Day 8: A Place I've Visited

Each year since our betrothal, husband & I have been so blessed to be able to travel somewhere.  Whether it be visiting family or participating in wedding parties, we have taken full advantage of getting away.  Lucky for us we've traveled up & down the entire state of California, visited family in Iowa (this was actually one of my favorite vacations), Las Vegas (Pete traveled there solo to be a groomsmen in a friend's wedding), Washington State, and several local "stay-cations" to just get away for the day or weekend.  Among these, my favorite would have to be our trip up the coast of the great state of California.  We visited so many cities & sites along the way: Healdsburg, San Francisco, Sausalito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Monica, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Tustin, Costa Mesa, and more!  Among these cities, however, my FAVORITE was by far, drumroll....... Healdsburg!

Okay, so this decision might be a little biased, but come on, we stayed in a B&B and the town was more than akin to, dare I say it, Stars Hollow from the ever popular sitcom series Gilmore Girls.  Not to mention, dear friends of ours own the B&B and told us all the amazing pockets of town to check out.  Here's Honor Mansion, the amazing place we called our home for two amazing days and one evening.

The day we spent there we enjoyed coffee at Flying Goat, lunch at the ever so charming Jim Town Store and shopped at the freshest Oakville Grocery Store.  Needless to say, I wanted to stay in this little charming bubble and never go home, but the sticker shock of real estate kept me pretty well grounded.  Honestly, the flowers & lush landscaping is what captured my heart - EVERYTHING is so green and beautiful.  Give me flowers and I'm pretty much set.

So a big thank you to the lovely Aunt Toni, one of our favorite traveling partners, whom we got the pleasure of site seeing with, and also Steve & Cathi (the owners of Honor Mansion) for putting us up for the night.  The hospitality (see the coffee/biscotti/fresh OJ/newspaper cart brought to our door the morning we left) and experience there will forever be one of my favorite memories and we are still smitten two years later!

(All photos original - Randall Photography)