Back to our 'normal' routine

Coyote Valley RV Resort
Morgan Hill, CA

We waved goodbye to my cousin Kelly and her husband Gary,

and their friends Rusty and Gina yesterday.

Our last few days with them were filled with eating and socializing..

Michelle and her husband Steve came and joined us at the BBQ area as well.

We really enjoyed our time with them,

and we have tentative plans to see them in Montana this summer.

Yesterday I decided to have a little fun and dye some eggs for Easter.

George lent a hand too :-)

I just love the color of dyed eggs!

Today is haircut and pedicure day, and Connie is joining me for the pedi.

Tomorrow I'm driving my Mom to Bakersfield for a few days

to take care of some family business.

We have only 6 more weeks here in CA!

Got our space back to ourselves :-)

Coyote Valley RV Resort
Morgan Hill, CA

George got up at 3:30 to get 'the kids' moving

to get them to the airport by 5 am.

I did wake up and say goodbye,

but there was no way I could have gotten back to sleep.

I dove in and started laundry, stripped sheets,

and generally got 'our space' back.

The old adage '6 for drinks, 4 for dinner, 2 for sleeping' is SO true!

We've had a great time, however.

My cousin Kelly, and her husband Gary drove up

from Bakersfield on Sunday to stay a week in their Redwood fifth-wheel.

Along with them were there good friends Gina & Rusty

with their little Sprinter trailer.

I made plans to take a wine tour in a stretch limo with everyone.

Connie & Greg came as well to round out 10 passengers.

We made the rounds to 3 different Gilroy wineries,
starting at Fortino's whose sales rep comped all our tasting fees!

Gino Fortino even was there and we took a photo op with him..

 Our second winery was Solis. They had a beautiful tasting room..

...overlooking the picnic area that we used
to have some lunch!
We picked up sandwiches at a local deli,
and Kelly had brought us some delicious cookies
from Smith's bakery in Bakersfield.

Our last stop was at Sarah's vineyard.
The grounds were just lovely,
so they offered to give us our tasting outside.

 

 

Yesterday the 4 men went golfing at the Coyote Valley Golf course.
Rusty and Gary are quite good, John had a tough day.
Don't ask George how his game was :-)
He said he made everyone else look fantastic!

 

While the boys had fun,
so did the girls!
We took off south to San Juan Bautista,
a lovely little town with lots of antique shops,
and of course the mission.

 

 The four of us also went out for lunch at Dona Esther's, a great Mexican restaurant.
After that we made our way for a little shopping at the Gilroy outlets.

Last night Gary grilled some burgers, and we brought along
some steamed artichokes fresh from the field.

 This afternoon we're taking a ride down to Salinas,
take my Mom's car back (which she so graciously allowed us to borrow!),
and do a little visiting.

We're pooped!!

A bit of family fun!

Coyote Valley RV Resort
Morgan Hill, CA

Wow, been so busy, the blog took a back seat :-)

Since last time...

work,

chores,

walking.

Then on Wednesday, my son Austin took us to dinner!

He's gotten a new job in Denver, but needed to fly out to Palo Alto

to meet the tech team.

It was so nice to meet up with him!

Thursday, George's daughter Heather, and her boyfriend John

flew in from Pennsylvania to vacation in California.

We picked them up and took them to Santa Cruz and to see the Pacific.

They were tired, but as soon as we were back to the RV park,

they hit the hot tub..

Friday we lounged around for the most part,

but I took a ride to Salinas to take my Mom to the Urgent care

as she was feeling lousy.

Bad cold :-(

Friday night we got together with Greg and Connie

and played a game called 'Cards against Humanity'.

Very irreverent, but hilarious. We had tears rolling we were laughing so much!

Of course Saturday we worked, and John & Heather

rented a car and toodled around.

Yesterday we drove down to Pebble Beach as

John was lucky enough to get a tee time!

He was so excited!

We wandered around while he warmed up..

then had a beer in the Gallery Cafe :-)

Next thing we know it..he's coming upstairs.

He cancelled his game because the fog was heavy & wet :-(

No comment :-)

The day was not lost as we drove down 17 mile drive,

taking the iconic tourist pictures..

The Lone Cypress..

We eventually made it to Monterey,
where we wandered around the wharf a bit.
The clouds were still overhead, but eventually it cleared up.

The flowers were beautiful!

We ended our day at our favorite place, Phil's.

Today we got up very early and drove into San Francisco.
I snagged us a good deal to park all day for $9.50,
as long as we got there between 9 and 9:59 am.
Well...with heavy commute traffic, we barely made it to the lot in time!

We walked around Pier 39 for awhile,
then took a look at Alcatraz..

We also hopped aboard a double decker bus for a tour of the city.
We had some great views of the Golden Gate Bridge..

and the cable cars..

At one point, Heather & John went their own way,
and George and I walked up to Ghirardelli Square.

We had all ready eaten at Boudin bakery,
a nice sandwich on sourdough bread,
but at Ghirardelli we had ice cream sundaes :-)

We came home exhausted but happy.
Tomorrow we are getting a group together to go wine tasting,
in a limo, no less!

Stay tuned!

Ano Nuevo State Park

Coyote Valley RV Resort
Morgan Hill, CA

Yesterday we woke up to rain!

We had planned a trip with Connie & Greg 

to Ano Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals.

Thankfully by the time we left, the rain had subsided.

The park is about 20 miles north of Santa Cruz on highway 1.

Each year over 10,000 elephant seals return to this area to breed,

give birth, and molt their skin amongst the beautiful scenery of the reserve.

December through the end of March is typically the breeding season.

 Docents lead guided walks and offer up facts about the seals.

The male seals battle on the beach for the right to mate,

and the females give birth to the pups on the dunes.

We started on our walk up to the staging area..

...where we got a briefing about the seals, their fur and skin, and their size.

A full grown male can weigh upwards of 4500 pounds when in breeding season.

At this time of year, mid-march, the males have lost a lot of their weight.

Most of the males, and some of the females have already gone back out to sea.

We were lucky enough to see a lot of these magnificent creatures

on our guided walk.

The four of us joined 8 others as we traipsed over the dunes

to get to the beach area.

As we got to the top of the dunes, we got our first view of a male..

Most all the seals are lazing around in the sand soaking up the sun.

The big males look like something out of Star Wars!

The 'weaners' as they are called are just so cute!

This beach area normally is packed with the seals,

but most of them have moved out to sea now..

We loved being able to see a mom nursing her pup..

 The walk was fairly easy except for the dunes :-)

We walked almost 3 miles from the visitor's center to the beach area.

The views were just beautiful!

There were beautiful wild flowers along the path..

 After our tour we headed up highway 1 and stopped to check out

the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Unfortunately it is in disrepair, and the park service

closed it to visitors in 2001.

The buildings surrounding it have been turned into hostels.

There was a nice view from the cliff behind it,

and we even saw some whales out in the distance!

Never could get a picture of their spouts :(

We stopped in Pescadero at a tavern called Duarte's

and had a marvelous meal.

I had artichoke soup and a crab melt, Connie had snapper,

Greg and George had  burgers :-)

We all followed it up with a piece of their famous

blueberry pie, yum!

As it was getting close to the magical sunset time,

Greg drove us out to the point in Santa Cruz to catch the sunset..

It was definitely a perfect day!