Lovin' us some California

This past weekend my sweet mother-in-law flew Alec and I out to Cali for the long weekend.  We had an absolute BLAST!  It was a well needed vacation.  So here are the reasons we love California (Bay Area in particular) and why it was hard to come home.....

1. Spending time with this great lady.  We had so much fun with her this week and are glad she was so happy to come along with us on our crazy adventures and willing to humor us on all of our food whims:).  Congrats on getting your house in contract Marsha, we love you!

2. Food. Period. End of Sentence.  From the moment we landed in Cali we were thinking about where we were going to eat.  Don't worry I think we hit everywhere, some more than once.  Chuck's (yummiest donuts) was a frequent stop on our trip, Alec for sure got his Su Hong, I got my Cafe Barrone fix a few time (love, love, love their vanilla steamed milk, oh I am salivating just thinking of their yummy food), Woodside Deli (a real deli..... love it!), and oh so many more!  Oh food...... um yum!

3. The Beach.  One of the things I really miss about California is going to the beach on the weekend and just watching the waves.  We headed over to Half Moon Bay a few times this past week and oh my it is pretty!  And oh yes, since it is of course Sept in the Bay Area (one of the months with the nicest weather), we hit Half Moon Bay on a clear beautiful day.  Love it!  We also went to Santa Cruz twice in the few days we were there too.  I love Santa Cruz!  One day we went surfing.... scary story to come, and the other day we just spent walking the beach and going to Capitola.... love it!  Hit our two favorite places to eat here as well.... Pleasure point pizza and Gayles (yummiest bakery in Capitola).

4. Not dying while trying to surf.  So on Saturday we headed in "Chester the Molester" (a van a guy from the ward let us borrow along with one of his surf boards) to Santa Cruz to catch some waves, well at least attempt to catch some waves.  Ok, so let me just tell you a little something, these waves were huge, like Maverik, big surf competition, HUGE.  Ok, maybe not that big, but for someone who is already terrified of itty bitty waves, an 8-10 foot swell makes you want to wet your pants.  So we got to Santa Cruz and got our paddle board rented and headed out.  Alec informs me that the small waves are in an area where we can't get to unless we paddle to them.  Ok, whatever right.  Well, no, not whatever, paddling to them almost took my life, no joke:).  So I tell Alec I am going to walk my board on the 2 inch sand shore as long as possible, this idea did not sit well with him as we are getting pushed towards the rocks, so he informs me that I need to get on my board and paddle to the spot.  Ok, so here it goes.  I get on my board and start paddling to the "small" waves.  Well, in the mean time we are in the big, big waves.  At one point I thought I was literally going to kill my husband, but don't worry I didn't, he is alive and well, and in fact playing video games as I write.  So we are paddling and all of the sudden I see this huge set come in.  Alec was yelling at me to tell me to point my surf board towards the wave, so I did, did not help.  So since I am not a surfer and really don't know what the heck I am doing out there, I kinda forgot to put on my leash, I know, I know, all you surfers out there can't believe what you are reading.  I committed like the cardinal sin of surfing.  Well, anyways, the wave tipped me over and needless to say I lost my surf board and I was getting thrashed around (Alec might think this is an exaggeration, but thrashed is how I felt).  The waves seemed to keep coming in and I was getting closer and closer to death.  Well, I made it out of there.... barely!  Alec went and fetched my board, got yelled at by a surfer and told he was an idiot for not have a leash on (sorry Alec) and I paddled my way out to where there were no breaks.  All I could think of out there with my seal friends was that a huge shark was going to come and bite my arm off (not the thoughts you want to have in the ocean, you can thank the movie Soul Surfer for this fear).  I also was trying to figure how the heck I was going to get back to shore without dying.  Well, I made it, thus the reason I am able to type, but it was close.  So we were talking to this surfer dude after and he said that all summer the waves have been small (like they normally are in this area of Santa Cruz), but this week there were huge swells that have come in.  So there you have it, I am not a wuss, we kept hearing everybody talking about how big the surf was.

5. The Giants.  Yes we are fans of the Giants, yes you know the ones who won the world series last year.  So on Friday night we jumped on Cal Trans and headed to the city on the train.  So fun!  We had an absolute blast at the game.  Alec got his hot dog, Marsha her drink, and I of course got my hot chocolate!  The Giants won and the game was super entertaining. I love going to games at this park.  It is cold, oh so cold, but it is so pretty!

6. Roadside farmers markets.  On the way to Half Moon Bay there are a ton of farmers markets.  Yummiest fruit! 

7. Flowers. Smells.  One of the things I miss most are the smells and the flowers year around.  We got off the plane and you could just feel the moisture in the air.  We went to a nursery that is incredible.  Every kind of flower you can imagine!  We spent a little too much money on the awesome pots they had, but you could just not pass up such a good deal:) 

8. Last but not least (this one is for Alec), the cars.  You see the craziest and some of the most expensive cars while driving around.  Alec loves this part, just seeing all the cars.  I don't really know a difference, if it drives, it works for me!:)

Well, we had the most amazing trip.  Thanks again Marsha!