Rob and I just returned from ten days of enjoying beautiful California with his family. We started off in Sacramento, drove to Napa/Sonoma and then spent the rest of our time in Yosemite. Needless to say the weather was beautiful -- cool mornings and evenings and warm days, but with no humidity.
We crammed a lot into ten days which wasn't always easy on my seven month pregnant body, but we managed pretty well for the most part. It's hard to describe our whole trip so I thought I'd just put some pictures up and let the pictures do the talking. :)
The first winery we went to was a pretty famous one that gave a great tour. It was so neat to learn about how wine is made -- it's quite the process!
A view down the vineyard.
Waiting for our tour to start
Later, we felt very french with our lunch of bread, cheese, olives and sandwiches at another winery
This is a very realistic picture of how I spent most of the trip...
Rob and his parents did an extra day of wine tasting, but since neither Kayla nor I could drink much wine we opted for massages instead on our second day there.
In the vineyards there are gorgeous roses everywhere. We learned later that roses are a good indicator of mold and mildew that can grow and ruin grapes.
We spent our last day in the Napa area in San Francisco. There is always fog in the mornings, but eventually it clears up and the sun comes out.
Rob and I are huge fans of a show on the Food Network called 'Best Thing I Ever Ate'. Two of the places featured on a recent episode happened to be in San Francisco within blocks of each other. First stop - Dynamo Donuts for something Rob was dying to have - Maple Glazed Bacon Apple donut. Yum. It was so fun to actually find a place featured on the show as we probably never would have found it otherwise.
We also tried the Lemon Pistachio, a vanilla one and a Spiced Chocolate one that had chili powder in it. Hello morning snack.
Next stop: Around the corner to an ice cream store called Humphry Slocombe that sells the strangest flavors of ice cream you've ever heard of. Here Rob is enjoying Secret Breakfast (made with Bourbon and cornflakes) and Peanut Butter Curry. I opted for a safer option - Brown Butter ice cream. Delish. Some more crazy flavors they offer? Boccalone Proscuitto (featured on the Best Thing I Ever Ate), Candied Chestnut, Cinnamon Brittle, Collaborative Evil Ale, Eight Ball Stout (stout is a kind of beer), Government Cheese, Green Tea Black Sesame, Guinness Gingerbread, McEvoy Olive Oil, Russian Imperial Stout, Salt and Pepper, Salted Licorice, Strawberry Candied Jalapeño, Sweet Corn-Blackberry, Balsamic Caramel. If you're not into trying new flavors, they also have more normal flavors that sound much better, such as: Chocolate, Honey Thyme, Malted Vanilla, Malted Dulce de Leche, Maple Walnut, Toasted Almond, Banana Pecan and White Chocolate Lavender. There are even more, but I don't want to take up more space. The guy in line behind us said he heard about it in the New York Times. So it sounds like a pretty famous ice cream joint.
The fog slowly burns away...
The must have photo of Alcatraz
It was so cold and windy down by the water so we didn't stay for very long
On our way to Yosemite we stopped at In and Out Burger -- famous in California. It was pretty good -- not the best I've ever had, but not bad.
One of our first stops in Yosemite was Mariposa Grove, an enormous grove of Sequoia trees. They are literally hundreds of years old, some close to 2,000, and just spectacular. We took a tram ride through the park and learned all about the trees.
The family
Magnificent
This one you can walk through. We learned that Sequoias don't need their inner hardwood to survive (their food is in the bark) so often times the centers can burn away and the tree can still live.
One evening we had dinner at a train depot and took a train ride out into the woods for a live show. It was pretty good and the moon on the way back was beautiful.
We spent one full day inside Yosemite Park which was so beautiful. We couldn't do much hiking, but we did get to see some waterfalls and scenery. This is at Bridal Veil falls.
Bridal Veil falls
We went further into the park and saw the Upper and Lower Yosemite falls
We took a short walk back to the falls where Rob and Kayla climbed on rocks and I fed nuts to a squirrel.
The famous rock face of El Capitan
And yes, we did see these climbers up on the face of the rock. Apparently they climb at night and sleep anchored to the rock during the day. They also carry about 13 gallons of water, plus gear and food with them when they climb. Yikes! I wanted to know how they got down...
There are no words for this sibling love...
One of our last days in Yosemite we rented a boat for an afternoon and had a lovely time. I missed out on the waterskiing though. There was plenty of fun tubing for Rob and Kayla though
This was how I spent my boating time. I was also keeper of the caution flag for when people fell down
What a stud!
And after many valiant tries Kayla also got up on the wakeboard
Overall a good trip, a few rocky points, but we made it. Now it's home again to humidity and our crazy apartment that needs to be packed up and moved by Thursday! Life with the Bedinghaus' is never dull...!
