California, Here I Come...

FIRST, CARMEL AND THE 17 MILE DRIVE:






THEN, SAN FRANSISCO:










FOLLOWED BY A RIDE DOWN THE COAST ON CALIFORNIA-1:







AND A JAUNT TO THE REDWOODS AND SANTA CRUZ:








To escape our never-ending winter, Bob and I took a trip to the Bay area. We had been there many times, but not for the last 15 years or so. His 97 year-old Aunt Mary welcomed us into her home again. She is very sharp and independent, but a bad case of the shingles last summer had rendered her housebound for the last 6 months. We arrived, scooped her up, and took off every day for an adventure. We put 500 miles on her car even after we took the train to San Fransisco from her home in Mountain View. We re-experienced our favorite places like Carmel and San Francisco, and discovered new ones like Half Moon Bay and the State Parks along CA-1. We picnicked, went to dinner, and ate a constant supply of sweets supplied by the devil Aunt Mary. She has slowed down some, and it was a different trip than we would have had alone, but it was SO WORTH IT! Aunt Mary loved having us there, and we loved seeing her in person again. We packed some mind-blowing accessories with us to show Aunt Mary: we video chatted with Sarah and the kids, and I looked up park hours and restaurant hours on my phone; "Samantha" helped us find our way around courtesy of our MIO GPS; I bought her some remote-controlled flameless candles because they are under a burning ban right now and she missed her fireplace; and we watched a slideshow of the pictures we had taken everyday by hooking up my camera to her TV. She was thunderstruck! We promised we would come back again, and we intend to do so at the first opportunity.