Road Trip to Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Sacramento

Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Sacramento

 Vacation 2012

I really like to take road trips because they are cheaper than flying and it's fun to explore new places along the way.  The focal point of the whole vacation was around river rafting.  I found many river rafting companies who give tours in the Sacramento River. So Sacramento had to be a destination.

We decided to go up the coast to Santa Cruz, then to San Francisco and finally to Sacramento.

Day 1 - Driving to Santa Cruz was about a 5 hr. drive, which was not so bad.  The girls had fun spotting how many potato and tomato trucks we drove past.  We got close to our motel when the GPS said we were at our destination.  We were kind of disappointed.  The outside looked pretty run down and had low expectations for the inside.  We were right.  It had the bare minimum, just to get us through the night.  I chose it because it has decent reviews from Expedia, and FREE cont. breakfast.

After settling in, we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.  It's much bigger and better than the Santa Monica Boardwalk we have been before.  They had summer night specials on Mon and Tues. where you could buy hot dogs for $1, cotton candy for $1 and rides for $1!  That was dinner and entertainment for us that evening.  We enjoyed eating hot dogs sitting at a bench outside watching the waves and people playing in the sand.  The girls rode on about 10 rides and concluded the evening with some cotton candy.

Day 2 - From Santa Cruz we went to Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton.  We took the steam train, Dixiana, that went to the Redwoods.  The scenery of the tall redwoods is very pretty.  After the ride, we decided to leave to buy some lunch rather than pay the high prices of food there. We wanted to come back to have a picnic at the tables and hike through Cowell Redwoods. We opted for Subway because they had their $5 foot long turkey special for me and hubby to share.

We ate our picnic lunch, then went to do some hiking at Henry Cowell Redwood Forest.  The hike takes you through a loop and took us about an hour to complete it.  It was very pretty and we even saw two deer!

Afterwards, we drove to The Mystery Spot.  Tickets sell out in the summer, so it's best to order them ahead of time online. Tickets are $6/person plus $5 to park. It was a 45 min tour that didn't take you very far; but the tour guide was funny and the place was interesting.  It was neat to see the mysteries of gravity.  My youngest got scared of walking in the house cuz she kept falling over.  She and I just quickly went through it and watched hubby and my oldest try to walk through it.

After The Mystery Spot, we drove to San Francisco, which was about a 2 hour drive.  The hotel was nicer than the last which was a plus.  We ended up eating dinner at a Denny's which was right next door.  Kids eat Free on Tues!

Day 3 - Driving to San Francisco.  This was going to be our busiest day as we were going to cram in everything touristy in one day.  We left early in the morning around 7:30 to we could make sure to get to the Japanese Tea Garden on time.  If you get there before 9:00 or 10:00 you can get in for free.  We hit some traffic and had trouble finding parking, then finding the place, we barely made it on time.  The garden was beautiful with all the ponds, streams, and trees.

We spent about an hour at the Tea Garden before we headed to find the Golden Gate Playground.  This was another hard to find place.  We didn't realize this area of town was so big.  We spent about 30 min. trying to find it cuz the girls just had to play there.  We finally found it!  The playground is nice and big. But because we had to stick to the schedule, the girls only got 10 min. to play.  They crammed in a lot of playtime in those 10 min.

After playtime, we drove to China Town for lunch.  I read good reviews for the Capital Restaurant and decided to check it out.  We had more issues with parking but found a metered space on the street.  We walked about 3 blocks to get the the restaurant and was told they only take cash.  So, we walked another 2 blocks to the nearest ATM.  Walked back and finally sat down to eat.  This was the girls first memorable time eating Chinese food.  They loved the chicken chowmien and my oldest discovered she loves won tons.  They bought rabbit chop sticks at the Japanese Garden that they used to eat their lunch.

Next stop was to drive through the famous Lombard Street.  The wait was not very long and we were able to drive the crooked road in about 15 min.

