San Diego/Southern California

Click here for our Southern California picture album, and here for Central CA/San Fran.

Nathan Paulick (Lisa’s brother) and his girlfriend Alex greeted us in San Diego before our trip to Hawaii. Nathan and Alex moved to area in May after Nathan got a job with an engineering firm. They are adjusting to life in sunny San Diego; they traded in their skis and snowshoes for a kayak and surfboard. Our cousin Kristie (Paulick)  and her husband Matt LaFon just brought a darling little boy into the world. We got to snuggle with Matthew Gibbs LaFon when we was five days old! It was a very special time for all of us. 

We had lots of great family time - we even Skyped with our sister Amanda who is studying in London. Nathan showed us around the Pacific beach area. We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day walking the beach and devouring delicious fish tacos. From there we spent our two weeks in Hawaii and then flew back to San Diego to crash again with our brother. We spent an enjoyable afternoon at the San Diego Zoo and the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma. Nathan is working at a job site on Point Loma, and he has stunning views of the ocean on his daily drive to work. 

We left San Diego and headed north to Irvine California to spend time with family. We had a delightful time with Uncle Bob, Aunt Terri, and Lindsey Paulick.  We hiked, watched football and movies, enjoyed delicious food and wine, and just hung out catching up. After leaving Irvine we had a list of places to see on our drive north on the California coast. Our first stop was Pismo Beach State Park where we camped for one night. We spent time walking around San Luis Obispo downtown and enjoyed lunch at the Big Sky Café. The sunset at Pismo beach was perfect and the weather was warm. During the night Lisa awoke to helicopters buzzing overhead. At some point in the night Lisa awoke again to sounds of gun shots and a police megaphone telling a suspect to “come out with your hand where we can see them.” In this amazing age of technology Lisa found Ryan’s iPhone (he was still sleeping soundly), found a local paper with the story, and Google mapped the address. The excitement was about a mile away! After a sleepless night Lisa had the tent packed and ready to go before Ryan knew it. 

That day we found out Ryan had been accepted to the Pulmonary and Critical Care program at the University of Utah (starting in July 2013)! We drove north along the foggy coast to Cayucos and had a late lunch and wine paring at a fabulous place that Aunt Terri recommended called Hoppe’s. Waiting an extra day, before we drove north along the coast to Big Sur, for the rain and fog to clear was the way to go. 

Big Sur and San Francisco

Our first stop along the Big Sur coast was an elephant seal viewing area. Elephant seals can be found on the beaches from December thru March for birthing and mating. We saw these massive animals come to shore and move along the beach. They move faster than you would think. It was an amazing sight! 

As we drove north we lost our sun to low lying clouds. We stopped at Sand Dollar beach State Park and Jade Cove. The Kirk creek campground where we stayed that night offered sweeping views of the ocean and rocky coastline. The decreasing hours of daylight challenged our camping the most - cooking and doing dishes in the dark isn't as much fun! 

When we awoke the next morning everything was soaked, not by rain, but by the humid sea air. Camping on Big Sur would be our last night in the tent. We have spent a total of 59 nights sleeping outside since July! The clouds burned off, and we had a beautiful blue sky day on our drive to San Francisco. 

In San Francisco we stayed with Bibler family friends, Doug and Theresa Mehl and their daughter Kate. We started the weekend off right with dinner at Eric’s, a Mission neighborhood Chinese restaurant, that is legendary. The next day we decided to ride our bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, where we had a great diner style brunch at the Lighthouse Café. We rode back over the bridge and along the pier to Ghirardelli square. We celebrated the fellowship match again with an amazing dinner in SF and found ourselves on top of Twin Peaks looking out on the city lights. It was a special night. A return visit to Sonoma and wine country was calling our name (and Lisa had placed an order for pick up with our favorite vineyard). We had a great day walking around Sonoma town, lunch at the Fig Café (we had to have a white peach Bellini), and a tasting at VJB. We were sad to leave the Mehl’s and San Francisco.  

We’ll be back - we have so much more to eat and explore. From San Francisco our next destination was Redwoods National Park. More to come!