California
September 2018
The year prior, my mom and I gifted my dad tickets (also tickets for ourselves) to Nurtured By Nature in California. The organization allows you to come in contact with various animals, most favorited, otters. You get the chance to not only play with otters on land but to swim with them as well. My dad, an otter lover, was super excited (and selfishly, so was I). So, for several months we planned a jam-packed 10-day September trip hitting up several of California's beautiful cities and parks revolving around the otter excursion.
I have so much to share with you. But, first, you can view the video below to get a quick (well, a 16 min long) summary of our trip.
First, we land in
San Francisco
As soon as we landed, we took a lyft to our hotel, the Hilton San Francisco Financial District, to unpack. The room (like most of our rooms thoughout this trip) was small but we didn't mind, we weren't going to spend much time in the room so the spaciousness did not matter to us.
First thing on our to-do list was to head on over to the Ferry Building and eat lunch at Hog Island Oyster Co. We ordered the Clam Chowder, Grilled Chipotle Bourbon Oysters and the Halibut. So, delicious! It was a light meal for the three of us. Afterwords, we walked through the Ferry Building and checked out some other stops with delicious treats.
After lunch, we took another lyft to a bike shop and rented some bikes. We biked the Golden Gate Bridge, where we met Karl The Fog. We continued on (while taking in the beautiful view) to Sausalito where we hopped on a ferry that took us back to San Fran.
Day two in San Fran was full of adventure. We went back to the Ferry Building and stumbled upon a huge farmers market where we ate lunch. We then took a trolly to check out Lombard Street, then picked up some sandwiches and headed to Alamo Square park. I had to take a moment to gaze upon the "Painted Ladies" while singing, 🎶"Everywhere you look, everywhere you go. There's a heart (There's a heart), a hand to hold onto..." 🎶
Day three, we woke up at 6AM and got our tushies out the door. We took a taxi to the airport, picked up a rental car and began our 5-ish hour drive to Yosemite National Park!
Yosemite
Pronounced, yoh-sem-i-tee, was absolutely draw dropping. I want to say this was my first time experiencing a magnificent national park such as this one. The views, the gigantic mountains and inhaling the fresh earthy smells changed me.
We chose to stay at what is now called the Wawona Hotel, formerly the Big Tree Lodge. After checking in we headed to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and let me tell you, it was incredible.
Day four, time to go check out Yosemite Valley! From the Wawona hotel we drove into the Valley, checked into the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center for our first activity, the Glacier Point Tour. Everywhere I turned there was a breathtaking view.
After hiking several trails we ended our day at the The Ahwahnee. The interior of the hotel is known for being the inspiration for the interior of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's, "The Shining," which happens to be my favorite horror film. Walking through the hotel gave me goosebumps.
On day five we made our way to
Los Angeles
We arrived in LA in the late afternoon. We made our way to the Griffith Observatory to watch the beautiful sunset and took a glimpse at the moon.
We could hardly sleep that night because the next day was the anticipated otter encounters.
Nurtured by Nature
Nurtured By Nature is a nonprofit organization in Valley Center, California. It's about a two-hour drive from Los Angeles. The organization partners with the Make A Wish foundation and also offers paid Otter Swim Encounters to the public. During a time before COVID, the slots would fill up as soon as the calendar dates were released. Now day's, it seems as though slots are more easy to come by, although, they have increased their prices significantly. If you are an animal lover this is an experience worth the price.
The Otter Swim Encounters is a three hour long group guide. The groups are no more than eight people which is great. You get to meet, feed and learn about seven different animal species. The most fun, of course, is playing with the otters on land and in a pool.
Pro tip:
1: Make sure you eat before you get there. They do have small snacks and water but if you don't eat before hand you will be hangry by the time your guide ends. And, this place isn't exactly next door to an In-N-Out Burger.
2: Wear a sweatshirt or a zip up hoody. Otters love going in and out of large clothing and especially like playing with the strings from a hoody. For the pool, wear a large t-shirt over your swim suite.
After our amazing play time with so many awesome animals and after gulping down some lunch, we drove back to our hotel in Los Angeles. Since our hotel was right next to Universal Studios, we walked over and picked up some dinner. Then, we packed our bags to prepare for our final destination.
Catalina Island
From our hotel in Los Angeles we drove to LAX to drop off our rental car and caught a taxi to San Pedro, where we hopped on the Catalina Express. The Ferry ride wasn't too long. When I get on ferries, or any boat really, I worry about getting motion sickness. But, the ride wasn't too bad and we got to see a large family of dolphins swim along side us.
Upon arriving in Avalon, we checked into our hotel, Vista Del Mar. I absolutely loved their hallway. It was filled with beautiful plants, exactly how I aspire my apartment to look. They offered free breakfast and freshly baked cookies in the evenings. The hotel is right in front of the beach. We just grabbed some beach chairs from our room, plopped down on the beach and soaked in some vitamin D. Let me remind you, this is September. The weather was very nice but too chilly to enjoy a dip in the ocean. I was totally fine laying out on the beach while enjoying my Michelada.
Getting around the island is pretty easy. When we first arrived we rented a golf cart but we found renting bikes was more fun and easier to maneuver the streets.
Somehow we had perfectly timed our arrival to Catalina with the the Catalina Wine Mixer weekend. Our second night, we were able to buy tickets to the opening night event. It consisted of food, drinks, a showing of Step Brothers, followed by a beach party with a DJ. It was pretty awesome!
On our last day, we had some breakfast, took the ferry back to Los Angeles, got a taxi to LAX and headed back home.
Our days were packed with things to do. It made our weeklong vacation feel much longer. It was so much fun and can't wait to go back, maybe spend more time in Yosemite.
