Quick Thanksgiving Note

Hello everyone, I thought that I would do one quick post before we leave for our trip to Flagstaff. This might be cheesy but I wanted to post about some of the things that I am thankful for. First on the list would be my little family, I have a wonderful husband and a great little dog and the two of them are such a huge part of my life. Though Greg and I have been together for almost seven years I still am so thankful for him every day. I don’t know anyone who works as hard as Greg does, nor do I know anyone who loves to plan and take trips the way he does. Next is my dog Pico who turned two on November 4! I had no idea when I got that little dog how much joy he would bring to my life and how much I would love him. Next would be the rest of our families. Each and every person contributed to who we are today and we would not be here without you, thank you. We look forward to our visit to Flagstaff and for those of you that we won’t be able to share Thanksgiving with, we hope that you have a wonderful holiday and we hope to see you soon. Love to all.

Careful what you wish for...

Okay, as promised here is my very long post! Last week was a pretty busy week for both Greg and me as we were getting ready to take a trip up to San Simeon and we are also trying to get stuff done so that we can come home for Thanksgiving. On Friday I took Pico to the vet and made sure his shots were up to date and that he was healthy enough to make the trip back to Flag. We left for our trip to San Simeon at 6:00am on Saturday morning and took a beautiful drive through Topanga Canyon and then continued our trip on the 101. We had wanted to take the 1 but we were getting hungry and wanted to get there so we could have lunch. On the way we did make a couple of stops one stop was to a pier in Cayucos. It was such a beautiful spot and there was a restaurant at the pier making clam chowder that smelled amazing but we didn’t eat there we continued on down the road towards Cambria Pines where we were going to be staying at the Blue Bird Motel. We made one more stop on the way at Moonstone Beach. The beach is amazing instead of sand there are pebbles and sea glass that are smoothed and rounded by the ocean, this is by far one of my most favorite places on the planet! We arrived early to Cambria and decided to go up to the cemetery (I love visiting cemeteries) and saw graves dated back to the 1870’s. Once we were done at the cemetery we went to lunch at the Redwood Café which was a really fun little family diner, they even had a veggie burger for Greg! Then we went back to the motel to check in before going to San Simeon for our reserved tour times at Hearst Castle. Our first tour was of one of the guest houses as well as the North Wing of Hearst Castle, and a brief look at the pools. It was a great tour and both Greg and I decided that we want to recreate the pools whenever we get a house, they were absolutely amazing! We had a little break before our next tour so we went to the gift shop and got some postcards since our camera cannot do that house justice! The last tour we went on was a night tour and we got to see almost everything else the castle has. They say once you have done these two tours you have seen 90% of the Castle. It was really neat to be in the Castle at night and they have people dressed in period clothing around the house which makes it super fun. I could go on and on about this I love history and this kind of thing is right up my alley! Anyway once we were done we drove back to our hotel and went to find some dinner. We found another family owned restaurant the Creekside Café where we got some Mexican food. After all of this we were exhausted and had to go to bed. I make it sound like the drive was short but it was actually 6 hours! We woke up early the next morning so we could get on the road but first we drove out to see a lighthouse and to stop at a cove where elephant seals live. The cove with the elephant seals was awesome you were able to get right up by these huge animals…but I have to say it smelled awful! Then we drove home and due to the fires we were not able to take the 1, maybe next time.

If you are reading this congratulations! You have made it to the end of Janet’s incredibly long post! Now for some pictures…

Till next time!

Careful what you wish for...Pictures

Pico happy and healthy and ready for a Thanksgiving trip!

Me at the end of the pier in Cayucos.

Our feet at Moonstone Beach.

Our treasures from Moonstone Beach...Moonstones!

Greg outside the Hearst Castle Visitors Center.

Greg took this picture of the outside pool if you look close you can see two planets.

Elephant seal this one is a female the males were much larger.

I forgot to mention the zebras! Their ancestors were part of Hearst's private zoo.

Just one of the amazing views on our drive home.

Forgotten?

Hello All,
Don't give up hope I have not forgotten about the blog I just have been incredibly busy! I should be able to post tomorrow evening. Thank you for your patience!

Oh no, is she cooking again?...

Since moving to California Greg and I have had one heck of a time with our oven. It is a really small oven and I think that is why we have had a hard time with it. Basically if I bake or attempt to cook it comes out black. So since today is Saturday that can only mean one thing…the farmers market! We went and picked up several different fruits and veggies so that I can attempt to use that awful oven again. This time I am going to attempt turkey meat loaf and roasted potatoes, I will let you know how it goes. Anyway back to the oven so today I made some oatmeal raisin cookies (with Splenda) and I had to pull them out early so that they wouldn’t burn, the good news is that Greg enjoyed them and I promise you that he did not enjoy the black pizza I made a few weeks ago. All for now!

Halloween

Okay second post and I am going to do a bit of backtracking. For Halloween this year we met my family in Joshua Tree National Park for a camping trip. We love camping and Greg loves to go on trips as well as plan them down to the minute! Needless to say we had a blast, and below are some pictures we took of the area. Enjoy!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE historical stuff?

Keys Ranch, great tour can't believe people actually lived out there.

My little sister (Bette) and her boyfriend (Dustin).

Coyotes, they were so pretty.

This is the first thing Greg did when we got to our campsite. He then proceeded to climb every rock we were around.

Clues...

Hello all this is our first post! Having said that I guess I will jump right in. Tonight I took the bus up to meet Greg for dinner. About half way there the driver made everyone get off as he had to turn the bus around…clue number one. I called Greg and proceeded to walk up to meet him, about half way there I ran in to members of the swat team in riot gear transporting children from one bus to another…clue number two. It wasn’t long before I heard the helicopters and noticed all the media…clue number three, finally I put all three clues together looked up and low and behold there was a massive protest going on! So much fun! Granted I was probably not in the best place at the best time but I did enjoy myself. Once I got to Greg we went to dinner and caught the bus back. However due to the protest it took us an hour and a half to get home. Crazy as it sounds I really had a ton of fun tonight. Till next time!

Go Cubs!