Alcatraz Island: San Francisco, California

Welcome to Travel Tuesday, a weekly link-up for all things travel-related! Last week, Carly posted about her visit to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, which inspired me to dig through some old photos and share my experience, as well. Warning: This trip was taken during my pre-blogger life, when I didn't understand the importance of taking 27 photos of one detail in order to find the perfect shot, so pickings were slim!

A Drive on America's Most Scenic Highway

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday! Stop by every Tuesday to link up your recent travel posts and read about one of my adventures. Today I'm sharing snapshots of my drive down California's coastal Highway 1 earlier this month.

My fiance's family was camping in Pismo Beach two weeks ago, so we drove down to meet them for the weekend. It's only about a three-hour drive from the Bay Area to Pismo if you use the major highways, but we decided to head over to the coast for a more scenic road trip.

Travel Tuesday: Hearst Castle, California

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday! There is no suggested prompt today; simply link up with any travel post you wish! I'll be sharing photos from my recent trip to Hearst Castle, a State Historical Monument on the central coast of California. Hearst Castle was built for newspaper mogul William Hearst in the early to mid-1900s. I had been to the castle once before, in middle school, and gone on the typical "Grand Rooms" tour. This time, we elected to go on a specialized tour to see the private suites in the top floors of the main house, or "Casa Grande."

A Day in Monterey with Any Way the Wind Blows

Today I'm happy to welcome Sarah from Any Way the Wind Blows! She is sharing her itinerary for a fabulous day in the coastal California town of Monterey, so if a trip to the west coast is in your future, be sure to read on after the jump for great activities and eats.
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Hey guys! I'm Sarah, and I blog over at Any Way the Wind Blows.

InstaTuesday: NorCal Edition

I have been sorely failing to update you on my adventures as a Leadership Consultant, but I think I just found the perfect link-up to help me share my travels thus far. I ended up sending my camera home pretty early on in my travels. Now that I have an iPhone, it just seems silly to carry around another cord and another charger for my camera, especially because I don't do anything with my photos anyway. Therefore, Instagram has become my main form of communication, so what better way to share my adventures than with some Instagram photos through Taingamala's InstaTuesday Link-Up?

During my days off this past weekend, I traveled to Sonoma, California, to spend some quality time with my mother, brother and sister. These weekends are usually full of wine and sunrises, but this weekend we decided to venture outside the wineries and do some family-friendly activities. Enjoy!

Driving out of the city to wine country on Friday night.

Nothing quite beats waking up to this gorgeous view every morning.

Travel Tuesday: Week 12

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! This week's topic is a throwback: What’s the best school field trip you ever went on as a kid? As always, you are free to write about anything travel-related; don't feel obligated to answer my prompt. And, of course, don't forget to link up below!

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As I've mentioned before in this link-up, my central California hometown was within day-trip distance of some pretty cool places. Hence, I got to go on some pretty neat field trips. The best, however, was when I was in sixth grade: My class went to The Tech Museum in San Jose, and it was awesome. (Granted, I couldn't remember the name of the museum and had to post a plea for help on Facebook. Ah, the beauty of crowd-sourced information. Big shout-out to Jessica for identifying it!)

Travel Tuesday: Week 10

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! In honor of National Park Week (which ended Sunday), this week's topic is: Which is your favorite national park? What parks have you always wanted to visit? What are your favorite activities to do in a national park? As always, you are free to write about anything travel-related; don't feel obligated to answer my prompt. And, of course, don't forget to link up below!

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My favorite national park is, without a doubt, Yosemite. I mentioned it a little last week, so this week I wanted to share some photos from when I climbed Half Dome two summers again. It was also No. 43 on my to-do list. (I added it after I had already made the climb, but hey, it was something I had always wanted to do! So I wanted to cross it off my list.)

This is Half Dome! Pretty cool, huh?

Travel Tuesday: Week 9

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! Today's suggested topic: What are some great day trips that you've taken? What has been your favorite domestic travel experience? Do you think domestic traveling is really traveling? As always, you are free to write about anything travel-related; don't feel obligated to answer my prompt. And, of course, don't forget to link up below!

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It's no secret that I never really cared for my California hometown. I mean, I did move 2,000 miles away for school, and I didn't even apply to any California schools. I just wanted to get out of there! But as much as there was to dislike about where I grew up, we did have this really nice little travel radius around us that was jam-packed with day trip options. I could drive two hours in pretty much any direction and be in San Francisco or in Sacramento, at the beach or in the snow, hiking in Yosemite National Park or riding roller coasters at Six Flags or wine-tasting in Napa—you name it, I could probably get there quickly. Today I will mostly share pictures from these day trips, but I'll add links for good places to eat or fun things to do in each area, as well.

Things that make me go "hmm."

Happy weekend, everyone! I wanted to start your Saturday off right with this adorable turtle picture. My friend Caroline posted it on my Facebook timeline for my birthday, and I just cannot get enough of it! It looks like it's saying: "GIMME A HUG!"

Source: Uploaded by user via Megan on Pinterest

Now, on to the interesting links I found this week:

Sunrise in Sonoma

I had the luxury of driving up to Sonoma last night to spend my final full day in California in the gorgeous wine country. This morning, I awoke to a brilliant strip of orange sunrise outside my window. I didn't even have to get out of bed to take this picture. Talk about a room with a view!

