The majority of the NHL will have a California Road tour at some point during their season. From what I’ve gathered, Arizona, Colorado, and Las Vegas may be the only exception due to their general location. The California Road tour consist of playing the Los Angeles King, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks. While this article focuses around these NHL teams and their hockey schedule, the road trip in general made this trip. This would be a perfect route for anyone looking to see some of California’s main attractions. It was also a nice way to see the vast differences the state offers environmentally.
Thursday
We opted to fly from Minneapolis/St. Paul to San Francisco, California. San Jose does have an airport. But the tickets to San Francisco were slightly cheaper and we would have had to have a layover in San Francisco anyways. Instead of spending a few hours in the airport, we figured it would be more fun driving. Plus, I had never seen San Francisco before! We rented a car through Hertz, and were able to pick it up right at the airport (I hate having to be shuttled off site). To rent the car for four days, it cost us about $125. Always make sure that you always bring your own personal car insurance card. Most plans cover car rentals, so save yourself some money by having your own. Make sure to double check with your insurance company prior to leaving.
As soon as we got our car, we made our way down to The Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39. They are located right next to each other! This is one San Francisco’s more “touristy” areas. They have vendors throughout the street, and some amazing restaurants and bars. This is a great area if you are craving seafood. The parking in scarce, so be prepared to either pay a bit of money or you may have to drive around a bit. If possible, I would get a ride in. The trolley has a route right through this area. There was also a lot of people biking around. It appears as if the city really keeps an eye on this area, since we didn’t see a single homeless person. This can’t be said about the rest of the city…
From the pier you can see the infamous Alcatraz Prison. My goal was to be able to see this as well, but we ran out of time (Perfect excuse for having to plan another trip back). The tours can take anywhere from 2-3 hours, and I would suggest buying the tickets in advance. They even have special night tours and behind the scenes tours! To see schedules and ticket prices for Alcatraz Prison, click here.
After we got done stuffing ourselves with seafood, we wanted to go and see The Golden Gate Bridge in order to take some pictures. This is probably the number one thing that comes to your mind when you think of San Francisco. Naturally, we had to check it out. We made stops at two of the main pull offs to see the bridge. There is one right before and after the bridge. Both spots give you beautiful shots and views of the bay as well as Alcatraz! You could see many people exercising and site-seeing alongside the bridge. From what I’ve read, there is many places near by that rent bikes.
At this point are time in San Francisco was up, so we made our way back to the car. It took us a few hours to drive to San Jose, California. We were also driving during a bad time, so that took longer than expected. At first we tried to avoid tolls, but soon found that it wasn’t worth the extra time. Just pay the tolls, they aren’t much anyways. When we arrived, we immediately checked into out hotel, The Hayes Mansion. The place was beautiful, but unfortunately we didn’t get to spend much time there. We freshened up quick in order to grab a few drinks before the game!
We grabbed an Uber to bring us downtown. This cost us roughly $25. We met up with our good friends Phil and Wayne. They recommended that we go to O’Flaherty’s Irish Pub. This was one of the more common bars downtown that a lot of Sharks fans will head to before the Hockey games. The food seemed average. But they had a lot of unique beer that we were able to try. I will say I thought they were a tad overpriced. You could easily run your bill up.
From there it was an easy walk to the SAP Center. The game was a lot of fun and resulted in a win for the Minnesota Wild. After the game, they had a lot of vendors outside selling food. After a few drinks, I’m always craving some junk food. I picked up some fresh hot dogs, that we munched on during the drive back to our hotel.
Friday
It was recommended to us, that we check out The Winchester Mystery House. After sleeping in, we packed up our things and made our way over. I’m a history lover, so I thought it would be something interesting to see. For those who aren’t familiar, the Winchester Mansion is an architectural wonder and historic landmarks located in San Jose. This was once the personal residence of Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester, the window of Williams Wirt Winchester and heiress to a large portion of the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune. After the death of her infant daughter and husband, Sarah became obsessed with continually building on to her house. The theories on why this happened swirled around her being haunted as well as her being instructed by a psychic.
You can purchase your tickets in the gift shop or online ahead of time. If you booked them ahead of time, you would spend less time waiting around for a new tour to go through. While the tour itself was very interesting, I will say that the tickets seemed overpriced. I believe they ran us about $42 a piece, for a one-hour tour. You can check out tour schedules and prices by clicking here. According to their website, there appears to be times where they offer reduced pricing.
From San Jose, you can take your road trip a few different routes to Southern California. The most common, and the way I originally planned on going is down Highway 1. This route brings you through a few different state parks, as well as a beautiful drive along the coastline. The Includes the well-known Big Sur area.
We made a last-minute decision to head a different way, since the person I was with had a military friend in Oakhurst California. This drive also had some beautiful views and stops along the way. It definitely did not disappoint! The big plus of this route was that it included many different National Parks. Do your research before leaving for your trip. This way you can discover what you would like to do and see. That will determine what your route.
