California: Part 1

Our 2015 California trip will always hold a special place in my heart. We traveled there for the intent of attending a friend's wedding, and we also got engaged. The week we spent on the West Coast was fun, but tiring, in that we drove in plenty of traffic and endured some long drives on windy roads to get to our destination.

We flew into San Francisco, and began our journey north to the Mendocino Coast.

Our first day was spent hiking Mount Tamalpais, eating delicious seafood at Parkside Cafe, and visiting Stinson Beach. We were fortunate to have amazing weather nearly every day we were there.

Day two was spent biking around Napa Valley. Since neither one of us are big wine drinkers, we opted out of touring a winery, but saw plenty of vineyards on our bike trail. We rented bikes at Napa Valley Bike Tours in Yountville, and they provided us a map to guide us along our ride. We rode over 20 miles that day, and my butt was happy we had no more plans to get back on a bicycle for the rest of the trip. Although the scenery was beautiful, the majority of the trails were along busy roads around Yountville, so it kind of took away from the peacefulness of the experience.

My favorite thing we did that day was people watch in front of Bouchon Bakery. It was a nice way to unwind from our bike ride. We purchased some bread and a chocolate croissant from the fancy bakery and plopped our bottoms down on a bench for an hour and watched people go by. We noticed a lot of "man buns" in California. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's when a man pulls back his hair into a "bun;" however, it is not a look everyone can pull off. We saw many unacceptable man buns that day.

That evening, we drove to Fort Bragg (a very windy and dark drive) and checked into our bed and breakfast. I highly recommend the Country Inn to anyone that is staying in the Mendocino area. It is a beautiful property, clean and cozy, and served the most amazing and decadent breakfasts I have ever eaten or seen.

We were off to a good start to our trip!

Where we stayed:
Regency Inn, SFO Airport
Hawthorne Suites, Napa Valley, CA
The Country Inn, Fort Bragg, CA

Where we ate:
Parkside Cafe
Gott's Roadside
Pacific Blues Cafe
Bouchon Bakery
North Coast Brewing Company Taproom

Photos by Yung.