CALIFORNIA!!!

Well, our trip to California was AWESOME! We both would have loved to stay longer... why do fun trips always seem to go so fast?? I guess that gives us a good reason to go back soon though, right?! I'm still not sure why we flew all the way to Atlanta, Georgia on our way to San Francisco, CA?! Anybody who is even remotely familiar with a map of the United States knows that Georgia is a good 2 hour flight in the WRONG direction, but whatever works I guess. No wonder our tickets were so cheap! Once we actually reached Cali, everything was awesome! Monica picked us up from the airport in the evening, and we opted for a pretty calm evening since we were tired from traveling allll day long. We grabbed a bite to eat and watched some football from a sports bar right across the street from AT&T Park (the S.F. Giants baseball stadium). We spent the following day walking around San Francisco being "tourists" with Munchie. We saw a lot of cool things around the city (not to mention a lot of "interesting" people:o), and really had a ball that day! We got to ride on the cable cars, and I think I only broke out the Full House theme song maybe once: ) We walked down the infamous "Lombard Street"... the crookedest street I've ever seen. Next time I'm going to take my big wheel I think. Wouldn't that be a ball - hah! We walked along the bay, went to Fisherman's Wharf, played old-school arcade games at some place along the bay, and went to Ghirardelli Square... we saw it all really! Speaking of that, after a great lunch at Lori's Diner, we had an incredible sundae from Ghiradelli. YUM! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I think when I'm pregnant with my first lil' babe, I'm going to have to send my hubby to Cali every weekend to bring me back a sundae to fulfill my cravings- hah! We had a great day of sight-seeing, and then we got to see our whole family for dinner that night- what a treat! Uncle Peter is seriously a master of the grill, and he welcomed us with the best tri-tip steak ever (and a few bottles of wine; ) In fact, every night we were there we had awesome meals! Our family is so generous and they had dinner plans for us every single night at each of their houses... it was so nice of them to have us over for dinner all the time! We even had some authentic mexican enchiladas at Todd & Sarita's- nice! Is it just me, or has half of this paragraph been about food?! I guess that shouldn't surprise you though considering eating is one of my favorite things to do- hah! Anyway, that Monday Joel and I spent the day by ourselves in San Francisco so that we could go to Alcatraz. What a neat place! I was actually there when I was younger, but I picked up on so much more this trip. Joel had never been to Alcatraz (or to California for that matter), so he really found it to be interesting! We did the audio tour so we could go at our own place, and we were glad we did. Tuesday we had the pleasure of spending the day with Uncle Peter. We got to visit Stanford's campus, and Peter was our very own tour guide: ) What a beautiful campus! The church was absolutely gorgeous, and the athletic facilities were impressive! We even went up in the Hoover Tower (I think it was about 300'), and got an incredible view of the campus (and beyond). Then we went to Half Moon Bay and had a great seafood lunch at a restaurant right on the beach, and went for a nice walk on the beach.

Half Moon Bay

Wednesday was another great day with Monica (minus the car-sickness Joel got from Munchie's "crazy" driving; ) We went to a really remarkable redwood state park, and got to go on a very scenic and very beautiful nature trail through the redwood trees. There is a huge tree there called the "Fremont Tree" that is 270' tall and hollow, and got its name from General Fremont who was said to have camped inside the huge redwood in the 1800's. It is one thing to hear stories about the tree, but it is crazy to see it in person! The hole to walk into the huge tree is gradually closing, but if you take a flashlight into the tree, you can see waaaay up into the hollowed out tree. When we first got to it, a school fieldtrip of about 20 kids came walking out from the inside of it... where the heck did they come from?! They couldn't all possibly fit inside a tree, could they?! It wasn't until Joel, Monica, and I crawled inside the tree that we realized just how huge it was inside! Unfortunately we forgot to check the batteries of the flashlight we took... whoops!

The 3 of us in the entrance of the Fremont Tree

The 3 of us standing inside of the Fremont Tree

HAHA! Then it was off to Seascape! My aunt & uncle's beachhouse right along the ocean... it is truly breathtaking! If I remember right, I think it's between Santa Cruz and Monterey. We had an awesome awesome time relaxing on the beach, and hanging with Munchie, Aunt Gayle, Aunt Dee, and the "bitches and witches" golfing ladies as they like to refer to themselves: ) What a hoot! Monica even helped me build the sand castle I had promised Nolan I would build for him. Thursday we were lucky enough to spend the day with Dee and visit the"17 Mile Drive". It is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach that follows the Pacific coastline. You wouldn't believe all of the mansions along there, and cool things to see! My goodness I can't imagine the pricetags on any of those homes! Joel's favorite part was getting to go to Pebble Beach and walking onto the 18th green!

Pebble Beach - 18th Green

I have to admit, it was pretty cool knowing we were standing on the 18th hole where all the pros golf. I can't imagine golfing there though... some of the holes were SO windy! When we stopped by the "lone cypress tree", I couldn't even open my car door it was blowing so hard. If you are ever in that area, you really need to do the 17 Mile Drive! It was really neat! Friday we spent another great day with Uncle Peter on Santana Row in San Jose, before having to depart Saturday morning. See how fast that went?! :o) And see why we want to go back?! We really did have a blast, and it was so great seeing my family! We need to do it EVERY year I think; ) Anyway, enjoy the pictures!