To reiterate some things I said in a blog post before we left, which are now even more powerful and true to me: if you have a bucket list, or even one thing you have always wanted to do, do it. Just do it. Don't worry about all the money you could be saving, don't worry about things back home, don't worry about any worries you may be harboring. Tell yourself that you will deal with them when you get home. And when you are doing that one thing you always wanted to do, when you are actually in that one city you always wanted to visit or taking that one trip you always wanted to take, you will realize how small your worries are in the grand scheme of things. Life is about doing, not worrying.
That being said, I would like to share some photos of my favorite places. Well... a few of them anyway. There are maybe a hundred favorite places bookmarked in my head. Among them, Big Sur stands out:
The views were breathtaking. I've never seen the Pacific before and could not believe the beautiful blue green/turquoise water. Also the sound of crashing waves, the breeze, the open views... it was unreal and 1000x more gorgeous than I could have ever expected.
Being a professional wino, I also enjoyed our day visiting wineries in Sonoma. We were also lucky enough to be there during the Sonoma County Harvest fair, which (if you buy tasting tickets) has a huge airplane hangar type thing where pretty much every winery in Somona County has a booth set up and tastings are FREE. AND there were a billion restaurants that had booths set up with free food. It was most likely a 10,000 calorie night. Oh well. Needless to say, wine country was a big hit.
The last place I will share in this post was probably my favorite. Back in August when we were planning out this whole crazy adventure, my friend Amber was checking out things to do in Oregon and said, "They have a hiking trail called the Hobbit Trail!" I was instantly drawn to it and knew we would have to at least try to find it (a lot of the reviews said it was hard to find). Well... we found it. And it looked like a place straight out of Lord of the Rings. And it is going to get its own blog post this week, because anyone driving near it on 101 has to go. Here are a few preliminary photos:
I am putting together a post of the route we took, the places we stopped, maybe give motel recommendations... because this trip is totally doable, for anyone. It will seem overwhelming at first, but don't try to plan it all out. Just get in the car and go. Until then, peace and love and hope all is well :)
