California Thanksgiving Research Paper

A California Thanksgiving

In November 2012, my dad and I traveled to San Francisco for the Thanksgiving holiday. We had already done both of our family Thanksgivings, so it was the perfect opportunity to get away. Even without many plans, we were able to take a drive down the coast to Monterey, explore San Francisco, and see the beautiful college town of Palo Alto, all at our own pace.
Our trip started with a morning flight from Little Rock to Dallas. After a two-hour layover, we departed Dallas for San Francisco and arrived around 8:00 pm. A full day of flying, navigating airports, and finding a rental car wore us out. We didn’t even get a proper dinner the first night before we went to bed. The next morning, we decided to drive down
It was an amazing drive! I was surprised that California was so beautiful. Towering redwood trees lined much of the drive, along with farms for almost any fruit or vegetable I could imagine. When we could finally see the coastline, it was breathtaking. We passed through a few small coastal towns and saw countless fresh produce stands on the side of the highway. We stopped for lunch at a Thai restaurant in Moss Landing, CA. The food was amazing, and we could see the ocean from our table! The day was already a success in my book. When we arrived in Monterey, we drove down to Cannery Row and parked the car. We strolled around all of the different shops for a couple of hours, and then we headed even farther down the coast. We stopped at a parking area that overlooked quite possibly the most scenic place I had ever seen. There were huge waves crashing on giant boulders in the ocean. We just sat there and watched the waves crash for at least an hour. The salty smell
We headed into San Francisco early. I was surprised that there wasn’t very much traffic; I guess we were after the morning rush hour. The drive north was almost as pretty as the drive down the coast. California should be “The Natural State”, not Arkansas! Once we made it into the city, we had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. As we emerged from Golden Gate Park, the goliath appeared before us. We just crossed it both ways, but I was in awe of how big the bridge actually was. I had never appreciated it until I saw it with my own eyes. When we came back into the city, we drove around to many of the different neighborhoods. San Francisco is incredibly diverse. We drove through “Little Japan” and “China Town”, and we parked in North Beach. North Beach is where an established population of people with Italian heritage lives and work, “Little Italy” in any other big city. We were craving some good Italian food, and we definitely found some. The restaurant didn’t have a name on their sign, but we risked it and stopped there to eat. It was authentic Italian food from scratch. They made their own noodles, sauces, bread, and dressings. The dish I had was the best Italian food I’d ever eaten. My dad felt the same way about his dish as well. After our delicious lunch, we decided to drive around the city a little while longer, and then head back to the hotel so we didn’t get stuck in rush hour