West Coast Roadtrip = Complete!

Yes. I have neglected to post about the last half of our journey. So here goes!

We bid farewell to San Francisco Sunday morning after a quick brunch at a nearby diner...and the girl on the logo looked a lot like Lucy from I Love Lucy. Which I also had to educate Baby on who that was. SMH.

Anyway. Drove about an hour north to get to Sonoma Valley to visit my aunt and uncle with my GPS on my phone.

Ok. Back up.

Friday afternoon after all of our gallivanting around the city, we discovered, to my horror, that my GPS plug was broken and it had no way to charge. The tip of it had either came apart or it had gotten stuck in the car lighter outlet. Therefore I was forced to use my phone GPS (thank goodness for Verizon) to go to the airport to drop Shar off as well as go to my aunt's house.

So we got to their place in one piece and I had my uncle look at it. Did I mention he has an auto shop? Haha, so I wasn't too worried about the situation once I remembered that. We finally found the pieces to the charger scattered under both front seats of the car and he was able to put it back together. He then proceeded to tell me that the car lighter outlet was broken and to have Enterprise either fix it or give me a new car. But more on that later.

Ok. Back to Sonoma Valley.

Uncle Kelly and Auntie Vernie took us to see some of the vineyards and then they, meaning the two aunties and uncle, did a wine tasting. It was Auntie Beth's (and actually Uncle Kelly's, believe it or not) first time doing a wine tasting. Apparently Auntie Beth gets really sleepy when she's had too much. Hahaha. It was pretty hilarious watching her try to stay awake during lunch.

First wine.

Second wine.

We got bored by the third one so we went outside to wait. Lol.

Yay for wine tastings!

After lunch Auntie Vernie took us to the town plaza area and we walked all along the shops and went into a nifty kitchen store, fair trade-type store, a sock store!, more wine and cheese tasting store, ice cream shop, a cool thrift store, and many others! Such a quaint area!

Pretty sure that's some historical building in the plaza...

It was surprisingly warm in the valley that day so we all rested a bit - well I discovered my cousin Melia's bookshelf. Haha. I share my cousins' love for books...it runs in the family, I guess. Cracked open the book, "Around the World in 80 Dates." So intriguing! I need to go borrow it from the library this week so I can finish it. Lol. Anyway, we had a pizza dinner, which btw was amazing b/c my pizza actually had tons of flavor unlike other cheese-less pizzas. It was like bruschetta on crust. I'm almost drooling right now. Sigh.

I got to catch up with my auntie, since it's been forever since I've seen her, which was nice. =) Apparently hatred for talking on the phone runs in the family. Ok, I shouldn't say hatred...more like dislike.

We woke up early in the morning and headed out to see if we could get another car....the first place was too small and didn't have any extra cars. The second place told me I'd have to wait for 2 hours before they would have more cars!! I asked if there was another location b/c we were supposed to be on our way to Portland, which is 10 hours away. So the guy went to the back for a bit and brought out the keys to a Chevy Impala. (And everyone goes, "EWWWWWW!!") Mind you, the first car was a Toyota Yaris. So it has its pros and cons. I don't like American cars, but it was def a lot bigger for our longest leg of the trip. So I guess it was kind of a blessing in disguise? And it couldn't have happened at a better time either. Haha. Thank goodness for my aunt and uncle!
Stopped by at Starbucks to make a hotel reservation and grab something for the road. Did I mention that this whole trip I had been making hotel reservations the night before we would get to our next destination? It's really not a great idea b/c you spend like 2 hours staring at your computer not getting anywhere. It's quite frustrating and I don't recommend it. Haha.

We finally headed off to Portland and made the looonnngggg but pretty drive up. FYI Chevy Impala's do not handle well on winding roads. Mt. Shasta was with us for a good portion of the drive and Auntie Beth couldn't believe there was snow on it. Hahaha.

Mt. Shasta! And no, I did NOT take this pic while driving. Auntie Beth took it. =)

Made it to Portland in one piece and set out to find food. Is it just me or is everyone stoned in Portland?! Maybe b/c of all those hippies? Haha.We ended up at a random Lebanese place and it was GOOD!! We ordered way too much food b/c we were starving when we got there and had to bring half of it back with us. Haha. That was breakfast.

With the goods.

We left that rainy morning and headed out to visit Multnomah Falls about half an hour away. Did I mention it was rainy? B/c it was. And it was foggy too. Booo. But the falls was magnificent. Totes worth the drive!

I love this brat.

We then went our merry way to Seattle. Did I mention before that it was raining? =.=
Haha. When we arrived it had thankfully stopped raining and we were able to walk down to Pike's Place Market. Ok, that place is awesome! So many cool shops and restaurants! Unfortunately most of the stores close at 6pm and we got there just as many of them were starting to close up. But we did get to walk through some of the stores. Oh, and we ate at some Indian/Nepal restaurant that was pretty good. Actually, come to think of it, I've never really gone to a bad Indian restaurant. (Knock on wood!!)

Then we went downtown and discovered more stores...but of course. >_<

Oh, and we found these weird statues and blue trees.

 The next morning we went back to the Market and pretty much did a mini food tour of the place.

Baby was disappointed it didn't say One Direction. Haha. She's 1D cray cray.

GIANT POPSICLE!!!

They weren't as good as the ones in SF.

First Starbucks store EVER!! And cool musicians too.

Piroshkies being made fresh!

I love this place!! Piroshky Prioshky FTW!!

Tons of flowers, and it was pretty cheap too.

Fresh produce...we bought some apricots and white nectarines.

Seafood!

I think she was looking at a giant shoe...don't ask me why.

This is where they yell and throw fish!! It's so cool! Sadly I didn't get a good picture of it.

Dragon Well green tea and a buttered crumpet!!

Organic crumpets and tea...I wish I had tried some of the other crumpets! They were so good!

I wanna learn how to do that...

I was super full by the time we got around to this place...plus we went next door for watermelon juice too.

You can try all their different dipping oils and balsamic vinegars.

Making cheese!

Fresh cheese!

After we went back downtown and back to the Market to go get MORE piroshkies (for the next day, of course), we decided to take the monorail to the Space Needle.
Went up, walked around, took pictures, explored with the real-time cameras, and then proceeded to play cards for the next hour or two. Hahaha. Meh, might as well...we paid to go up there, right? Lol.

When we finally went back down I hadn't the slightest clue in which direction we were supposed to go in...so like a noob I had to go back inside and ask for a map. Yay for being tourists!

The Space Needle and its 502' of glory. Or something like that.

Hello Seattle.

She goes, "I can's see anything!!" And I go, "That's b/c you're pointing it at the sky!!" LOLOL.

She was so happy when she got that thing. Lol.

Playing cards!

We had to wake up at 4am, leave at 5am, in order to drop the car off at 5:30am, to make our flight at 7am. Looonnnggg day. Apparently LAX never transferred the car info to my reservation so the ppl at Seattle were super confused. Lol. Finally got it all taken care of, thank goodness! And the flight was super bumpy. But for some reason, I like a little turbulence...makes the trip more fun...I just don't like it at the end when they're trying to land b/c then I feel sick. Yuck. But that was probably a little TMI, no? Haha.

Home feels so good! Mommy's cooking is even better!! And gas prices that are less than $4 is the best!!!
WHOOHOOO!!!!

West cast roadtrip = CHECK.