After driving Lombard St., we were headed for Pier 39.  We paid $15-$20 to park at a lot for the remainder of our day.  We walked around the shops for a while, saw some sea lions and tried to find the Golden Gate Bridge.  We could not find it from this location.  We also tried looking for a mirror maze that we read was fun but came to the Ripley's mirror maze since we didn't see the other one.  We checked it out and were done in 5 min.  Nobody enjoyed it and it was the biggest waste of money.

We headed to our next stop which was the Duck Tour, the vehicle that goes on land and water.  I found tickets for half price on Goldstar. We all really liked this tour.  The guide told us some information along the way, played some fun music and the girls had fun blowing their duck whistles they give you.  People on the street thought we were the best tourist attraction as they were taking pictures of us.  The vehicle transforms to go in water which takes you around some bay and the guide lets everyone take turns driving it.  My oldest took her turn; but my youngest didn't want to.

After our tour, we were going to eat at The Cod-mother for dinner; but it was closed.  We ate at Boudin Bakery instead, which is famous for their bread bowls.

From dinner, we continued our search to see the Golden Gate Bridge and to find a cable car stop.  After walking several blocks, we finally came to an area where we found both which was all the way at the end of the pier.  It was sunset by the time we got to see the bridge and there was quite a bit of fog where it was; but I still got a picture of the girls standing a million miles away from it.

We stood in line at the cable car stop which was about an hour in the cold.  The girls made a friend while standing in line.  Finally got on and ended up being a fun ride.  A little scary going up and down those steep streets.  Luckily the brakes worked good.  You could tell those brakes are being worked from the smell of them.  After 1 1/2 on the car, we drove to our next destination, Fairfield.  We arrived in Fairfield around 11:00pm and were exhausted.  Our hotels are getting better by each destination!

Day 4 - The Jelly Belly Factory, Fairfield.  They have Free tours!  We toured the factory which I think lasted about 45 min.  It was neat to see how Jelly Bellys are made.  They make you wear of paper hat before you go in.  They have several tv screens that show videos and my girls favorite part was when they passed out samples along the way.  You can even try free samples at the Jelly Belly bar.  They have some weird flavors that we tried such as Baby Powder and Dog Food.

After the Jelly Belly Tour, we got some lunch at headed to Sacramento.  Once we arrived in Sacramento, we took a rest at the hotel before our River Raft cruise in the late afternoon.  This was the highlight of our vacation. This would be our first time rafting, so we felt it would be best to do a guided tour than go floating down the river by ourselves. Who knows how may rocks we would end up hitting or how many times we would be tipping over.  We chose White Water Excitement, Coloma for our tour company and they were awesome!  We met them at a pizza place where they then drove our family as well as one other person in their van to our destination.  We got on board our raft and away we went down the river.  We chose a sunset cruise that is good for families and young children with a class 1 and 2 rapids that lasted about 2 hours.  This was perfect for us.  We saw an otter, and some other nature, my oldest got out to take a dip in the water and the guide was informative. My youngest got scared of the 1st couple rapids; but was having a great time after she got used to it.  It was a really fun trip and was only about $80 for all of us to go  Afterward, we ate dinner at the pizza place they met us.

Day 5 - All about the girls in Sacramento.  We went to Fairytale Town and Funderland so the girls could spend hours playing and riding on unlimited rides.  I found a buy one get one free coupon online for unlimited wristbands for Funderland. One wristband cost $15. It was great cuz the 2 places are right next door to each other and there is a park to eat lunch. In the evening, we went swimming in the hotel pool.

Day 6 - We went to Old Sacramento to rent some bikes, eat lunch and stroll through the shops.  They have carriage rides that we took that can take you to the park.  It was a fun experience.  Once we were done exploring downtown, we went to the State Capitol to take a tour.  Again, finding cheap parking is always the biggest headache.  After searching for the best parking bargain, we parked at made it for the last tour of the day.  I wasn't sure if the girls would be very interested in this tour; but it did keep their interests, especially since my oldest had been learning about how laws get made and the different branches of government.

Day 7 - California Auto Museum, Sacramento.  We ran out of time on Day 6 for the car museum hubby wanted to go to.  So, we made this our last vacation stop before heading home.  The employees there are super friendly and even gave us a private tour of all the cars.  I could care less about the cars but hubby loved this place!  We headed back home for our 6 hour drive that turned into 8 hours cuz of traffic.  We all had a great vacation!

