Wow! We did it! Tonight is the last night of our road trip-or as I like to call it-our epic adventure. We left Monterey nice and late, like we left most places. We never set an alarm. Ever. Until Hal made us set one so that he and Rick could go to the gym and have coffee with friends. Way to go Hal! God, we loved Monterey. What a great area. Hmmmm. On the ocean again, go figure.

So, we drove like hell from Monterey to Palm Springs. With a stop here and there. We stopped in Carmel, because, I had to. Then we stopped in Paso Robles for an amazing lunch at Hunter Ranch. It was SO beautiful…. I love wine country. A lot. Spent way too much on wine-couldn’t help it. I want to come up here and spend a couple of weeks and really do the area(s). I bet I can talk Rick into it if I try…..Anyone want to come? lol!

The drive was seriously a pain. Especially since I started driving way before we hit L.A. at rush hour. By the time we reached Palm Springs, I had to pry my fingers from the steering wheel and kind of wanted to throw myself on the ground and kiss it. We talked to our son, Tyler while stuck in rush hour and he asked Rick, “What were you thinking having Mom drive through L.A.?” My thought exactly. Yikes. Not a huge fan of freeway driving, which is what went through my head when Rick originally brought up this idea. Thankfully, he has done the lion’s share of the driving. And quite expertly, I might add. Although he does seem to think the H.O.V. lane is the warp speed lane.  No one is perfect.

We drove up to the Hyatt Regency and I thought I may have died and gone to heaven. (Although after that hair raising drive-motel 6 might have had the same effect-hahaha-not really). I heard amazing music. It is a beautiful hotel. Right in the middle of the main drag. The girl at the front desk was so sweet. The lobby was stunning. The room-a suite-incredible. I needed a cocktail-or two-to calm down. We then walked out of the hotel and I heard a rendition of “Happy”, that was so good, I thought it had to be Pharrell. It was Chris Lomelli (hope I got that right). He was amazing. We wound up sitting there a really long time-until he was done, actually. What a great last night on the greatest road trip ever!

In case I haven’t said it enough….. Thank you, honey. Great idea! Great trip! I love you! Until the next adventure……

Oh my god. I had to delete 109 spam comments after finishing up yesterday’s post. And this morning when I logged on, another 51. What the heck? I am not interested in knock-off (or real, for that matter), Louboutin shoes, Louis Vuitton bags or Versace evening gowns. One thing that I find somewhat curious, yet satisfying, is that people I don’t even know are finding this blog and letting me know how much they enjoy it. I never thought that would happen and the cynical side of me (is there another side-lol?), wonders why and how and is this normal or legit?

After Redding, we headed toward Monterey hoping for a few stops along the way. This is another one of those, if we weren’t ready to be home, we would stop in Napa for a few days, and Sonoma, and San Francisco and and and we’d be home in September (I meant for there to be three ands, btw, to make a point). Granted, we’ve been all over this area before, but I really like it and it’s been a LONG time…..But, we need to keep the momentum. These one nighters are killers though. So much driving, so little stopping. Thank god the first 8 weeks didn’t have this pace! We decided to treat ourselves and end this trip on a high note, so we are staying at Hyatt Regency’s the last two nights. You only live once, right? And to quote Rick-“it’s only money, it ain’t blood.” You know me, though, I still got good deals on those places.

I’m gonna admit it right here, I was really crabby on the drive here. I didn’t sleep well last night and I was so hungry and the two places I really wanted to stop at just didn’t happen. I swear my husband never gets hungry! My stomach is eating itself, and yeah, he could eat something, after I bring it up in my cranky tone. If you know me, you may have heard it. It’s not good. After checking in to the hotel, we took a nice long walk along the bay and stopped for a delicious sushi dinner. My happy voice reappeared. Thank god. I was even annoying myself. More walking and a lot of picture taking later, we came back to the hotel. I broke in to one of the bottles of wine I bought yesterday. Yum.

Holy cow. Tomorrow is our last night of this epic adventure. Photos-