Playing Catch Up: CA, CHA & Vacation

Time has raced by while I've been having fun, so this is the first of many posts you'll be seeing in the next few days.  Before I jump into anything else I thought I'd give Luke,  grandson #2, some face time...playing with big brother Jackson's Nabi Jr & the new headphones Mimi gave him for Christmas.  Only 2, but such a cutie patootie, right?

In January we spent 3 glorious weeks in CA, including a week in Anaheim to attend CHA, and a week in San Francisco, plus so many points in between.  This is a photo I took on the second floor of the Blackhawk Auto Museum in Danville, just outside San Francisco.  Wow.  Such a collection.

They had several cars in various shades of purple, but don't you love the interior of the last one?  Yowza!!  We took so many photos, but I won't bore you.  Visit their website and then go see it for yourself.

For the first time ever in all my years attending CHA, we stayed at the Anabella Hotel, within walking distance of the convention yet still on the shuttle route for those rainy days.  And yes, we had rain almost daily this year for our week in Anaheim. 

Such old world charm.  Fantastic, friendly staff, suites with hardwood floors...what's not to love?

Mind you, our suite wasn't this neat except when we first entered it.  That extra room with the day bed held all of our luggage.  We always plan to pack one bag for the week in Anaheim; one bag with class supplies & for carrying home my loot; one bag for the final week in San Francisco; and then one bag for all those one-night stops in between.  But when the packing is done, weight is a major factor, so inevitably I have to shuffle to keep each one at less than 50 lb. and then re-pack upon arrival. 

But here's the best news of all:  we could step out onto our second floor balcony every night and watch the fireworks next door at Disney.  The lights on the roller coaster and Ferris wheel changed colors too, so it was quite the show.  And the fact that I could watch them in my jammies was the icing on the cake.

We found the BEST gluten free pizza at Palo Mesa Pizza in Arroyo Grande.  Pricey like you can't even believe, but so good I'm already planning next year's vacation around it.  Pieology in Fairfield, just outside Sacramento, was good but in a different way.  It looked like a salad bar except the choices were toppings for your pizza.  Very clever and excellent service and food.  And then Pizza My Heart in San Francisco...I know it sounds like we ate nothing but pizza, but to discover so many options compared to here on the East Coast, I couldn't resist.

Of course we also found dozens of antique stores and antique malls all along the coast, and each one pulled me in like a magnet.  By the time our luggage was filled to capacity, weighed and determined to be bordering on the airline's weight limits, I still had days left in my trip.  It was heartbreaking to stop shopping.  Truly. 

I've been home 2 full months and still have 3 huge tote bags filled with treasures from the trip to be unpacked, sorted and stashed.  But no time to do it, as I'm headed off again next week.  More on that tomorrow.