Newport Beach and Harbor Cruise

I bought a Spreebird deal for $21 to do a harbor cruise, pizza and a ferris wheel rides for two at Newport Beach.  My car was in the shop at the only time we could use this voucher, so we borrowed my in laws mini van which was more roomy for the long drive than our Civic.  We left our in laws much later than anticipated and was hoping to make it to our tour on time.  Well, we were a couple minutes late and the boat was about to leave.  The employee at Fun Zone Boats was nice enough to suggest coming back an hour later when we might have a chance to see sea lions.  I said great!  Meanwhile, we went to the pizza place to get our big slices of cheese pizza.  The youngest didn't want pizza; so we brought a lunch from home for her.  After eating lunch, we went to use our Ferris Wheel vouchers.  My 8 year old and I went together.  Hubby and my 4 year old didn't want to go and my daughter discovered she does not like ferris wheels.  We were on there for a good while that we had to tell them to take us off since our boat tour was about to start.  We chose to sit on the top part, outside of the boat to get a nice view of the harbor.  We saw several sea lions on the tour.  Apparently, we were the 1st tour to see them in a while.  The girls loved spotting the sea lions and could care less of what famous person lived in the huge houses.

After our harbor cruise, we went to Corona Del Mar State Beach which was about 10 min. away.  We had to climb our way up some rocky paths to make our way down the other side where the cove was.  We made it down and discovered the cove was not as big as I expected.  We found a shady spot in the cove to set up.  The water is very very calm.  The girls were able to play in the water without waves knocking them down or taking them further in the water.  There was also a nice sand area for them to play and lots of shells and little crabs found in the rocks nearby.  This is a great beach for families an small kids. 

Petersen Automotive Museum and Castle Park Mini Golf

Today is hubby's birthday.  He wanted to go to the Petersen Automotive Museum, Mini Golf and eat In N Out Burgers.  So that's what we did.  I found a buy 1 get 1 free coupon for the Petersen Car Museum on a website, so we saved $8.  Admission for kids 5-12 is $3 and kids under 5 are free.  Hubby and my 4 year old daughter really enjoyed looking at all the cars.  She wanted to take pictures of every single car there.  I must have 100 pictures of her and those cars.  It's a pretty big place with 3 levels, so we were there for at least a couple hours.  The 3rd level is mainly targeted for kids where they have a couple cars you can go inside, coloring area and some car related science exhibits.

 

Afterward, we went miniature golfing at Castle Park.  We never come here, so my youngest was not used to the "greens" here.  I guess it was a little harder than where she's used to playing at Mountasia. She kept getting frustrated while playing cuz her ball didn't go as far or didn't go where she wanted it to.

At last it was time for the In N Out Burger dinner.  The girls don't like In N Out (how dare they), so we made a separate McDonald's run for them at ate dinner at home.

Ronald Reagan Libary July 4th Celebration

Ronald Reagan Library
Monday July 4th, 2012
10:00 am -3:00 pm

To celebrate our Nation’s 236th birthday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is hosting a day full of family-fun activities. This year’s celebration includes patriotic concerts, family entertainment, games, crafts, and more. All outdoor activities are free; however, regular admission rates apply to visit the Museum and exhibits. Schedule of Events.

10th Anniversary in San Luis Obispo

Our 10th Anniversary was on a Friday this year and we decided to leave the girls to spend the weekend at the grandparent's house.  This was the first time we would be leaving them for this long of a time.  Hubby and I agreed that we both would like to take a food tour during our get a way.  The only ones we knew that would be a decent drive is in Newport Beach and San Luis Obispo.  We didn't find much we wanted to do in Newport so we went to San Luis Obispo.  This was not going to be a frugal trip; but I did try to find deals where I could. I found some discounts on SLO Car Free.  The website promotes clean air and encourages you to be car free.  I got a $10 discount for the Central Coast food tour.  I also got a 15% off discount on the Apple Farm Inn we were staying.
We left on Friday and drove 3 or 4 hrs. to our first destination in San Luis and ate lunch at Splash Cafe'.  They have award winning clam chowder; so that's why we went to check it out.  Apparently they have 2 locations.  One is by the beach in Pismo at the other next to the street in San Luis.  I picked the wrong one next to the street.  Oh well.  I ordered the clam chowder in the bread bowl and hubby ordered fish and chips and ate outside.  Both dishes were very good.  It is the best clam chowder.

