Second half of our California trip

We've been busy tourists. Here's a look at what we've been up to.

The Mystery Spot is where everything is level, but the gravitational pull or something makes everything off. Hard to explain. An example: The tour guide placed a ball on a 2x4 board that was sloped. He rolled the ball, but once the ball reached a certain spot it rolled back up the board. Creepy, huh?

My aunt and uncle took us around Santa Cruz. It's one of the best places to surf, or so I hear. One of my goals in life is to get my knee strong enough to where I'd feel comfortable learning how to surf. It looks hard, but a lot of fun! The beaches are beautiful and it made for a nice drive. They also took us near the point of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. I'm sure glad there wasn't an earthquake the day we visited! The forest was beautiful and we couldn't believe how HUGE the trees were. Sorry the pictures are so dark.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium was a big hit with Mckenzie. She continues to have a fascination with sea life. My cute cousin, Lauren came with us. She adores Abby and was such a big helper.

We went on the "17 mile drive" and saw spectacular ocean views, drove passed Pebble Beach (it's been 6 years since I last went golfing and I sure wasn't going to golf at the "elite" Pebble Beach), and then onto Carmel. Can I just say, I LOVE CARMEL! There are ton's of little shops and a beautiful beach. Being there made me feel like I was back in Europe. Sigh...someday I'll go back.

I took the girls to Half Moon Bay. It's a big tourist trap, but it was beautiful. Mckenzie loved playing on the beach, though after what happened in Carmel she's not quite sure about going in the water.

The Japanese Gardens were beautiful. I found these gardens in the middle of San Jose. You would never expect something like this in a metropolitan area. On our way back to the car, Mckenzie kept picking up rocks and I kept saying, "yup, that's a rock". So, she started saying it too. I love the way she say "rock". She says, "rrrrrrrrrok".

This past Saturday we adventured up to San Francisco. We didn't get to all that we wanted to, but we had fun. We went to Muir Woods and a most amazing chocolate store called Cocabellas. They import all their chocolate and it's definantly worth the money you fork over. We were going to stop by the Golden Gate bridge to walk across it, but Mckenzie and Abby were sleeping and we weren't about to wake them up. We also spent a while trying to find the "Full House" house, but I didn't remember the street correctly, so we ended up driving around for awhile. oops! So, we'll have to do those things when we come back in May along with Alcatrez and the Wax museum.

During the winter time, Dan's grandma lives in California with her daughter and son-in-law and then during the summers she lives in Idaho. They live about an hour and a half from San Jose so we spent a Sunday with them. It was great to be with family. They have a huge orchard with almost any fruit you could imagine!

I took Mckenzie and Abby to "Happy Hallow Park". It's a zoo and amusement park for kids around 5 and under. Mckenzie loved it! She played and played and played some more. She loved the petting area and I was so paranoid about the goat poo. Oh well, she only picked it up a couple of times. Why don't kids see how disgusting some things are?