Checking in

It's been a crazy couple of days here in fabulous California. Man, I see why so many people want to live here. The weather is AWESOME, no mosquitoes, no flies, no scorpions, no fire ants...the list goes on. One thing there is a lot of though, is people. That's the one drawback. They're everywhere. And there's not a spray for them (that won't get Homeland Security after you, anyway). Luckily, they don't usually leave itchy, splotchy welts.

Saturday we went to Chinatown and the Randall Museum. Chinatown is THE place to buy your San Francisco souvenirs and the Randall museum provided a nice hike up to the second highest point in the city.

The wind was incredible and the views were fantastic.
Then we visited the old homestead, which always makes me think of that John Mellencamp song "Little Pink Houses" and vice versa. It was also referred to as the Mary Kay House because all the tile work (and there was a lot) was pink in addition to the outside paint job.
the beach we frequented,

drove the coastline up through the Presidio,

and BB had dinner at his 1999 favorite Thai spot, while I took the kids across the street for a tamer, Italian meal.

Sunday we drove to Stinson Beach and lolled for a few hours with BB's brother, KS and a
couple of his friends who are visiting.

Twisty, curvy roads along the precarious cliffs made me a little carsick but the views were worth it. Then we went to Muir Woods for the kids to see their first Redwoods.

We lost Little A for a few minutes and I was FREAKING OUT remembering horrid stories of little kids wandering away from the group in national parks and being found naked, living among bears or wolves 20 years later....or worse. He had attached himself to another family with a 4-ish year old kid - Logan, and all was find except my frenetic heart rate and adrenaline-induced walking coma.

The last two days we've been doing what my guide book refers to as the Central Coast. We drove down to Monterey and went to the aquarium on Monday. Spent the night in The Monterey Hotel, did the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach, visited Carmel, went to Santa Cruz and did the boardwalk there (the kids' favorite thing so far) and got home last night. I was BEAT.

I haven't posted for a few days because we've basically been going full throttle all day long and by the time Big E and Little A are in bed I don't have the strength to wrestle the laptop away from BB. Today we're hanging around here, taking a picnic to the local parade, and recovering. I will post some photos of all the previously mentioned activities soon.