Bay Area Fun!

We just got back from a really fun trip to the Bay Area! Friday morning at 4:30 our alarm went off. We got up, packed, got ready and were in the road by 5:30am. We drove straight to Monterey and arrived around 1:30pm. We then enjoyed the Monterey Aquarium which has the only Great White Shark in captivity. We took a ton of pictures, though the shark didn't like to hold still so most of our pictures are a bit blurry. Here's the best one we took though.
We thought this sign was just a bit too funny to not take a picture of...There was the same thing over the octopus tank. Apparently visitors are more likely to be obscene in front of a shark and an octopus :)
We watched the sea otters during feeding time. We also watched critters in a big tank being fed, it was pretty cool.

This little critter is called a Sea Dragon. It's a sea horse that looks like a bunch of swimming leaves. He was clearly one of our favorites.
We stayed at the aquarium for a couple of hours and then visited a few of the little shops along the same street. We picked up a ton of salt water taffy, which we enjoyed in the car.

Then we got back in the car and drove another two hours to my sister and brother-in-law's house. We slept on a L shaped couch so Peter and I were head to head. At some point in the night Slippers (one of the cats) jumped on me and scared me half to death and then continued to walk up to my chest and lay down. His purring woke Peter up who then got extremely jealous that I (not a cat person) had a cat on my chest and he (the totally cat person) didn't have one. Slippers stayed with me for awhile and then left. In the morning Peter found Slippers and carried him over to the couch so that he too could have a sleeping cat on him. Abbie and Rafe have also have Wiggles (another cat). He's much more shy than Slippers is and he is quite a bit fatter too. Our pictures didn't turn out well, so Abbie said she would send a couple good pictures of her cats so we can post them and show you her two cats that enjoyed playing with us while we were there.

On Saturday morning Peter and I drove to Fairfield to the Jelly Belly Factory. We went on the factory tour again and then bought a case of Belly Flops as well as a few other specific flavored beans. We went there for the first time a little over two years ago. It was totally worth the drive to go back again. Here's a bean mosaic that of course I really liked.

Outside in the parking lot

Where we parked there was this fun little dog run. I thought it just was too cute.

After that we drove to Muir Woods which is a Redwoods Park. We really enjoyed our time there. Here are a few funny pictures that Peter took.

Then we headed back to Abbie and Rafe's house where my dad, Scott, Norla and the kids had arrived. We enjoyed the evening and then Sunday morning we got ready for the whole reason for our trip up to the Bay Area. Abbie and Rafe were having an open house party. They bought their house recently and were having a big family gathering on Sunday, so we had to go (we took extra time off of work so we could make a mini vacation out of it too). At noon people arrived and we had a great time. Aunts, Uncles and cousins came...it was so much fun to see everyone. Here's Peter and me and my aunt Patty.

And here's the whole gang that attended the party.

Abbie and Rafe have this amazing view out their front windows. Peter and I went to sleep each night looking at the San Francisco and Bay skyline. On a clear day you can see everything. You could easily see the Oakland Bay Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge. This particular day was not very clear. Though on the left side you can see a rainbow.
This is a picture of part of their backyard. The focus is on the Japanese Maple and it's beautiful changing colors. Now something totally unique about their yard is that when you go up to the top of the fence you could see deer passing by. They came out early in the morning and again around 5 or 6 in the evening. We saw 4 different ones. We saw two Bucks and two Does.

Here's a picture from this morning. It's a little Doe.

We had an amazing time!

On the drive home a couple funny things happened. At 4:30 Peter announces that he needs to go to the bathroom. I suggest we pull off the freeway and find the next fast food place. He says he's fine. Not long later he says it again. I suggest the same thing. He refuses. Then we get stuck in stop and go traffic (more stop than go), he complains again. You can all guess what I suggest, but alas the answer is no. The traffic finally lets up and we're moving again. He makes the comment again and again and I sit there biting my lip. Then he complains that his back hurts from driving so much. I make the same comment again adding that while we are stopped we can switch places and I'll drive the rest of the way home. He says no. An hour and 45 minutes goes by and he finally takes an exit. We switched places and I drove the last hour and 15 minutes home.

At an early part in our driving home adventure I looked out the window and pulled a partial blonde moment. "What kind of car has a ja... oh wait never mind I figured it out." Peter-"figured what out." Me-"Oh just figured out the type of the car that's all." Peter-"So what were you going to say?" Me-"What kind of car has a jaguar on the side of it? Was what I was going to say but as soon as I thought of the animal I realized what it was." Just a partial blonde moment.