Happy honeymooners

Note: This is a continuation of the previous post.

Day three of living off of diner food and sitting in a car for countless miles can make a person feel like their arteries are one meal away from closing up. We decided to counteract this feeling by lacing up our shoes and going on a run through Carpinteria, a city just outside of Santa Barbara. To say this was one of my favorite runs would be an understatement. We ran from our hotel through a neighborhood that connected us to a park with a greenway running along the coast. We made it back just in time to catch the continental breakfast and a shower before check out. Next stop, Santa Barbara. This city screamed "California" with it's streets lined with tall palm trees and VW vans parked on the sides, beach views on one side, giant hills on the other, and the greenway busy with roller bladers, beach cruisers, and runners. To top all of this off "Hotel California" was playing on the radio...I had to not only think about what decade I was in, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't in heaven! We walked the beach to the pier (this was more of a tourist trap as well, but I loved it), and then made our way to a marina full of sailboats. We eventually had lunch on a patio and then sat on the beach listening to music, both not wanting to leave. Knowing that more magical places were out there, we packed up and visited UC Santa Barbabra on our way out (Tommy has a "thing" for seeing other college campuses). We knew that tonight was a camping night so we visited a few campsites and at the risk of sounding like Goldilocks, nothing felt right. We were getting closer to Malibu and just as it was looking like we weren't going to find anything, we found the most perfect place to camp...ON the beach in Point Mugu State Park (Thornhill Broome Campground). We both were losing our minds at just how perfect it was. We went down the road to have dinner at Neptune's Net (since we've been back, we've seen the restaurant and that stretch of PCH countless times in movies and TV shows), and then back to set up camp and enjoy a fire as the sun went down. The perfect ending to a seriously perfect day.

#meadadventures tip: Don't be tied to "creature comforts" because in doing so you may miss out on a lot. At first, the idea of no shower seemed like the end of the world to me but at the end of the day who cares what you smell like to people you will never see again. We traded clean hair for the experience of spending the night on a beach outside of Malibu!

Day four and we were going to Los Angeles. Traffic was insane as we got closer to the city, and I even felt like we were coming in through the "back door" being on the PCH and not the interstate. The feeling to ditch our car was almost immediate. We finally found a parking garage close to all of the things we wanted to see, and noticed if we made it in and out in 3 hours it would be free. LA is not our scene at all but when you come to California and you're in the area, you can't really pass up the opportunity to see the "Hollywood" sign. Our first mission after leaving the car was to get some coffee on Santa Monica Blvd (Tommy swears that while I was inside he saw Lindsay Lohan, but lets just say he's not exactly a rep for TMZ), and with fuel in hand, off we were to walk Hollywood Blvd. After a few obligatory pictures with some stars, we took a break for lunch, and then stumbled upon a decent view of the Hollywood sign. With the three hour time limit nearing and the overwhelming amount of traffic and people closing in on us, we decided we'd had the proper LA introduction and were ready to go. As we made our way to our final destination, San Diego, we were able to stop and see Huntington and Laguna Beach. We arrived in San Diego near the end of the day, so we found a hotel and then went on the search for dinner. We found a place close to our hotel named Loma Bonita where I experienced my first fish taco (none I have had since have compared) and Tommy had a burrito the size of his head. We took dinner back to the hotel and relaxed for the night.

We had made it all the way to San Diego from San Francisco in four days, and now on the morning of day five it hit us, we now had to make it back to San Francisco in one day. On our way, we made a detour to Venice Beach. Venice was amazing, kitschy, and everything I love (I bought a five dollar "muscle beach" tank that I now wear almost as much as I do my own skin). After the quick stop, we started our long day of travel and traded the peaceful coastal highway for the interstate. We stopped for lunch at the amazing In-N-Out...we are not fast food people (and not really even burger people), but I have dreams about this place. It was a really long day in the car, but even on the interstate we still had pretty things to look at. When we finally made it to San Francisco we were in shorts and Tommy's uncle greeted us in a down jacket.  I had only a brief encounter with the bay area on our first day so I guess I did not get the full effect of just how breezy and cool it actually was. Once settled, it wasn't long until the day of driving caught up to us.

Day six was the day we had to eventually return our trusty SUV. We knew we wanted to see Muir Woods and that was out of the city so we decided to head there while we still had the means to get there (we were planning on using the BART for the rest of our time in the city). After breakfast we made our way to enjoy the mighty redwoods. After a few hours of exploring we decided to make our way back to the city. On our way back we hiked the Tennessee Valley Trail to Tennessee Beach, and then stopped at an overlook to take in the most breathtaking panoramic view of the Golden Gate Bridge and city. After all of this, we were running on fumes in terms of food and still had to drop off the rental car. We dropped off the car at the airport and rode the BART back into the city to find some food. We ended up eating at the Cheesecake Factory on the roof of Macy's and were lucky enough to score a table on the patio. After our lunch/dinner, we walked around the city making our way through China Town and ending the evening at Fisherman's Warf. A successful first day in San Francisco!

#meadadventures tip: When you're in a city that offers a decent public transportation system...use it! It is much cheaper than paying for a rental and then having to pay to park it somewhere or even relying on a taxi. It does take some planning, but there is something about being amongst the people that actually live in the city that amps up the experience.

This day eventually had to come: it was our last day in the city and our honeymoon. We started the day with a run through Golden Gate Park, and then mapped out our BART routes to coincide with the last few things we wanted to see. First stop, the Golden Gate Bridge. We spent a large chunk of our day there walking the bridge and exploring Fort Point. Lunch time took us to Tommy's Joynt (so good that we visited it again when we made it back to the city on another #meadadventures), and then we found ourselves walking through Haight-Ashbury. A BART ride back to Tommy's uncle's house where we were welcomed with an amazing dinner that they had made for us and a few of their friends. We spent the night enjoying their company and really soaking in the last moments we had in this dreamy city. In the morning we made our way to the airport and back to reality.