back to California (the middle part)...

Our next stop on our California trip took us south of San Francisco, to the town of Carmel. But, we stopped along the way to take in a few sights.

First on the list was Muir Woods and the giant sequoia trees of California. Here's us in the obligatory stand-in-the-giant-tree pictures...
Next, we stopped just north of the Golden Gate Bridge to see it with downtown San Francisco in the background. Well, this part of California is known for being fogged over from time to time. Usually it comes in the morning and burns off during the day. When we arrived, this was the view of the bridge (it's behind us).
We drove higher up and this is the best we could do. (still pretty cool)
We arrived in Carmel in the afternoon. We stayed at this very lovely hotel, La Playa... We got upgraded to an oceanview (I told everyone it was our anniversary)...and got a night free after the folks above us had a party one night...all night.
The town of Carmel is filled with shops and galleries and great food.Jeff's favorite jewelry store. (really they just put the jewels away every evening)
Cypress trees abound in Carmel.
This is the path along the beach there. It's just beautiful! I cannot tell you how many dogs we saw here. They play on the beach and seem to be the happiest dogs on earth! It's almost ridiculous. They are well loved...I even overheard someone saying they were listed in the phone book with their dog.
The houses along the ocean were so cool. We heard Brad Pitt owned one. We did not get an invite for dinner.
The first full day, we took Mercedes out on Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) south of Carmel. When driving this road, you have to stop every other mile, get out...drop your jaw at the scenery...pick it up and get back in the car... So amazing.
The Bixby Bridge. You may have seen this in some car commercials.We were lucky enough to learn about this un-marked road that leads you to one of the most beautiful beaches. It was very noisy here...wind blowing and waves crashing.On the return trip to Carmel that day, we stopped at the best state park I think I've ever been to...Point Lobos State Park.
There were these amazing tidal pools in the rocks along the edge of the ocean. No lines...no extra fees...We found them on our own and just sat there by ourselves and watched all kinds of creatures. It was so cool.
The next day brought us to 17-Mile drive and the Pebble Beach Golf Course. We had lunch at this spot overlooking the 18th green.
In his element, Jeff ran bandito-style onto this tee box so I could grab a pic.This is the famous Pebble Beach Lone Cypress tree.
So that's Carmel. We really loved this town and the beauty of the surrounding area.

Next stop : San Francisco.

back to California (the first part)...

I realized I have neglected to provide more detail on our trip out to California, celebrating our 10 year anniversary. Shame on me. Here it goes...

We had to stop in Minneapolis on the way to San Francisco. Our flight sat delayed on the taxiway for one of the coolest reasons ever. We found out Air Force One was landing and we'd have to sit still until the President had cleared the aircraft. We could see security detail all over the place. And then, right out my window, I snapped this picture. (I have about 50 more of black cars and the back end of the airplane, but I'll spare you the agony.)
When we got to San Francisco, we joked on our way to baggage claim that the rental car place wouldn't have our much-anticipated convertible for us. We were making Seinfeld jokes..."You can take the reservation...You just can't hold the reservation."

Well, we didn't knock on anything wood and, sure enough...no convertible. They offered a Volvo and I said, "That's a people-with-kids car....We're not those people this week." I made a sad face for a little bit (but didn't yell...like the other unkind people who didn't get convertibles)...and...we were given a sporty and very wonderful Mercedes Benz and a free tank of gas.
Our first leg of the trip brought us to wine country. We rented this house in the great town of Yountville.We took Mercedes on a tour of wine country. She was so fun to drive, I took pictures while going 70mph...
We went to lots o' vineyards and had so much fun sampling and learning about wines. Oh, so pretty...
Wine caves. That's 99 barrels of wine on the wall.
Jeff was very patient as I snapped every picture I could and spent waaayyy too much time finding good spots to balance the big camera so we could get pics of ourselves. I love my very cool camera bag made for me by my talented friend (click here to see her stuff).
We'll go to Carmel, CA in the next California post. Stay tuned....

seeing is believing...

We've gone festive for the fall season and gussied up the porch with pumpkins and mums and two tall corn stalk bunches. I had no idea the fun this would bring.

At first it wasn't fun...it was sheer terror. One night last week, I walked down the stairs after a candy corn gorge left me with night sweats and the need to drink a gallon of water at 3am.

When I caught sight of something rather large crawling around on the porch, my heart stopped, I ducked for cover and pondered a way to get to the phone and report the potential intruder. I shimmied a little closer to the window and saw the bandit...a very well fed and girthy raccoon. I stood up and watched that fella attacking the corn stalks. He even tried to climb them, but apparently forgot how mammouth he was.

I reported this sighting to Jeff, who thought it was a well-exaggerated story. Until he met our overgrown visitor a couple nights later. So, we thought how nice it was of us to feed this poor starving raccoon, just trying to bulk up before winter. Until...

