The Official Epic Story of Us-California Adventure Part 1

In a previous life I traveled extensively for work. During that time, I visited California on multiple occasions and fell in love – but never had the chance to see it as a tourist. I’m a total day dream believer and I envisioned this trip for years. We finally made the dream a reality with the Wiker Family vacation of 2023. It, quite honestly, exceeded all expectations! With the trip many weeks in the rearview, none of us is able to pick a favorite part, because we all enjoyed almost all of it. A few things before I get into the details – first and foremost, we didn’t really set a budget, nor adhere to one. In hindsight that was probably not the best choice, but it did give us more freedom to fly by the seat of our pants, which is how this family rolls best. It is also important to share that our kids (ages 10 and 15 at the time of the trip) travel pretty well and are seasoned fliers and road trippers which was very important for this adventure!

Here’s how it went:

Day 1: Travel Day

We left on a Wednesday morning in August and flew from BWI to Oakland, CA with a VERY brief stop in Denver. I’ll pause here to add a few details – first, our preferred airport is Philly – its closer and easier to get in and out of for us, but they had no good options flying to the West Coast on Southwest (our preferred airline) and it was far pricier than Baltimore. We were originally leaving on a Friday with a 2.5 hour layover in Las Vegas, but had to change the entire trip to be home in time for an event Zoe had to attend for school. When I changed the flights, the Denver layover was the best we could get (direct was not an option). The Denver airport was INSANELY busy, we were 60 gates from where we needed to be, and we literally had to speed walk to get to our gate. Lines were so long at every restaurant/stand/shop we had no time to grab anything to eat. We arrived at our next gate just as boarding began. We even spied our luggage boarding the plane from our seats. 

Our flights were uneventful and we landed in Oakland right on time. We picked Oakland because – from my previous California experiences – they have fewer delays than San Francisco due to less fog. We grabbed our bags, jumped in the getaway car, and headed for San Francisco. We booked our rental through National Emerald Aisle- love that we get to pick our car when we arrive!

Immediately, Brian and the girls were enamored with California! We picked a hotel right in the heart of one of San Fran’s biggest tourist attractions, Union Square. The GPS led us to the main entrance of the hotel – not the parking garage we were aiming for so we had a bit of a scenic re-route – our first introduction to the hills of San Francisco! Zoe immediately felt sick, as it was a bit of a roller coaster, but we managed and quickly got to the right spot. The Westin St. Francis was AMAZING!

It is a beautiful old hotel with a wonderfully storied history and even features original Ansel Adams promotional photos on display in the lobby. The staff was outgoing and so polite (a California theme we’d see repeated over and over). Our room was gorgeous and had a great view of Union Square Park (and fog). We were all so tired and hungry – we dumped our bags and headed out in search of dinner. We found a cute diner two blocks from the hotel and ordered so much food, I’m pretty sure our server thought we had lost our minds- remember we didn’t get to eat in Denver! We were ravenous! The bags under our eyes and our Penn State attire made it obvious, I’m sure, we were exhausted tourists. With full bellies, we decided to make it an early night. While in Cincinnati earlier this summer, we started a new routine of only watching Friends while in hotel rooms. Its a tradition we carried on throughout this trip – while everyone got ready for bed, Friends played in the background. 

Day 2: Thursday – San Francisco

We opted to walk to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a hike, but the sights along the way were awesome! The trip takes you through the heart of Chinatown – seeing the markets and shops during the bustling morning hours was truly amazing! Just outside Chinatown we found an adorable little bistro called Cafe Angolo and grabbed breakfast (they don’t have a website, but they are on Columbus Ave in North Beach). The proprietor of the shop was such a nice guy! I know this sounds silly to say, but he was so genuinely outgoing and kind – not something common on the East Coast at all!

We continued on our trek, arriving at the Wharf about an hour and a half before our boat to Alcatraz was set to board. The battleship in the harbor caught our attention and the girls begged to tour the S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien. I’ll spare you all the historical details of the ship, but its certainly worth a quick Google search to learn more about this rare relic of WWII!

We all loved exploring the ship, seeing how our sailors lived during the war, and Zara loved learning how women played such a vital role in our nation’s ability to join the Allies. Once we finished our ship tour, we headed down the pier to board our boat to Alcatraz. First tip about visiting Alcatraz (and San Fran, in general) – its chilly and damp. If it says the high is 65, dress for 55 – in layers. Zara thought she was freezing to death on the ride across the bay, I’m happy to report she survived. 

I grew up in the era of America’s Most Wanted broadcasting live from Alcatraz, among other shows about this crazy place. Seeing it in person was so much fun! We originally weren’t going to participate in the free audio tour, but I’m so glad we did. It walks you through the different cell blocks, tells stories of the inmates from each area, and shares stories of the corrections officers who also called the island home -all told by the former inmates and guards. Zara’s facial reactions to some of the stories told on the audio tour made it even more fun! It was an especially gray, foggy day when we visited which made it even more of an eery experience. 10/10 definitely recommend a visit to Alcatraz! We all really enjoyed it.

