california dreaming

I spent Christmas in bed, reading a new book. It was perfect.

Since Danny had some time off, we decided to go on a staycation. We took a little road trip down to check out Monterey and Carmel.

Painting in our hotel.

OMG this was the best pizza I've had in forever. My favorite pizza is from The Pie in Salt Lake, and there is nothing even close to it (that I've found) in SF. We usually order from Extreme Pizza, and while good, it's not great.

The crust on this pizza was divine. I ate all my crust, I mean who does that? It's never that good. But this one was.

But since I haven't really been eating gluten...

...I felt so horrid the next day. Like I had had a fifth of whiskey the night before. Pounding headache, mounds of brain fog, achy body. Gluten, you asshole.

Nevertheless, we went exploring.

Um, can we move here?

Silly looking kelp.

Soothing, beautiful waves.

Sea vegetables. Or are they sea weeds?

My first beach glass find!

I brought my new Princess Monster Truck bag with us, isn't it awesome????

Having fun with my husband, oh boy do I love him. It looks like we needed this little vacation!

We spent one night in Monterey, and then drove down and spent a night in Carmel.

The beach at Carmel was a lot busier than in Monterey! Of course, this was a more touristy area.

Mmmmhmmmm. Beach sunset.

Giant kelp thingy.

We liked Monterey better than Carmel. Carmel was cute, but kinda snobby. Monterey was more laid back beachy, whereas Carmel was I'm rich look at me beachy.

a trip to the redwoods

Danny suggested that we drive north on Sunday so that we could see the full eclipse. We decided that since we were driving north anyway, we might as well go all the way up to the redwood forest and make a day out of it.

We drove about 4 hours, and stopped at the Humbolt Redwoods State Park.

Just last week, Danny's BFF Ashkan moved out here because he got a job with the same company that Danny works for. So Ashkan drove, and him and Danny were taking and laughing and being their geeky selves, while I sat in the back reading a book. Most of you that know my husband know that he's a quiet guy. So it's nice to see him interact with his good friend- to see him totally being himself in front of someone else besides me. 

There were mini fields of clovers all over.

We brought a picnic and ate our sandwiches at a cute little picnic table. I forgot how quiet a forest can be.

And the ferns- the were also everywhere, mostly grouped around the base of the trees.

We drove a little further to the next flat "hiking" trail, (I don't hike) to Founders Grove.

Massive trees were everywhere- still upright, and fallen.

Some of them twisted...

So quiet, and beautiful. I loved being there.

Action shot of the boys "hiking".

They were so funny- taking about how nature does whatever and how things happen and science this and science that, and then they'd pretend to be trees and it just totally seemed like a glimpse into Danny's childhood. They were like kids playing in the forest. I loved it- and I'm pretty sure they did too.

This fallen giant was particularly long, or would it be tall?

I love moss.

Many people had carved their names into the fallen tree trunks, including Edgar who went all in.

And there were lots of these- little "caves" inside the trees bases. I joked that if the smoke monster came through, that we could all hide in there. Ashkan laughed, Danny did not.

It was almost time for the eclipse, so we drove a little more to find some clear sky.

Danny figured out that we could view the eclipse safely if we used my camera's lenses. Good thing I brought my whole camera bag! We were just at the side of the road by an off/on ramp. I bet we looked silly standing there with lenses pointed at the sky, looking for the shadow on our chests.

There was this crazy lichen growing on the trees- some of it looked like this, and the other looked like green muppet hair.

Don't worry, I did.

So the clouds rolled in, right as it was starting. Lame. So I didn't get any actual photos of the eclipse. But it was cloudy enough that we could just look at the sun without worrying about burning our eyes out.

Then we figured out that if pointed just right, we could get a lens flare that showed the eclipse.

So we did get to see it, even if we didn't get any proof.

It was an awesome weekend. I hope to plan many more trips to the forest!