California Dreaming - Part 5

Even more of San Francisco....

California Dreaming - Part 4

San Francisco

California Dreaming - Part 3

On to San Francisco! First a stop at the Denace the Menace playground in Monterey and drive along highway 1. We made a quick stop at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to meet another Hope grad that works there on computer hardware and software for their autonomous submarines that collect data  deep in the ocean. It was fascinating---and not just because I am a Biology teacher...well, maybe that helped.

We drove the extremely twisty turny road to Muir Woods National Monument filled with redwood trees.  Thijs was harder to sell on the really big trees.  He lost interest, but we thought it was amazing.

 Muir Woods

 Thijs would act like animals at different times during the trip.  His favorite was to be a turtle and use a pillow for the shell.

 After getting to San Francisco, we walked around Fisherman's Wharf near our hotel.  Thijs didn't last long and slept through dinner and would have slept through Ghirardelli's if we hadn't woken him up to try it.

California Dreaming- Part 2

For the next phase of our trip, we visited the coast line south of Monterey. The views were amazing and the weather was better than predicted. We visit Point Lobos State Natural Reserve.  The views were breath taking.  You couldn't take a bad picture--even when your toddler was giving silly smiles.  Most of these pictures were taken with my phone---so nothing special here other than the actual scenery we saw.  We also took 17-Mile Drive around Pebble Beach.  Thijs begged for a "soft sand beach" so he could play in the sand.  John and I enjoyed watching the surfers as Thijs made sand castles.

These are black-tailed mule deer about 15 feet from the trail.  They are tiny...like maybe up to waist.

 The lone Cypress----"owned"by Pebble Beach

 Thijs and John by the 18th hole.