About a year ago, Kathy's brother, Phil, and I decided it would be fun to take a road trip from Southern California to Seattle. I had never done such a long trip, and I'd heard that the trip up the coast was particularly sweet. We tried to schedule it a few times but always something else came up. A couple weeks ago, we finally made it happen.
Our friends, Tan and Kin, were getting married in Dana Point on Sunday, September 9. I decided I would fly down to SoCal for the wedding, then Phil and I would drive back up to Seattle over the next four days.
This is our story.
Day One (462 miles)
We rented a car from Hertz and set out from Phil's apartment at a bright and early 9:15AM on Monday. We had the two of us, a bunch of snack food and water, some clothes, and about a dozen bottles of really good wine, which Phil had been holding on to for us after Kathy and I moved from Dana Point to Seattle. Wine was strictly for transport. Phil doesn't drink.
Our plan was to make it to Sunnyvale (San Francisco Bay area) by dinnertime.
Our rental car.
We headed up the I-5 and hoped we'd make it through LA before dark.
We resisted the urge to visit Disneyland. 
This ain't no disco. This is LA!
A Billboard
Bye bye, Hollywood!
The dial trended higher as the days went by
There be fire in them thar hill! Don't worry, though. It's just a refinery.
12:12PM on Day 1. Boredom begins to set in and I start in taking silly pictures of myself.
Meet our trusty traveling companion and guide, the talking navigation system we affectionately dubbed the NaviHo.Price gouging is alive and well in King City, CA, where we had to stop for gas:
Funny name for this place, considering it's really just a remote outpost of Hell. I base this claim purely on the evidence at hand.
Exhibit One: The gas prices.
Exhibit Two: Cilantro. Never in my life have I been to a place so inundated with cilantro that the smell fills the air no matter where you go (including the men's room). In fact, King City must be to cilantro what Gilroy is to garlic.
I don't think any other arguments need be made.
When we finally got back on our way I wondered if perhaps I could have made better use of the gas station to make the world a better place-- by lighting it on fire-- but alas it was not to be.
Our next stop was in Solvang to acquire pastries. We got them, and ate some. We paid for them. We remarked how expensive they were. Back on the road.
By about 5:00PM we made it to San Jose. We had time for a short, pleasant visit with Uncle Big Nick and family. I ended up leaving with Nick's spare iPhone, which I planned to give to Kathy as a surprise gift.
Zipped inched our way up to San Mateo in the grueling US101 traffic to catch dinner with Kathy and Phil's brother Robert, and his wife Kristen. They took us to a lovely little Italian eatery where we didn't eat because they were closed for a private party. Instead we went to the Kingfisher restaurant where we ate wonderful food and drank expensive wine.
We stayed the night with Robert and Kristen then set out the following morning to go San Francisco.
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