After Pismo Beach, we headed over to Shell Beach, a short drive away. Josh’s mom chilled and Josh and I climbed on rocks looking for tide pools.

We got back from our trip late Sunday night. I took off of work on Monday and for most of the day edited photos. The beach photos were probably my favorites, so I gravitated to them right away. I can’t wait any longer to start posting these.. so I’m just gonna skip ahead and do it.

These are all taken at Pismo Beach.

Day 3 continued… after we went to the Academy of Sciences, we drove through Golden Gate Park and over to Ocean Beach. It was super windy and sand was blowing all around. That, and it being a Monday made the beach pretty deserted. We also drove over to the Cliff House and walked around the old Sutro Bath House ruins. We spent the rest of the day trying to get sand out of our shoes, eating dinner at a lovely wine bar and having ice cream at Ghiradelli!

Start of Day 3 of Roadtrip. Last Monday.

Woke up in San Francisco.

Took car over to Inner Sunset and had breakfast at the Raintree Cafe.

Drove to Golden Gate Park.

California Academy of Sciences!

Step 1:  Leave Grants Pass Oregon.

Step 2:  Drive around windy windy roads in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

Step 3:  Stop at the first Starbucks we find which happened to be in Crescent City, California.

Step 4:  Spot Pacific Ocean. Find good spot to pull over and take photos.

Step 5:  See really big statues of Paul Bunyan and Blue. Pull over to walk around and take photos of redwoods.

Step 6: Drive drive drive down Highway 101 to get to San Francisco.

Step 7:  Arrive in San Francisco. Check into hotel on Nob Hill. Walk to get pizza for dinner.

Step 8:  Collapse from exhaustion.

Last Saturday, Josh and I left on our road trip to California. The first day, our goal was to make it to southern Oregon. Grants Pass to be exact. We left Seattle late late morning, and stopped off in Portland for a few hours. By the time we left Portland, the sun was starting to set. Our drive down I-5 through Oregon was beautiful with the setting sun hitting the hills to the east and making them glow. When it got dark, we stopped off at a Carls Jr (the first time I had ever eaten at one!) for delicious burgers. We finally made it to Grants Pass, checked into our hotel and called it a night.

Crossing a bridge to get to downtown Portland.

Oregon Countryside

Coca-cola. Mexican Coca-cola. No high fructose corn syrup. Rock.

A walk around the neighborhood today proved that spring has arrived.

Today I took a half day and Josh and I went to see Mates of State and Black Kids at Caffe Vita, thanks to Capitol Hill winning KEXP’s Hood to Hood Challenge. Somehow we wound up in the front row on both shows. Amazing!

It was my first time seeing Mates of State live, but I love them… and have since 2007 when Josh first introduced me to them.

And we saw Black Kids once before.. they did a short set at Easy Street Records in Lower Queen Anne this past year. They did an acoustic-ish set both there and today, and I must say it’s my favorite way to see them perform. Simply great.