The Long Awaited Trip Report

It has been a few days since we got back from California :) But I wanted to give a full update on the trip. The first full day we were there we hung out in Monterey while Amanda worked and Josh went to school. We went to the aquarium which was awesome. We loved the cute sea otters. I also really liked the touch exhibits which were probably mostly for kids. But I got to touch a sting ray 3 times! You can see sea otters and seals all along the Monterey coast. We also shopped on Cannery Row, went to Fisherman's Wharf, and took a walk to Lover's Point. Here is a cute pic of us along the road to Lover's Point.

Here is one of me on Cannery Row.

We ate dinner that night at a little burger joint with the four of us. Justin was horsing around and ended up spraining his ankle. It was really bad and swollen. We got him a brace and he toughed it out for the rest of the trip. But he was in pain and had to go slow. The next day, Amanda took us to Carmel by the Sea and on the 17 mile drive. Both were beautiful and we had perfect weather. We ate lunch at the Hog's Breath Inn. Here is the Lone Cypress along the 17 mile drive...a very old tree.

Here is Justin on the 18th green of Pebble Beach.

I can't remember what we did that night...I think we ate dinner and had Ghirardelli for desert on the bay. On Thursday, I got up and went for a run along part of the race course to test out clothing options. Then we got ready and headed to San Fran when Josh got out of class. We walked around San Fran near our hotel that night and ate at a cute little Italian place. Here I am in front of it.

We also went to a park and got some great views of the Golden Gate Bridge. My pics of that didn't turn out very well since the sun was almost down. But here is an okay one.

We got up early Friday and headed out for our Alcatraz tour. That was great! It deserves a few pics :)

We also went to the top of the hill with Coit Tower, to China Town, to Fisherman's Wharf, Lomard Street and Ghirardelli square. The hill to Coit Tower was so steep it just turned into stairs...poor Justin and his ankle. We rode on the historic trolley car which was a blast! A long but fun day. Here are a few pics.

On top of the Coit Tower Hill.

On the trolley car.

In front of Lomard Street.

The next day we went to Sausalito and to a hill above the Golden Gate Bridge on our way out. We also went to the Full House house and sang the song :) Here is a cute pic of Justin and Josh in front of the bridge. Yes, it was really foggy.

We ate at In-N-Out Burger in San Jose on the way home (and on the way there. I forgot to mention that). Yummy! That afternoon we walked into downtown Monterey to go to the race expo. We went to dinner at one of Amanda and Josh's favorite Italian places that evening. Got to have pasta before a big race!

Then you know about the race....so skip to Monday morning. We left to catch our flight around 8 am I believe. All went well and was on time until we got to the air space above Dallas. We circled there for a while and then the pilot announced there were about 100 planes waiting to land and there was a ground hold due to bad weather. So...we went to Austin. We landed there and got off the plane. No one including the pilot knew when we would get to leave. All the shops/restaurants in the airport were closed so we had pretzels and peanuts for dinner. We were supposed to get home at 6 so we could go to work the next day. We got home at midnight...and still went to work the next day. But other than that our trip was great! Maybe we can get back out there before Amanda and Josh move on :)