California dreamin' again

Keith, Grayson, Lindsey, Cynthia & Joan

On Sunday, October 2, we arrived in Santa Cruz, California to visit sons William and Tim as well as granddaughter Brittany. It flashed in my head that within about five weeks we have been driven to and from Boston, Massachusetts and now Santa Cruz, California. That’s a distance apart of 3,159 miles.

By the time this trip is over we will have also traveled all, but about 150 miles of the old Route 66.

The trip from Williams, Arizona to Danville was pretty grueling. The total distance was 707 miles and most of it was done in temperatures at or above 100 degrees. Part of the journey included some driving on some roads I have not driven on in Southern California for many, many years.

The roads around Edwards Air Force Base have improved since the last time I was on them, which isn’t surprising since it has been about 50 years since I was on them.

Joan at Mondavi Winery

Anyway, we have had a short, but fun time in California. Our plans to see my sister-in-law did not work out, but we are looking forward to our next opportunity to visit with her either in California or in Michigan.

We had a nice short visit with my cousin Cynthia and briefly saw her daughter, son-in-law and grandson just before we left for a spin through one of Joan’s favorite places, Napa Valley wine country.

Heading up the Sterling tramway (see car going down)

We visited Hess Winery and its unusual art collection. We stopped at Mondavi Winery for some free wine tasting as well as a stop at Franciscan Winery where we are members of the wine club for some more wine tasting. Joan does all the drinking and I do all the driving.

Me and Joan at Sterling Winery

While Joan did her wine tasting at Franciscan I sat in the Tahoe listening to the exciting (way too exciting) end of the Ohio State versus Michigan State football game about 3:45 p.m. (California time). Fortunately the Spartans hung on for a 10-7 victory over the Buckeyes.

Usually we travel through Napa Valley during the weekdays, during the off season, but Saturday was almost a solid line of cars through the valley and all the parking lots were full to overflowing at the wineries.

After a stop at the Sterling Winery and a ride up its aerial tramway for even more wine tasting before we headed to dinner at one of my favorite and out-of-the-way restaurants in Occidental, California.

Joan at Union Hotel restaurant

The Union Hotel has been a northern California mainstay for nearly 100 years all through the ownership of one family and its subsequent generations. The atmosphere is basic, but the food is good and plentiful and always family style. We stuffed ourselves and headed to our hotel in Novato, California.

When I booked the hotel I made sure we had a non-smoking room as we are sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke.

When we arrived about 8:45 p.m., tired and ready for bed, the hotel clerk informed me that they had accidentally overbooked the hotel and all that was left was a smoking room. He asked us to check out the room, but one step inside told us we could not stay there as the odor was simply too strong.

Nothing else was available in the north bay so we ended up driving nearly 90 minutes south until we found a room in Santa Clara at another Days Inn.

William, Joan and Brittany at beach

We drove over the “hill” early today and settled in for a couple days visiting with the boys and Brittany. Once we arrived at William’s place we took him and Brittany down to Brighton State Beach for a pleasant afternoon of sitting by the ocean. The fog rolled in and then promptly rolled away all during the two hours we sat by the beach.

Later we went out to dinner with son Timothy and his daughter Brittany at Hindquarters, a very nice restaurant in Santa Cruz. 

When we travel with the trailer we rarely eat out (to save money) so it is fun and a change of pace to have dinner out.

Brighton State Beach

After dinner we took Brittany back to William’s house where she is living and then dropped Timothy back off at his car at the restaurant.  We’ll have them all to lunch tomorrow. Probably won’t file another episode for a few days.

Tim & Brittany