I've gotten quite a few responses to my last post, hoping that my trip was at least fun in between the messes. This is so typical of me! On our last night there, Eric asked me if I had had fun. I have since apologized to him at least a half-dozen times, because of course I had a wonderful time! I just focus on the negative way too much.
What I was going to do was write a blog about the trip after blogging reviews for the bead shops and hotels, but first I just had to write down that stupid story about the airport. The bead shop reviews can be found at my jewelry business blog: Miao Miao by Mysie. I have yet to get around to reviewing the hotels. So here is a mini recap of our trip.
San Francisco's Chinatown was amazing, with plenty of great photo opportunities. Ate some amazing dumplings. Quested for a cartoon cow display sign for the Year of the Ox (I am an Ox/Rat "cusp"). The BART was so easy to use, but frighteningly loud - I think nobody reacted to the noise because they have all gone deaf.
Monterey was beautiful and fun. We had giant burgers for lunch, leaving no room for dinner. We poked into shops, took pictures, snacked, and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I took hundreds of photos that day!
The drive to San Simeon via Highway 1 is something I shouldn't mention because I will get too negative. I'll just say that I hate mountain roads that are high up, with cliffs and sheer drops, blind curves and snaking routes. Now imagine me driving 60+ miles of that, half of it in the dark. It's hard to remember, but yes, the views were spectacular when I had the chance to actually look at them.
Hearst Castle was gorgeous, but despite the length of the tour, we didn't seem to see all that much. Moonstone Beach in Cambria provided the opportunity for lots of beachcombing!
The ride to Solvang was kind of boring, having given up on hugging the coast for my sanity and the sake of time. Solvang was a bit boring itself. I went to an antique shop very much unlike the kind I'm used to that buy up anything and everything from estate sales. The cheapest thing there was a $250 vase marked down to $75, and it was hideous.
The next day we stopped in Santa Barbara, which was a trip. A million trendy boutiques, and all of it in identical architecture. In fact, almost every store, business, apartment building, and home looked charming but identical.
All we saw of Anaheim was I-5, Del Taco, our hotel, the bus stop outside our hotel, and Disneyland. It was very hot, and the sun in California is somehow brighter than up here, so I was very uncomfortable that day. We did see lots of fun stuff and rode a bunch of rides and bought too many souvenirs. Oddly, the rides that Eric didn't think I would like were the best: Indiana Jones' Adventure, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and the Materhorn. I'm not a huge fan of roller coasters, but these were all great!
The next day we spent either at the airport or trying to get there. Stepping out of SeaTac airport and into naturally cool air was the perfect homecoming!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
How to Tour an Extraneous Airport on Your Vacation!
"How to Tour an Extraneous Airport on Your Vacation!"
...or...
"How one foolish decision can mess up your vacation in so many ways"
I can't decide if I over-thought things, or didn't spend enough time with my vacation decisions. I spent weeks mapping out different strategies for our week-long tour of California, having to start over from scratch every few days as Eric's schedule fluctuated or availabilities became issues, etc. So I think when it finally came down to actually booking the whole thing, I had looked at so many hotels that I got confused about which ones I really wanted when I was booking.
Our first hotel in Millbrae, CA (outside of San Francisco) had me very confused, until I realized it wasn't the hotel I thought I had booked! I had read descriptions of so many breakfast options that included make-your-own waffles, that I was baffled we didn't stay at a single one with this feature! But in the end, the plans for the end of our trip in Anaheim caused the most problems.
We had an 11am check-out in Solvang, with a 4pm deadline to return the rental car to John Wayne Airport in LA, just South of Anaheim. No big deal, right? We spent a little time in Solvang, and then we were on the road at around noon. I wanted to spend some time in Santa Barbara to check out two bead shops that Google Maps showed were very close together. We got distracted by the sights and the shops, I wore the wrong shoes for walking, both our backs were bothering us, and we both got overheated. The places we had picked to have lunch both closed within moments of us approaching their door. We were so exhausted by the time we got to the car, we just got on the highway and drove. We had lunch at a Carl's Jr. in Carpinteria just before 2pm. We had 2 hours to return the car, and Eric's google phone was estimating almost exactly that for how long it would take to get there. We called the company to find out about extensions. We had an extra 59 minute grace period, at one hour we would be charged $10, at two hours late it would be $20, and after that we would be charged an extra day. I tried to get them to move the deadline - to have such a hard and fast time seemed silly, because we had picked up the car at 11am and I had randomly picked 4pm to return it. So I was already 5 hours into an extra day, right? They didn't see it like that.