I stayed up late a couple nights ago, finishing the last of 2,800 pages of vampire lore (the Twilight series is good, by the way). I heard a rustling on the porch and figured the masked bandit was back. Before going upstairs, I peeked in on him.

Now, either he divided his mass into many parts, or he went and reported his find to every raccoon he could find. I picked my jaw up, went upstairs and dragged a very sleeping Jeff down the stairs to see a family of FIVE raccoons having a feast on our front porch.

They were undisturbed by me flipping on the light and only momentarily distracted by knocks on the window to shoo them away. I grabbed the camera and took some proof to share with the kids (who obviously want to keep them as pets now). Without further ado...Enjoy...
These were tiny little ones. If it weren't for the rabies thing, I wanted to pick one up.
So, there you have it.

the next generation...

I had another miserable trip to the grocery store with all three little ladies today.

I don't need to go into too much detail. I'm sure you know how this goes. If you haven't been there, you've witnessed it. For the witnesses...I'm the frazzled mom pushing a gigantic semi-bus of a shopping cart down the aisle.

And regardless of how big my shopping cart is, my children have no interest in staying in it. Julia, who is buckled and has no choice, retaliates by making sure everything I put in the gigantic cart is tossed right on the floor. I call strikes, I whisper warnings, I grit my teeth and motion with my hands.

It's not all bad all the time...otherwise I'd just refuse to keep going. We'd find a way to eat. (There are five raccoons nearby that I know of...blog entry to come soon). But...today wasn't a thrill. Here's how it all ended...

As I'm loading the groceries in the car, I inform the kids that when they grow up and have children of their own, I will not be babysitting their kids so that they can go to the grocery store without them. The response :

Sarah :: "That's fine Mom. If you're not going to babysit my kids...Rachel will." (Rachel is my niece...and although she'll babysit the girls now...I'm not thinking babysitting is her forever-career choice)

Lauren :: "I'm just going to be telling my husband he has to do all the grocery shopping and if he can't, I'll just get a babysitter. Because there's NO WAY I'm taking my kids to the grocery store!"

It appears they've got it all planned out...

ps...I've been busy....If you haven't been to the photoblog in awhile, go check it out.

home sweet home...

After a full week of jaw-dropping beautiful views, good food, long walks, twisty roads, and just an all around good time...we are back. Here's a few pictures...more to come (click on 'em to see them bigger).

The 18th green at Pebble Beach...
17-Mile Drive in Carmel...The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco...Sunflowers in wine country...(vineyard pics to come)From what we understand, we were thoroughly missed by our little ladies (the feeling was very mutual).

One cute story ::

We sent them a postcard just saying we were having fun and missed them. But Sarah didn't want it read to her. She wanted to wait for us to get back so that we could read it to her ourselves.

When my mom asked her if she could guess what it might say, she took it in her hands, looked at it and read,

"Dear Sarah, When we get home, we will get you a dog."

(sigh...it's good to be home)

the second first day...

It was pretty apparent early on that there was some miscommunication in our household. And I mean early on... Sarah was down the steps fully clothed and ready for school at 7:20am. She kept griping that she needed breakfast and her hair fixed. I wasn't sure what the hurry was about until Lauren left for school.

Sarah thought she was leaving then too.

Someone neglegted to tell the pre-schooler that she didn't start school until after lunch.

The impatience shone through the entire morning. At 9:30 : "Is it time for lunch now?" Snack time at 10am : "Let's just call this snack 'lunch' and get going".

Finally, at 12:15pm, we left for the two minute ride to school to arrive incredibly early for the 12:30 start time.

Come to find out...there were a lot of eager pre-schoolers and we were just about the last ones there!

Sarah is making her contribution to the friendship mix...
Without missing a beat, she was right back to her favorite sandbox...
In yet another blatant miscommunication, we did not inform the 2 year old that she did not get to stay (although I don't think they would notice if she stuck around...she blends). She wasn't too happy to leave.
Um....the shoes ::
We are leaving our little darlins for a week out west to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Many thanks in advance to my folks who are giving the tender loving care while we gallivant through wine country and down the coast of California.

reason #242 that it's good to have all girls...

For our final summer outing, I grabbed the girls (including my mom) and drove out to Grand Haven to have tea at a cute little shop that is very much in need of a new name. (click here to visit their website)

We found this place last year whilst camping at the state park there. On a regular basis this past year, Lauren has asked to return. So...off we went!

You can try on hats until you find one that suits you just fine....then change your mind three seconds later. Lauren and Sarah loved sampling anything from cowboy hats to peacock feather-adorned hats that were bigger than their little sister.
Julia was a little confused about all the fuss. She looked at the tray of desserts, then at me...and with a hesitant voice, sang Happy Birthday to me.