we met up with Emily and Todd and explored some of San Francisco with them, which was fabulous. We did a ton of walking, and it was a great way to see the city, although we were pretty sore by the end of the day! We saw the famous "Full House" houses and the Golden Gate park. We walked about five miles, which is pretty intense in San Francisco! (Especially if you haven't worked out in a long time. Ahem.) After we parted ways with the Rosenfelts, we had a late lunch and then had an adventure in public transportation to get back to our hotel. But first we stopped at See's and got a pound of yummy chocolates for our neighbors as a thank you for taking care of our pets while we were gone, and we got a pound for ourselves of course. There's this great little alley near our hotel that is lined on both sides with restaurants, so we limped over there for dinner and had a splendid meal, then limped back to our hotel to pack for our departure early the next morning.
Our flight left at 8:30 am, so we needed to be at the airport at 6:30. Our plan was to take a taxi to the BART, BART to the airport, so we planned in lots of extra time for the BART ride and in case we missed the BART, etc. Well, somehow our taxi driver convinced us to just let him take us the whole way, so we got to the airport super early but at least we didn't have to struggle with our bags on the train. Our flight back was fine, and once we landed in Boston we had to figure out how on earth to get back home. Our car was parked safe and snug in our garage, and we didn't have anyone we could call for a ride, so we had to depend on public transport again. Unfortunately our timing was off and we missed the last rush-hour commuter train, and would have had to wait for an hour or two for the next one. So we took the T out as far as we could go, and then a taxi from there. There's only one word for that: expensive. That was definitely the priciest cab ride I had ever taken, but it actually was the same as one week of parking at Logan, so I guess it's not so bad. Anyway, we saved a lot of money on our vacation by staying with family for a lot of it, so it works out in the end.
It was really good to be home, I was getting sick of living out of a suitcase! Lucy was terrified of us when we first came in, but she quickly warmed up and was rubbing and purring like mad. She was all over us and was even following me around.
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