Beach Day #2

Today was another lazy day hanging out at the beach and the hot tub.

It was another beautiful day, in the mid 70's. We had a good time at the beach watching people play beach volleyball, the surfers hitting the waves, and all of the people riding their beach cruiser bicycles. It was fun.

When we got back to Eric's we headed straight for the hot tub and hung out there for a couple hours. It was a great time!

Tonight is another night of just taking it easy watching something on Netflix. Eric's parents got into town today; it was nice to see them again. They both looked great. Tomorrow we head for Vegas!

Newport Beach



Fun at the beach!

Today felt like a true vacation day.  We had a lazy morning, met Eric out for lunch and then headed to Newport Beach for the afternoon.  The weather was perfect, in the upper 70's low 80's.  We spent about three and a half hours laying out, playing paddle ball, and going on a nice walk.  Scott also went in the water while I relaxed on the beach.

Scott was lucky and saw two dolphins in the water.  As he was checking out the dolphins, an unexpected wave unfortunately got him and he lost his sunglasses.  So we spent the remainder of the afternoon at Lens Crafters with an eye exam so that he could order a new pair of prescription sunglasses.  Scott and I have now both lost sunglasses in the ocean this year...I lost a pair in New Jersey in the Atlantic and Scott lost his today in the Pacific... lessons learned I guess, no more wearing sunglasses in the ocean for us.

We ate dinner at a great Italian restaurant at Newport Beach and we all had dinners with pink sauce!  The food was delicious!!

We're now having a lazy night watching Netflix with Eric.



Orange County Here We Come!

Today we left Berkeley, (but not before banana cake for breakfast) for Irvine, CA to stay with a long time friend of ours.

The drive was very uneventful, our goal was to make it through LA before rush hour traffic. Thankfully we accomplished that task! For those of you who have never been to LA, the likelihood that you'll be stuck in a traffic jam seems to be 100% no matter the time of day. We've been stuck in traffic at midnight on a weekend and in the middle of the afternoon.

The weather is beautiful here, low 80's. After stopping by Eric's work for a quick Hi and to grab his keys we headed to his place to enjoy the pool, hot tub and some cocktails.

We had a low key evening of grilling out sausages and watching a movie. Tomorrow we hope to hit the beach and maybe go on a hike too.

Berkeley Day 2

Molly, Sawyer, and Margaux

Today we went to the Rose Park in Berkeley. It was an awesome park on the hill. On a clear day you can see the city and the golden gate bridge. We had some good views of the Bay but it was too foggy to see the bridge or the city.

Bubbles

We ate a picnic lunch of soup and sourdough bread, it was very good. Then the kids played, Margeux blew bubbles and Sawyer and Bill went down the cement slide. Scott and I of course had to check out the slide also.

Bill and Sawyer going down the cement slide.

After the park Scott and I headed over to Hayward County to visit an uncle of Scotts. It was a great time catching up and hearing Uncle Richard's stories. We also got to see Linda, Reese and Reese's girl friend Laura. While we were at Uncle Richards we also met Phil 'Fang' Volk. He was the original bass player in Paul Revere and the Raiders. So we've had our California celebrity spotting, ha ha ha. Uncle Richard treated us to dinner and introduced us to some wonderful Lebanese friends of theirs, the Saad Family. We had a great time dining with Wallid, Sanna, Michelle, and Assaad. It was great to see some of Scott's family, hopefully we'll see them more often.

We got back to Molly and Bills late so the banana cake that Molly made will have to wait until the morning, yum banana cake for breakfast! I will be sad to leave in the morning because we've had such a great time here. I'm so glad we got to meet the kids and catch up with Molly and Bill.

Berkeley, CA

Today has been a great day hanging out with the Hicks!

Molly and I went over to the market in the morning and bought some fruit, pastries, and ingredients for banana cake. It was a really great market, similar to an indoor/outdoor farmers market. The produce looked and tasted fantastic.

After tasting everything that we bought back at the house we all packed up to take the kids to the park down the street. It was a fun walk with Bill and Sawyer on bikes, Molly pulling Margaux in the wagon and Scott and me walking. For awhile Sawyer was even pulling Margaux in her wagon with his bike, they are very cute together.

Getting on the Slackline.

At the park Molly set-up slack line for Scott and me to try. We had only seen this once while we were in Bend. Essentially its a heavy duty tow strap that you tie between two trees, making a tight rope. After practice, you become good enough to walk across it. I was able to get on with no help and balance standing and Scott was brave enough to take a step or two. Molly was able to walk across the entire length between two trees. It was so much fun! 

Check out the balance!

Lunch, yum!

