California, Part 2: Northern CA
Here we go again...
After the wedding we stayed for 3 days with the newlyweds and their awesome dogs, Chopper and Baza. (Chopper's a chocolate lab, Baz is a ridgeback)
We spent sunday recovering from the wedding. On monday Lisa, Brook, Brook's sister Danielle, Andrew, and I took a day trip to San Francisco. It was barely an hour away so we figured we better go while we had the chance. Soon after we got there I had a nice view of Alcatraz:
We didn't have time to take a tour on the island and through the prison, but I'd love to do that sometime. We really didn't know what to do in San Fran (any of us) so we mostly just walked around shopping (or pretending at Neiman Marcus) and I made everyone go to an aquarium (I used to want to be a marine biologist; I don't anymore but I still looooove fish)
Anyway I thought this was a pretty cool picture (I have a ton of really good ones from the aquarium but this is just saving time and space):
While we were in town we also took a trolley ride and walked around Fisherman's Wharf. When we go back we'll get to do a lot more.
Tuesday was our day trip to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is actually really close to San Jose so it only took like 20 minutes to get there. I had a really good time in Santa Cruz. There was this famous boardwalk amusement park right on the beach, with rollercoasters and everything.
The park was free to get into, you just bought tickets for the rides you wanted to go on. (In case anyone cares, this is the place The Lost Boys was filmed.) So we went on a few rollercoasters and I ate my first corn dog (mmm good). Then we got lost in the arcade....we were supposed to meet up with everyone at a certain time but Andrew was off playing something and Iwas trying to get a high score on Ms. Pacman so we were late.
Well we finally met up with everyone and went out to the pier, where we walked for awhile and looked at all the shantys (is that the word?) selling seafood along the dock. After awhile of walking I started hearing lots of barking noises, really loud. I soon found out where they were coming from...I snapped a pic of what was lurking under the dock....
Apparently the sea lions like to just hang out under there and bark all day. They were really funny flapping all around trying to get up on the planks of wood and playing around in the water with each other.
Wednesday was our car trip from San Jose to Fresno. It's 2-3 hours one way so I can imagine how annoying it was for Andrew's family to make the trip all the time when they were younger.
Anyway wednesday night we just relaxed and swam in the pool with Jeff and his girlfriend Xandra, then had an awesome dinner courtesy of Sharon (Andrew's mom). Xandra and I rented Anchorman since Jeff and her had never seen it and we all watched that later.
Thursday we woke up bright and early to make the 3 hour drive to Yosemite. Okay so to get to the actual park it's only an hour and a half, but it's 33 miles from the park entrance to anything cool looking. That place was soooo amazing though, I took great pictures without even trying because everything was so beautiful. Here are some good ones:
We also did a little 3 mile hike through the trails, stopping along the way to look at giant horse penises (it was Andrew, his mom, and me, staring at horse penises....so funny) This was at about the middle of our hike. I like this picture:
We ate at The Awahni, a big hotel/tourist attraction with great food, then we decided we were tired and wanted to go home.
The next day we were planning on going to Southern CA to visit Kristin and Rick, but before that we stopped off to see the Brockett grandparents. We had a nice lunch with them and Andrew's Uncle Scott and wife, then were whisked off by Scott to take a tour of the agriculture in the "fruit basket of the world". I had mentioned earlier how cool it was to see an orange tree, so Scott was determined to show me every tree he could find. He knows everyone in the town that we were in, so it was easy to give me a tour.
I got to see every kind of tree you could imagine, and I got to pick a lemon off of one of them! This is the lemon I picked...you can't see it very well but it's there.
Also we went by some almond trees, which I had no idea grew in California. Scott told me how a machine comes by and shakes the base of the tree til the almonds all fall off, then they get scooped up from the ground and put in a machine that takes their outside layer off. I got to pick some premium almonds up off the ground and eat them, and they were really good. If you look closely at the ground in this pic you can see all the little almonds.
We also go to go to a fruit packing factory and see all the steps of the harvesting, storing, packaging and sending out fruit. We got a free box of peaches out of it too.
Directly after our tour it was time for us to make our 5 hour drive to Aliso Viejo (we rented a car). But the stories from Orange County will have to wait for another day.
