It's been a road-trip summer so far for the Spruiell clan! How do two seemingly intelligent people handle close to $5 gas prices? By touring California in a gas guzzling SUV of course!
I'm pretty sure we didn't intend on spending a lot of our discretionary income driving up and down the CA coast but the trips just fell together perfectly with our schedules and they were places we had been wanting to visit for quite some time now. We really did enjoy seeing the sights and visiting friends along the way.
As with many of our adventures, this one does not go without a theme. The theme of our June / July road trips you ask? WILDFIRES. Apparently what we really did was follow the wildfires up and down the coast of California.
It all started when I flew to Phoenix to help throw one of my best friends, Erin, a baby shower. As I land to meet Karen and Katie in the Phoenix airport, what do we see? Wildfire #1! Actually, it looked like a volcano but that's beside the point. Who would have know that this would be one of 4 I'd be confronting over the next month. Anyways, here's a pictures of the Rosemont girls (aka closest college girlfriends) who were able to make it:
(left to right: Stacy with her beautiful baby girl Izzy, Erin - the fabulous mom to be, Katie, Karen, and myself)
Aren't we gorgeous?? And aren't I freakishly tall?
Erin looks fabulous at 6 months! There are 8 "aunts" anticipating the early September birth of Baby Boy T! We had such a great time celebrating the impending arrival. And by 'great time' I mean, drinking mimosas, eating homemade scones, playing celebrity baby trivia (I won), and laying out by the pool under the scorching Arizona sun.
Oh, and Erin got Gram!!! For those of you unaware of Gram...it is a framed picture of our friend Jen's grandmother that slyly makes her way across the country to visit all of us. She showed up on the DJ table at Stacy's wedding in Tucson, at the cake table at my wedding in the bay area, at the head table at Keely's wedding in Washington, in the honeymoon suite at Katie's wedding in Tahoe, and now in a shower gift at Erin's house in Arizona! Somehow she made it into Karen's suitcase on her way to Houston. Where will she show up next???
And after the shower....it's pool time!
And, naturally, I had to get a picture with the resident furry creature...Erin and Chris' first baby boy:
Meanwhile, back in California, Mike was packing the gas guzzling SUV to head down to Orange County (cue theme song from The OC - "driving down the 101...California here we come...right back where we started froooom...Califoooorniiaaa...here we coooommmmeeee...) to visit some business school friends. After I spent a few days with the girls, I flew to LA to meet Mike and the dogs. We spend the day in Santa Monica. Here they are chillin' on the Promenade:
The next day, Mike headed to work in the OC office while I took the dogs to show them what SoCal is REALLY all about: shopping! After brunch with our friend Dorothy and a quick stop at Fashion Island to pick up some Pinkberry we were on our way North to LaLa land and to what I like to call heaven (aka Robertson Blvd). The real reason I wanted to head to Robertson? Another Joshua Jackson sighting of course! Before hitting the shops we needed to refuel with some lunch and people watching at our favorite Doughboys - can you say red velvet cake? Katie and Karen said they definitely wanted to see a picture of the dogs outside of Doughboys so here you go (and we didn't see Amanda Peet this time):
Sandy's future's so bright she's gotta get some shades...how very LA of her...
And then with Karen's help (thanks for the address K) we stalked Heidi Montag at her office. We did not see her but if I did who KNOWS what I would have done. I'm TEAM LC all the way!
After lunch and stalking my least favorite celebrity, we headed to Robertson Blvd! I'm kinda thinking Mike had some GPS on Jerry's collar b/c we were only able to enter into two of the 5 Kitson boutiques (yes, they allow the dogs inside) before Mike called to say he was almost to LA and it was time for us to get back to the car to meet him. My shopping trip was cut short. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything. I still think Jerry and Mike had something to do with that.
I was okay with it I guess b/c it meant we were one step closer to our drive up Highway 1 back to San Francisco! It has always been something we have wanted to do and we were finally going to do it....or so we thought...
Jerry was ready to get on the road as well!
Our first stop was Santa Barbara...what a beautiful town! Unfortunately, we were there for about 12 hours so we don't have many pictures b/c we needed to get on the road. We had a LONG day ahead of us and a LOT of sites to see....again, so we thought...
Where to next mom????
About 4 hours into our drive (and a very scary drive at that) the freeway was closed due to the Big Sur fires that were caused by lightening a few weeks prior. We knew ahead of time that at least 15 miles of PCH was to be closed due to the fires but we thought that there would be an obvious detour that would allow us to get back on PCH to continue our road trip...no such luck. Apparently there was a "pretty obvious" (or so the man at the gas station stated) sign that said the freeway was closed about 40 miles before it was closed but we were too busy staring down Hearst Castle to notice the warning. So onward we went....40 miles up the coast...only to run into a LOT of smoke and a very friendly policewoman who kindly told us to turn around and head 40 miles back down south, then 20 miles East to catch Hwy 101, and head 5 hour back north up one of the most boring freeways in California. Three hours out of our way with no coast in site we were on our way home. Darn lightening storm ruined our vacation.
Before we turned of PCH we stopped to take some pictures:
I apologize for not having any better pictures than these...we really thought our trip was going to be longer (and a lot more scenic). Wildfire #2 cut our drive up Highway 1 very short. We WILL drive up or down the coast again soon...and you can be sure we'll check for wildfires.
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