So we hopped on I-5 to race to the airport. HA! I-5 in Seattle is bad, but this was colossally bad! Friday afternoon rush-hour LA traffic killed what little energy we had left. At 5pm we decided to switch tactics and get to the hotel - we could unload our stuff, clean out the car, skip some of the traffic, have a snack, and then return the car by closing at 11pm. No big deal, right?
We popped off the highway for a half hour to get a snack and stretch our legs, then looked for a better way to get to Anaheim. Somehow, we managed to get to the hotel somewhere after 7pm. Traffic wasn't all the much better, but we only had about 15 miles to go. We got to the airport and couldn't find the sign for our rental company. I started to feel sick to my stomach.
I had picked John Wayne Airport to return the car because (A) it was closer to our hotel than LAX, (B) it was a cheaper multi-city return fee than LAX would have been, (C) smaller airport = less traffic, and (D) the hotel shuttle from the airport would be quicker.
In the end LAX would have been cheaper because we could have definitely made it there between 5-6pm to at least skip another full-day charge (nope, they wouldn't let us change the drop-off to LAX), as well as easier and faster because it was less distance than our starting point. And also the drop-off at LAX is actually at LAX, whereas the drop off for JW Airport was in some industrial suburb we had no directions for that was so NOT part of the airport.
So of course we got lost looking for this place. Using Eric's google phone, we discovered that we make a better team when I'm driving and he's navigating. We found the place in a dark corner of an industrial area near some creepy looking biker bar, with NO signage other than a van with the company logo parked in front. We cleaned out the car, pocketed the few items we hadn't taken into the hotel, and walked into the desk to drop off the keys at about... 10:30pm. Drop off was very easy, and we got a ride to the airport (but not to our hotel), where we got on a $10 per person shuttle to the hotel.
But the Brilliant Anaheim Decisions (BAD for short) didn't stop there. The hotel was great, but didn't have a mini-bar, room-service, or restaurant so we walked to Del Taco around midnight for dinner. Next morning we discovered the continental breakfast available was the worst on the trip, and there were definitely no waffles. We had only that one day to do Disneyland, but I was so exhausted that I went back to the hotel for a nap. Which helped, but ruined our plan to go to California Adventure because they closed hours before Disneyland did - $20 bucks extra per ticket, down the drain. After returning to the hotel on the LAST available shuttle for the night, I went to talk to the front desk about getting to the airport the next day.
Good news: they would hold our bags after checkout so we could visit Downtown Disney for some shopping - our flight wasn't until 4:10pm, so SCORE! However, there was no airport shuttle. None. Zip. Zero. Huh? How did I miss that when I was booking?!?! So we hopped on the shuttle to Downtown Disney and ended up spending exactly 20 minutes there before rushing back because the airport shuttle companies wanted to pick us up before 1pm in order to get us to the airport on-time. So all of that "free time" we thought we had was gobbled up calling shuttled to beg for a space, the shuttle being late, getting transferred to another shuttle a few blocks away because we were last minute, and getting glared at by the people who could have been on the road already if they hadn't been waiting for us to get there and board!
So lessons learned: better research, longer stay, and a breakfast BUFFET will be required for our next trip. And I never want to see John Wayne Airport again in my entire life.
...or...
"How one foolish decision can mess up your vacation in so many ways"
I can't decide if I over-thought things, or didn't spend enough time with my vacation decisions. I spent weeks mapping out different strategies for our week-long tour of California, having to start over from scratch every few days as Eric's schedule fluctuated or availabilities became issues, etc. So I think when it finally came down to actually booking the whole thing, I had looked at so many hotels that I got confused about which ones I really wanted when I was booking.
Our first hotel in Millbrae, CA (outside of San Francisco) had me very confused, until I realized it wasn't the hotel I thought I had booked! I had read descriptions of so many breakfast options that included make-your-own waffles, that I was baffled we didn't stay at a single one with this feature! But in the end, the plans for the end of our trip in Anaheim caused the most problems.
