Reno, Tahoe, San Francisco and the Amtrak

 We'd been planning to visit Adam's brother and wife all summer. Scott and Christie live in Reno and we figured why not, plus we wanted to check out Lake Tahoe and a quick trip to San Francisco wouldn't be all that bad either. Of course I expected we'd make a road trip out of it so you can only imagine my surprise when I got a text from Adam the day before we left that said: We're taking the train to Reno I just bought our tickets. Awesome, I thought, I'll be riding in some box car with transients and hippies. Who rides Amtrak anyway..? But after doing a bit of research I became really excited, observation cars, cushy lounge chairs, a restaurant on board. We were in for a luxurious ride across the desert.

Our train left Salt Lake at 11:30pm on Thursday and arrived in Reno at 8:30am Friday. We slept all night and woke up in a new place ready to take on adventure.

 

When we got to Reno we threw on our swimsuits and loaded up the car and drove into the mountains to Lake Tahoe. 

 The lake was stunning, tall mountains surrounding clear blue water with huge pine trees.

It was heavenly.

 We picnicked on the beach and wandered around the trails surrounding the water.

 Later we rented a paddle board and decided that it's much harder to keep balanced with two people on board than just one. Ha! The experienced paddle boarding crowd on shore was probably getting a kick out of us amateurs!

After the lake we cleaned up and headed out to "Hot August Nights" in down town Reno. Where one of the largest car shows in the world was taking place. A seemingly never ending parade of cars drove down the main street and casino parking lots were filled with row after row of hot rods. 

 While in the city we decided to try the famous Awful, Awful burger at the diner in the Little Nugget.

It's awful big, and awful good, just like they say.

 The next days destination was San Francisco!

 We hit fisherman's wharf for some clam chowder and shrimp sandwiches on sourdough and then Ghirardelli for treats. 

(Salted Caramel banana shake, we love you!!)

 Later we road the trolley car and hit up China town.

 Where we got some pretty killer Chinese food.

 

 Adam's favorite part about the restaurant were the sea creatures waiting for their demise.

 On Sunday when we got dropped off at the train station we took the elevator to an empty platform with no waiting train. Come to find out we missed our train because of a miscommunication. After a bit of panic the wonderful Amtrak workers switched our ticket and we had one more day of vacation. Ha! Whoops. Tonight we'll go hop our train home and be there tomorrow morning. After traveling by train I will definitely do it again, it's so comfortable, cost effective, and very convenient, it takes longer than flying BUT when you sleep on the train overnight it's no big deal. We're already trying to decide where we want to go next!

Overall a great trip with great company!

Absent

 

Here I am! Back from my blogging hiatus. Back to real life. Back to buying groceries and gas. Back to my Adam, my job and my house. Back to start my garden and do the laundry! Woohoo! My trip was wonderful and magical and everything that I wanted it to be. It was a trip I will not soon forget and one that will only motivate me to go back (again, and again, and again). I can't wait to tell you all about it and share lots of photos and stories. Check back later this week for my trip posts.

 

California Birthday Trip

Our trip to California last weekend was heavenly. Getting out of frozen Utah was just what we needed. And I seriously could have imagined a more enjoyable or relaxing birthday. Adam and I took a couple of days off work and flew out to the Los Angeles area to find the sunshine and eat some (freaking) good food. These photos from the trip are a combo of our iPhone pictures and my cannon so excuse the poor quality of some of them.

We stayed in a totally retro motor lodge in trendy West Hollywood, it was adorable. My favorite part was the soda fountain-esq coffee shop/diner on the bottom level.

On my actual day of birth we started off by having brunch at the amazing Chateau Marmont on Sunset boulevard.

We might have gorged ourselves on pastries and berries. And I might have eaten an entire jar of fresh California orange marmalade. It was soooo good.
After brunch we wandered down to the beach in Santa Monica and breathed in the salty ocean air.

We walked the pier and even rode the Ferris wheel.  

After the pier we had the best, most amazing, yummiest cookie ice cream sandwiches of my life. Soft cookies and ice cream? It was a beautiful thing.

Later that night we got all dressed up (Sephora even helped with my make up) and went to dinner.

The restaurant I selected for my birthday dinner is very much like the Moulin Rouge in real life. Multiple chandeliers, a glowing fire, long red drapes, candles everywhere...it was very romantic, to say the least. And even more importantly the food was wonderful!

 

 This was of course the best part of the meal - warm chocolate cake with raspberries and vanilla ice cream.

The next day we started at the farmers market and had a fabulous breakfast. 

 Later we spent the afternoon in Malibu at the amazing Getty Villa. Taking in the art and the architecture.

 My favorite part of the museum was the massive herb garden filled with all types of herbs and fruit trees.

 The villa is fashioned after an estate that was found in an old Roman city, there is so much attention to detail throughout the the property. It's really amazing to see.

 After we left the villa we drove up pacific coast highway to Zuma beach in Malibu. The drive was so relaxing and beautiful. And although the weather was a bit cool and overcast the beach was also stunningly beautiful.

The rest of our trip was spent wandering around Hollywood and eating chili cheese fries and french toast at the coffee shop. We had a wonderful trip and were sad when we had to come home. But we were so glad to have had the chance to go.