USA: California – Memory Lane

By: MJ + PJ

See the gallery of PHOTOS: California

See the MAPS page for the areas we were at – zoom for precise locations.

See the 360 DATA page for costs and accommodation types. Use search query: “CA,”

See BUCKET LIST: Month One for locations in California that we visited.

It’s been a while, California. We had last visited in mid 2012, and that was via a flight from Denver. Before that it had been 3 years since we had packed up and driven to Colorado with a U-Haul and trailer and two cats.

One of the three must-sees on our son’s list was Legoland. (The other two are the Pyramids in Egypt, and “the China Wall”, known to most as the Great Wall of China.) We ticked this land of lego off his list and got to catch up with many SoCal family members and friends who we had not seen for quite some time. Getting around was fairly easy in our vehicle with the help of network navigation (see the NAVIGATION:Network Based post). We are very grateful for those who gave us shelter and great conversations and shared their resources during our re-visit.

California stretches a long way north from SoCal, and so we made our way up the coast, visiting Cambria, San Francisco, and Napa regions. We revisited the scene of a missed opportunity from 10 years earlier: Hearst Castle. A decade ago we had walked away from the visitor center with neither the time nor money to buy a ticket and take the bus up the hill, and so this time addressed a regret both of us had. It was well worth it.

On our way up the coast we stopped at the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had the ‘delight’ of somebody having a meltdown on the drive there, which led to a delayed entry for that person as a consequence. You’ve probably see that photo! A great place that did not disappoint in the variety and quality of the displays.

MJ had been to San Francisco several times briefly, but neither PJ nor AJ had been to this gem of a city. MJ feels it is like Sydney in Australia – A place that is always rewarding and fun to visit, but somewhere he could not live. We had a very busy several days and again caught up with some great friends, all who gave us advice and insights into living in the area. Hence, San Francisco did not disappoint this time either, but it still has some unseen treasures and so is on the list to revisit on a future adventure.

We had wanted to visit Napa Valley for years as it is an icon of the US and California wine industry, and also a place where a friend had won a marathon several years ago but had since been killed tragically while out on an evening run. We reconvened with MJ’s cousin and boys in Napa for the rest of the trip up the coast and towards Canada,