I've recently realized that

I've never taken the time to share about our anniversary trip to Northern California... 

I know we shared [more than one] daily photos on FaceBook

but I wanted to share a bit more detail 

and then just never got around to it --

 

So here, during the week of LOVE, 

I think I'll try and re-cap some of the highlights.

I could never share it all - because those who know us well know that 

we pack A LOT into our vacations - 

We often joke about getting back to work to recover from our trips. Ha.

So, here goes:

  We took thousands of photos but I won't share them all - lol - just a few of my favorites - 

Our broad plan was to fly into San Francisco, drive north up the coast and then into The Trees, on up to Oregon, and back down to The City...

First stop - 

Fisherman's Wharf for a burger that is not available in The South.

Yum.

 

Oh, but we had to get the car first... 

And oh! my! we'd never seen a line for rental cars with this many people! 

Thousands. Truly.

Thank goodness Craig found the little kiosk 

where he could check in without being in the line...

And then, of course it was across The Golden Gate.

Gorgeous.

 Then we headed up Highway 1 to the coast -

Lovely.

 And just what I needed since, y'all remember, 

my mama had passed away just the week before.

We ended up in Petaluma where my friend 

Cathe* steered us toward this sweet little cafe for dinner.

One of the best meals we had on the trip!

We so enjoy eating at local places...

 

The next day we spent some time in Santa Rosa, where we enjoyed shopping

and seeing the peanuts characters all over town.

[When I posted this on FB I said,"That's my main man (the one in the left) - he's been my protector, counselor, and friend.... and he's the best handler anyone could want as he's helped me keep up with the days / time and be where I needed to be all week long. ..."]

Craig = He's a good man; charlie Brown is too....

We enjoy the quirky, fun [to us!] things in life.

And it was nice to be on a relaxed schedule so 

we could stop whenever something caught our eye..

We laughed that only in California

can you buy a pair of shoes and get a

couple of pomegranates thrown in for free - ha.

We continued North to The World's Largest Redwood Tree Service Station...

- which was pretty neat to walk in and see how they'd used this HUGE hollowed out tree as a building. It sooo reminded me of My Side of the Mountain.

[I need to find that book and read it again -]

Then we traveled through some vineyards

[something we did off and on throughout the trip]

and ended up in Willets, CA.

We mostly stayed in Choice Hotels throughout our trip - and they were all great.

Some were WONDERFUL - as this one was in Willets.

I'm not a hot-tub kinda gal - but it was just what I needed to

relax and unwind with the whirlwind of emotions I was having...

And it was colder and colder the further North we went so it was especially nice.

[the hotel]

Willets was a tiny little town where we went to ride The Skunk Train.

[I'll share more about it tomorrow.]

We enjoyed the area so much that we

altered our schedule to stay longer.

Nice.

Note: Most photos are straight-out-of-the-camera;

a  combination of shots from both our phones and my bigger camera.

* I met Cathe in Utah at Spark - the Event a few years back where she taught us all how to make the most adorable bird's nest charms / necklaces, So talented.