Christmas 09

After the Honeymoon trip, we hit the ground in Charlotte, which apparently was the only place you could actually fly into on the entire East Coast. Rachel and Victor came and picked us up at the airport, and we immediately went to Bob Evan’s for breakfast. After taking a day to recover, Virginia and I grabbed out cat back from auntie Rachel and headed off to Lexington.

We had a Christmas tree back in Boone… but for some reason, Grace liked mom and dad’s Christmas tree much better.

Isn’t she just a little sweetheart?

Our parents welcomed us home even though we showed up with suitcases full of dirty laundry, and all of the gifts were in Boone where they were trapped by several feet of snow.

But while we were home, we got to hang out with Jonathan, Lisa, and baby Jade, as well as our families, so it was all well worth the trip. This should catch you up with us up to the end of the year. Hopefully 2010 will be a fun filled year full of great blog posts as well.

Honeymoon trip!

December 11th, exactly 3 months after our wedding, Virginia and I left to magical land of Boone and headed down to Charlotte with our lovely cat to my sister’s place in Charlotte. We dropped Grace off with Rachel, Victor, Turkey and Lady where she’d be on her own little vacation while we were on our honeymoon. Following is the story of our honeymoon… broken up into chunks as I see fit… not necessarily with any rhyme or reason.

Click Here for the entire Honeymoon picture album. There is also a link in Picture form at the last honeymoon post.

Starting off… San Diego

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We flew out of Charlotte, NC on Dec 12th at about 10:30 in the morning … with a quick layover in Dallas, we arrived in san Diego, CA at about 5PM local time. Virginia’s cousin Kelly picked us up at the airport, and took us to his family’s house outside the city of San Diego. Unfortunately, when we hit the ground, it was raining a bit, and it was also already getting dark, so the trip to the house didn’t exactly provide any great views. After a lovely spaghetti dinner, Kelly and Scott took us out to look at some of the local Christmas lights…

Several things stand out… for starters, people seem to love icicle lights… in a area that has most likely never seen an icicle. Also, Penguins, Polar Bears, and all sorts of snow-flake looking items.

Above is one of my favorites… Lots of lights, snowflakes, wreaths, and of course, who can forget the Christmas Helicopter. There was an entire street of amazing gloriousness.

The next morning, the rain had drifted off, and it was sunny and warm. Of course, the Mahon family thought it was cold… but to us, the mid 60’s weather was simply amazing. We went to church with Kelly and Aunt Liz, then a quick lunch, and off to the San Diego Wild Animal Park!!!!!!!

We started off with a walk through the petting area… Where Virginia was accosted by the deer. Meanwhile, Kelly had a deer who followed him like a puppy.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Wild Animal Park:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the top down :

• Birds were awesome, but the bird-keeper girl was weird. The girl would let the birds land on her finger.. which for some reason was next to her face. The bird would then reach out and bite her lip…or tongue… and she was absolutely fine with it, and allowed it to repeatedly happen.
• Next up a shot of the surrounding area.
• The next 2 are of some awesome deer. They were these long-necked things…that could stand on their back legs…and the male had some awesome horns.
• The cheetahs… these little kitties were awesome. 2 were sisters, and were born and raised in captivity. Interesting fact: Cheetahs have feet / claws like a dog… not like a cat. Their claws are not retractable.
• Giraffes – there were TONS of these guys… to include some “baby” giraffes. That were over 6 feet tall.
• Finishing up this post is a baby elephant. The little thing was awesome… it was playing around, pulling up grass, throwing it around…doing little dance steps… all sorts of awesomeness.

Next up… Go North!!

So, Monday morning, we woke up and headed to hop on a train to head to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the early train was cancelled due to “mechanical difficulties” but fortunately, Virginia’s Aunt Liz circled the block and came into the station to check on us. So, we loaded back into her car, and visited some of the local beaches that were close. After about an hour and a half, we went back to the train station and made it in time to walk down to the tracks and wait for our train.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a gorgeous day, so we didn’t mind waiting a bit. Not to mention it was a rather attractive train station, so I enjoyed looking at that.

