Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 8 years and 9 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

We got up early this morning, saying goodbye to my sister-in-law and brother-in law, and were on the road by 7:30am. Originally we had planned to take US-101 all the way up the coast to San Franciso, but at the last minute, after consulting our maps/apps and estimated travel times we decided to take the less-scenic, but faster, I-5 route through the Central Valley. Our only Roadside America stop on this leg of the trip was at Bravo Farms where we picked up some snacks (like fresh farmers cheese!). The valley was more scenic than we expected, despite the frequent water shortage signs.

We stayed to the east of Oakland on I-680 heading to the Jelly Belly Factory tour in Fairfield and made it before the last tour at 4:00pm. No photos were allowed on the tour but it was amazing to see rows and rows of stacked trays of Jelly Belly beans in various states of preparation. And at the end … unlimited flavor samples (three at a time). Our timing was off again and we ended up in bay area rush hour traffic going back south. We made a quick stop to check out Berkeley and then drove across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. While driving to our hotel near Fisherman’s Wharf, we made plans to go to dinner with an old college friend. After a quick stop at the hotel to unload the car and freshen up, we drove out to Noe Valley (can there be a valley in SF with all of these hills?) to meet our friend and grab dinner at Holy Kitchen, which was fantastic.

My little sister was flying in from Seattle to join us for the rest of the road trip later that evening, so after dinner we walked around the neighborhood (it was chilly compared to Vegas and LA!) socializing and enjoying the view of Jupiter and Venus in the evening sky. Finally, after saying goodbye to our friend, we drove to SFO, picked up my sister, and headed back downtown to the hotel. It had been another long day for us but my sister hadn’t eaten dinner yet so we walked to the In-N-Out Burger around the corner from the hotel to get her a double-double. We were in bed and asleep by 11:30pm.

Tomorrow we spend the day in San Francisco.