McMoments and Memories

Friday, August 3, 2012

A Lack of Posts

Does not mean I have nothing to say and that I'm just sitting around. On the contrary, we're having too much fun! Later today I might tell you about our trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo yesterday, but no guarantees between now and Tuesday...

Corn dogs for lunch on Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Fun on the Train

Santa Barbara bound with Hannah.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Vacation Recap

We had a great vacation last week! It started with a trip to Fresno to see my family. It was HOT. Highs well over 100, and 90 degrees at 11:00 p.m. But it was still great seeing Dad, Lauren, and Krysten. We also met Malaika for the first time - she is the daughter of Allison, BFF to the twins since about kindergarten! Allison now lives in Kenya with her family, and we were so glad to get to see them while they were here in the states.

No trip to the coast from Fresno would be complete without a stop at Casa de Fruta. The aisles of fresh produce, honey, dried fruits, nuts, candy and more is a site to behold! And the cooler temps were very welcome.

We arrived in Santa Cruz Monday afternoon. The reason we chose Santa Cruz was a certain cyclist in our family wanted to ride the Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge. So we based in Santa Cruz and explored much of what the Central Coast has to offer.

On Tuesday we spent the day at Monterey. This included a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and a walk down Cannery Row. There are SO many candy shops! It seemed like every third shop was filled with sugar. At the end of the day at the aquarium we watched six youngsters become "Underwater Explorers." This is advertised as diving, but it appeared to be snorkeling with a tank! I think the kids had a great time anyway and I'm sure they went home telling everyone they went Scuba diving!

On Thursday we headed north to San Francisco. We parked in Daly City and took BART in to the city. BEST.DECISION.EVER. I was so glad we didn't have a car to deal with! The streets are crazy! It was so nice to explore by foot and Cable Car.

We went to the famous Pier 39 first. There is a group of sea lions that have taken over the west marina. A few of them put on quite a show - we called it "King of the Dock." They were pushing each other off and often falling in the water themselves with the effort. Occasionally one of the sleeping sea lions were rise up, bark loudly as if to say, "knock it off!", then flop back down.

After exploring Fisherman's Wharf, we located the Cable Car line and decided to take it to Union Square. The line was pretty long, but it was worth it to ride up those crazy streets! It's a very fun experience if you've never tried it.

The Union Square area is home to tons of shopping! Hello, Macy's with your eight floors! We spent the rest of our afternoon in Union Square and didn't buy a thing! We could have come home with a new family member - a fella tried to get us to adopt him. His routine was pretty funny, but he didn't get any of our money!

A final Cable Car ride took us back to the BART station for our return trip to Daly City. $14 for our tickets and parking for the entire day = money well spent!

We finally had our deep fried Twinkies and a day of rides on Friday! Yes, we're almost 50, but we still love roller coasters! We bought all day unlimited ride passes and that worked out great.

I did a 10 mile run on Saturday morning, while Les rode 115 miles. He was gone the entire day but came back feeling great! Even after all that riding, he was smiling and talking about what a great ride it was.

We finished the evening back on the Wharf. We had dinner with Danny and Sheila Flowers from Memphis, Tennessee! They had contacted Les a couple of weeks ago because they were going to be in California for vacation. They had plans to visit the Ronald Reagan Library and wanted to see us. We were so disappointed to see that they would be here when we were gone. Fortunately their plans had them driving from LA to Seattle with stops along the way. They were able to make it to Santa Cruz Saturday evening and we really enjoyed having dinner with them!

But the fun doesn't end! We are heading to LAX tonight to pick up Lance and Hannah. They are flying in for a few days of fun - cycling for Les and Lance, and who knows what for Hannah and me. Look for lots of pictures in the days ahead.

Of course, this is just a few of the pictures we took. The rest are posted on SmugMug, here.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

July 31 ~ Toothbrush ~ July Photo a Day Complete!

I did it! Even with a week vacation, I posted a photo everyday.

If you want to try your hand at it, here is the list for August (original post here). I'm thinking about trying it on my marathon blog for August, with all pictures taken with a running theme.

Monday, July 30, 2012

July 30 ~ Calm

Las Llajas trail at 6:45 this morning. Just me and my bike.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

July 29 ~ Last Thing You Bought

Lunch at Sylvester's Burgers in Atascadero. It was fabulous!

Saturday, July 28, 2012

July 28 ~ Cup

When was the last time you had a Slurpee?

Friday, July 27, 2012

Friday Foodie - Deep Fried Twinkies!

Oh yes we did! We've never had them before. They were surprisingly good!

With powdered sugar and chocolate syrup!

July 27 ~ On the Road

My new hotrod! I've also been in a log, haunted house car, and Giant Dipper car!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

July 26 ~ Sunshine

The sunshine of my life, riding BART in to San Francisco He's the only sunshine I need!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

July 25 ~ Heart

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

July 24 ~ A Stranger

I tried to make friends with this stranger, but he wasn't interested...

Monday, July 23, 2012

July 23 ~ Mirror

Sunday, July 22, 2012

July 22 ~ Upside Down

Happy Birthday, M&M

My blog is four years old today! I really can't believe I've kept it going this long. I've shared great memories and had fun moments.

One of the things about this blog that is very special to me is keeping the memories of Mom and Rod alive. Thank you to those of you who remember and loved them. Anytime I post about them, your comments means so much.