San Francisco day 1

We made it to San Francisco!  What was to be a 2 hrs drive turned into about 3.5 with traffic and a few stops along the way. 

We started with breakfast in Carmel at one of 20 "fairy tale" buildings built in the town between 1929 to 1931. It was definitely the most dwarf-like building we have been in. 

After breakfast, we made our way along the coast to San Francisco. We got into the city at about 12:45 and made it 7 miles to our hotel by 2pm. 

After dropping off our bags and parking the car, we took a walk down The Embarcadero to Pier 39 which has lots of shops and restaurants. We took a cruise around the Bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island. After the cruise we needed to warm up so had dinner at Pier Market. Lola enjoyed a seafood stew with rice while Arizona Adam had clam chowder in a bread bowl and a Caesar salad. 

After supper, we got a hot beverage for our walk back to the hotel, 1.5 miles away. 

Tomorrow will be an earlier start as we have a tour to Alcatraz departing at 9:30. Afterwards we will spend some time exploring San Francisco, maybe ride a streetcar. 

Here are some photos from the day:

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

Bay Bridge

Downtown San Francisco

Aquarium and Pebble Beach

Today we went to Monterey to the aquarium. It was pretty amazing seeing 10,000 sardines eating chum in the million gallon "deep sea" exhibit. 

The sardines

Other items we saw at the aquarium:

- penguins being fed (Lola was pretty excited)

- LOTS of jellyfish

- four octopus (octopi?)

- three otters playing in the pool

- many sharks (hammer head, lion and others that we didn't see signs for)

- manta rays

- Sea horses 

- two giant sea turtles

- some kelp (the Monterey aquarium was the first to have live kelp in their exhibits)

After the aquarium, we went to Bubba Gump for lunch. Lola had her usual crab and Arizona Adam had a fish sandwich. 

Lola enjoying her lunch

After lunch, we took a leisurely drive from Monterey to Carmel along 17 mile drive. We went along the coast and stopped in at Pebble Beach golf course.  There were several "large" homes. Maybe it should be "large homes" because these were not just homes in my opinion but massive living areas that could house three families of 6 each. 

On the drive

The 18th hole at pebble beach 

Once we got back to Carmel, we parked the car at the hotel and walked half a mile to the beach. AA was hoping to see a good sunset, camera in hand but unfortunately the clouds had other plans. We still enjoyed the sunset from what we could see. 

The beach at Carmel before the clouds rolled in

Dinner was at The Forge. Lola ordered the vegan plate with chicken. The waiter laughed. 

At dinner

Tomorrow will be more driving. We enjoyed our day of exploring and tomorrow will put us in San Fran for a few days. Hopefully the weather forecast is correct - sunny and 17*C, much like today which felt much warmer than 17...

The journey along the coast - hwy 1 ( Solvang to Carmel)

Today we drove up the coast from Solvang to Carmel CA.  But before that happened we strolled through the quaint little city of Solvang.  As you walk around you don't feel like you are in the united states but transported to Denmark. The famous mural that began solvangs Danish traditions and looks.

Our cool hotel

Luckily we walked around before most of the shops were open, as I think I could have spend a little penny in all the neat shops throughout the village.

After our walk we packed the car and headed on our car ride up the coast.  The drive was beautiful and very diverse.  A list of things we travelled through;

- horse ranches and an ostrich farm

- vineyards for miles

- strawberry fields (where lots of employees were picking by hand)

- twisty, turny roads

- beaches

- cliffs

- forests

- thousands of elephant seals

- hiked to a water fall

- light houses

- bridges built in the 1930's

And of course

- wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean

Here are a few photos

And then finally we made it to Carmel.  We haven't really explored a lot here yet, but luckily we are spending 2 nights.  We had supper and then just have been chillin in our room this evening.

Carmel streets.

Plans tomorrow aren't 100% defined, but hoping to venture over to Monterey to the aquarium.

Cheers, Lola

Standby

We made it to Solvang and AA has his bag. We have a more detailed blog post but the Internet isn't the best here so standby for a better recap. 

The traveling duo

Pending suit case...

Well I have decided that AA should not get his luggage off the airplane on the first day of arrival as the first thing we did when we got to LA was head to a mall:). I never get to go shopping on the first day... And this time I actually didn't really get anything for myself.  Adam picked up a pair of shorts, 2 tshirts from H&M, then the all important, socks, underwear, toothbrush and deodorant from Target.  He figured that should tied him over until his bag reunited with him.