There are no pictures from LA, as we basically got to the train station, rented our car and hauled ass out of the city. We did cruise around Beverly Hills, and Rodeo Drive and all of that fun stuff on the way out of town though. Above you’ll see the key-card to our first hotel of the trip: Hotel California in Santa Monica. The hotel was located right next to the pier, and the famous “Muscle Beach”.

It was a gorgeous night to take a walk on the pier, so… we did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So… right next to the pier was Cirque Du Soleil … which we didn’t know until we got there… so we didn’t get tickets, and didn’t see the performance. … … and this damn ferris wheel… I swear the thing made 100 different designs…but every time I pointed the camera at it, it made one of 3 designs. If you look at the album, you’ll see what I mean.

So, after a walk on the pier, we returned to the room for a hot minute, and then went to meet up with Virginia’s friend Alisha who works in LA. We went to a lovely tavern about a mile from our hotel, had some good burgers, then a good cup of some organic hippie coffee… then a math lesson from a homeless woman. She asked for 50 cents so she could ride the bus. Thinking quickly, we replied that we didn’t have any quarters because we pumped them all into the parking meter. She then informed us that it didn’t have to be quarters… it could be five dimes. … … … HOLY CRAP. Is that how it works? But… Santa Monica was a good time, and I managed to grab what I think is my favorite picture of the entire trip.

A long day ahead.

After a lovely evening in Santa Monica, we hit the road for the longest portion of the trip. We went from Santa Monica to Monterey pretty much entirely on Highway 1. On the way, we made our first winery stop. Even though we were FAR south of Napa Valley, it was some pretty good wine… and nothing to sneeze at.

Ahem… Nothing to sneeze at.

It was gorgeous and sunny… and the leaves were even still on the vines… we were walking around in our short sleeves, and it was lovely.

We progressed along up Highway 1 until we hit “Piedras Blancas”, which is where a bunch of elephant seals decide to nap daily. So, before you look at the picture, NO. The seals are not dead. They’re sleeping. Everyone who has seen the pictures has asked.

Here’s one that woke up to yawn and wave at us. In the album, there are a TON of pictures from this stop. A bunch of the seals, maybe a few of a crow… and when we got back to the car, there were some VERY friendly squirrels.

These guys were hanging out, eating some sunflower seeds that someone tossed in the parking lot… and didn’t care what you were doing. you almost had to kick them out of the way to get into the car. I was pretty sure that one was going to climb up Virginia’s leg and make a nest in her jacket.

Now, a collection of scenes from Highway 1:

So… ocean, curves, mountains, waves crashing, the MIGHTY Yaris, the clouds and skies, and the road winding along the coast.

These were all views along the way, and after many hours of curvy fun, we made it up to the Sunset Inn Hotel on Asilomar Ave. In Pacific Grove. This was an awesome little hotel, and we got upgraded to a room with a fireplace.

We went downtown and found a lovely little Korean restaurant for some dinner, and then came back to the room to relax for a bit. The next day, we had a whale watching expedition planned, so we had to be at the wharf early to hop on the boat.

Look into the face of evil.

We woke up early the morning of our boat trip, and took some time to take in the morning sights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely area isn’t it? Crashing waves, a cute little light-house… world renowned golf courses…

Little did we know that all of this beauty was about to be forgotten… overshadowed by pure evil and punishment…

That’s it. Look into the heart of evil.

Whale Watching!! It sounds fun right? I mean, how often do you get to see whales? Well let me tell you. Save your money. Go to Sea World. Look at the whales and other sea dwellers there. If you absolutely still want to go on an expedition, send $50 per person to my paypal account, and I in return, will show up to your house, spray you down with water, put a blindfold over your eyes so that you see NOTHING, rock you back and forth randomly and uncomfortably until you feel like vomiting, and then lock you in a walk in freezer.