After finishing the tour, we grabbed lunch at The Fisherman’s Grotto, one of the icons of Fisherman’s Wharf. We opted to walk to Lombard Street to check out another of the “must see things” in San Francisco. Despite the challenging uphill trek, it was worth it to see the unique twists and turns. We opted to walk down the hill instead of drive, but watching others drive down was very entertaining! 

By the time we reached the bottom of the hill and started heading back toward our hotel, we were all sweaty, thirsty, and ready for a snack. Water and gelato were all it took to complete the trek back to the hotel. We cleaned up a bit and headed back out to explore Union Square. Zara had spotted a ZARA store from our hotel window, so that is always a required stop. The girls found a few things for back to school and we got the required pic of Zara in front of yet another ZARA. Unfortunately a lot of the stores in the area close early (between 6 and 7 depending on the store), but we did find a few fun places for photos and took a spin through Macy’s before calling it a night.

Day 3: Cable Cars, Sausalito, and the drive south begins

We started our last morning in San Francisco with a Cable Car ride. The line to board the car was long, but it was so worth the wait! Despite realizing how chilly San Francisco can be, Zoe thought shorts would be a good idea. Thankfully, her mastermind little sister is always there to help!

First of all, I had no idea how manual the process of driving a cable car is – from moving forward up the hills to braking on the downhill side – to how they switch tracks, and even turn around at the end of the line – it all takes actual human muscle to happen! 

We took the Cable Car back to Fisherman’s Wharf and grabbed breakfast at Boudin’s Sourdough Bread, another 10/10 recommendation! After breakfast we grabbed the cable car back to Union Square and bid farewell to our time in downtown San Fran. We jumped in the rental car and headed for Muir Woods just on the outskirts of the city – this adventure took us across the Golden Gate Bridge! Unfortunately, it was a really foggy morning and you couldn’t even see all of the bridge, let alone any of the views of the bay. Brian did all the driving for the entire trip – it definitely was challenging at times!

As we were crossing the bridge I saw a sign mentioning reserving parking in advance for Muir Woods – which we were unaware of previously. I quickly hopped on their website and learned it was sold out for the day. We ended up detouring into Sausalito instead. Brian and I recently watched “The Last Thing He Told Me” on AppleTV+ so it was fun to see the town where it was filmed. Sausalito is a beautiful little town on the Bay full of hillside homes and communities of house boats. 

After an hour or so in Sausalito, we decided to start our trek south toward our next destination: Seaside on the Monterey Bay. This drive was the most adventurous of all our time in California. It was scenic and, thanks to my accepting of a new route on Google Maps, a bit terrifying. The mountain road we detoured onto saved us six minutes and gave us an opportunity to see some redwoods – right along the edge of the road that may or may not have been skimmed by a few cars in the past. While it was scenic – we were all happy to get out of the woods! I was so intent on watching the road (from the passenger seat), that I didn’t snap a single pic. We took a quick detour and swung by Stanford University for a drive through campus, checked out the track, and grabbed a souvenir for Zoe. Lunch was a California must – In and Out Burger. The temperature swings were crazy – it was in the low 60’s in San Francisco, low 70’s in Sausalito, and mid 80’s in Stanford/Palo Alto.

We arrived in Seaside around 6 PM and discovered there was a Costco right across the street (here is the view from our hotel balcony).

Brian had forgotten his rain jacket and we thought it would be a good idea to grab some water to keep on hand. As with any trip to Costco, we found several other things we thought we needed. Brian grabbed some cheap sneakers for our whale watching trip (he didn’t want to risk ruining his Dunks, which ended up being a really good call), and we also discovered they sell alcohol at California Costco stores. It is quite possible that PA is the only state that DOESN’T sell alcohol at Costco- at any rate, we grabbed some grown up drinks to have for the evenings. Here is my one and only cost-saving tip from the trip: find a Costco on vacation! While we didn’t NEED these drinks, it was vacation, and quite honestly between the $3.99 case of water and $100 of wine, High Noons, and bourbon, we definitely saved hundreds of dollars versus buying individual waters (our family drinks A LOT of water) and evening trips to the hotel bar.

We stayed at the Sand Castle Inn in Seaside, CA. Its a mom and pop type motel. It was very clean, if a little worn, but perfectly adequate for the one night we stayed there. After our Costco field trip, we walked across the parking lot and grabbed dinner at Gusto Handcrafted Pasta and Pizza. Food and service were great! Only downfall of Friday night was the TV in the room didn’t work so we were unable to watch Friends while everyone got ready for bed. 

And that’s where we’ll leave it for today! Stay tuned for the next “episode” that includes whale watching, Warner Bros, and a possible sighting of Harry Styles!