http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Murphinelli/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Murphinelli en-us Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:26:23 +0000 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:26:23 +0000 We are writing this sitting at home in Weymouth MA. Its been a couple days since we've been home and almost a week later from our last entry. I think we were more tired from the trip than we expected. In LA we really didn't do a whole lot of sightseeing and spent most of our time around the pool and Barbq with our friends out there. We got in late afternoon on Sunday to our friends' condo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/blog-316897.html First off sorry there aren't many pictures. only 1 I left the camera at the hotel. So.. Today we left Carmel and embarked on the 5 hour drive to Santa Barbara. We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway which was pretty cool. I made feeble attempts at taking pictures while Jamie drove. The drive was pretty nice and drama free until we arrived at our hotel.When we arrived at the State Street http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Santa-Barbara/blog-316053.html Thursday So we decided to put these 2 days together because there isn't a whole lot to tell you about since San Francisco. On the drive down we stopped in Santa Cruz. we saw some surfers and we had breakfast. It looked like there were a bunch of surfing lessons going on and I think we are going to take a lesson when we get down to LA. The drive from San Fran to Monterey took about 3 hours. O http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Carmel-By-The-Sea/blog-315184.html Today Bob treated us to a private tour of San Francisco. We started with breakfast in San Bruno and then we drove around the really nice neighborhoods to gawk at the beautiful houses. We then drove around Richmond to see Jamie's sisters old apartment. Jamie and Bob disagreed on the actual location of her apartment but since jamie was only there for one afternoon when he was 11 and since bob ha http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-314794.html Sonoma to San FogciscoThis morning we had breakfast at the inn and then went to a couple more wineries. We went back to Ravenwood and had some very tasty wines. We bought a couple bottles a red and a white and then went to Gundlach Bundschu pronounced Gun Lock Bun Shoe. It is the oldest familyowned vineyard in California and all their wines are made from estategrown grapes. It is run by http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-314103.html After 2 straight days of camping and a close encounter with a slug we were very ready to get to Sonoma and more importantly the Inn at Sonoma. We woke up early packed up the tent and supplies and headed out. We made one stop to drive through The Chandelier Tree pretty cool and worth the 5 and then went straight on to Sonoma. The ride seemed to take forever but was well worth it once we g http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Sonoma-County/blog-314100.html Redwood National ForestFirst off let me say that yoursquove never truly seen trees until yoursquove visited the Redwood National Forest. The coastal Redwoods are amazing. The older growth Redwoods are anywhere from 250 to over a thousand years old. The newer growth Redwoods are 250 years and younger. Either way that adds up to some big trees.After leaving Crater Lake in the a.m we stopp http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Redwood-National-Park/blog-313560.html A three hour drive further east from Sutherlin OR brought us to Crater Lake National Park. Crater Lake is basically an old Volcano that erupted about 7700 years ago then collapsed in on itself and then filled up with rain and snow. Itrsquos the deepest lake in the country and it probably the bluest lake we will ever see. We spent most of the day driving around the rim of the crater stopping http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/Crater-Lake/blog-313553.html Well we experienced the notorious Pacific Northwest Fog today. We woke up to a cold foggy morning in Lincoln City. Wersquore sorry there werenrsquot many pictures from yesterday. Lincoln city didnrsquot have too many picturesque moments and unfortunately the morning didnrsquot offer many more either. We were surrounded by fog until about noontime which was just in time for when we ca http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/Florence/blog-312665.html Before we start a couple of things1. Sorry we have not been responding to comments. Finding internet access has been challenging and by the end of the day we have just enough energy left to create these entries. But to those of you who have left comments thank you and keep them coming2. Super happy birthday to my wonderfully great dad P Daddy aka Rich. I hope you had a great day I miss http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/Lincoln-City/blog-312287.html Day 2Emphasis on the word walk. But let's start from the beginning.We woke up at 400 AM our EST internal clocks still telling us it was time to go to work. We fell back asleep for a couple more hours. We had probably the best sleep either of us has had in a really long time. It might be the pillows or maybe it's because there were no cats to wake us up but we do miss Simba and Nala E http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/Bell-Town/blog-311903.html Day 1. After 3 separate flights and over 12 hours of travel time we finally arrived in Seattle at 400 Pacific Time. We were greeted with overcast clouds on our descent but we could see the peak of Mt. Rainer peaking out from above the clouds. It's hard to comprehend how big this mountain is when you're flying above it but people tell us that it's large...quite large. After a quick and VERY http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-311546.html Packing was a lot less stressful than I thought it was going to be. I managed to fit both our sleeping bags and all my clothes and footwear into one suitcase. Dad you would be proud.Jamie just finished packing and did a pretty good job. In an attempt to be a domesticated housewife I tried to pack for him but I gave up after half an hour.Now that that's out of the way here are some details a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/blog-310954.html