We had an 11am check-out in Solvang, with a 4pm deadline to return the rental car to John Wayne Airport in LA, just South of Anaheim. No big deal, right? We spent a little time in Solvang, and then we were on the road at around noon. I wanted to spend some time in Santa Barbara to check out two bead shops that Google Maps showed were very close together. We got distracted by the sights and the shops, I wore the wrong shoes for walking, both our backs were bothering us, and we both got overheated. The places we had picked to have lunch both closed within moments of us approaching their door. We were so exhausted by the time we got to the car, we just got on the highway and drove. We had lunch at a Carl's Jr. in Carpinteria just before 2pm. We had 2 hours to return the car, and Eric's google phone was estimating almost exactly that for how long it would take to get there. We called the company to find out about extensions. We had an extra 59 minute grace period, at one hour we would be charged $10, at two hours late it would be $20, and after that we would be charged an extra day. I tried to get them to move the deadline - to have such a hard and fast time seemed silly, because we had picked up the car at 11am and I had randomly picked 4pm to return it. So I was already 5 hours into an extra day, right? They didn't see it like that.
So we hopped on I-5 to race to the airport. HA! I-5 in Seattle is bad, but this was colossally bad! Friday afternoon rush-hour LA traffic killed what little energy we had left. At 5pm we decided to switch tactics and get to the hotel - we could unload our stuff, clean out the car, skip some of the traffic, have a snack, and then return the car by closing at 11pm. No big deal, right?
We popped off the highway for a half hour to get a snack and stretch our legs, then looked for a better way to get to Anaheim. Somehow, we managed to get to the hotel somewhere after 7pm. Traffic wasn't all the much better, but we only had about 15 miles to go. We got to the airport and couldn't find the sign for our rental company. I started to feel sick to my stomach.
I had picked John Wayne Airport to return the car because (A) it was closer to our hotel than LAX, (B) it was a cheaper multi-city return fee than LAX would have been, (C) smaller airport = less traffic, and (D) the hotel shuttle from the airport would be quicker.
In the end LAX would have been cheaper because we could have definitely made it there between 5-6pm to at least skip another full-day charge (nope, they wouldn't let us change the drop-off to LAX), as well as easier and faster because it was less distance than our starting point. And also the drop-off at LAX is actually at LAX, whereas the drop off for JW Airport was in some industrial suburb we had no directions for that was so NOT part of the airport.
So of course we got lost looking for this place. Using Eric's google phone, we discovered that we make a better team when I'm driving and he's navigating. We found the place in a dark corner of an industrial area near some creepy looking biker bar, with NO signage other than a van with the company logo parked in front. We cleaned out the car, pocketed the few items we hadn't taken into the hotel, and walked into the desk to drop off the keys at about... 10:30pm. Drop off was very easy, and we got a ride to the airport (but not to our hotel), where we got on a $10 per person shuttle to the hotel.
But the Brilliant Anaheim Decisions (BAD for short) didn't stop there. The hotel was great, but didn't have a mini-bar, room-service, or restaurant so we walked to Del Taco around midnight for dinner. Next morning we discovered the continental breakfast available was the worst on the trip, and there were definitely no waffles. We had only that one day to do Disneyland, but I was so exhausted that I went back to the hotel for a nap. Which helped, but ruined our plan to go to California Adventure because they closed hours before Disneyland did - $20 bucks extra per ticket, down the drain. After returning to the hotel on the LAST available shuttle for the night, I went to talk to the front desk about getting to the airport the next day.
Good news: they would hold our bags after checkout so we could visit Downtown Disney for some shopping - our flight wasn't until 4:10pm, so SCORE! However, there was no airport shuttle. None. Zip. Zero. Huh? How did I miss that when I was booking?!?! So we hopped on the shuttle to Downtown Disney and ended up spending exactly 20 minutes there before rushing back because the airport shuttle companies wanted to pick us up before 1pm in order to get us to the airport on-time. So all of that "free time" we thought we had was gobbled up calling shuttled to beg for a space, the shuttle being late, getting transferred to another shuttle a few blocks away because we were last minute, and getting glared at by the people who could have been on the road already if they hadn't been waiting for us to get there and board!
So lessons learned: better research, longer stay, and a breakfast BUFFET will be required for our next trip. And I never want to see John Wayne Airport again in my entire life.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Solvang, CA
Hello from sunny California! Actually, it's after 9pm and quite dark here in Solvang. I am a bit sunburned though, proof that there was definitely sun today!
