Sue and Ray's Zion Paradise: May 2010

Sue and I needed a much deserved mini vacation so we decided to head to California for a few days. We stopped by Annie's house to pick her and Brett up and spend some time with them before they moved to Logan. This would also allow us a chance to see a few things along the mid coast area that Sue and Annie had not yet seen.

Unfortunately Brett had to leave for Philadelphia to earn some great cash installing security systems for a couple of weeks so Annie had to put up with me and Sue by herself. We missed you Brett!

We left on Wednesday got to Annie's house just in time to go to dinner at this great little Italian restaurant, Il Fornaio in Pasadena. Great food in a cute little area.

While Annie worked on Thursday, Sue and I headed to Burbank to do a Warner Brother's studio tour. It was really interesting. We got to see a lot of outdoor tv sets and indoor sound stages, along with a museum of cool cars, including the Batmobile, the General Lee, and host of other fun cars. We also got to see a collection of some pretty cool costumes and other memorabilia but we weren't allowed to photograph those things. We got a whole new outlook on what it takes to make tv shows and movies. So many sets were just facades, but a lot more were actual full size, if not stripped out, houses. Most of the houses had at least three different entrances and looks. We even got a chance to see the Perks coffeehouse set from friends. After the tour we ate at George Clooney's restaurant, Smokehouse. Lots of Hollywood types were in there eating lunch and talking movie business.

After we got back home we picked up Annie and headed out to Santa Barbabra to spend the evening and the next morning. We got a chance to walk along the main st at night to take in all the quaint little shops and found a nice little sports bar to have dinner, nothing special about the meal but the company was fist rate. We headed down to the marina the next morning and had a great breakfast at the Moby Dick cafe. Eating breakfast on the pier with a window seat to the harbor was great. We took a few photos of the harbor before we left and even got a couple of shots of a Pro Beach Volleyball Tournament that was taking place.

We then headed up the coast to Hearst Castle. If you have heard of it before check it out at http://www.hearst-castle.org/

Before we got to the castle we stopped at Pismo beach for a very short stop to check out the Pier...did I say how freezing cold this was...and...there were a bunch of idiots who were actually in the water.

Once we got to the castle, we were reminded of the immense nature of this place both in terms of beauty, money, and vastness. As far as architecture goes this is a must see with regards to American history. Talk about pomp and circumstance. The pools were pretty amazing, but I think the real story is how this all came about from basically a rags to riches story.

When we finished our Castle tour we headed inland for awhile while on our way to Monterey. When we got there we found a pretty cool boutique kind of hotel to stay at. We got in late but found a really good Taqueria that had some killer al fresco tacos. It also allowed us to take a nice walk around the downtown area before heading to bed.

The next morning had us heading straight to the Fisherman's Wharf and through the old downtown historic district. The Wharf was alive with the sites, sounds and smells of...well....a wharf. Lots of touristy places, but they all seemed to have that special "charm" not a lot of glitzy neon, but some really old buildings with that just had lots of character. And...what's a wharf without pelicans, seagulls, and sea lions? Yes Sea Lions....lots of them. You could hear them "barking" all over the place.

After we got our fill of the wharf, we decided to take the 17-mile drive on the coast through Pebble Beach Golf Course, the ocean, and the mansions, back up North to Carmel-by-the-Sea....a happening, high end touristy area with lots of cool shops and restaurants. The drive offered us plenty of spectacular ocean views along with some great views of Spy Glass, Poppy Hills, and of course, the venerable, Pebble Beach Golf courses. We stopped frequently along the way for some great photo ops. We even stopped so we could go out and stand on the veranda overlooking the 18th fairway and green of Pebble Beach.

We had a great walk through the streets of Carmel-by-the-Sea, checking out all of the shops and restaurants. We decided to have lunch at this really quaint little Italian restaurant, Nico's. The salads were outstanding. Annie and I decided to have their pizza which was pretty good, while Sue tried their Tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce....mmmmm good.

After a long day of checking this great area out it was time to drive home....a 6 hour drive home. The drive really wasn't all that bad and I think we got home around 11pm.

We decided to chill out on Sunday morning before we headed back to St. George. Annie got up and made these killer scrambled eggs for us for breakfast. After just hanging out and packing for a bit we decided to head up the road for a few miles so we could go and get Stanley with Annie before we left. Annie wanted to show up this really awesome little "granola" type town (her words) called Claremont....that place was awesome. It was really like a mini Carmel-by-the-Sea place with a really happening little farmer's market and lots of cool little stores all nestled in an old area of town that we totally old, artsy, high end. We decided tat we all needed a boost by stopping at this little hippy smoothie shop and just chillin out for a few minutes before partaking of some of the fruits of the farmer's labors.

We picked up Stanley and needless to say he was more than just a little happy to see Annie. But alas, all good things must come to an end. Sue and I decided to head out for the drive back home and finally got home around 9:30 pm.

Yes it was a long trip, yes it was a lot of driving, and yes, we had a BLAST. Time spent seeing some of God's great creations as well as some pretty fantastic American creations. Not to mention great time spent with family. This trip was not only much needed, it was awesome. I needed the time away, so did Sue. But you know what, it was really great to have had Annie along with us and spend some quality time together. These kind of trips are pretty rare. What a great way to reconnect and have an opportunity to let our relationships continue to blossom.

Please check out our complete trip photo album on my Facebook page where there are about 270 photos of the entire trip....enjoy!