After the wedding we stayed for 3 days with the newlyweds and their awesome dogs, Chopper and Baza. (Chopper's a chocolate lab, Baz is a ridgeback)
We spent sunday recovering from the wedding. On monday Lisa, Brook, Brook's sister Danielle, Andrew, and I took a day trip to San Francisco. It was barely an hour away so we figured we better go while we had the chance. Soon after we got there I had a nice view of Alcatraz:
We didn't have time to take a tour on the island and through the prison, but I'd love to do that sometime. We really didn't know what to do in San Fran (any of us) so we mostly just walked around shopping (or pretending at Neiman Marcus) and I made everyone go to an aquarium (I used to want to be a marine biologist; I don't anymore but I still looooove fish)Anyway I thought this was a pretty cool picture (I have a ton of really good ones from the aquarium but this is just saving time and space):
While we were in town we also took a trolley ride and walked around Fisherman's Wharf. When we go back we'll get to do a lot more.Tuesday was our day trip to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is actually really close to San Jose so it only took like 20 minutes to get there. I had a really good time in Santa Cruz. There was this famous boardwalk amusement park right on the beach, with rollercoasters and everything.
The park was free to get into, you just bought tickets for the rides you wanted to go on. (In case anyone cares, this is the place The Lost Boys was filmed.) So we went on a few rollercoasters and I ate my first corn dog (mmm good). Then we got lost in the arcade....we were supposed to meet up with everyone at a certain time but Andrew was off playing something and Iwas trying to get a high score on Ms. Pacman so we were late.
Well we finally met up with everyone and went out to the pier, where we walked for awhile and looked at all the shantys (is that the word?) selling seafood along the dock. After awhile of walking I started hearing lots of barking noises, really loud. I soon found out where they were coming from...I snapped a pic of what was lurking under the dock....
Apparently the sea lions like to just hang out under there and bark all day. They were really funny flapping all around trying to get up on the planks of wood and playing around in the water with each other.Wednesday was our car trip from San Jose to Fresno. It's 2-3 hours one way so I can imagine how annoying it was for Andrew's family to make the trip all the time when they were younger.
Anyway wednesday night we just relaxed and swam in the pool with Jeff and his girlfriend Xandra, then had an awesome dinner courtesy of Sharon (Andrew's mom). Xandra and I rented Anchorman since Jeff and her had never seen it and we all watched that later.
Thursday we woke up bright and early to make the 3 hour drive to Yosemite. Okay so to get to the actual park it's only an hour and a half, but it's 33 miles from the park entrance to anything cool looking. That place was soooo amazing though, I took great pictures without even trying because everything was so beautiful. Here are some good ones:
We also did a little 3 mile hike through the trails, stopping along the way to look at giant horse penises (it was Andrew, his mom, and me, staring at horse penises....so funny) This was at about the middle of our hike. I like this picture:
We ate at The Awahni, a big hotel/tourist attraction with great food, then we decided we were tired and wanted to go home. The next day we were planning on going to Southern CA to visit Kristin and Rick, but before that we stopped off to see the Brockett grandparents. We had a nice lunch with them and Andrew's Uncle Scott and wife, then were whisked off by Scott to take a tour of the agriculture in the "fruit basket of the world". I had mentioned earlier how cool it was to see an orange tree, so Scott was determined to show me every tree he could find. He knows everyone in the town that we were in, so it was easy to give me a tour.
I got to see every kind of tree you could imagine, and I got to pick a lemon off of one of them! This is the lemon I picked...you can't see it very well but it's there.
Also we went by some almond trees, which I had no idea grew in California. Scott told me how a machine comes by and shakes the base of the tree til the almonds all fall off, then they get scooped up from the ground and put in a machine that takes their outside layer off. I got to pick some premium almonds up off the ground and eat them, and they were really good. If you look closely at the ground in this pic you can see all the little almonds.
We also go to go to a fruit packing factory and see all the steps of the harvesting, storing, packaging and sending out fruit. We got a free box of peaches out of it too. Directly after our tour it was time for us to make our 5 hour drive to Aliso Viejo (we rented a car). But the stories from Orange County will have to wait for another day.
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