A couple of years ago, hubster and I took a "Road Trip" for one of our vacations. We had reservations for one night at a bed and breakfast up in Mendocino county, and the rest of our vacation was completely unplanned. Since we couldn't decide what we wanted to do - and didn't have the money to go anywhere fancy anyway...we decided to just get in the car and DRIVE. We wanted to go wherever our hearts desired...as long as we agreed anyway - which is never a sure thing.
So we took Hwy 1 all the way up to the bed and breakfast, and stopped along the coast wherever we wanted, even stopped at Fort Ross which was pretty cool...we saw so much of the coastline that we've never seen before, and it was beautiful and very relaxing and peaceful to not have the pressure of HAVING to be somewhere at a certain time.
That vacation was by far, the best one we've ever taken together. We thought for sure that being trapped in a car for that long together would take it's toll and we'd inevitably have arguements or bicker about stuff. But we didn't...we even got lost quite a few times...and managed to laugh it off and say "oh well!".
We traveled up the coast to Mendocino county, ...stayed at the bed and breakfast and enjoyed the peace and quiet of NO television, and ate some of the most fantastic food ever. The next morning, we both sat on the deck that overlooked the ocean and read the newspaper, and didn't say a word to each other for about 2 hours. It was such a relaxing time that we didn't feel the NEED to talk and keep constant chatter going.
We left there, and drove back down through the redwoods and all the tiny and quaint towns scattered about Northern California...over to Old Town Sacramento (commonly known as Old Sac, which sounds dirty and I always giggle when I hear people call it that). We drove through town, and discovered a RIVERBOAT hotel that was docked on the Sacramento River (which was pretty cool...but not as cool as I thought it would be). We dropped all our stuff off in our tiny little room, and then cruised all through town and found a basement music store that had all kinds of funky stuff in it...and walls and walls of records. And I mean VINYL records...
We scoured and hunted around for a long time in that store...and walked out with several Led Zeppelin albums, and a few others for only $50. We were holding well over $150 worth of vinyl in our hands, so we felt darn good about that...and we talk about going back to that store all the time. We then went wine tasting and did some more shopping, and spent the evening drinking champagne and looking out at the river and into the streets of Old Sac (hehe) and then headed down to enjoy another PERFECT meal at the Riverboat Restaurant.
The next morning, we woke up and said "so...where do you want to go today?" - and after hitting up the train museum in town...he headed back on the road and just DROVE, not knowing really where we were going...and decided to just keep on driving until we got to Reno. Neither one of us had ever been there, so we figured "why not?".
The drive up to Reno was SO BEAUTIFUL....and we even encountered snow going through the mountains. The scenery was so breathtaking and NEW to us that we just marveled at everything...and chatted and laughed the entire way.
Reno was actually quite disappointing - we found it to be dirty and old and just not what we expected...but we stayed at the Silver Legacy which is probably one of the nicest hotels in town. We gambled a bit and toured through several casino's. The next day we went to the automobile museum in town which was AMAZING. Hubster was enthralled with each and every vehicle, and insisted on taking pictures of everything possible.
We then left Reno and headed back through the mountains...and stopped at a "family fun center" where they did inner tube sledding. I was THRILLED, and had to talk hubster into going with me because he initially didn't want to do it...but we had SUCH A BLAST tubing in the snow. We're not small people, so we got some serious speed going down that hill, it was great.
After that, we headed back down through Northern California's Gold Country. We found a hotel in Placerville, and the next day we actually went DOWN INTO an actual working Gold Mine. I think we were about 1400 yards down...it was a LONG way...I thought for sure I would feel claustrophobic down there, but I never did. I think I was so fascinated by the whole thing that I never thought about how closed in we were. The tour leader your typical stereotype of a miner. Long white beard, hard hat...suspenders...and short. Very nice man, and he knew his stuff!
Anyway - that afternoon we headed back to SF to stay with hubster's parents and we were both sad to have our trip end.
All the little stuff in between...getting lost...or finding an oddball place to stop and eat...laughing at something we saw, and just being so easy going about WHERE we went...was all so much fun. I know we both look back on that vacation with really fond memories. We saw alot of things that we'd never seen before, and went alot of places that we've never been before.
Part of me wishes that I could make a video of everything in my head from that vacation. I'm afraid that those memories will leave me someday...or afraid that I will forget how it FELT to be just the two of us laughing and smiling while driving on all those unknown roads...
More to come...
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