And so it was, that we originally were going to try to leave for vacation at 5 am, but actually made it by 6 am, and only had to turn around and go back home once because we forgot something big, and I don't even remember what it was now.
We did miss our cottage and gardens and cats the whole time we were gone, but we also had one hell of a time in California.
We decided we were going to drive straight through, all 28 hours, and only stop to sleep if we were in danger of dozing off and killing ourselves, which gave us a little more time to stop for lunch and dinner and breakfast, and wander around any particular town, if there was much to see.
Our first stop was for lunch in Grand Island, Nebraska. Even ten years ago or so, it wasn't easy to find a place with decent food and refreshments, that wasn't either fast food, or fancy food that would take too much time and money to eat. Now, we just look for local brew pubs, and the food is usually pretty good - your usual mix of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, sometimes burgers (we always like the places where you can substitute a veggie burger, turkey burger, or chicken breast for the beef burger), and sometimes pizzas. In Grand Island we discovered Kinkaider Brewing Company. The food was great, they had a decent selection of beers, since we sat at the bar, our bartender was very sweet. We talked about the Nebraska/Iowa sporting rivalry, her baby boy, and then we got a lot of the bar and some of the servers talking about our road trip to California. We were kind of sad to leave, but we certainly didn't want to spend our whole vacation in Nebraska. Most certainly.
We drove the seemingly seven years it takes to get through Nebraska, and finally made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming for dinner.Once again, we found another brew pub. Accomplice Beer Company is in an old train station, and the back beer garden is set out right by the tracks. It's really charming.
Of course, we always like to sit at the bar when we can, so we get a better feel for the place, and sometimes have great conversations with locals or other tourists. Since it was right at dinner time, this place was hopping, so we didn't get to really talk to anyone, but we had a great meal, and our bartender was very efficient and accommodating. Since I was driving, she even gave me a little 5 ounce beer, so I could try one without getting impaired or anything. I had the kale salad, which they seem to be known for with good reason. It was delicious. John got some kind of cheese pizza, and we shared our food, as always. It was the perfect combination.
Oh, I almost forgot. Accomplice Beer Company does this thing where they sell shots (of I'm not sure what, since I wasn't going to do that kind of party drinking) every time a train comes by. It was fun to watch.
After dinner, we wandered around the old town area. They had some kind of Friday night live music happening, so we listened to that while we wandered.
We also took photos of ourselves by the cowboy boots. I know it's all so cheesy and touritsy, but what the hell, we ARE tourists.
I suffer from terrible night blindness, among a myriad of other stupid things. Some of those things aren't just because I'm old either. Anyway, I thought I would see if I wore my glasses that helped me see far away, if that would let me drive at night. I found out the hard way, that that was not the case. Somewhere in Wyoming at around 11 o'clock at night I found myself in a one lane each way construction zone on I-80, and not only could I not see very far if there weren't other cars' tail lights ahead of me, the cars coming the other way were blinding me with their headlights. I had to get off on an exit and give John the reins for the rest of the night.
When I woke up we were in Utah with about one drop of gasoline left in our tank. John wasn't used to everything, including gas stations closing at sunset. We were very lucky and made it to West Wendover, a little town on the border of Utah and Nevada. One side of the street is Utah where everything is closed and you're lucky if you can find a beer. The other side of the street is full of casinos and their flashing lights and signs for weed dispensaries. the towns people have to be so confused. We were just lucky to have found a gas station.
I took over the driving right at dawn and got us to Reno for breakfast. Saturday morning is probably not Reno's finest hour, but we still wandered around the downtown area since I'd never been there before.
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At about 10 o'clock in the morning we finally made it to California. Yea!
We decided to stop in Tahoe for a little minute, since neither of us had ever been there before, and we had nothing but time...Or so we thought.
It's really gorgeous there. The water is clear and lovely. We couldn't stay long, but I'd like to go back another time when we could hang out for at least a day or a week.
I made a bad decision for lunch. It was nowhere near any of my very worst decisions, and I have to say, I'm an expert at making those, but this one was stupid, because of my ignorance of a couple things.
First, I thought it would be fun to stop in Sacramento for lunch, since we couldn't get into our AirBnB until three anyway, and Sacramento was supposedly only an hour and a half away from San Francisco. Silly me.
Hoppy's Railyard Kitchen and Hop Garden sounded amazing. We showed up and they were just seating a table, and the woman told us it could be about 15 minutes before they could seat us, but someone would be right with us. We were the only people waiting. Then some young gentleman stopped by and was going to seat us. We told him we could sit at the bar, if that was easier. He went to check and talked to the woman who we had originally spoken to, whom I believed was the manager, and she said that they couldn't seat us after all and they were only taking people who had made reservations online suddenly. Okay. I understand that people are understaffed, and if she had told us that originally, we would have been fine with it, but to wait until we had been standing there for at least 15 minutes, and originally telling us they could seat us? That is just horrible management skills.
So, we went down the street to some saloon place and we sat at the bar and ate their turkey sandwich and potato chips, which was just fine, because I just wanted to eat by then, and the woman tending bar there was nice and funny and entertaining.
Then we tried to head to San Francisco, and the shit show ensued. It said it was going to take us two and half hours, and we just assumed Google Maps must be smoking crack, since it was only 90 miles away on I-80. Then we were basically at a a stand-still for most of our "drive" there. It really took us close to three and a half hours and I had to call and cancel the reservation I made for dinner (I figured I'd better make a reservation somewhere after trying to get into the Hoppy Railyard place).
We finally made it to San Francisco at around 5:30. We stayed in the Twin Peaks area for the first couple of nights, where we had one hell of a view.
We walked down the hill to Noe Valley, which is the area I used to live in the 1980's, and there was only one business I recognized. Holey Bagel was still there. Bless them. We found a restaurant called Novy and made a reservation.
Since we had some time to kill, we found a bar called the Dubliner, and headed in for a beer. Luckily for us, the World Cup Soccer games were on, and most of the people in the bar were from other countries all yelling and/or cheering at the TV's. Both of the bartenders were from Ireland, and had wonderful brogues.
We gave the Dubliner all of our four thumbs up. Their sign didn't lie.
We made it to our reservation. Novy is a Greek'ish restaurant. John got some kind of salmon salad thingy, and I got pesto pasta. We were both very happy with our meals. We sat outside and had a nice, warm, heat lamp over our heads, because we were in San Francisco where it was 60 some degrees on July 10th.
By the end of dinner, we were both exhausted, so we went over to Whole Foods, which used to be a neighborhood grocery, called Bell Market in the 1980's. We got stuff for breakfast, and headed back, WAY up the hill, where the sidewalks turn into stairs, and finally, after two nights, got to sleep in an actual bed. It felt like heaven.
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