My Northern Californian Adventure Up the Coast

Living in California for 22 years, I would have never expected to never had visited the biggest cities in California. Leave it to my foreign Swedish boyfriend to call me out of it too. Since Philip and our other Swedish friend Jonathan had a few weeks left in the States, they invited me to take a roadtrip up the coast to see California.

Me...a roadtrip? Never been on one but who wouldn't want to take a week off of reality and go site- seeing? Our first stop was Santa Barbara where my sorority big sis lived! We made a big rookie mistake by taking PCH up to Santa Barbara during the peak time for major LA traffic. Instead of a 3 hour trip to SB, which is the normal estimated time, we made it there in a little under 9 hours. 9 HOURS. My big sis took us out to a few bars in downtown SB which ended up being packed since it was Graduation week and families were pouring in from all over the U.S. In the morning we headed out to see Santa Barbara which happened to be a gloomy cold day but still nice to do a little site seeing.

Santa Barbara Pier

 

Santa Cruz

 Next stop, Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was a sight to see. We went on the boardwalk and had to play some carnival games, eat ice cream and experience all that is the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. As we only had a week to travel, we had to keep our Santa Cruz trip short in order to make time for our biggest stop..San Francisco.

Next stop we made was Napa Valley. Of course, the one thing to do there is to go wine tasting, so Philip picked a vineyard and we headed to Hendry's Vineyard. Napa was extremely hot especially while the vineyard owner had us hike through in the blazing sun so he could show us the different grapes they were growing. On our way we stopped by my little sisters in Berkeley where they took us around the UC Berkeley campus and showed us around to some really really good hole in the wall establishments. Brazillian food! I've never had it before and let me tell you...after a long day of walking, my stomach surely grew up an appetite!

Hendry's Vineyard in Napa Valley

Berkeley with my little sisters

San Francisco (it was FREEZING)

Last pit stop (for me at least) was San Francisco. It was FREEZING! I've always been a so-cal summer girl (emphasis on SO-CAL) so San Fran was not my cup of tea. It was crazy to see so many landmarks that you'd normally see in movies or on t.v. right in front of you. We did all the "tourist-y" things you possible do in SF like visit Alcatraz, go to Union Square, and of course hit Ghiradelli Square....That's where my trip ends. Back to work and back to reality, I flew back to Orange County a changed and more cultured woman. But seriously! I felt like I had just seen the world and definitely realized I've been missing out on so much.

My boyfriend and Jonathan went on to Yosemite and Grand Canyon for a few extra days before they drove back to Orange County. I must say, this trip was an eye-opening experience and one that tested my outfit choices ;)


Until next time...<3