California Part 2

Next on our trip we took a little drive north for some of this...

But we'll come back to that. Here's Etta post vomit and yes, she's biting her toe nails. Strange child...

My brother Andrew and his family live in San Jose and came down for the weekend. So we had a little bonfire/beach fun.

Etta had such a blast with all of her cousins. It's so fun to see them whenever we can since he is my furthest sibling.

Andrew and Alyse

Julia, Andrew, and Me

Not a great pic but the only family one we got...climbing around the rocks searching in the pools.

All the kids having fun at Dennis the Menice park despite the cold...

I love coming to Carmel. It's truly one of my favorite places, the beach, the shops, the aquarium, cannery row...it brings back so many memories every time.

Etta loving the swings as always...this park is really awesome. I can still remember going here as a little girl...and my nieces and nephews are just adorable.

Went to Dametra Cafe a new favorite right down the street from the beach house in Carmel by the Sea. It was tiny, delicous, and charming. The owners come out and sing and dance. Even a customer got up and beautifully sang I left my heart in San Fransisco. It was so fun.

Now the reason for this not so on the way detour from southern cal is that every morning we'd wake up at the beach house and get all bundled...

Walk 30 seconds over to my grandparents...

Past the house...mmmmm, love it here.

Down the back driveway...

Through the golden gates...

To paradise...

Needless to say Rob was in heaven...it's just breathtaking. And it was awesome to be right there because you couldn't stay or park anywhere. People stayed hours away, parked 30-60 minutes away then took in shuttles. Yikes!

Now I've been to pebble many a day on walks with my grandpa, but seeing it in full tournament swing was pretty awesome.

The mowers out in the morning...it was very cool. There was just a buzz about the whole place. The grounds were in amazing condition. It wasn't hard to spot the celebs...especially Tiger. He had more cameras and security following him than I could even imagine...I don't know how he can focus. Then he had people shouting all sorts of things good and bad in his direction. It was crazy but very cool to see him play up close.

A lot of what I saw was the practice rounds which was actually really neat. You'd watch them hit a shot that maybe wasn't so great while they get a feel for the course. So they take it again and nail it. Just to cement the stroke they'd take it a third time and with scary precision they'd stick it exactly where they'd hit the second shot. They were really amazing to watch.

I didn't go every day so Etta and I would do a lot of running around town...

While Rob did a lot of this...

We also had some unseasonally nice beach days for Carmel in June and we were loving it.

Our good friends Mike and Beth joined us for a second time in Carmel and although mike did get to go to pebble, he also did a lot of this...

Thanks! They are always a blast to have around and troopers in any situation. Cause heaven knows I couldn't carry both kids and we all know where Rob was...

It was so fun. I think I have more pics too from the aquarium and such (one of the best in the country...so fun!) I'll have to post later.

Then coming up we drove back down to LA for rob's volleyball stuff aaaannnnddd...Disneyland!