Vacation (Prius Count- 196)

This past week Rodger and I returned from our trip up north. We decided to go up there mostly to see my dad participate in the Vineman Half Ironman in Santa Rosa. We planned our trip around that which was on Sunday July 22, 2007.

We left on the Thursday before the race and drove to Solvang. It is such a cute little town. We got there in the late afternoon and checked into our hotel, which was made up of a lot of little cottages and then some standard rooms. Solvang does not have much of a night life and everything seemed to close really early so we had to go to a different city to eat dinner. But I was able to get my piece of Rocky Road fudge before the fudge shop closed. After that we went to dinner at BBQ place called A.J. Spurs. I had been there a long time ago with my family. It was really good and a lot of food. They give you iron pots of soup that you add salsa too and then at the end you get a root beer float. There are a ton of dead animals around the restaurant so I took a picture of Rodger with the bull. There are pictures of me but I look about three months pregnant in them so I am not going to post them. I guess I ate too much food. The next morning we walked around Solvang and looked in the little shops and then left for our second stop a couple of hours away in Morro Bay.

We got to Morro Bay in the afternoon and had some motel issues which I won't get into. Let's just say it involved a water heater and some crazy lady yelling at me "no refund!". I love Morro Bay, Rodger had never been there but my family and I used to go at least once a year when when I was growing up. We would go camping in the summer and then sometimes stay in a hotel at a different time of year. It is a place that holds a lot of nostalgia for me. Everything looked the same and it was a lot of fun to show Rodger around. We walked around the bay area and looked in the little shops. We also enjoyed looking out at the water and "The Big Rock". I spotted several sea otters. It was perfect weather while we were there. We had fish and chips, and other fried treats for dinner.

That night we drove out to Morro Rock and walked around the beach and the rock. We were there just as the sun was setting and it was beautiful. Even though it was by the water it was really quiet and calm place to be. It was nice to put our feet in the water and walked around in the sand. I also took Rodger to Foster Freeze which is a family favorite.

Saturday morning we had a longer drive ahead of us but we squeezed in some kayaking in the bay. This mainly involved me sitting and Rodger rowing. It was hard for us to get going in the same direction at the same time. It was a lot of fun though, I love being in the water. We drove from Morro Bay to Santa Rosa. We passed through San Francisco on the way up and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. We saw the bay and Alcatraz. It was a nice day there but so much traffic. From there we went to Santa Rosa and finally made it to the hotel that my parents were staying at. They were kind enough to let us stay with them. It was a really nice hotel and it had a nice pool and jacuzzi area that we took advantage of and because of which I can still not hear out of my right ear. We went swimming after we got there and it was refreshing after sitting in the car all that time. For dinner we all went to Applebees where they were showing David Beckham play in his first Galaxy game. We went to bed early that night because we had to get up at 5am for the race the next day (even though some people set their alarms at 4am).

We got to the race around 6am. It started at the Russian River near Santa Rosa. The race goes Swim 1 mile, Bike 56 miles, and Run 13 miles. My dad's "wave" started at about 7:30am. His friend Rob was also there to do the race. There were a lot of people doing the race and it was exciting to feel all of the adrenaline. My dad did finished the swim in about 40 mins and then they transition to the bike portion of the race.

My mom, Rodger, and I went to get breakfast before driving to the high school where the bike finish and final finish line was. We got lost a few times but we did make it to the high school. We waited around a while before my dad came in from the bike. We didn't get any pictures of him actually riding his bike because they had to walk their bikes to the transition area. He finished the bike portion of the race in about 2hrs and 45 mins. We were able to cheer him on from a few different places when we saw him this time.

Next is the run which started and ended the same place that the bike ended so at least we didn't have to go anywhere (we were all very tired). My dad finished the race around 1:30pm. He finished 20th out of 80th in his age group, which is very good, I think. It was SO HOT that afternoon I really don't know how any of them did it. I had the sunburn to prove it was very hot. He did great though! Next year he is doing the Ironman in Coeur d'Alene, ID and has done 3 other Ironmans in the past so I guess this was small potatoes for him. The rest of us were still impressed though. We spent that night in Santa Rosa again.

The next morning we had a full day planned. Rodger and I started off by heading to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. I have been there before but Rodger hadn't but I knew he would like it. We only got lost about 3 times getting there and went into 2 gas stations to get directions. We took the tour there where they show you how the Jelly Belly is made, which is cool. It seemed like they had shortened the tour though. When we were on the tour they were making the Lime Jelly Belly so that smelled pretty good. We bought our "belly flops" and fudge, which promptly melted, and then hit the road. Next we drove to Berkley to visit Rodger's cousin Paul who goes to school there. We got some pizza and then he showed us around the campus. It is beautiful there and the school is huge. All the students walking around made me miss college.

Next we went to San Francisco to look around. We crossed the Oakland Bay Bridge, which I drove across (a little scary for me especially when rude people honk at you.) We walked around Fisherman's wharf and the bay area and took pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz (one of my favorite tourist destinations, although I didn't make it there on this trip). San Francisco has such a cool energy about it. It was such great weather and there was a lot to look at. We also walked to (the original) Giradellis to get their hot fudge sundae and ate it in a park by the water. Yummy! We only stayed in San Francisco for about 2 hrs but I feel like we saw a lot.

We spent our last night of vacation in Tracy, CA on the way home and enjoyed some yummy Sonics for dinner and breakfast and then we made our way home.

It was a great vacation filled with great memories.