While we had the option to stop at a few. We only spent time in Yosemite National Park. You could EASILY spend a week here. This park was huge with a lot of different scenery and hikes available. Even if you don’t enjoy hiking and camping, the drive alone is worth the park entrance fee’s. I believe that it cost us $25 for a car pass into the park. That price is for a vehicle with up to 6 seats. If you are into visiting a lot National Parks, look into getting an annual pass. you would probably save money overall. The National Park Service also offers free passes for military members and disabled veterans! Any Veterans claiming the smallest percentage of disability qualify.
That night we met up with some friends in Oakhurst California. We grabbed dinner at South Gate Brewing Company. The food and drinks were amazing! The offered a lot of sweet cider type beers, which was right up my alley! The name of the brewery comes from them being on the South Gate to Yosemite National Park. If you happen to be in the area, I highly recommend stopping in.
Saturday
In the morning we stocked up on snacks (the #1 necessity for any road trip, right?), and began the drive down to Los Angeles for the 1PM game against the LA Kings. We decided to just head straight to the arena, in order to have a bite to eat before the game. We were able to find parking that was actually extremely close to the arena, which costs us about $20. The money was well worth the short walk!
It was recommended that we check out Tom’s Urban. This was a fairly big restaurant located right across the street from the rink and packed with Kings fans. It appeared to be the King’s version of the MN Wild’s Tom Reids (I also didn’t know how “friendly” the Kings fans would be). We knew we wouldn’t get our food in time if we stopped, so we decided to get inside and grab food there instead. Out of all the rinks we’ve seen the Wild play at, the Kings fans were the most aggressive towards opposing fans. No one had ever crossed the line, but be expected to be heckled if your team scores! You can also tell that this franchise has a lot of money to put into theatrics, due to all the fun extras you see.
Unfortunately, the Wild lost. So we made our way over the hotel for the night. I booked through hotels.com and got a very good deal since I booked last minute. (Make sure you sign up for their rewards program. This is one of the better rewards programs I’ve seen. After booking 10 hotels rooms, you can get a free night stay). After we got settled in and freshened up, we made our way down to the Santa Monica Pier.
The Santa Monica Pier seemed to be a place for families and younger couples. If you’ve never heard of it, just picture a mini carnival on a pier. We walked around a bit. There is a lot of food, games, rides, and entertainers to see. While we did not get to see it, I have heard very good things about the Venice Beach area. You could tell that this area was well taken care of, and there wasn’t as many homeless people hanging around. I think if I were to go back, this is where I’d want to stay. We grabbed food and called it an early night.
Sunday
In the morning we got up and made our way the infamous Hollywood sign. The night before I had researched a bunch of ways to hike up and behind the sign (Yes, I am that person). I read a lot of contradicting posts on whether or not it is illegal, so take that for what it is! When we got there though, there was people EVERYWHERE! The local residents appear to be sick of tourists in the area. I don’t blame them at all, but they have guarded off the road up to where the hiking trail is located.
According to what I’ve read on the internet (Everything on the internet is real, right?), these signs and fencing are set up by people in the neighborhood. Making it not illegal to walk through. Whole heartedly that was my plan when I got there. Once I realized how many people were there, I knew that I didn’t have the “balls” to sneak through. Sadly, we just the typical tourist photo from far away. Which is still a very good photo, just not as unique. If this hike is something you want to do, I would suggest going early in the morning. That way people won’t be around, and you’d have the hike to yourself!
We then made our way down to the Anaheim area. We didn’t want to get stuck in bad traffic, so we thought it would be better to stay closer to the arena. For lunch, we stopped and grabbed dinner at In N’ Out. Being from the Midwest, we are not privy to having In N’ Outs around. Getting food took a lot longer than I expected, so make sure you give yourself more time than you think. The food is better than your typical fast food joint. But in my opinion it doesn’t deserve the phenomenal credit that it has. There was one night, when we saw the line wrapped around the restaurant.
The main thing to do in Anaheim is to check out Disneyland. That was not appealing at all to two young adults plus we didn’t have enough time, so we decided to head down to the Long Beach area. It was a really nice idea for killing time, since we were able to stroll the beach and take photos. I will say that I was very disappointed with the beaches cleanliness. There was trash everywhere, which was extremely sad to see.
After that it was time to head to the arena for the last game of the road tour! I was surprised by how much I liked Anaheim’s’ arena. Overall, the rink was not new or unique. I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of everything. Their parking lot is right next to the rink, which would make it perfect for pre-gaming! That is something that you rarely see anymore! Everyone inside the rink was extremely friendly too. For this game, we decided to get tickets in the Club level section. The one thing that I hadn’t seen before (in club level), was that each section had their own waiter or waitress. We were able to get beer and food, without ever leaving our seats! The Wild came out with another big Win, and we hurried off to LAX.
It didn’t take too long to get to the airport (maybe 30 minutes). But we knew the reputation the airport had, so we tried to hurry. None of the car rental companies were attached to the airport. So make sure to plan some extra time to have to be shuttled to the airport. With some time to spare we were able to make out midnight flight home! Although we happened to make our flight just fine, I would not suggest flying out that night. You don’t know what kind of delays may occur!