Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Journey Down

Today marks exactly one month since I started my career. In celebration, thought I should share some of my photos and experiences from my road trip down here.  

DAY ONE

I was at my mom's casa the last night in WA and that was the second day of the Seattle snow storm. It had snowed all day and I had cleaned off the car a couple hours before going to bed and once again right before bed at 10 PM. Nevertheless, mother nature continued to battle against me and I awoke to this:


Mom and I barely made it down the pass before it closed and it took a solid three hours battling snow traffic to just reach Olympia. This was our longest day of driving and we battled snow most of the way, stopping for the night in Southern Oregon. Our town of rest was Ashland - where they have a huge Shakespeare festival every summer!

The town is rather touristy, but in a fitting way (like Leavenworth). Very quaint and full of Shakespearean and Elizabethan art and culture. We stayed at the Historic Ashland Hotel as shown below. We got the room for a steal and the hotel was beautiful. Pictured below is the lobby and part of our hotel room. The hotel was full of pictures of birds and dead leaves. That doesn't sound attractive...but trust me it worked.... 






Day Two
We weren't out of the snow yet and barely made it through another mountain pass before they closed it.

By the time we reached the town of Weed, the snow was finally clear

After another long day of driving we arrived in Napa and stayed in my favorite Hyatt so far, the Avia! This hotel was so welcoming. I truly loved this hotel and would highly recommend it. 
Mom and I arrived in the afternoon and were able to squeeze in three quick tastings before the wineries closed down. We went to Mum's, Silver Oak and Black Stallion! Black Stallion was okay, Silver Oak was absolutely amazing, but Mum's was my favorite because I love champagne.



Day Three

This was the day with the shortest drive. Napa to Monterey! The hotel in Monterey was not impressive though and I was actually really disappointed. The aquarium was awesome though and mom and I met up with distant relatives for dinner!

Day Four

On the out of Monterey I took Sarah, Trafton and my relative's recommendation to check out 17 mile drive through the Pebble Beach resorts and country clubs! The drive was long, but stunning. Well worth it. 


 This night we stopped in Santa Barbara - which I seem to be lacking photos of. I'm also missing pictures of the elephant seals we saw on the way down. They were hilarious! A beach had thousands of them - they were barking a lot and just looking nasty. Elephant seals are awesome. 

Anyway we stayed this night in gorgeous Santa Barbara. Loved it. 

Day Five
Home Sweet Home. Arrived to the Palm Springs area and my resort.  My HR manager welcomed me with a lovely amenity in my room!



The trip down was awesome. I'm so glad my mom came with me and we saw so many beautiful sites! Missing the north already.




3 comments:

  1. You make me miss California!!! Isn't Ashland a cute place? A couple of years ago when we visited all Michael could say was how much it reminded him of Europe.

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  2. Really? I guess it was kind of European...nothing compared to Leavenworth though! It was definitely charming and unique!

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  3. New haircut! And your job! You need to hit me with a looong update, darling!

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