California

AMAZING is the one word I would use to describe our trip to California!!!  Sorry for the picture overload, but this is nothing compared to the almost 1,000 pictures we came home with! 

Here we are at the airport, ready to take off.

And then on the airplane.

One of our first stops in California was to the Yosemite National Park, where we saw the unbelievable Red Woods.

As we were driving through the park we saw a bear.

Half Dome was probably one of the most spectacular sites I have ever seen in my entire life.  Seriously breathtaking!!!

A quick stop at the Cowboy Museum. 

We spend night number two in San Francisco visiting the Fisherman's Wharf

We got up early to see Alcatraz, however the tickets were sold out weeks in advance. It was still amazing to see it from the beach.

Then the Golden Gate Bridge.

We stopped at a museum while we were in San Fran.

And then the Botanical Gardens.

Nana had to stop one of the police men on his pretty horse.

We had lunch at Ike's.  It was the most amazing sandwich any of us had ever eaten.  No wonder it was ranked number 4 in the whole city for places to eat.

These flowering trees were EVERYWHERE!  So beautiful! 

The next day we stayed in Moneray.  We did the 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach.  It was so beautiful that the 17 mile drive takes an average of 4 hours because people stop so many times to look at the sites.

There were sea lions at one of the stops.

A quick stop at Pebble Beach's Golf Lodge.

Then we were on our way to the Big Sir.  Breathtaking at every turn.

We stopped at Sand dollar Beach.

Elephant Seals.

This was right outside our hotel by San Simeon. 

On our way to a tour of the Hearst Castle early the next morning. 

The Hearst Castle

Off to see the vineyards.

Before we got to Santa Barbra we took a quick detour to see some ancient cave paintings.  The paintings were neat, however we wish we would have read the description on getting to the painting a bit better.  It was the steepest road any of us had ever been on, back and forth up this huge mountain, on a one lane road.  SCARY!!!!

You can tell I'm not the brave one in the family!  I seriously wanted to walk down the mountain which seemed safer then drive back down and flying off the mountain at any moment!

The mighty driver!

A beach at Santa Barbra.

And another beach at Santa Monica.

We took in another museum in LA.  Stayed for almost half a say and only saw a fraction of what was there.  

Yes! This his Van Gogh's painting "Irises."  SO cool!

Before heading back to another beach we ate lunch at Duke's.  Yum!

 Then we spent our last evening in CA at the Santa Monica Pier and Venus Beach.  There were LOTS of crazies there, but I think we fit in OK. ;-)

It was an amazing week, with memories made that will not soon be forgotten!!!  AMAZING!!!