Let the Count Down Begin!!!

Only four more days of work, my friends and I'm outta here! California here I come!!!

Originally the plan was that I would drive cross country in my little car named, Maisy. Buuuuut...well, things got complicated. I have nine days total for vacation and it would take most of that time just to drive to California and back, which doesn't really leave me any time to stop and experience things. So I decided to fly. With flying comes a rental car...hotels...meals on the road (rather than out of my cooler if I drove), and quite frankly, I can't afford that on my own. Sooooo...my trusty travel buddy (i.e. my Mom)  is going with me.

I'm sure that it will be super fun, even if its not cross country driving. Plus as an added bonus, this will be my first time on a plane. I'm a little nervous but as long as I stay away from crash statistics and things of that nature, I do okay with it. :-)

So in case you are curious, here is what we have planned thus far...

I work Thursday night until Midnight and our plane leaves Friday morning from an airport roughly two hours away from home, so that means, I'm gonna be traveling on very little sleep...and that's not even factoring in jet lag. Anyway, Friday morning will find us boarding our flight (my first one ever!!!) around 9 a.m. in Cincinnatti (got the tickets there because it was cheaper for roundtrip and it was nonstop). We'll land in San Francisco, California around 11 a.m. their time. From there we are picking up the rental car and heading to the Haight-Ashbury district for a little icecream at Ben & Jerry's and to take a gander at all the hippie history. After that we will head to Fisherman's Wharf where we'll check into our hotel room (and pay ridiculous amounts of money for parking! Ugh!) and then go play. Or well, we'll go see the sites, so I guess that counts as playing. As of yet, what we do is kind of up in the air. I'm too busy with work and finals to plan too many details at the moment. All I know for sure is that we have two spots reserved for a tour of Alcatraz around 6 p.m. that evening. :-)

Saturday we are heading South to San Jose where we are going to tour the Sarah Winchester Mansion. We are going to keep heading South but we're gonna try to do it along that beautiful coastal highway, Highway 1, so that we can see some great scenery (or I've heard its great). We'll spend the night along the road somewhere, possibly Bakersfield, since I'm a Buck Owens fan. ;-)

Sunday is reserved for L.A. site seeing. Look out Beverly Hills, because you are about to get some bonafide hillbillies in your midst. :-) Sunday night will be spend in Las Vegas, Nevada!!! Woo Hoo!!! Already got our room reserved at the Stratosphere and can't wait to take some pictures of Vegas from way up on top of the hotel. :-D

Monday we will be stopping at Hoover Dam and then continuing on to the Grand Canyon. Something my Mom has always wanted to see and is extremely excited about! Monday evening we are heading to Tombstone, Arizona and will probably do a little site seeing down there on Tuesday before heading back to California. I fully intend to stop at Disneyland while I'm out there, so maybe that will be Wednesday's activities. But honestly, that is all I have planned so far. The plane back home doesn't leave until Friday night at 11 p.m., so we will have a few days in California to do what we want even after getting some of the major sites taken care of.

Should be an adventure! I can't wait!