I decided to take a break from beauty reviews and do a little “travel blogging”. Last week we went down to the Bay Area in California for a long weekend. I knew that I wanted to play tourist (Seattle native-and no, never been to NorCal) and rented a Tesla Model S from Enterprise (I paid for this-not comped) because I truly couldn’t imagine doing the trip without a Tesla-all rental cars should be Model 3’s. Yes, I work for Tesla and this is not an advertisement for them (Tesla doesn’t do marketing) and I am writing this as a personal blog, not as an affiliate of Tesla Motors.

If you ever need to rent a car in a place you’ve never been, TESLA! The giant screen makes it impossible to get lost and has dictation on the steering wheel. We rented a Pearl White 75D (now known as a Standard Range Model S and are no longer available for purchase) that provides about 215 miles of range before needing to charge (237 at max capacity). My Model S had no Autopilot features-just smooth electric driving and instant torque.

As we picked up Tessie (if you know me, you know I’ve literally been calling Tesla’s Tessie’s forever and our actual rental Tesla was named Tessie by Enterprise; we were meant to be), all I had to do was press the steering wheel microphone and say “Navigate to the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara” and on the screen and dash, turn by turn directions were provided.

Guess who was defeated that night? Go Hawks.

I planned this trip at the end of September. I have never been to San Francisco or Silicon Valley, and more importantly-never been to an away game for the Seahawks, which of course was on my bucket list. Who knew that mid season the 49ers were going to be undefeated and that Monday Night Football was about to embark one of the greatest NFL games in history? When I bought our tickets, there were plenty available and I shopped by seat, not price. I found 2 seats 8 rows from the end zone (Section 124) for under $300 for both. I used a map to see which hotels were close enough to the stadium and found a night at the Hyatt Regency across the street for like $150 (Monday night was 3 times that). Scope this room view…

We checked into our room Sunday afternoon and then went out exploring Silicon Valley with Tessie. I wanted to check out Santana Row-it is a pretty cool outdoor shopping spot with a massive bank of Superchargers on the top of a parking garage. That Tesla store had the chassis of the Model S and X on display which I had never seen before in person. After Santana Row, we drove by NASA and the Googleplex-it was dark so it wasn’t that exciting.

We went back and watched the 49er and Seahawks fans get lit in the Hyatt bar before resting up for our event filled Monday. As a Tesla employee, I was able to secure a tour of the Fremont factory. There is currently only one factory in the entire world that is actively producing all of the Tesla vehicles you see-(Shanghai may start sometime soon; I have no insight on details with that factory’s production plans-employees have literally no inside scoops and I definitely do not know what the truck looks like…until Thursday :). This tour was AWESOME! We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but I’d encourage you to it look up online. Lots of robots and extremely hard working techs ensuring each car is ready for the next step.

We played tourist around Silicon Valley-we went back to NASA, Apple, etc-it was like Seattle with sun and more freeways that have more than 3 lanes-I am talking to you, 405.

Next it was game time. We went back to the Hyatt even though we were checked out already to park Tessie and then we went adventuring-we ran in to some local friends tailgating and, even having worked for the NFL for the last 3 seasons, had never tailgated before. We walked to the stadium right as the Navy was parachuting down for the Salute to Service game-it was Veterans’ Day. The Seahawks versus 49er’s game was the greatest game I could have gone to ever in all times. I still don’t have my voice back to full capacity, but Go Hawks.

After the game, Tessie safely took us up to our room in San Francisco-it was the San Francisco Marriott Marquis-we booked it for the restaurant with a view but never got a chance to go there. Their breakfast was $35 per person, so we went across the street to Mel’s Diner and then got our tourist on. Tessie uses Google Maps and what was the best feature for us that day, was the displayed tourist attractions. We had all day to kill time before our flight back to Seattle. Anything that showed as a destination on that screen, we went to.

The Presidio’s view of the Golden Gate Bridge

First was the Presidio-that was where we Supercharged. That place is amazing-Disney or George Lucas own part of it or something and for some reason, all museums are closed on Tuesdays in SF. We missed out on the Museum of Ice Cream and the Presidio has the Walt Disney Museum (closed). We went all over the place in the city. The Model S down Lombard Street may have been the most terrifying thing in my life-the S is a very large car and I was not the owner of it, but we made it!

Afterwards, you know I bumped the Full House theme while making a visit to the Painted Ladies-a Model X just happened to be parked in front so I had to stunt. We finished off the day at Ghirardelli Square before returning Tessie. Then we sat in SFO for 3 hours and had the most terrifying flight back-we flew Alaska down and Delta back. I am already planning my next mini vacation-just need a destination. Any ideas? Somewhere with some good driving tourist attractions and great views…I am thinking LA. We play the Rams soon…