Two adventurists head towards the neon desert...
This season has been a vortex of changing winds. After learning metro Seattle rent would boom, we decided to kick our initial "New Year, New Life" move to mid December. We took the punches as they came with weather and had to cut our initial road trip through the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe, Reno and Area 51/Rachel stops to a shorter four day trip.
I feel like we'll never see rain again living out here, so Washington & Oregon decided to pour torrentially throughout the entirety of our drive. Lil Blue's windshield wipers are tired. That's when we decided the 101 would not be the viable option during the rainy season on the coast. Sadly, our only stop was near Cannon Beach, a beautiful coastal outpost, to sleep through the storm.
Our intended vacation of a road trip quickly vanished and became a let's "GET THERE!" Our main objective after driving through SO much rain, was just gun it to a funky, mountainous outpost in Weed for early diner dinner at the Hi Lo Cafe.
Then onward into the darkness to hit the lights of San Francisco for a real vacation day of exploring the city, drinks and all the San Franny things we could cram into one day.
Above: Brunch at Pork Store on Valencia in the Mission District of San Francisco. Pineapple Stu's favorite brunch attribute: the Bloody Bar.
Above: Celebrating Frank Sinatra's 100th birthday at Dave's in downtown San Francisco.
Above: Downtown Chinatown with street art all over the place!
Above: Stumbled upon so many hammered Santa's, sexy reindeer and Mrs. Clauses all over the place in Chinatown. Here we are at a hole in the wall place, Li Po, which had the best authentic Chinese Mai Tai with Chinese bourbon and ginseng. Don't worry folks, sloshed Santa's don't always frequent the venue, just crazy people with Hawaiian Shirts and sorbet colored hair.
Above: Pineapple Stu lovin' life. I think he's been in that shirt the whole trip.
Above: Ended right where we started with the best San Francisco Bloody Mary's and bottled PBR.
Fancy as Fuck!
Luckily, we hit no snow driving, but we got to pass by the wonderland at Mt. Shasta when we took our 90 percent California desert route.
I saw my first tumbleweed, desert devils (mini tornados) through the flatlands, fresh fruit stands through the agricultural core and... Alien Fresh Jerky.
We successfully made it to Vegas in half the time driving down through the dusty desert. We stopped and stayed at an off-strip boutique hotel The Artisan and had an interesting stay for two nights while our stuff arrived to our place...
Okay, we got locked out of our room! We were in a French-inspired, Henri Matisse room. When we came back after breakfast, we were locked out! By "blunt-force" one staff member, plus the gracious manager broke open the door. Free drinks at their lounge followed. Pays to be handsomely polite and bat your lashes a little bit for caring hospitality.
Above: Got the room upgrade I wanted! Andy Warhol inspired.
We celebrated our move by checking out how locals do Vegas after playing a little video poker and sipping CHEAP drinks at Mermaids. Downtown Vegas is where you will indefinitely find us when we're socializing. Beauty Bar was closed, but during our last stay we liked the Griffin and loved this time around at Park on Fremont.
Above: Park on Fremont hallway to the gardens.
Above: We found Pineapple Stu's favorite spot.
Won some money back from Jimmy Buffet's... He'll pay us to play sooner or later. And of course I had to try every margarita he has created and has probably patented to his name. Thanks Jimmy! Loved them all.
Great start to the city. We are particularly in awe at all of the good vibes out here. Everyone has been helpful and cordial from Home Depot, South Point Casino and, even the DMV. We are all moved in to our new home, which is 10x the space we originally had in Seattle. Keep an eye on us by following our IG @coco_and_stu. See you at NYE!
xoxo,
CoCo & Stu
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