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Road Trip to French Laundry Napa Valley | Gratitude Week 38

My friend Hsiao landed us last minute reservations at French Laundry Napa Valley (and nobody gets reservations at French Laundry), so we decided to road trip up to check this item off of our bucket list. FINALLY! (post coming soon!)

Since it was such a long road trip, we decided to break it up into sections. 5 destinations in 6 days!

1. Disneyland, Anaheim (252 miles)

Cars Land in Disneyland | First Stop on the way to French Laundry Napa Valley.Pin

2. Big Sur (308 miles, the scenic route up to SF)

McWay Falls - an 80 ft waterfall in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur California // localadventurer.comPin

3. San Francisco (159 miles)

Bernal Hill San Francisco.Pin

4. French Laundry Napa Valley (55 miles x 2 going back to SF)

French Laundry Napa Valley.Pin

5. Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve (250 miles, near Yosemite)

Mono Lake South Tufa Beach.Pin

Total Distance: 1440 miles

Gratitude List for Week 38:

  1. First of all, even being able to get reservations at French Laundry. Still pinching myself!
  2. Experiencing the dinner not only with Jacob but with Hsiao with whom I go on many of my food adventures!
  3. Big Sur is always so breathtaking. I may be a traitor saying this, but sometimes the west coast is the best coast.
  4. We ate our way around Disneyland. So much food!
  5. Stephen & Sou-Wah opened up their home in LA for us to crash.
  6. Talking to landscape photographers at Mono Lake and getting some insight on the whens and wheres.
  7. Philz Coffee! I got two mint mojitos in before we left SF. Obsessed with that stuff.

Even though it felt a bit rushed, I really enjoyed all the stops that we made. I would maybe even add in exploring more around Yosemite, but overall it was one of my favorite spontaneous road trips that we have taken so far! My all-time favorite was this one.

What’s your favorite road trip that you’ve taken? What stops did you take?

This is week 38 of practicing gratitude. 14 more weeks left! Click the banner below to see other gratitude posts:
This is week 37 of my gratitude practice.Pin

This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Erika

    Oh my gosh — all of these photos are fabulous teases for blog posts I can’t WAIT to read!!! WOWWWWWWW!

    1. esther julee

      I am just seeing this one now! :) Thanks so much for your comments. I was feeling a bit lazy about writing them out.. but it gives me a little extra motivation to! :)

  2. What a fun road trip! I would love to do a trip like that one day. Big Sur looks gorgeous. I’ve never heard of Mono Lake before, but it looks like a beautiful and interesting place! It’s now on my travel list.

    1. esther julee

      I’m so glad!! I hear Mono Lake is a popular spot for photographers. We never heard of Mono Lake either before. One of Jacob’s friends mentioned it and we decided to check it out instead of somewhere inside Yosemite. Big Sur is one of my all time favorite places in all the world! :) How long are you going to be in Japan? Do you think you’ll be visiting or when you come back?

  3. OMG…shut up…I’m insanely jealous right now!!! The French Laundry is a huge bucket list item for me. I’m looking forward to that post!!

    1. esther julee

      I know! I can’t even believe we went!! Hsiao and I kept looking at each other thinking.. is this for real?? Jacob tried calling for two months straight to get reservations for our anniversary and couldn’t even get anyone to pick up. I thought that I would have to give up on this bucket list item. If you love food, it doesn’t disappoint! :) Keep trying!

      1. I have friends who talk about going too and I’m like if you get a reservation make it for 4 and we will come too!! I read French Laundry and could not focus on anything else on your post ;) I’m sure we will make it one day.

        1. esther julee

          I hear it’s easier getting a table of 10 or more! We actually got a call back but they told us weekends all booked up till the end of the year and they were’t taking reservations any further.. and not everyone was willing to take work off to go. But if you have enough foodie friends that are willing to make sacrifices, that’s probably the easiest!

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