Travel writing is a definite perk for our staff, but it ain’t all beach days and spa sessions. We rounded up our odd encounters and mishaps from our Escape to the Coast reporting for a by-the-numbers chronicle of our California misadventures.
# of speeding tickets: 1
# of minutes spent on hold with a certain LAX-based car rental company in a futile effort to replace a defective Grand Cherokee: 52
# of borderline road rage incidents: 4
# of times we got lost: 15
# of sunburns: 2
# of naked men spotted during an accidental excursion to a nude beach in San Francisco: 3
# of personal “thumbs up” pics taken in front of the Facebook headquarters sign: 4
# of times we had to try cucumber despite despising it: 2
# of times we unknowingly ingested sea urchin before taking a closer look at the menu: 2
# of tourist trap restaurants we fell prey to: 2
# of times extra food was turned down by a homeless person because he was vegan: 1
# of bottles of wine consumed: 10+
# of instances of wine-fueled attempted flirting with a former teen heartthrob’s father: 1
# of times a tasting room manager described a Rhône-style wine as “minerally”: 8
# of unruly bachelorette parties at wine tastings: 2
# of bad reactions to hotel soap: 1
# of puffs on an asthma inhaler: 2
# of times one our partners vomited during our whale-watching excursion: 3
# of minutes slept in a Himalayan salt cave: 41
# of strange conversations with boardwalk folk at Venice Beach: 10+
# of extra days spent in Monterey because of bad weather: 1
# of selfies taken: 50+