This is the rock wall leaving the harbor. This is also the most sea life that we saw at any point of the trip. Here’s a little known fact for those interested, I… apparently… get sea sick. Now, I have no problem being on a boat when I’m outside in plain sight of the ocean and the horizon. However, it was cold, foggy, and kind of raining. So, I went “inside” of the boat to warm up and dry off a bit. That’s when my stomach decided that it would rather live outside of my body. I managed to prevent it from doing this, but in order to keep from vomiting, (like the poor little Asian girl did) I had to remain outside. In the cold, wet foggy nastiness. To make the boat trip even more of a magic journey, the Marine Biologist piloting the boat was rather proud to tell us that she didn’t use any “fish finder” or “SONAR” … she just puttered on out to the ocean and “looked” for whales. I don’t know why this didn’t sink in from the beginning… if it had, we probably would have jumped off of the boat right then. So… follow me on this magic journey. We’re on a boat. In the Pacific. “Looking” for whales… cause… why bother with technology? I mean… it’s just the Pacific Ocean right? and whales are frickin HUGE!!! How hard can it be to run into a few right? Yeah.

So… fast forward… we’ve been on the boat for roughly… 4 hours… We’re both cold (and I don’t get cold) … and ready to get the hell back to the car, and get to our next destination. Well guess what… because the powers that be have a lovely sense of humor, el capitan saw some Dall’s Porpoises. They’re these black and while dolphin looking things… and guess what? They like to bow ride. It’s called bow riding, because they ride (AKA “Swim” for non mentally handicapped people) next to the bow. Look at the Bow ride! They’re bow riding! Let’s circle around again and see if we can get them to bow ride!!! About 30 seconds more of this, and I was going to climb the ladder up to the captain's perch, and grab this lady by the arms and through the art of “Bow Tossing” was going to encourage her to take a swim with the magical mammals.

I could really go on about this for DAYS. But… I must continue with the rest of the trip.

As before, if my story of the above doesn’t touch you deeply, and you still want to go whale watching, let me know. I’ll tell you where to send the money.

Moving on … … Thank God.

So, with the wonderfulness of the whale watching expedition behind us, we jumped in the Mighty Yaris to head off to our next stop. The lovely town of Sacramento.

This lovely bridge welcomed us into the city, and coming across the bridge provided and excellent view of the Capitol building. We, however, were staying outside of the main downtown area in “Old Sacramento”… This next part may sound like a horrible idea given the events that occurred prior, but we stayed in the Delta King Hotel, which is a River Boat!

This is no ordinary river boat, it’s firmly mounted (not anchored) to the land. No gentle swaying with the water. No moving. So, for all intents and purposes, it was a hotel that happened to be parked on the water. Rooms were small but comfy, and our dinner at the ship’s bar was outstanding. The bartender / waiter recommended some great food and drinks, and was a pretty awesome guy to talk to. After dinner, we walked around old downtown a bit, took a few pictures, and then went back to the boat for a special treat. We went downstairs to the theater to see David Sedaris’s “Santaland”. It was pretty dang awesome. While not performed by Sedaris himself, it was still rather good.

We got a good night’s sleep after the play and got ready for the next day… our trip to Napa.
Enjoy some pics from this part of the journey:

Oh Glorious Napa Valley. Why did we leave you?

Napa Day 1

After a day of rest on our River Boat, we went one block over, had a few crepes, and we were on our way.

No kidding, this was taken on the way into Napa.

First stop was at the Napa Valley visitor’s center. For anyone ever making this trip, if you’re planning on visiting wineries, and doing some tastings, you MUST stop at the Visitor’s Center. They loaded us up with coupons for free tastings, 2 for 1 deals on tastings, and told us where to go pretty much.

The first stop was at the Madonna Estate Winery. This was a wonderful free tasting, where we got introduced to some new wine that we’d never so much as heard of. The tasting was just for us… no-one else was in the tasting room, and man… it was some goooooood stuff.

The next winery was rather interesting. Artesa was located on top of a hill, that had been leveled, the building put in, and then the dirt put back on top.

 

Here’s the view from the front door. Some interesting things to note: They have a full time resident artist. There are miniature waterfalls running down the front stair as railings.

We stopped at Andretti winery… as in Mario Andretti… I really wanted to like the place. We had to pay $15 for a tasting, and I believe with all of my heart that the reason there was a $15 tasting fee was that because after tasting the wines, there is no way that anyone would actually buy a bottle. When we went to the winery, I fully intended to buy a bottle…I mean, it’s Mario Andretti… the man is a legend… But his wine, well, let’s just say that his winning race career doesn’t carry over to his wine career. However, the winery was rather attractive.