Once the kids got tired of the park we headed back to the house and Molly, Scott, and I headed out to lunch. We ate at a place called Fish in Sausalito, it was incredible! Exactly the type of place we were looking for. Fish is a fresh seafood market and restaurant however you order at the counter, there are no servers. It was so delicious and we all shareed each others lunches. Molly and Scott started off with the red chowder. Molly got the crab roll with coleslaw, Scott got a halibut club with fries, and I got the seabass over greens. By far the crab roll was the best, but I would order all of it again! Thanks Molly and bill, great suggestion!





Golden Gate Bridge in the fog

After lunch we headed over to Fort Baker to try to get a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately it was too foggy to see downtown or the bridge. The fog is the craziest thing. Where we were standing it was sunny but you could see the fog rolling over our area into the bay. It was cool.

Ice Cream Sandwiches on UC Berkeley's Campus

Later that day, back at the house, we decided that ice cream sandwiches would be a good dinner, and Molly and Bill knew just the place on UC Berkely's campus. The campus was really nice and even had Redwoods. It was a nice walk.

Margaux and Sawyer sharing.

Back at the house we stayed up late visiting and laughing. A perfect way to end a great day!

San Francisco/Berkeley, Ca

This morning was another great morning. Scott made the rest of the kibbee and eggs. We packed up the campsite in a foggy dewey mist.

We drove from the campground and got onto Highway 1, we thought it would be fun to drive along the coast. The road to get to the coast from inland was the most twisty, turny road I've ever been on and unfortunately for me I got majorly car sick! This was a first for me. This road went on for what felt like forever. Had I felt better it would have been a really nice drive because it went through more redwood trees. By the time we got to the coast I felt green and fell asleep....by the time I woke up we were headed away from the coast back inland.... I missed the whole coast!

On the way back inland we passed many wineries. We were in rolling hills and mountains and in the distance you could see many many wineries. It was cool. The temperature at this point was in the high 90's, something I wasn't expecting.

The drive from here to Berkeley was uneventful. To the east we followed golden rolling hills. The temperature began to steadily drop down to the mid sixties. From a distance it was cool seeing downtown San Fran and all of the fog that surrounded the city. Berkeley was in the sun.

It was so great getting into town and seeing Molly and the kids, it's been way too long. Before too long Bill got home from work we all did a little catching up before heading out for dinner. When we left for dinner it was nice and sunny and by the time we headed home the fog had come in and it was much cooler. The remainder of the evening was spent catching up and visiting.

So, I have to be honest about this trip so far, two days ago I was ready to call it quits, then yesterday everything was good and now today I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the amount of time we're spending in the truck again. When Scott was planning this trip he tried to work it out that we would only be driving from destination to destination on average of 6 hours a day. Neither one of us thought about the amount of time we would be spending in the vehicle driving through the national parks. I would say we spend an average of 8+ hours in the truck on a daily basis. It may not sound like much, but after about a month of it, the daily truck drive becomes waring! In addition to the drive time we've only been staying one night here and there along the way, so that means we're setting up and tearing down camp both in the same day... I think going forward we are going to have to adjust our trip slightly to stick to the six hour a day time limit and staying each place a minimum of two nights. This should help both Scott and me keep our sanity!

Hiking Among Giants - Redwood National and State Parks

Canopy

So today we headed off to Redwood National Park. But, before we left, Scott made kibbee and eggs and they were delish! Scott also set up the hammock so I got to spend a few minutes relaxing. This morning was a perfect start to the day! The drive was picturesque from Medford, OR.

The Redwood trees were incredible! We learned that there are actually three species of Redwoods; one species in China, the Coastal Redwoods that we saw today, and the Giant Sequoias down in Central California. The Coastal Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth reaching over 370 feet tall and with diameters reaching 24 feet wide. Let's just say we we're hiking among giants today and it was awesome.

To get to the trail we drove on an old stagecoach dirt road. In some places it was very narrow and nerve racking. It was so cool driving around and in between the trees.

My friend the slug!

We did a two and a half hour hike through an old growth forest and we were both in awe (Boyscout Tree Trail). We tried to get pictures but pictures just don't show the massiveness of the trees.

We started in 85 degree weather today and ended in 62 degrees at the coast. The Northern California coast was breathtaking, although most of it was covered in a dense fog. From what we saw though, it was beautiful. I'm excited for our drive tomorrow, the scenery should keep my mind off the fact that I am once again sitting in the truck for hours.

We also saw a couple different herds of elk tonight. The first herd that we saw probably had about 20 elk. The second herd, if you can call it that, had three males, all with their antlers. Two of them were playing and head butting each other. It was fun to watch.

We're camping at another KOA tonight and this one had a hot tub, yay! It seems that every KOA that we've stayed at gets nicer and nicer, I highly recommend them for anyone doing a trip.