AA new suitcase

Westjet couldn't tell us when his bag would arrive, but they figured the suitcase would come on the identical flight we were on, just come the next day.  So we figured the best bet to getting the bag back was to hang around LA until Monday late afternoon.  So off to take in the sites we did (after Adam changed into shorts...)

We went to Santa Monica Peir.  We walked on the board walk, up on the pier and saw a beautiful sun set.  

Then headed to Hollywood Boulevard for supper.  We went to Hard Rock Cafe, walked along the street and took in the stars, as well as the Chinese theatre.  These were sites that we had taken in in 2006, the last time we were in LA for the aerodesign competition in University.  We had a great time, headed back to the hotel because we were exhausted.

We fell asleep by 10:30... As we hadn't had a good night sleep the last night.

Today we knew we had a late check out of 4pm in hopes the bag would get delivered.  So off to see the Hollywood hills we went.  AA took us to Griffith Park, were we went on a long hike and got pretty awesome views of the Hollywood sign, also got a good work out, hiking about 5 miles up and down the hills and a sun burn....  We made sure we brought water this time as our experience in Tucson hike wasn't as successful in the water department. 

We hiked way up there.

After the hike , we headed to Sizzlers for a lunch that had a salad bar (AA's favourite).  While driving to lunch, we finally connected with westjet and they informed us that if they were to delevier the bag it wouldn't make it to the hotel for 4-6 hours... And since we had to check out in 1.5 hours, we agreed to go pick up the bag from the airport. AAs mood changed dramaitcally when he found out his suitcase was In the same city as we were.

So after lunch, we went to the hotel, packed the car and headed to the airport to get out last piece of luggage.  Picked up the bag, and then headed out of the city and off so Solvang.  On the way....

- traffic was extremely heavy

- Lola almost peed herself

-AA finally found a place for Lola to relieve herself before she embarrassed herself

- stopped in Santa Monica for supper

- Lola discovered she really burnt herself on the hike this morning

- made to Solvang

Go jets go!

Beautiful drive.

Now we are chillin in our "cottage" room planning our day tomorrow and Lola is trying to stay awake.

View down the street.

Till tomorrow, Lola

Vacation!

Well so far today we have: 

1. Managed to drag ourselves out of be at 4:20am after getting home from the Steph-squared wedding and going to bed at 2am. 

2. Catch a few zzz's on the 2.5 hrs flight. 

3. Make it to Calgary. 1 out of 2 bags made it too. I suspect the other is in Abbotsford, or will be shortly. 

4. Eat a quick breakfast before 

5. Going to the Rocky Mountain lounge to enjoy some tea, some fireplace heat for Lola and some curling. Arizona adam is enjoying some coffee and little packages of cheese. Need to figure out what to grab for a snack for the flight. 

This is way too early 

It is still WAY too early

Lola gazing out to window at Calgary 

Nope - those aren't my bag

Lola enjoying her first lounge experience

We are looking forward to another nap on the 3 hrs flight to LAX. And then some heat and a start to our long awaited vacation. Let's just hope my bag gets to join us soon - I would like my swimming trunks...

Feeling nostalgic

Well, here I am again. In Montreal, by myself. Dealing with some small medevac crisis while trying to get other work done. It feels like just yesterday...

However, it is different. More experience and confidence, more decision making abilities and less pressure (somehow). 

What am I doing here you ask?  One word - oversight. Transport Canada wants to oversee me perform an inspection as part of my recent Delegation of authority. So tomorrow we will inspect an airplane here in Montreal and then I will make my way (alone) to QC Thursday morning to inspect medevac for a modification we are working on. 💺

Friday should be a tame day - giving some training to one of our contractors here in Montreal and then head back to YWG for hockey at 8:30 pm. 

The next time I will be on an ✈️it will be for pleasure, not business. I am definitely looking forward to SoCal 🌉 and then relaxing on the beach on Maui. 

I should finish my 🍺 and pay the 💳 (bill, this was the closest thing I could find) so I can get back to the hotel and talk to Lola. 

Ps. 

Well, since the above emojis don't show up, here is what this post is supposed to look like: