Our first stop was the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.... for the record, due to the fact I grew up in WY and far far away from the ocean, I've never been to an aquarium before, and I'm pretty sure this was the creme de la creme of aquariums! It was PHENOMINAL!
I saw my first octopus... he was HUGE and very active!
The 'sea pens' were so cool! Apparently the base holds eggs... who knew?
My favorite part was the 'jelly garden' There were HUNDREDS of different kinds of jelly fish and the entire section of the aquarium was dark and lit only by the lights in the fish tanks... it was so peaceful and relaxing... I could have sat there and watched the jellies all day....
One of the most impressive sections of the aquarium was the 'Kelp Forrest'.... it was HUGE and had so many fish and we even caught the show of the biologist feeding the fish... notice the shark... and he had a microphone so he could talk to the crowd while he was in the tank... it was awesome!
This was my favorite guy at the aquarium... he kept swimming back and forth in front of me so I just sat down and kept taking pictures... but finally he turned straight towards me and was completely motionless as if to say, 'ok lady, take your pic and get outta here...' he was so cute!
We jaunted over to Carmel, it was BEAUTIFUL! Such a cute lil place, and timeless. Notice all the people in the water? NOPE! That's because the water was FREEZING! 
We got a hotel in Monterrey and the next day we trekked further north to San Francisco! A friend once told me that San Fran is the West Coast version of New York. Now that I've been to both, I completely agree... and I love them both! My cousin Valerie came over from Oakland and introduced us to Dim Sum.... it was interesting to say the least! But hey, we're all here to try new things right?
We spent the afternoon checkin out San Fran. It was fun to remember all the places from the last time I was in San Fran a couple years ago. We rode the cable car, went to Pier 39, checked out Alcatraz, did a little shopping, went to Lombard St, bought Boudin sourdough, found the epic Haight Ashbury... which I was kind of disappointed, but it's legendary, so I'm glad we went, and ended the day engorging ourselves at our favorite... The Cheesecake Factory... that was a good day! I'm pretty sure I left my heart in San Fran..
This was a first for me, we actually drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on our voyage north! It's breathtaking and crazy to think of all the work that went in to the construction before all the gizmos and technology were available.... it truly is a work of art....
Have you seen 'The Other Sister?' Diane Keaton? It's so funny, but there's a scene where Diane is talking to her daughter and a Savage Garden song (Animal) comes on and they chase the birds and run around this crazy architecture... I've ALWAYS thought that scene was awesome and I wanted to find it ... well who knew it's in San Fran? Palace of Fine Arts anyone? It met every expectation I had ... it made the top 5 of my favorite places in San Fran... I only wish I had a picnic packed in a basket with a blanket to sit and enjoy the scenery all afternoon....
We continued north.... destination: Napa Valley and the vineyards...
It was straight out of the movies... 'A Walk In The Clouds' anyone? Keanu Reeves? Napa was awesome, my only regret is that we didn't spend more time here.... it really was it's own little little haven, that seemed untouched by the rest of the world.Continuing north we had much anticipation for our next stop... The Redwoods! We had to pause overnight in what I now deem as the HOLE of northern Cali... it's a little place called Eureka. The only good thing it had was a US Bank with an ATM to get some more cash and .... nope, that was it!
Somewhere between Napa Valley and heading back towards to coast, Cali's atmosphere changes from sun and beach to cooler temperatures, overcast skies, and dense overgrowth... it's a beautiful transformation... We kept stopping along the way to check it out, it still baffles me how diverse the coast of Cali is...
Just FYI... there's no 'official' entrance into Redwood National Park... all of a sudden you're looking around and realize.... the trees are H-U-G-E.... it's the weirdest thing!
We got a campsite in the park and loved every minute of it... the river ran right next to our site and I've NEVER seen a river more green and clear, you could see all the way across and all the way to the bottom... it was awesome!
It was hard to capture the vastness and gigantic size of these trees... but believe me, they're just huge....
We turned inland and started truckin' to Reno. We took a short detour to check out Lake Tahoe, what a fun place! We had dinner at a cute diner and I just kept thinking how fun it would be to spend a summer at a place like this: 
what could be better than a mix of both the mountains and a sandy beach?Then we drove through the night and rolled into St. George right as the sun was coming up .... it was a quick 5 day trip, but it was epic!
Drive the California coast... CHECK
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