After lunch we drove to Avila Beach to rent a couple bikes.  The only bike trail we saw was right near the street.  We drove up and down the road but didn't see any other bike trails.  So far, things were not going well.  We finally called the bike rental place and they said there is a bike trail that is not by the street.  We drove up to find parking and found the bike rental place, Joe Momma's Coffee.  We rented 2 cruisers at about $8/hr. each.  The girl was very friendly and told us where the trail was.  After a bit of a walk with our bikes in tow; we found the trail.  I had not ridden on a bike in a very long time and was very wobbly when I first got on.  It was so embarrassing.  I eventually got the hang of it and headed down the trail.  It was a very pretty trail with lots of trees.  We crossed a bridge that had a large stream underneath.  We were out riding for about 30 min. until the trail came to an end to a busier and not so pretty section.  That's when we turned around to head back.  There was a lot of downhill riding on the way up; so we had to deal with all the uphill riding on the way back.  We were so tired, we barely made it up without having to walk the bikes.  We got back to the bike rental about an hour and a half later.  She charged us the cheaper amount by giving us the half day rate than charging us for 2 hours, which was nice.

 

 

It was now check in time for our hotel at the Apple Farm Inn.  We drove about 20 min. before we arrived at the very cute and charming Inn that has a stream right outside.  We got a room right next to it.  We rested for a little while before heading out to dinner at Steamers in Pismo Beach which was about 15 min. away.  We made reservations ahead of time to get a window seat.  We only waited about 5 min. before we were seated next to a window looking out at the beach watching the waves crash.  I ordered the surf and turf and I think hubby ordered a chicken dish.  The steak was OK. a bit dry.  Maybe, I'm too picky about my steak.

After dinner, we went to the American Melodrama Theatre in Oceano which was about a 10 min. drive.  We wanted to do something different and both of us thought this would be fun. We saw a western show that was full of comedy and good performers.  At intermission time, the performers become the servers if you would like to go to the back for a snack or a drink.  We thought that was kind of neat that they run the whole place.  The show lasted about 2 1/2 hours and we paid $22 for each seat.  Would definitely go back again. Around 11:00 pm, we drove back to the Apple Farm to get some rest.

 

On Saturday, we went to have light breakfast of cereal and a muffin at the Apple Farm restaurant before heading out to our food tour.  We got to our destination which was a chocolate shop and was greeted by our guide, Yule.  It looked like we were the only ones there taking the tour.  We sat down and he served us our 1st food tasting of a chocolate truffle and a decedent chocolate shake.  Yule was very informative on the chocolate we were eating and where the cocoa beans came from. The 2 items both were very good.  As it turned out, we were waiting for some late arrivals who got lost. The 2 girls joined us and we walked to the next place which was a Mediterranean restaurant.  Some of the Mediterranean food was new to me, so this was fun to try.  We then walked downtown to a pub that served us mac and cheese and beer.  I do not like beer; but drank it anyway; but the mac and cheese was delish!  Yule, gave us a wealth of information about the history of every place we went. We stopped off at Gumball Alley where all the chewed up gum is stuck on a wall.  Yule gave us some gum to chew and stick on ourselves.  We then went to a nearby oil and vinegar shop to taste different kids of olive oils.  I love olive oil; but too much does not agree with my tummy.  Luckily, I was OK.  We then walked to a mission and our guide gave us much history about that as we toured the inside of it.  We stopped at a winery to have some wine tasting with cheese and crackers.  I also don't like wine; but drank it anyway.  I did like the cheese and crackers though.  Our last stop was a restaurant where we got dessert.  I don't remember what it was; but it was good.  Our tour lasted about 3 1/2 hours of walking, talking and eating.  It was a very fun experience.  We drove back to the Apple Farm to rest.

