Shutdown 2006 - Day 1 - Santa Barbara
The company I work for shuts down for a week in the summer for everyone to have a vacation and usually this is the perfect opportunity to do some travelling. We have spent an entire month with the new interns that have come to replace us while we go back to school and we hvae been rallying them to come on the big Shut Down Trip. Since today was also my last day of work, I do not have to come back to work after the trip. So, we have decided to extend the trip and use it to travel accross America while the rest of the new interns head back to the bay area. The plan is to make it to Dallas and fly back to Toronto from Dallas. My buddy Chris and I will take 17 days for the trip which is amazing!!!!
Itinerary:
Day 1 - Drive from San Francisco to Santa Barbara
Day 2-4 - Spend 3 days in LA
Day 5-7 - Spend 3 days in San Diego
Day 8-12 - Spend 5 days in Las Vegas
Day 13 - Spend the day in Grand Canyon and Phoenix
Day 14 - The whole day is spent traveling from Phoenix to San Antonio
Day 15 - Spend the day in Corpus Christi, Texas
Day 16 - Spend the day in Austin, Texas
Day 17 - Spend the day in Dallas, Texas and fly home
Day 1 - Highway #1 and Santa Barbara
My buddy Chris arrived the night before in San Francisco and we had a chance to check out a small number of the sites around the city like the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street. We slept in a bare apartment that night because I was completely moved out!!! After the trip I was moving back to Toronto. We woke up early that morning to meet up with the rest of the new and old interns that were going on the trip. We had 5 cars total heading south for the trip and we were all excited. Chris, Alex S, Alex N and myself hopped into the "ferrari" and headed south to Monterey where we picked up Highway #1. The clouds were rolling over the coastal hills and it looked pretty cool:
We headed south from Monterey along the coast. This takes us through Big Sur State Park and it's beautiful. This is probably the most scenic portion of the Highway #1 drive. Although most of the drive is very very scenic and I would recommend driving along it at any spot you can. I took this picture at a random location along the highway cause I thought it was nice.
As we were driving along the highway, I don't know how Chris saw this but in the distance through the trees he saw a waterfall. So we stopped the car and hiked through the forest. And sure enough he was right and we found this huge waterfall and pool. This is the first "Ill Nana" of the trip. So we decided to do some swiming and check out behind the waterfall. Check out the cool pics:
We ended up climbing to the top of the waterfall to get an excellent photo and view of the pool below. You always need to do a little exploring to find the real gems of each place you travel to because a lot of the time, they are off the beaten path. We packed up and kept heading south and then we happen to see some strange things on the beach and we didn't know exactly what it was. So we stopped and got out and the beach was covered with Elephant Seals. I had never seen so many in one spot just laying and soaking in the sun. This was "Ill Nana" number two! We were off to a good start of the trip.
After following the coast we made it to Santa Barbara for the sun set. This is by far my favorite city in California. It is nestled on the coast between the beach and the green hills. It faces south-east so the sun sets behind the city instead of on the water. Here is a great pic of Chris and I when we arrived.
Another great thing about Santa Barbara is that it has a very vibrant night life. We were very excited and we quickly cleaned up for a night on the town. This day was definitely a great start to a great trip! Ill NANA!
Itinerary:
Day 1 - Drive from San Francisco to Santa Barbara
Day 2-4 - Spend 3 days in LA
Day 5-7 - Spend 3 days in San Diego
Day 8-12 - Spend 5 days in Las Vegas
Day 13 - Spend the day in Grand Canyon and Phoenix
Day 14 - The whole day is spent traveling from Phoenix to San Antonio
Day 15 - Spend the day in Corpus Christi, Texas
Day 16 - Spend the day in Austin, Texas
Day 17 - Spend the day in Dallas, Texas and fly home
Day 1 - Highway #1 and Santa Barbara
My buddy Chris arrived the night before in San Francisco and we had a chance to check out a small number of the sites around the city like the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street. We slept in a bare apartment that night because I was completely moved out!!! After the trip I was moving back to Toronto. We woke up early that morning to meet up with the rest of the new and old interns that were going on the trip. We had 5 cars total heading south for the trip and we were all excited. Chris, Alex S, Alex N and myself hopped into the "ferrari" and headed south to Monterey where we picked up Highway #1. The clouds were rolling over the coastal hills and it looked pretty cool:
We headed south from Monterey along the coast. This takes us through Big Sur State Park and it's beautiful. This is probably the most scenic portion of the Highway #1 drive. Although most of the drive is very very scenic and I would recommend driving along it at any spot you can. I took this picture at a random location along the highway cause I thought it was nice.
As we were driving along the highway, I don't know how Chris saw this but in the distance through the trees he saw a waterfall. So we stopped the car and hiked through the forest. And sure enough he was right and we found this huge waterfall and pool. This is the first "Ill Nana" of the trip. So we decided to do some swiming and check out behind the waterfall. Check out the cool pics:
We ended up climbing to the top of the waterfall to get an excellent photo and view of the pool below. You always need to do a little exploring to find the real gems of each place you travel to because a lot of the time, they are off the beaten path. We packed up and kept heading south and then we happen to see some strange things on the beach and we didn't know exactly what it was. So we stopped and got out and the beach was covered with Elephant Seals. I had never seen so many in one spot just laying and soaking in the sun. This was "Ill Nana" number two! We were off to a good start of the trip.
After following the coast we made it to Santa Barbara for the sun set. This is by far my favorite city in California. It is nestled on the coast between the beach and the green hills. It faces south-east so the sun sets behind the city instead of on the water. Here is a great pic of Chris and I when we arrived.
Another great thing about Santa Barbara is that it has a very vibrant night life. We were very excited and we quickly cleaned up for a night on the town. This day was definitely a great start to a great trip! Ill NANA!
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