When we found out that Collin had to go to training in Palo Alto a few months back, it was pretty exciting! Hurray weekend away with half our expenses paid!
By the way, its no big secret why everything is soo expensive out there. Its soo beautiful. 20 minutes one way is the expansive cliffside ocean, bordered 5 minutes the other direction by beautiful tree lined mountains, bordered another way by beautiful San Francisco, and giant redwood forests north of that, wine country another direction...its ridiculous...and fun to visit :)
Overly excited tourist taking pictures out the car window because the view is so pretty
On the ferry to Alcatraz, this tour was a favorite part of our trip
the views from inside
Collin loved the homeplate in the "rec" yard. Don't be jealous, if you could see the size of these guys cells the other 98% of the time you wouldn't think a baseball diamond much at all
Three stories of rows and rows of tiny cells
the door to a solitary confinement cell, wow
obviously not capturing the feeling of the true inmate...we were soo happy to be on a trip
on the trail around the back of the island
Collin has a "thing" for bird pictures
later that day touristing "North Beach", lunch at a delicious "Diner Drive Ins and Dives" approved deli
Ok, china town is ridiculous. Its crazy that one block you are walking past an Italian deli and you cross the street into hurds and hurds of Asian residents. All of a sudden. out of nowhere. its crazy
Lombard street, the curvy one, pretty cool!
The next morning we went to check out the waves at Maverick Point where they hold international surfing competitions
We climbed rocks to get to this point so there weren't many people around except these two "surfer dudes". While Collin was exploring I asked them if it was safe to be where we were. He says, "Are you from the ocean?" (Like the little mermaid or something) But I play it cool and say no. He says, "Well, do your thing, buy ya'll should be careful of rouge waves. They can come out of no where and knock people into the surf and down there the tide is pretty crazy..." I'm like ok, alright. Play it cool...
"Collin, its time to come back..."
Crazy surfer headed out to a rock lined shore to paddle farther than I can see out the the giant, man crushing waves...impressive
Speaking of brave, I had to hoist myself over a large hole to get to where Collin was..it does not look anywhere near as dumb of an idea as it felt at that exact moment.
See, we didn't forget them in all the vacationing ;)
Later that morning we drove an hour north to check out Muir Woods forest. Well worth the trip!
And then back to the beach for one more glimpse on our last day...
These waves are huge in person, not nearly as impressive on the computer screen :(
Sunset on our last night
Goodbye California, if only we knew we were coming home to a week of battling the flu we might have stayed another night :)
