Wednesday, May 28, 2008

It's Aliiiive!!!

My blog, that is. It hasn't died. Not without a fight.

I've been very busy lately, what can I say? I go through phases; sometimes I'm hyper creative, other times I'm more into my social life, and still others I am on fitness kicks. Whatever the case, I'm always trying to be active. These days I've been hiking nearly everyday of the week (weekends don't count), which has monopolized my time. Traveling is also a favorite pastime, and although I feel like everyone says that... I really mean it.

So this past Memorial Day weekend I went traveling with my honey, John. For those of you who haven't met him:

The doctors still haven't figured out what's wrong with him... but they're working diligently to determine the source of the problem and they feel confident that, in time, they will find a cure.

We arrived in Cambria late on Friday night and stayed in the most adorable little B&B all weekend. The Bridge Street Inn was incredibly charming, complete with the sweetest Burmese Mountain Dog/teddy bear, Max. All the other travelers who were staying there were friendly and interesting, with plenty of exciting experiences and knowledgeable tips to go around.

On Saturday we had grand plans of going on a hike and visiting some hot springs, but wouldn't you know it, the highway you must take to the hot springs leads straight through Paso Robles wine country... and we never made it out. But that was fine too. So we spent Saturday visiting 4 or 5 wineries before swaggering back to the B&B where John made us dinner.

On Sunday we got to know our vacation base town a little better by walking around and checking out all the local shops. Cambria has plenty of little (and big) antique shops, gardens & galleries to get lost in. We grabbed a beer and caught a performance by the local band of middle aged hippies, Rough House. In the evening we went on a tour of the Hearst Castle. It was amazing, obviously. Afterwards we watched the sun set over ocean (which I took an extensive photo journal of) and went out to a fabulous dinner.

On Monday we headed up to Big Sur for a hike. This leg of the trip really made an impression on me. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and I'm so happy we made it happen (since we had discussed a hike everyday but didn't get around to it until the end of the trip). God, the views were amazing and the hills looked like ones you'd see on a tropical island. On our way back to Cambria we stopped at a resort that had a good vista and noticed that the band playing on the restaurant patio was none other than our old pals, Rough House. On our way out of town we hit up two more wineries, ate dinner in San Luis Obispo, and drove through the Dutch town of Solvang before heading home.

Oh, by the way: I took 400 pictures during this trip - I know, it's pretty ridiculous. Regardless, you can view them here.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hiking eh?
Good times.
You just need to bring your camera next time - or else it didn't happen.

;)

Anonymous said...

I love that area of California!
So beautiful and relaxed - and isn't Hearst Castle amazing? The gold accented indoor pool is just insane.

I'm so jealous - Solvang, Big Sur, and if I liked wine I'd be envious of that too.

(Good job on taking photos on the vacay!)

Stepiphany said...

Who left these two comments!? I'd love to know who I'm speaking to.

My camera ran out of batteries on the hike so all those pics are on John's camera :)

It was a GREAT vacay and I even started to annoy myself with how well I was documenting it - completely the crazy tourist with a camera.

Anonymous said...

Marissa on both counts.
Sorry I forget to throw down a moniker.

Anonymous said...

you said swaggering back. did you mean staggering back?

Anonymous said...

you said swaggering back. did you mean staggering back?

Stepiphany said...

staggered, ah yes, indeed.

Anonymous said...

sounds like a fun time, steph. johns arm looks better...which means its time for you to get your head out of your romantic getaway ass and kick it back down to real-world-get-drunk-with-mike REALITY, old school style.

Stepiphany said...

Mike, I'm still trying to decipher the nonsense of this comment based on your grammar and logic. I think I get the point though...

Good Health = Booze!

Am I right? Hot? Cold?
You let me know.