Our California Trip

Nathan and I had a lovely, uneventful trip to California this past weekend. We left Thursday night after dinner and baths for the girlies, and headed south to Val and Dave's. There, Nathan went to a Baker basketball game with Kelsey and one of her friends, and Val, Hailey, and I got some visiting in. I also got to see some of Val's artwork that she's doing for her graphic design course. Apparently, Val is one of those people who is good at anything she puts her mind to!

We left bright and early Friday a.m. Four o'clock to be precise. Val and Dave didn't hear us leave, but their puppies did! I drove the first bit while Nathan got a bit more sleep. I got us south of Seattle and then we switched. I drove through Portland, which really wasn't too bad during the time of day we were there, and then Nathan pretty much drove through the rest of Oregon. It rained on and off pretty much through the day. We got into the Bay Area around 7:30, which is how I planned it...I figured if we got there late enough, surely we wouldn't run into the famous bumper-to-bumper traffic. But I was wrong. Everyone and their cousin was driving from the East Bay into the SF area! So it took almost an hour to go 15 or so miles...so frustrating to be "so close and yet so far." We finally made it to mom's and had a lovely lasagne dinner. Nathan showered, I jammied, and then we settled down in front of the t.v. That's when I realized how tired I was, so I excused myself to bed and Nathan played Grandma's game cube (yes, she is the coolest grandma in the world).

Saturday a.m. I had Nathan do some homework before we headed over the hill to the home of the Sharks, HP Pavillion. We left around 10, and stopped at this wonderful little warehouse in Moss Beach, of all places. We did some shopping, much to Nathan's horror. He was very motivated to get out of there and head to San Jose.

Finally, we left, and Nathan drove over the hill and into San Jose. We got to the Shark Tank, and Nathan found out how quickly $60 goes there. Lucky for him, his grandmother was willing to buy him some Shark souvenirs, as was his mother. All in all, he left there one happy Shark fan!

After that, we did some more shopping and then headed to Cold Stone Creamery, a wonderful ice cream store that we liked so well that we even returned the next day for round two. Saturday night we watched The Guardian. Great movie! We stayed up late (for me) and headed to bed around 11:30.

Sunday morning mom and I headed into Half Moon Bay, purchased two lattes, and then window shopped our way up and down Main Street. While we were doing that, Nathan was doing more homework and watching two NBA games. We got home, thought about packing, and then sat out in the backyard where it was warm and sunny. That was really nice! Around 4, we headed back to Pacifica for a little more shopping and ice cream.

Sunday evening we watched Extreme Home Makeover, and then went promptly to bed. I set my alarm for 3:00, but actually woke up by myself at 2:40. I got Nathan up, we got in the car, and repeated Friday's drive except in reverse. I was in Richmond by 4:00 a.m., and there was actually commute traffic at that hour coming from the East. We were well onto I-5 by 5:00 a.m. And when Nathan woke up around 6, we were in Red Bluff. We gassed up, switched drivers, and then we were off. We got into Bellingham around 5 p.m., hitting hardly any traffic in Seattle. We picked up pizzas at Papa Murphy's, and dairy at Edaleen's, and then made it home by a little past 6. The girls were happy to see us, but not incredibly so. Jordyn was quite happy to stay in her daddy's arms, as that is where she had spent the past 4 days, apparently.

We had dinner, did some unpacking and cleaning up, and went to bed! This morning I forgot it was already Tuesday. Luckily Don remembered about the trash and recycling! Patience had her swim lesson where she once again did not cry at all.