Cali Vacation

After working ourselves to tears, we decided we maybe needed a vacation! So I rounded up some of my travel points and we headed to California! I was so excited to go back with Alan and show him all of the places and things I loved when I lived there, it feels so much like home there for me! So I thought I would show you my favorite picture or two from each day.

Day 1-Santa Cruz

So we stopped on our way to Monterey in Santa Cruz to walk along the boardwalk and low and behold we found the biggest sand dollar I have ever seen as we walked under the pier! (You may be happy to know that it made it home in one piece.)

We then headed to Monterey, CA and hit up the wonderful aquarium there. Oh course stopping along hte way and the roadside fruit stands for some oh so tasty local produce. YUMM! My favorite exhibit at the aquarium is the jelly fish. I think it is just beautiful, and my pictures do not do it justice! But you get the idea.

We then had dinner at one of the local resturants and walked along the fisherman's warf. Nothing like the smell of fish, salt and kelp to finish off the evening! :)

Day 2- Monterey and Carmel

We suited up in our oh so sleek kayak gear and braved the waves, well, more like the wind, and spent the morning crusing around the bay. Those kayaks are pretty big and heavy on land, but it is amazing how small and insignificant you feell once you get on the water! Dodging sea lions and boats is quite exciting! I even saw a jelly fish as we were paddeling, and I was glad I was in my kayak.

We went into this cove and saw some seals with their pups, I thought they were so cute! Although not most agile creatures on land. This one moma seal totally kept giving us the eye, so we decided to move on.

We spent the rest of the day driving through Carmel and down the coast to Big Sur. I wanted to stop a take a picture like every 2 minutes, but the wind really picked up and made it quite hard to hold my camera still, not to mention freeze my fingers to it!

Day 3-Fresno

We slept in and then headed for Fresno to visit Alan's cousin Dawn and her family. Being the Type A planner that I am, I of course had already printed up Mapquest directions to all of the stops that I was not familiar with, but in this instance it was not very helpful! I swear we were driving in circles, and then one of the roads we were supposed to take was under construction and totally shut down...a few u-turns and a bit of "discussion" and we finally made it!

I realized after we left that I did not get any pictures taken, but I am totally going to blame that on Alan! :) We had dinner with the family and it was great to get to know them and to visit. Expecially the big screen tv that we watched American Idol on...I can't believe Brooke didn't get voted off!

Day 4/5-Back to SF area-No visit to San Francisco is complete without a visit to:

Golden Gate Bridge

Lombard St-People actually live on this street!

Fisherman's Wharf-Alan had fresh crab, what a time consuming meal!
The trolleys

Chinatown-After a stop at Sam Wu's for dinner ( a little dissappoing meal, but defintely part of the asian experience) and some site seeing, we ended up with a cool set of chop sticks.

North Beach-We hit the gelatto shops twice I think and tried almost every flavor that they had! So Good! We had dinner there one night to celebrate Alan's birthday with my friend Melissa! We ate atFigaro's and had dinner real Italian style with like 4 courses of food. It was a good thing we spent all day walking! My plan worked, in that Alan kept being reminded of Italy...and saying he wanted to go back and visit! :) I keep telling him to just say when and I am there! :)

We had such a good trip, and amazingly enough we were not totally exhausted by the time we got home. We were able to see many friends and family and to relax and ejoy time without phones or emails. I think the last time we were actually about to spend that much time together was our wedding, so for us this was a great week!