We are in the home stretch of our California road trip, our first real vacation trip since Italy last year. Wow!
We flew into San Francisco on Monday, September 14. We had a lovely evening strolling through Chinatown, poking into stores, gawking at ivory carvings, shopping for Year of the Ox chtazkas, and winding down with a nice meal at... drumroll please... Chinatown Restaurant. :) For all the touristiness of it, our meal was quite good. The best sweet & sour pork since Betty's Chinese Kitchen in Kona (I *hope* I'm remembering that right...), and the best potstickers ever! Potstickers have always come with an amazing sauce, and that's where the flavor comes from. There was no sauce, so I was confused. But then the dumplings themselves were flavorful! Who knew that was possible?!
The next day we drove to Monterey, took in downtown Cannery Row, then put off the aquarium until the next morning. It was just as awesome as I thought it was going to be! Many years ago I saw a commercial for the aquarium, and I've wanted to go ever since. The giant two-story kelp forest pool was amazing, very much like the glass dome at the Seattle Aquarium - I like to think of them as cathedrals.
That evening we drove out to San Simeon, taking Hwy 1 instead of 101. For me, this was an enormous mistake. Eric's back was acting up worse than mine, so I was driving. Most of the way is a 63 mile stretch of constantly curving road that hugs the cliffs precariously. My fear of heights makes the drive up to Mount Rainier or Whistler or Crystal Mountain terrifying for me - lots of vertigo-inducing drop offs with little or no railing and even less margin for error. 63 miles of it with endless curves and hairpin turns that had me nauseated and dizzy and exhausted by the time we reached our destination - nearly an hour after sunset!
This morning we woke in San Simeon and I was much recovered. I went out to the beach for some alone time because Eric's back was even worse. Our plan to go to Hearst Castle was in jeopardy, and check-out time was looming. We drove out to Cambria for some beachcombing at Moonstone Beach, with Eric alternately sitting in the car and then walking the beach to loosen up. By the time we left I had a tiny stash of possible agates with a few possible moonstones (most were roughly the size of cooked risotto, so not really valuable), and Eric felt up to conquering (storming?) the castle.
It was just as amazing as we knew it would be, but hot and exhausting for two people with bad backs. It wasn't the walking or even the parts in the sun that did us in, it was all the standing around. I'm not sure I even heard a 10th of what the tour guide said - I was almost never allowed near enough to hear her very well, and spent most of my time concentrating on taking pictures and trying to fight the urge to sit down on the floor. But definitely no regrets - the place is truly miraculous. We fell in love with the place when we saw a documentary about 10 years ago, and ever since we have been threatening to invade California and take the Castle for ourselves. The state of California is safe tonight, but only time will tell how long that Castle stays in their possession! As we left the Neptune Pool, I was seriously weighing the consequences of jumping into the pool. What would be the consequences? Getting kicked out? Sooooo hard to put down the idea once it popped into my head, but alas, I am still welcome in the State of California. Dammit.
So now we are in Solvang, by way of Morro Bay. The most disappointing thing about San Simeon was that after 63 miles of Highway from Hell, to arrive in a town solely to cater to tourists by lodging and feeding them, we discover there is NO fast food in town. No drive-throughs. Not in the next town of Cambria either. So the most notable thing about Morro Bay was that it had a McDonald's!!! Forget the cute shops I wish I could have explored, even the bead stores. There was a freaking McDonald's! With a drive-through! Air conditioned lobby! Reese's Peanut Butter Cup McFlurries! I can't remember the last time I enjoyed McDonald's quite so much.
After that, we just made a straight shot here. I had some bead stores marked to explore in San Luis Obispo, but we were so exhausted and in pain that it seemed best to just get to our destination and rest. As it was, we got here just after 8pm. Good thing we didn't make any more stops!
The most frustrating thing about this trip, even in the planning stages, has been the wish for more time. Time to further explore each destination. Time to add other destinations. I was seriously leaning towards going to the Santa Monica Pier first thing tomorrow, before we had to return our rental car at Anaheim. Now that I'm here, I think I'd rather spend tomorrow leisurely explorings Danish bakeries, Spanish Missions, and antique stores. As long as I don't dally too long in the antique shops, I think Eric may agree with me.
Which means tomorrow night we arrive in Anaheim. Saturday we do Disneyland. And Sunday we're on a plane back home. Where did all the time go?!
