Californ-I-A!

Am I the only one who knows that Beach Boys song?

It has been more than a month since we went on our trip, so lets see how much I remember (while I am distracted with Dora in the background).

It started by flying into San Diego to go to Josh’s cousin’s (dad’s side) wedding. It was really nice and we had a great time with his family out there. I have an interesting story about how I met the bride, but I am not sure it is quite appropriate to post here – but make sure to ask me about it sometime. Don’t ask me why we didn’t get out our camera until we left here because it would have been nice to have more pictures of family.
While we were out there we got to see our friends from BBC, Matt and Christa. It was so great to see them. They are the kind of friends that we really easily reconnect with. We enjoyed dinner with them, spent the night (yes, the three of us), and went to church with them the next day. Their church is great – really solid and I learned some things about echtypal and archetypal knowledge (ask me about it). Josh even got to play bass b/c Matt leads worship. That afternoon we went to a wild animal park that is nearby. Check out the sweet pictures.

This is one plant - and a stork is standing on it.

Watching a bird show

The next day we hung out with Josh’s fam again and then left Monday morning for LA. We drove through downtown LA and into Beverly Hills and Belair (I was humming the Fresh Prince theme song the whole time). We also stopped at Grace (Johnnie Mac's church) where the Huff's used to attend. That night we stayed with some friend's of the Huff's and it was there that Charis took her first steps, real ones anyway. After our time in LA we drove the six hours up to Santa Cruz.
Okay, side note. I was horribly sick this whole trip. I puked multiple times everyday, including in the car, when I couldn't wait to get into a bathroom. I would start to mentally freakout everytime we had a drive ahead of us. So yeah, not so fun.

Silly time with mama in the car

Can you see Charis?

First steps

Santa Cruz was great! We walked the pier, played in the ocean and ate good seafood. We even found a donut place called Ferrell's Donut House. I was so excited that I made us stop and get a donut. (Yeah, that sat well in my system while we drove another couple hours.)

Charis LOVED the ocean!


We finally made it to San Francisco, to Toni's mom's house. She has such an interesting place. It is decorated Japanese like, and they have a shower with a picture window (imagine the wall that keeps the outside out being a huge window - floor to ceiling. She said "it's like you are showering outside." I look out and I see the neighbor's window - no joke.) We spent time with Toni's family and I got to meet people whom I have never met before.
On Thursday we went to downtown San Francisco. We got to see Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. I ate Clam Chowder in a sourdough breadbowl while sitting on San Francisco Bay. We got Charis some little Alcatraz (I started to type Azkaban) pajamas that look like prison clothes. The streets were amazing and you can only imagine what they did to my system. We got to go on Lombard street though, which was an ... experience.

At night we stayed with Toni's dad. They were so nice and it was great to stay in one place for a couple nights. We even got to go in their hottub each night - ahhhh! And they have a whole flock, herd, gaggle? of hummingbirds. It was amazing! On Friday we celebrated Yom Kippur with them and the rest of the family. It was very yummy.
And we got to head up to Napa Valley ~ Wine Country! We went to the Mondavi vineyard and had some amazing wine. In fact, I found my all time favorite wine. It is sweet, but actually has a wine aftertaste, not the koolaid aftertaste that comes with most sweet wines. Anyway, we couldn't tour the place because of Charis, but we had fun walking around anyway.

So we had a fun and busy trip to Cali. Not exactly a vacation where we rest, but I am glad we did it. Until next time!

Random: I was surprised how hilly and brown everything is - definitely not that pretty, but then again I didn't get that far north.