After a little rest we decided to go downtown on the trolley to walk around some more and eat some more for dinner time. The trolley driver made us nervous.  He had forgotten how to drive the thing and had to call someone to get directions on how to drive it.  We were the only ones on there and were hoping we didn't have to go very far.  After the few minute drive, we quickly got off to wander the shops. After wandering around it was almost our reservation time.   We had seen a restaurant called Novo during our tour that was along a tree lined street with a stream next to it.  It looked very pretty and so that's where we decided to eat.  It was packed; but luckily we got seated outside.  It was decorated with pretty white lights strung and heat lamps to keep us warm.  There was a wedding party celebrating next to us.  I was not very hungry; so I just ordered an appetizer, the Avocado Spring Rolls.  They were soooo good!  We also shared some chocolate truffles for dessert; which were so rich and good!

After dinner, I was soooo stuffed that I could barely walk.  We walked over to the trolley stop to wait for the next trolley to come.  After about 10 min. of waiting we realized this trolley only stops on the weekdays.  We had just seen the last trolley drive by at a nearby stop.  We had to walk all the way back to the Inn.  Great, more walking.  I guess it was good exercise to walk off all that food I ate.
We finally got to our room and hit the hay.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the Apple Farm restaurant.  We used the $10 free voucher they gave us at check it, so our bill was not very much.  We walked around for a little while exploring the Inn before packing up.

Our last stop of our anniversary weekend was the Sycamore Mineral Springs for a soak in the hot tub.  The cost is $13.50 per person per hour.  They gave us a couple towels to rent and gave us a tub at the very top.  Note bring your own towel.  We went earlier in the day; so there weren't very many people.  The private tubs are surrounded by trees and it's very pretty.  We brought some apple cider we had left from the Apple Farm Inn to drink.  We enjoyed our hour soak and headed our long drive back home. 

Tom's Farm in Corona & Jet Skiing

Today is Father's Day and also happens to be my birthday.  I really wanted to go jet skiing for my birthday and hubby didn't really care what we did for his Father's Day. After a falling out on another jet ski place from Groupon, we decided to go to All Day Jet Ski in Lake Elsinoire despite the fact the lake is full of green water.  We thought it would be fine to jet ski in the green water since we were not going to be swimming in it.  On the way to jet skiing, we stopped at Tom's Farm in Corona.  It's a cute little place with shops, restaurants  and attractions for the kids.  We walked around for a little while in the shops.  I felt that Father's Day was overshadowing my birthday as everyone would say to hubby, Happy Father's Day, Happy Father's Day.  I guess it can't be all about me all the time; but my birthday should be all about ME!  We also went to the petting zoo area, the girls went on a train ride and a tractor ride.  They have a magician that comes out; but the girls didn't want to stay for that.

We packed a lunch to have a picnic at the lake.  We got to the lake, put out the blanket and started to eat when we noticed the company of bees all around the grass.  So, we packed up all are lunch and ate in the car that was 90 degrees hot.  We quickly finished lunch at walked to the Jet ski place, All Day Jet Ski, which is right on the sand.  The customer service was great and we were ready to go within 10 min.  We had made reservations ahead of time for 2 jet skis for the 4 of us.  It was the girls and hubby's first time on a jet ski and we all had a blast. We got an hour of riding, which was the perfect amount of time cuz my fingers were getting tired from holding the gas lever so long. 

Later, we went to dinner at Kisho, Valencia to eat at the tappan grill.  We enjoyed the "show" while they cooked.  The food is OK.  I got a tummy ache after from all the oil they use in the food.

Los Angeles Zoo

Yes, it's a zoo to come to the zoo on Memorial Day weekend; but that is what we did.  We came later in the day when the lines had gone down a little.  I bought some tickets on ebay at $20 for the 4 of us to get in.  This was the first visit to the zoo for youngest since she was a baby.  The zoo is not our most favorite place to go; but thought my youngest needed to go out and see some zoo animals.  They had more fun at the playground area than the zoo part.  They did really enjoy the petting zoo though.