A Little California Time

After missing Josh most of May, over Memorial Day, and then again while he was at a (super cool) golf tournament in Dallas we decided we weren't going to sit back and miss him any more.  He was being sent to the Bay Area again for work, but this time we were all going with him!  The boys and I totally crashed his hotel room in Cupertino, and got to visit with the Redmores and our old friends the Collins', as well as tool around the city and visit the beach.

Hangin with the Redmores

 While we had a lovely hotel room to sleep in, it was so nice to have the Redmore home near by to visit.  Best perk:  Vassu and Seth cooking!!  They were so gracious to us (as always) and made some really spectacular meals while we were there.  Vassu taught Wes how to stem and rip mint for her raita, Chuck helped them make homemade lemonade and orange juice from the citrus trees in the yard (I think this was one of their favorite parts of the trip).  Ahir was a very good, and patient, big cousin and let Van play with his Legos and even shot some hoops with him!  Van and Wes just love Ahir and enjoyed every minute with him.

The family had to work and go to school while we were visiting, so we tried not to encroach on their hospitality too much, but were very grateful for the time they could give.

Can't forget:  Josh was there to work, too.  So the boys and I headed north to San Francisco for an afternoon to be tourists for a day.  We started the day at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was almost deserted on a Tuesday morning (perfect!).  The boys were more impressed than I think they were anticipating.  Giant columns, a huge dome, a beautiful pond with fountains and flowers and the occasional swan - what's not to love?  After all that running around we all needed lunch - time for In-N-Out Burger!  We parked the car at Ghirardelli Square and walked down Jefferson Street, checked out a couple cool galleries (yes, they actually like checking out art!) and ate some amazing burgers al fresco.

Seeing San Francisco with my boys

With bellies full of burgers, fries and a strawberry shake we hoofed it over to the Powell-Hyde Cable Car Turntable.  The sun had come out and it was a gorgeous ride across the city on the side of one of the world famous cable cars.  The views from the car showed the boys some amazing parts of the city:  Lombard Street, Coit Tower, China Town, the Bay Bridge and Russian Hill.  We rode to the other turntable at Powell & Market at Union Square.  The line to get back on the cable car to return to Ghirardelli Square was super long... and in the end we got on the wrong cable car.  Sigh.  It was still a fun ride, but didn't take us where we needed to be.  No biggie!  We're from Colorado - a little sea level, city walking, even uphill, is nuthin'!  Besides, it made our next stop at Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Factory totally worth it.  Ice cream, chocolate samples and a coffee for momma made for a great stop at the chocolatier.

The next day was a no brainer - we went to the beach!  After a spectacular breakfast at Stacks we drove over 92 to Half Moon Bay and south down Hwy 1 to Redondo Beach.  It had a fairly steep but short hill to access a huge beach.  It was great for the boys - sand, surf, rocks, shells and a big rocky area filled with tidal pools containing lots of life.  I had to tear the boys away from splashing in the waves to explore the rocks and do a little beach combing.

Thursday we found a great playground in Los Gatos and played there for a while.  It was complete with a carousel and a train!  For lunch the boys always ask for "noodle soup" which is code for ramen.  Well, the Bay Area has some of the best real ramen in the country, so that's what we found for lunch.  Both Van and Wes loved the noodles and the egg, but would rather have had a beef broth rather than the pork broth they had.  It was a huge hit tho!  Van even used his chop sticks with some success!  I had a peanut chicken ramen that was the stuff dreams are made of - yum!

That night Josh met us at our friends, Curt & Dyan, home for dinner.  They have two kids, Zander and Mayla, and our boys just took to them immediately!  There was a small pinata and some face painting - what's not to like?  It was a wonderful dinner, and the food was made more special by catching up with such great old friends.  Some day we'll get them over the Rockies to see us!

After hearing about all our awesome adventures Josh decided he'd missed enough family time and took the last day of his week off to hang with us.  The boys asked him if he wanted to go back to the city or to the beach again.  Wanting to just chill he chose the beach... which was perfect for Van and Wes!  We enjoyed showing him around the beach we scoped out earlier in the week.  It was a great way to spend our last afternoon in California.

The whole family, on vacation.