escape from philadelphia

Last updated on January 19, 2022

So much could have gone wrong…3am wake up, flight cancellation, positive Covid tests, the entire country shutting down…but with zero complications we made it out of Philly to San Francisco, the city by the bay. A huge thank you to my mom for the 3am airport drop off!

We named Marin after the county north of San Francisco where I used to mountain bike with my friend, Davey Bradley. Our Marin thought that it was cool that her name was all over the place. In the honored tradition, we took the kids for their first ever IN-N-OUT burger. It was a huge success. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and got our first glimpse of Alcatraz.

After leaving San Francisco we made our way up north on the Pacific Coast Highway. This is one of the most beautiful drives in the United States. We saw our first “exotic” animals on the trip, harbor seals. Harbor seals do not have external ear flaps unlike sea lions. There is just a small hole where their ear is. They are unable to rotate their pelvis so they have to drag their bodies around on land, inchworm style. They also have to haul out almost daily to warm up because they cannot maintain their body temperature because of their smaller size and thinner blubber layer.

We made our way to our final destination, The Sea Ranch, CA (I know…the “THE” is corny and pretentious, but it really is the name of this town). We are spending a week with our Philly friends forever, the Mayhews, who now live in Davis, CA. We will be relaxing, hiking and checking out the cold weather beach scene.