After our crazy walking day on Tuesday, we were just a littttle relived that Wednesday was the day we were picking up our rental car and taking a little road trip for the day;) After grabbing our wheels, we headed for some 'road trip fuel' at a little slice of heaven on earth: Tartine bakery....
Everything in that case looked ABSOLUTELY exquisite, so it was TOUGH to narrow it down for our breakfast treats....but we managed to get it down to 3:) I'll start with my "least" favorite to the drop dead delicious:)
First up was Scott's hazelnut chocolate tart....
Don't get me wrong, this thing was still delicious, but it just wasn't....
...a "Double Pain Au Chocolate"!!!!
Now I just CAN'T say that these were better than the ones from our neighbor bakery in Paris (because, ya know, it's Paris;) HOWEVER, there WAS quite a bit of joy to be had from this WARM and oozy chocolate croissant. I mean...can that REALLY ever be a bad day??
Andddddd that brings us to the Drop dead delicious, I present to you: The Morning Bun...
A cinnamon roll made out of flaky crescent dough and coated with an orange caramel syrup...my mouth is watering just talking about this thing. It may just have been one of my favorite treats of ALL TIME...and THAT is saying a lot;) Absolute heaven, I tell you!
And I washed all of my cinnamon & sugar bliss down with a latte....do you think this would be considered a grande??? ;)
After breakfast, we began our trip headed south. We had plans to go further south that day (more about that in a minute!), so I was sooooooooooooooo excited to have found something very "US" to do along the way! Our first stop was the Winchester Mystery Mansion in San Jose:
They didn't allow you to take pictures on the tour and I understand why...because you literally could have taken a picture every 10 feet in this place. Although I did manage to sneak one from 'the inside' ;)
The mansion was built by Sarah Winchester, who was the heir to a rifle fortune (to the tune of $1,000 a DAY...not to bad in 2011, let alone the late 1800s!). After a spell of bad luck, a psychic told Sarah that in order to break her "curse" (which she thought was brought on by the victims of the rifles her family sold) she needed to move out west and to build a house and to NEVER STOP BUILDING IT. So she didn't....for 38 YEARS! This house is a MAZE of 160 rooms, windey stair cases, a hidden SEANCE room and a staggering amount of custom made Tiffany windows! Oh yeah....and let's not forget the door that opens to a 30 foot DROP (aka.-"The door to Nowhere"), the door that opens to a WALL, Sarah's homage to the number 13, a window built into the FLOOR and steps that lead up to....the ceiling. This place was AMAZING! We LOVVVEED this tour and were SO glad we had a (awesome) tour guide...you could easily get lost in this place in a hot second! The mansion is a definite MUST if your ever in the San Jose area and a fan of "mysterious" attractions;)
After our stop at the mansion, we headed further south to our REAL destination. Because yes, we are aware that the picturesque wine country was close by...but since Scott & I aren't big wine drinkers, we figured a more appropriate destination for US would certainly be:
Seriously, how could we NOT go?? :)
And we figured what better place could we find to stop for lunch? ;)
MMMMmmmmmm....and we knew just where to start: The cream of roasted garlic soup ;)
Pure garlic heaven;)
And for lunch, we both decided on the garlic chicken breast sandwich topped with mozzarella cheese. Very good....but that soup was the star of the show:)
Our last stop in Gilroy was to the home of all gifts garlic:
We met the NICEST woman who was working at the shop who let us sample all kinds of goodies like pickled garlic cloves & blue cheese garlic butter (yeah....a jar of that came home with me;) And we also snagged up one of our quirky favorites:
Now, I KNOWWWW what your thinking...but this stuff is actually DELICIOUS!!!! It's sweet vanilla ice cream with just a kick of sweet roasted garlic. If someone ever offers it to you...TRUST ME and try it! :) It's pretty awesome:)
After our ice cream, we headed out of Gilory and the lovely aroma of garlic wafting through all of these rolling hills... ;)
Next we caught the infamous Pacific Coast highway and took a leisurely drive back up to San Francisco, making all of the little turn offs to catch some SPECTACULAR coastal views!!!!
Yet another FREE thing to do in California that will just BLOW your mind. You could drive that road for DAYS and never get bored....
And we caught the lovely sunset over the Pacific ocean...a novelty to us East Coasters ;)
And on our drive back, we made a stop at the little beach town of Half Moon Bay for dinner. Now I had picked "Sam's Chowder House" because their outdoor patio was suppose to be one of the best places to catch the sunset...buttttttt, since we had already had our own little viewing of the sun's demise we still wanted to go there for this:
And this place must NORMALLY be pretty popular, considering it was HOPPIN and BOPPIN on a WEDNESDAY NIGHT!
We were promptly greeted with more yummy sourdough...
And then it was time for the big guns: The lobster roll! What made this sandwich stand out was that unlike most lobster rolls, this was just HUGE chunks of lobster and a little celery. THAT'S IT! No mayo, no seasonings...nothing but the taste of purreee lobster. OK, OK...mixed with all of that lovely butter from the bun...let's not kid around, that IS the best part;) SO GOOD!
And I had my sandwich with a side of polenta fries...mmmmmmmmmmm, they were super crispy on the outside and CREAMY on the inside. AWE-SOME! :)
And after dinner, we headed on the 'often heart stopping' winding drive back up the coast: IN THE DARK! I was never so happy to see street lights:) And after we got back into San Francisco...we learned that ALL of the rumors were true: Parking in San Fran IS worse than NYC! Can you believe it?? After a SOLID HOUR of driving around trying to find a parking spot by *ahem* THREE ice cream shops...we headed back to the hotel to park at the nearby parking garage. We were OVER the car by that point;)
And once we were back in the room, we settled on a NOT TO SHABBY "back up dessert." As if i could even CALL a Coconut Cream Tart from Tartine bakery such a thing;) A buttery flaky crust FILLED with CHOCOLATE and then topped with delicate coconut cream, a dollop of fresh whipped cream and a sprinkle of toasted coconut. Pure bliss!
And after THAT, we called it a night;) Hope your enjoying reading about our eats as much as I'm having reliving them;) hahahahahahhahaa
Have a great Wednesday;)
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