 

After taking that picture (from under my sheets!), I went out to the balcony to get a better view. I wish my phone had a better-quality camera, but I think you get the idea.

 

After this morning, I think I have my first New Year's Resolution: See more sunrises.

Travel finds: Unusual hotels.

While perusing my Google Reader today, I stumbled upon this awesome slideshow of weird hotels compiled by Budget Travel. The amazingly weird hotels included one in Bolivia made completely out of salt, a colorful retro hotel close to home in San Luis Obispo and - perhaps weirdest of all - a hotel in France with rooms that will make you feel like a hamster. Despite the wide array of choices, I was able to narrow it down to a couple favorites that I would actually love to stay in one day:

Travel finds: United States.

I follow quite a few travel blogs on my Google Reader (22 as of right now, but the list is constantly growing). A few weeks ago, National Geographic Traveler posted a list of 10 fun, free tours available in the U.S. That post inspired me, and I've been collecting a list of other interesting American tours I've happened upon since then (mostly through my Google Reader). Here's a short list of some of my finds:

Photo via Pinterest.

Tour an Olympic Training Center in California.

Visit the world's only Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum in Tennessee.

Stroll through the Pedway in Chicago.

Play at The New Museum in New York City.

Drive from San Diego to Sonoma on the California Missions Trail.

Accio that box of tissues.

Spoiler Alert: This post contains details from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Photo via Pinterest.

So, I know I'm not finished with my Africa posts yet, but I finally saw the final Harry Potter film last night, and I just have to post now while it's still fresh in my mind.

Yes, I am a Harry Potter nerd. Not the kind who had exorbitant amounts of Harry Potter paraphernalia or who actually expected to receive a Hogwarts letter on my 11th birthday (I was always painfully practical, even as a child), but I literally grew up with Harry Potter and all his adventures.

My mom somehow found the book back when it was first released in the U.S. and brought it home for my brother and me from an airport. I remember us reading the back of the book and thinking: "Gee, Mom, a book about a wizard boy. How awesome." Little did we know then what this book would lead to....

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the first book my mom ever read aloud to my brother. As he got older, we would take turns on who got read the newest book first, racing through it in two or three days so the other person could read it and we could discuss together. As we got even older, my brother realized I was the faster reader, so I always got to read them first. Yay for me!

We also saw all the movies together, even if that meant sacrificing the opening weekend experience. Two years ago, I used my day off from my summer job to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with him in Berkeley. Last year, we both waited until Thanksgiving break (a painful five days) to see the first installment of the Deathly Hallows.

That is, until this year. As you know, I was in Rwanda on July 15, and I was pretty torn up about it.

And my brother said he wouldn't wait me for me ... not this time.

So my roommates and I spent one afternoon watching YouTube videos of Harry Potter parodies, even though they each took about an hour to load. Here's my favorite (and I must credit the title of my post to this song):

My one (major) beef with this video: I'm sure "remember 2001" sounded better than "remember 1997," but that's when we found out he was The Chosen One. (Or actually 1998, here in the U.S.) Gah.

And finally, after all this ridiculousness (embarrassing example: While in Kenya, I was telling my mom about my mixed feelings about seeing the last Harry Potter movie, and I quoted the Half-Blood Prince when Hermione asks Harry how it feels when he sees Ginny with Dean, and he says "It feels like this, Hermione; it feels like this," and I legit started to tear up just thinking about it! My mom thought I was crazy....), I went to see the movie Monday night with my little brother and one of his good friends, Riley.

They had already seen it together at the midnight premiere, but Riley brought along her Harry Potter glasses for me to wear and Michael got some popcorn for us. And then it began. I was so excited tweeting about it that I missed The Dark Knight Rises trailer, which was apparently really exciting. One guy even came in just to see the trailer and then left right away. Hmm...

I held it together pretty well for the first half of the movie. But then Neville led Harry through the secret passageway into the Room of Requirement, and I was overcome with emotion. My brother gave me a weird look, as nothing sad had happened, and I looked at him through my tears and squeaked, "I'm just so happy!" (Cue Michael's "my sister's a freak" face.) It was all downhill from there. The look on Ginny's face when she saw Harry had returned to Hogwarts = tears. Professor McGonagall "protecting" Harry from Snape in the Great Hall = tears. Snape's memories in the Pensieve = lots and lots of tears (definitely the most emotional part of the movie, for me). And then, leaving the theater and realizing it's really the end of Harry Potter = more tears (to the utter embarrassment of Michael and Riley, of course).

I remember racing through the seventh book as usual back in high school but slowing down when I got to the last few pages because I knew it would soon all be over. At least then, I still had the movies to look forward to. Now I have nothing.

But I am so grateful my mom found the Sorceror's Stone before the American media kicked in and children everywhere became obsessed with the story. I was one of those obnoxious children who wanted to conform to the non-conformists, and I know if I hadn't read the first book before the franchise became popular, I never would have developed such an appreciation for it. Example: I refused to read Twilight for years on principle because I was sick of hearing everyone talk about how great it was. (I finally read them all. They're not that great.) So thank you, J.K. Rowling, for being such a large part of my childhood and now my young adulthood. Hogwarts will always be my home!