Virginia Beach - September 2016 - Day 1 & 2

September 29, 2016 (Thursday)

After getting home from work, we headed out for another adventure – this time our ultimate destination was Virginia Beach.  We stopped along the Ohio turnpike for some dinner and made it just outside of Pittsburgh for the night. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in North Huntingdon, PA.  The room was fine, nothing overly fancy, but the weird thing was that there wasn’t a bathtub, just a shower.

September 30, 2016 (Friday)

Harpers Ferry NHP

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.  There is a $10 entrance fee to enter the park.  Once you park there is a small visitor center, restrooms and a bus stop.  The bus ride is free and takes you to the Park area.  The ride is short and there is an auto recording that tells you a little about Harper’s Ferry. The town is very charming.  Many of the buildings are open for viewing. Some of the buildings just have display, but some also have videos. One of the buildings has flood levels recorded, which is kind of interesting. Harper’s Ferry is probably best known for John Brown’s raid on the Armory in 1959 and the role in the American Civil War. John Brown was an abolitionist that led a group of 21 men on the raid of the arsenal. His intention of the raid was to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South. The raid was short lived and did not result in the outcome that Brown had intended.  In the end, Brown was tried for treason against the State of Virginia and was convicted and hung. The raid was a catalyst for the Civil War. Harpers Ferry changed hands eight times during the Civil War.

I had done a lot of research on ways to get around the DC traffic – per TripAdvisor recommendations we opted to pin Winchester, VA has a waypoint in our GPS.  The drive was nice and traffic really only got backed up when we were trying to get onto the road that we had been avoiding (I-95) We stopped in Richmond, VA for dinner.  Mike had heard about the GWARbar (as in GWAR the metal band) and suggested eating there. The reviews were good, so we checked it out. The menu was interesting and the food was good. Service was just okay. 

Finally, we ended our night at our Virginia Beach location – Ocean Beach Club.  The place was right on the beach, we did not have an ocean view.  The room really needed the paint freshened up and the carpet could have used a good cleaning also.

Napa, CA - September 2016 - Days 3, 4 & 5

September 5, 2016 (Monday)

Kule Loklo - Coast Miwok Indian Village

Family outing!  We visited Point Reyes NS, our first stop within the park being the Bear Valley Visitor Center where we watched the introduction film and checked out the displays.  We also hiked to the Kule Loklo recreated Coast Miwok Indian Village. It was a short walk that provided a few nice views.

Heading to the Lighthouse from the Bear Valley Visitor Center is about a 45-minute drive. The drive provided lovely cattle ranch views as well as ocean views. Once we finally arrived to the lighthouse, the parking was out-of-control. The parking lot is quite small and additional parking is along the side of the road. Luckily, we were able to find a space near the parking lot along the side of the road. We had our picnic lunch along the roadside on some rocks before heading to the lighthouse viewing area.  The hike down to the lighthouse is 308 steps.  The lighthouse itself was not too impressive.  The cool part was that we saw a whale!  Once done visiting the lighthouse, we headed to the Drakes Bay Beach.  We wondered the beach, enjoying some sand castles; built in the previous day sandcastle building contest.

Baby Muir with a sand sculpture

Drakes Bay Beach

Leaving the park, we stopped at Point Reyes Station for some ice cream before heading back to the hotel. We had dinner near our hotel at the Hilo Hawaiian BBQ. I was excited – since while we were in HI, I had the Kalua Pork with Cabbage pretty much every day.

September 6, 2016 (Tuesday)

Muir Woods

After checking out of the hotel, we dropping Mike’s parents off to spend the day with the baby. Mike and I headed to Muir Woods NM.  Muir Woods was quite busy in the parking lot areas.  We were able to find a space after maybe 10 minutes of driving around. After a quick lunch at the on-site café, we ventured out on the trails. We opted to check out the Hillside Trail. It was an easy hike.  The site was a lot drier/duster than when we had previously visited.

Our next stop, the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front NHP. The plan was to visit the SS Red Oak Ship.  It was supposed to be open, but we arrived to find it was closed for a few days since work was being done in the area leading to the ship.  Maybe the third try will be the charm…  We visited the Education Center and watched the film about the Port Chicago Disaster. Port Chicago Naval Magazine is on our list of places yet to visit – they have limited hours and require clearance to gain access to the active military base site.

Jill, a friend I used to work with, met up with us for dinner at Zachary’s Chicago Pizza on College Street in Oakland. The pizza was pretty good. For dessert, we went to Smitten Ice Cream, which was also yummy.

Our trip was wrapping up, we headed back towards Sacramento, meeting Mike’s parents near Fairfield.  We stayed at the Best Western Sandman Motel in Sacramento – total dive.

September 7, 2016 (Wednesday)

We had a 6:40am flight back to Flint with a short layover in Minneapolis. After landing in Flint, we headed home, but not before stopping in Clarkston for some of the best BBQ ever at the Union Woodshop.

Napa, CA - September 2016 - Days 1 & 2

September 3, 2016 (Saturday)

Deciding to be adventurous this time, we flew out of Flint. Flying to Sacramento involves a layover regardless of flying out of Detroit or Flint. The Flint flight had times that worked for us and was $40 less!

Our flight was bright and early – 6AM!  To avoid waking up quite so early, we spent the night at the Best Western on Hill Road in Flint. The hotel was very nice, but we were on the freeway side of the building – very loud!  Flying out of Flint was way easier than flying out of Detroit. Parking was super close and the security lines were pretty much non-existent.

Our layover was in Atlanta and we had more than enough time to grab some breakfast before hopping on our flight to Sacramento. Both of our flights were smooth sailing!

 Using an online travel site to book a car, we got a $91.13 deal thru Hertz for a full size car. Hertz only had a Jetta available - we were supposed to get an Altima. We ended up having to get a larger vehicle – I feel like we got stuck paying more because of this. In the future, we will deal directly with the rental company and not use a 3^rd party.  Another negative was that we had to wait 30 minutes for an available vehicle which made us change our afternoon plans.

We ended up heading to the Jelly Belly Factory Tour. The tour had changed since our last visit. It was self-guided! The only disadvantage, during this visit was that the factory was closed for the weekend.

Mike’s parents were along with us on our travel adventure since the main purpose of the trip was to visit our nephew, Muir, who was born back in June.

We had hoped to rent a house during our trip, but nothing was close to where our family members live, so we ended up staying at the Holiday Inn Express in American Canyon.  The hotel was great and the area around it was nice too – lots of restaurants and shopping.

After checking in and unloading our luggage, we headed to Napa to visit the baby! We had a homemade dinner at my sister-in-law’s mom’s house.

September 4, 2016 (Sunday)

We met up with family at the Oxbow Public Market.  While there we got some yummy cupcakes at one of the little stores inside.  Since we were there we also took a stroll along the Napa River.

Heading north, we had brunch at a place called Sam’s Social Club in Calistoga. The food was okay and was mostly priced between $15-$20.  I had the cheeseburger and fries.  The fries were good; the burger was just okay.  The décor was really nice and the surrounding outdoor area was also enjoyable.  After we were done eating, we walked thru town before heading to Sterling Vineyards.  The plan was to go on the Gondola ride – once we arrived there was no parking and the mile was very long.  We ditched the plan for the Gondola ride and went to the Bale Grist Mill.  The tour was $5 a person. The tour group we were on was very large and it was hard to see some things. The guide was very informative and was quite passionate about the mill.

**I was unable to find my photos from these days! - Sorry!