We are in the home stretch of our California road trip, our first real vacation trip since Italy last year. Wow!
We flew into San Francisco on Monday, September 14. We had a lovely evening strolling through Chinatown, poking into stores, gawking at ivory carvings, shopping for Year of the Ox chtazkas, and winding down with a nice meal at... drumroll please... Chinatown Restaurant. :) For all the touristiness of it, our meal was quite good. The best sweet & sour pork since Betty's Chinese Kitchen in Kona (I *hope* I'm remembering that right...), and the best potstickers ever! Potstickers have always come with an amazing sauce, and that's where the flavor comes from. There was no sauce, so I was confused. But then the dumplings themselves were flavorful! Who knew that was possible?!
The next day we drove to Monterey, took in downtown Cannery Row, then put off the aquarium until the next morning. It was just as awesome as I thought it was going to be! Many years ago I saw a commercial for the aquarium, and I've wanted to go ever since. The giant two-story kelp forest pool was amazing, very much like the glass dome at the Seattle Aquarium - I like to think of them as cathedrals.
That evening we drove out to San Simeon, taking Hwy 1 instead of 101. For me, this was an enormous mistake. Eric's back was acting up worse than mine, so I was driving. Most of the way is a 63 mile stretch of constantly curving road that hugs the cliffs precariously. My fear of heights makes the drive up to Mount Rainier or Whistler or Crystal Mountain terrifying for me - lots of vertigo-inducing drop offs with little or no railing and even less margin for error. 63 miles of it with endless curves and hairpin turns that had me nauseated and dizzy and exhausted by the time we reached our destination - nearly an hour after sunset!
This morning we woke in San Simeon and I was much recovered. I went out to the beach for some alone time because Eric's back was even worse. Our plan to go to Hearst Castle was in jeopardy, and check-out time was looming. We drove out to Cambria for some beachcombing at Moonstone Beach, with Eric alternately sitting in the car and then walking the beach to loosen up. By the time we left I had a tiny stash of possible agates with a few possible moonstones (most were roughly the size of cooked risotto, so not really valuable), and Eric felt up to conquering (storming?) the castle.
It was just as amazing as we knew it would be, but hot and exhausting for two people with bad backs. It wasn't the walking or even the parts in the sun that did us in, it was all the standing around. I'm not sure I even heard a 10th of what the tour guide said - I was almost never allowed near enough to hear her very well, and spent most of my time concentrating on taking pictures and trying to fight the urge to sit down on the floor. But definitely no regrets - the place is truly miraculous. We fell in love with the place when we saw a documentary about 10 years ago, and ever since we have been threatening to invade California and take the Castle for ourselves. The state of California is safe tonight, but only time will tell how long that Castle stays in their possession! As we left the Neptune Pool, I was seriously weighing the consequences of jumping into the pool. What would be the consequences? Getting kicked out? Sooooo hard to put down the idea once it popped into my head, but alas, I am still welcome in the State of California. Dammit.
So now we are in Solvang, by way of Morro Bay. The most disappointing thing about San Simeon was that after 63 miles of Highway from Hell, to arrive in a town solely to cater to tourists by lodging and feeding them, we discover there is NO fast food in town. No drive-throughs. Not in the next town of Cambria either. So the most notable thing about Morro Bay was that it had a McDonald's!!! Forget the cute shops I wish I could have explored, even the bead stores. There was a freaking McDonald's! With a drive-through! Air conditioned lobby! Reese's Peanut Butter Cup McFlurries! I can't remember the last time I enjoyed McDonald's quite so much.
After that, we just made a straight shot here. I had some bead stores marked to explore in San Luis Obispo, but we were so exhausted and in pain that it seemed best to just get to our destination and rest. As it was, we got here just after 8pm. Good thing we didn't make any more stops!
The most frustrating thing about this trip, even in the planning stages, has been the wish for more time. Time to further explore each destination. Time to add other destinations. I was seriously leaning towards going to the Santa Monica Pier first thing tomorrow, before we had to return our rental car at Anaheim. Now that I'm here, I think I'd rather spend tomorrow leisurely explorings Danish bakeries, Spanish Missions, and antique stores. As long as I don't dally too long in the antique shops, I think Eric may agree with me.
Which means tomorrow night we arrive in Anaheim. Saturday we do Disneyland. And Sunday we're on a plane back home. Where did all the time go?!
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