Day One - Road Trip To San Francisco

Solvang Windmill

The morning of August 4th 2018 which is a Saturday, after jumping out of bed, hoping into the shower and cramming clean clothes and my shaving kit into an overnight suit case I am sitting in Little Red (Mini Cooper) with the Family. Well, part of the Family. Only our two youngest, the Queen (Wife) and I are ready to head out on a road trip to San Francisco. Little Red is jammed packed with suitcases and people. I hit the Start switch to ignite Little Red’s engine and nothing. Not a sound, no activity. I try starting her up again and nothing. I pop open the hood to see what the matter is but, I couldn’t determine what is causing the malfunction. I did my preliminary checks on Friday. I know for a fact everything should be working fine. Little Red only has about 30K miles on her. I close the hood, the Princess (Youngest Daughter) says a prayer and Little Red fires up. Not sure why Little Red was stubborn this morning but, the Queen (Wife) believes it has something to do with the key fob. She is probably right like always. I dismissed it thinking, Little Red won’t have any other troubles during our Mini Adventure so, I shoved the gear stick into reverse to begin our little journey.

Solvang Brewing Co

That day’s mission was to hit Solvang and then, arrive at Milpitas to check into our hotel. The drive to Solvang was uneventful even though we did see many interesting things on the way. We did stop at a beach park, I don't recall the name of the beach. We didn’t stay very long, we just stopped to stretch out our legs. I was going to take a few scenic pics; however, my phone battery died. I thought I had my phone fully charged. Oh well… Anyway, we all jumped back into Little Red and arrived at Solvang by around Noon or so, walked around enjoying the scenery and deciding on where to eat lunch. We ended up at the Solvang Brewery. My Son and I had the Brewers Giant Beer Buttered Onion Rings and Sausage Sampler. I highly recommend the onion rings and sausages. Very Delicious!!! I don’t recall what the Queen (Wife) and the Princess (Daughter) had but, I do recall they enjoyed their food. The Solvang Brewery is a cool place. Once you walk inside it looks bigger on the inside than on the outside, reminded me of the TARDIS. Only Doctor Who Fans will get the reference. Anyway, the Staff was very good and friendly, service was slow but, they were extremely busy so, it was expected. I highly recommend this place if you are ever in Solvang. The bar is very cool and different. Where the bartenders work, the floor drops down and the bar stools are very short and not the typical “high” stools in most bars. By the by, I highly recommend the Blue-Eyed Blonde Lager and my Wife enjoyed the Raspberry Windmill Wheat Ale.

Solvang.

Yellow Mini Cooper

By 7:00 pm, we arrived at our hotel. The Best Western Milpitas.  The carpeting looks a little run down; however, the rooms are clean, and the TV’s are nice with a good number of channels and HBO. The rooms also come with a fridge and microwave.  Pretty sweet. Anyway, after dumping our luggage off in our room we decided to go check out the Westfield Mall and WOW! Is all I can say. The mall is HUGE. Not has big as the Mall of America but, still impressive. One really cool feature I noticed this particular mall has in its parking garage is it tells you how many parking spaces are available and over each space is a light. If the light is green it means the space is available. Very COOL! And, I just had to take a picture of this pretty little Yellow Mini Cooper. Same generation as mine but, in all yellow. Very Nice!

KIA Stinger

The temps up here are not like they are in Southern California. Instead of being up in the 100’s (F), the temps are running between 60-70’s. Believe or not, in some areas I noticed Little Red’s therm showing the temps dip down to around 56 F.  Since, I forgot to bring a sweatshirt or a lite jacket to wear, I attempted to hunt one down in the Mall.  I did find a nice one at Macy’s for around $20 but, the line to checkout was too long and it was coming close to closing time that I decided to leave it and check out the rest of the mall. The Queen (Wife) and Princess (Daughter) fell in love with this mall. They were surprised to discover that each store had a larger selection than the stores do in our local little mall in Southern Cal. The Princess wants to come back here again just to do some mall shopping. At one point, my Son and I were looking for a particular store and decided to use the Mall Directory, as we are scanning the map, another family approaches to view the Directory and I can't remember what they were talking about; however, I do recall the maGerman word that I use quite often. So much so, that my Son and I had to laugh. The Gentleman who said the word didn't sound like he had a German accent so, I was surprised to hear someone else use the word other than myself. Anyway, it was hilarious at the time. At the Westfield Mall they had on display the brand new KIA Stinger. My Son and I had the opportunity to sit in the Stinger. Very nice car, I love the color.

n, who I assumed to be the Dad, mutter under his breath the word, "Sheisse!" Which is a

At 9pm, closing time, we all jumped back into Little Red and headed back to the Hotel. We noticed there was a grocery store still opened about a block away from our hotel and decided to walk there to pick up water and snacks. The rest of the night we watched some movie on HBO.