Jam Session

Minimum wage

For the low, low price of $1.00 (a quarter each) I got my entire new veggie garden cleared of grass.

The best part? Cindy 's watching the kids all afternoon ... and they are filthy! I wonder if I can keep them out of my house the rest of the morning... :)


Do you suppose I need to share some of the yield with Cindy?!?

San Francisco in a day

We pulled into James' conference hotel right around noon on Monday. James had to get to work, so we grabbed a quick lunch and he headed off. The boys and I started our trek into San Francisco: first the hotel shuttle to the airport and then the BART train into downtown, then the cable car down to the wharf. It was nearly 3:30 by the time we got to the water...of course, all of the modes of transportation were part of the adventure for the boys!

They were pretty excited to be riding the cable car:

We started off inside the car but got to move up to the front (where I could stand and hang on!) when people got off at Lombard Street:

We didn't have nearly enough time to fully explore...no tour of Alcatraz, just a couple pictures from a distance:

We spent a surprising amount of time at the Boudin Sourdough Bakery, watching the bakers and all of their machines.

Have you noticed Brady's glasses? He stepped on them and broke out the left lens, but still insisted on wearing them. He got a lot of comments from the baker and the street performers about his unique sense of style!

Watching the sea lions at Pier 39:

We also managed to squeeze in some time for the a hot fudge sundae and some samples at the Ghiradelli chocolate store - the boys had a hard time deciding which of the chocolate, bread, cable car, or sea lions was their favorite part of San Francisco!

Monterey Sunset

By the time we were cleansed of our possible poison oak, we weren't feeling particularly motivated to trek back down to Big Sur or Point Lobos. Instead, we took a cruise along Sunset Drive in Monterey / Pebble Beach.

We walked along the coast for a bit, watching the gulls and looking for otters.

We stopped to explore the beach and some tide pools where we found lots of snails, hermit crabs, and starfish.

And, then we just relaxed on the beach for a while...

(Rudy had to borrow my hat because we were afraid of the itch-potential in his!)

Finally, when we started getting hungry, we picked up some pizza and took it with us to watch the sun set.
Not a bad way to end the day!

Buzzards Roost Hike (aka - the time Rudy threw himself off a mountain)

Sunday morning, we headed out early-ish from Monterey with the intent to do some hiking in Big Sur. We were initially disappointed when it appeared that the park was closed...James and I had some flashbacks to our Europe trips when strikes always seemed to coincide with our arrival at the museum/train/city.

After talking to a ranger, we learned that half of the park was closed because it was unsafe after the wildfires, but the other half was still open. He suggested two hikes for us. Of course, we picked the more difficult of the two!

It included a hike along a stream...

...through the redwoods...

...and then a 600 foot elevation change to the summit...

The most exciting part, though, was when this little turkey:

decided to launch himself off the side of the mountain:

while running and wiggling like a goofball on the path:

OK, so he didn't intentionally launch himself, but he did mis-step and, quite literally, fall off the mountain. Luckily, he chose a spot where there was a fallen tree to prevent him from tumbling all the way to the bottom.

You know those moments in life, where you react so quickly that you don't even really have time to be terrified? This was one of them! James and I were a well-oiled machine and managed to rescue Rudy without exchanging a single word. It was only after he was safely back in my arms (where he promptly fell asleep) and I was eyeing the trail the rest of the way down that I noticed how truly steep and scary the hillside was!

Unluckily, he landed in what we believe was a giant patch of poison oak. The rest of our plans for the day (which were supposed to include Big Sur beach and tidepools) were put on hold so we could drive (an hour!) back to the hotel for everyone to shower. So far, we're all in the clear. So, either 1) we've all developed an immunity to the itchy poison, 2) James and I are botanically inept and it wasn't really poison oak, or 3) we did a bang up job of scrubbing down. Either way, I'm thankful that Rudy is OK and we're all itch-free.

(Oh yeah - and he fell asleep just long enough for me to carry him the rest of the way down the mountain. He woke up as soon as we got to the car. Stinker.)

Pacific Coast Highway, Day 2

This was going to be one of those posts (yet again) where you're forced to endure dozens of pictures because of my inability to narrow them down. Lucky for you, most of the pictures from our drive up the PCH over the weekend are still on James' computer. In California. These will have to do. Don't worry, though, as soon as he gets home, I'll be filling in the details on the rest of our time in Los Angeles and adding the other pictures from the drive!

The weather was perfect for the drive - sunny and warm. There was no construction and very little traffic as well. We took advantage of many of the pullouts to take in the views.

I love these pictures of the boys. I'm always quite proud of us when we manage to get some really good pictures.
It's about a 6 hour drive from Ventura, where we stayed Friday night, to Monterey. We didn't exactly speed through, but we definitely hurried through the beginning portion because we knew the areas around Big Sur and Monterey would have the best scenery. The boys were champion road-trippers and kept themselves entertained, with very little intervention from James and me. They didn't want to get back in the car at most of the overlooks because they were ready for a hike...but most of the pullouts were hundreds of feet up a cliff - no hiking yet!

Rudy was starting to get a little punchy with all of the pictures and wouldn't stop dancing:

Pacific Coast Highway, Day 1

The plan for today was to move pretty quickly up the coast so we could enjoy more time around Big Sur. We stuck to it pretty well, stopping briefly for some cinnamon buns for breakfast and to see the elephant seals just past San Simeon.
Once we made it further north, we stopped at a few scenic overlooks:

Rudy, being a ham:

Our next stop was at at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park for a hike to see the waterfall on the beach...













The hillsides and cliffs were all covered in several different types of wildflowers...even Rudy admitted that it was "boodiful".

A good sign that it was a great day outside...
Finally, we got cleaned up and headed down to Cannery Row to find some dinner:

Told you it was a lot of pictures!!