Yes, we are back, and are quite recharged. Lots of time in the car, we drove over 2000 miles, and traveled from San Diego as far north as Napa and Sonoma county. We saw amazing and spectacular things, the most impressive was our niece, Julia, graduating from Los Gatos High School! We are so proud of Julia, and are thrilled that she's heading down to our area in the fall to attend the University of San Diego. (I'm about to burst, I'm so excited she'll be here on our "turf", I just can't wait for her to be so close!) Here's a picture of my whole family, including Julia's French grandparents on her dad's side of the family (Roger has on the pink shirt, with Amie next to him). It was such a gift for us all to be together, and it went by much too fast... (big sigh)
We spent the following weekend with family and friends in Santa Cruz, and took the boys to see The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz (according to our boys, the best $5 we've ever spent!) Here's kind of a freakish shot of me doing some sort of Spiderman pose in the Mystery Spot house. I know it looks weird, but it's completely normal for that place...
From there, we headed north to Napa, where we spend a few days in our Coronado neighbor's fabulous 1880's Victorian house they are restoring. (I'm saving those photos for another day, that house is too fabulous- it needs a post all it's own!)
From there we headed off to Yosemite Valley. O M G! First time we'd been there, and we were blown away by the awesomeness and beauty of the valley. Lots more photos to share once I download the shots from my camera. These are a few Greg took. The 3 of us enjoyed it immensely, unfortunately, or 4th (that would be Drew) refused to get out of the car the entire day... oh my heck, what's with that??! We didn't let it ruin our time though, we trekked and were rained on by waterfalls galore, and were tourists on parade within that beautiful place, kissed by the hand of God.
I'll leave you for now with this amazing picture taken at the Quixote Winery in Napa. Though it doesn't show the amazing structure of the winery built in the Hundertwasser style, it's irresistible due to one of my favorite flowers in full bloom. I call them "Fried Egg Poppies". I love them so :o)
Happy to be back... hope you've been well... back to work over here... off I go!
x, Val
