BLOG — Caroline Ruth Photography

Blindly bidding for a hotel online has an array of outcomes. More often than not, you end up at a solid, pleasant feeling stay. There is the occasional sketchy, sirens all night long, empty the car of everything valuable from the car, hotels. Unfortunately, we rolled up to the latter at 11pm in San Francisco.

We rose early, fresh faced and ready for our planned one day tour of the city to find that our car window had been smashed in and the car next us had bright blue paint smeared all over it. In was a less than ideal way to start our day but after police reports, insurance calls and finding a auto shop that happened to have just the window we needed a few blocks away.

We jumped in, decided to cut a couple things out and had a wonderful day. Cable cars to Lombard St.>Renting bikes on the Presidio>biking along and over the Golden Gate Bridge>Walt Disney museum>in-n-out on Fishermans Wharf. The day flowed in a way that couldn't be planned.

Dropping the car off forced us to really utilize the practicality of the cable car transportation. For a day that started out in a way that could make you think less of a city and it's people, we had dramatically good experiences with every other person that day. From mechanics, to the young woman waiting for her car who upon finding out we were going to the Disney museum later, called a friend and had free tickets waiting for us at the desk, The man at the bike rentals hardly charging us and giving perfect advice, and cable car drivers being friendly and engaging. Every person seemed to care and want to make you love this city of theirs. They knew and talked openly about the flaws and how the crime rate is higher than ever, but communicated that there's still good in the people.

Of all the known "I can't wait to do this, or to see that" days, this was one that was not expected. Multiple people said this was going to be the hard travel day, just try to get through it without getting too bored! So, after getting some rest in Salt Lake City we hunkered down and prepared for a day of perpetual monotony. After 20 minutes we rolled up on the Salt Flats. I'll admit that it may have been because we had low expectations but they took our breath away. The sun was rising and reflecting the gradient sky against the icy water on the surface of the salt ground. We couldn't help but pull over, take our shoes of and glide along the silvery surface and take in the crisp fresh air.

Well that must have been our fun for the day, thats it. No more.

Nope. Some hours of driving through dessert landscape and land formations later we took a little detour trying to catch a couple hours in Lake Tahoe before the sunset and found ourselves driving up, up and suddenly on top of Mt. Rose at 10,700ft elevation playing in the snow.

We were specifically told to aim for Lake Tahoe at golden hour. Timing worked out just right and we kicked along the warm sand, filled our arms with perfectly shaped pinecones the size of my face, and climbed among the smooth, glowing rocks. It was time well spent.

Driving through so many drastically different terrains, temperatures, and stunning sights solidifies this as one of my favorite days to look back on. There's such magic in the unexpected.