We’re currently sitting in the Phoenix airport, killing time before our last flight back to Stl. We ended our CA trip yesterday by taking a trip to the beach. We went back to Santa Cruz, where I caught some rays the prior day. We laid on the beach for a little bit…only about a half hour. Brad has ADD and doesn’t have the discipline (hmmmm, wonder where Sam gets it from?) to lay still unless he’s sleeping. Thanks to the kiddie-day-camp outing next to us, it was hard to catch any zzzzzz’s.

So we decided to go get our feet in the water. Yes, it was still freezing! There a lot of gross floaties – sealife vegetation if you will. I’m not real fond of ’stuff’ touching my feet in the water. Down the way we spotted a lighthouse, so we put the stuff in the backpack and started walking.

There were these huge cement jacks all around the lighthouse. Some guy was laying on one and Brad took his picture just to show how big they really were.

Who’s that hottie? It’s me in case you’re wondering…

On the way back we made a stop to look for some shells for Carter. For some reason that area of the beach didn’t have ‘floaties.’ They had some good shells, too. We eventually made our way further out in the water. Amazingly, you get used to freezing water after awhile. After scoring some sweet shells, we played in the water for a little bit. Brad warned me to take my sunglasses off. Did I? No…as if I was going to get that crazy in the water! Well apparently one wave had it out for me and took me down…and swallowed my sunglasses with it. Then it was on…time to have fun. What did I have to lose now? We had a blast trying to bodysurf in the waves. Some of them were fairly big, too. I had goosebumps the whole time, but it was worth it. Who knows when we’ll be in the ocean again.

After walking back, we went and checked out the boardwalk. Time for a soda and snack. Snack of choice: deep fried Twinkie. Oh yyyyyeeeeeaaaaahhhhh – it was good, too! Tasted like a funnel cake.

Every Friday evening on the boardwalk they have a live band. Apparently they’re all bands from the 70s and 80s. Last night it was the band, The Fixx:

We ended the night by eating some pizza across from the boardwalk. Notice the lack of sunglasses?

4 new videos. 2 from our first trip to San Francisco on Monday, 1 of the Golden Gate bridge from our second trip, and 1 totally awesome video from the beach in Santa Cruz.

We’re currently sitting at the airport in San Jose, about to board. Been a good trip. More pictures to come from our trip to Santa Cruz yesterday when we get a chance!

Yesterday was finally a hot day out here in CA! While Brad sat in class, I headed to Santa Cruz to catch some rays. And man, did I! Apparently I forgot to put sunscreen on my back, the back of my legs…pretty much anything on the backside of me. I got some sun and my hot shower didn’t feel so great this morning.

Santa Cruz has a boardwalk with rides and an arcade:

Finally, a California beach like I had pictured in my head:

Once Brad got off work, we made our last trip to SF. Again, got to experience SF traffic firsthand. We made a quick stop at Alamo Square to snap a shot of the ‘Painted Ladies’:

They look just like they always did on Full House!

Next stop was Chinatown. Brad standing next to the Chinatown Gate:

4 monkeys on a bench…I’m not sure if it’s on purpose or not, but Brad’s eyes look slightly crossed…

We ate the Cathay Restaurant…pretty good food.

I had to make a quick stop to get my pressed penny! Yeah, I totally have a book at home that all my pressed pennies go in:

More Chinatown and views from Chinatown:

We went to Fisherman’s Wharf next:

WWII submarine:

Boats and views from the Wharf:

Brad took a picture of another tourist asking me to take a picture…

Brad took this one just for Josh:

At the end of Fisherman’s Wharf is Ghirardelli! Of course we stopped there for a wonderful hot fudge sundae:

On our walk back from Ghirardelli, we stopped in a small art gallery. They were featuring Salvador Dali, but also had some Picasso’s, too. Brad pondering the true meaning behind these Picasso’s:

To top off our SF experience we decided to take a trolley ride. Probably should’ve done a little more research or asked questions before we just hopped on. The people in front of us in line told us it was $5/person. So we hopped on and then realized that it was ‘One way.’ Interesting, wonder how far of a trip one way is? Well it would’ve been shorter (I bet it took us around an hour), but of course the trolley we get on has to break down…in the middle of the intersection. How fun! They did a transmission clutch (Brad edit!) swap and 7 minutes later we were on our way. We ended up riding from one end all the way to the other, which was Union Square – there were a ton of stores there! Meanwhile, it was the lllllooooonnnnngggggeeeeesssssttttt tttttrrrrrooooollllleeeeeyyyyy rrrrriiiiidddddeeeee eeeeevvvvveeeeerrrrr!

We scraped all the cash together we had (we’re not cash carriers, but did have some for parking, etc). We had $10 left (a $5, four $1’s, and 4 quarters). Yes, that’s how desperate we were to take a cab back, as opposed to paying $10 to ride the trolley back and take fffffooooorrrrreeeeevvvvveeeeerrrrr! After our crazy cab ride back to the Wharf, we were relieved to get back to the car. We loved SF, but are ready to get back to our quiet little suburb living – and hug Carter & Sam!

Brad gets out of class early today and we’re headed back to Santa Cruz (with lots of sunscreen!). Hopefully we can catch a west coast sunset!

You know, people make mistakes daily. To err is human, right? Lunch was my first mistake today. Mary has made several posts detailing our last couple days in CA and she’s used words like “delish” and “fantabulous” to describe some of the fantastic meals we’ve had so far. This is not one of those posts.

KFC is disgusting. Greasy does not equal juicy or suculent. It equals greasy.

I should not have gone to KFC. It was a mistake and I’m here to admit it. I know I’ll get through this but it’s painful. And my hands and slick from the grease. In fact I’m going to go wash them, again.

KFC, you are dead to me.

So the whole reason we’re out here in Santa Clara, CA is for Brad to take a Microsoft class for work. It just so happens that we’re in Silicon Valley – the high-tech center of the country. A lot of tech companies have headquarters and buildings here. After taking 2 trips to SF, last night we stayed in the area and did some local stuff.

Our first stop: Cupertino, CA. Probably nobody reading this post, except for Brad and Jon, know what Cupertino is home of. For those of you that don’t know Brad, if he could divorce me, turn gay, and marry Steve Jobs, he probably would. Steve Jobs is the founder of Apple. Cupertino = Apple = Steve Jobs.

Yeah, we hit up the Company Store…it’s not like a ‘normal’ Apple store – here they sell merchandise and not computers, which you won’t find anywhere else. Yeah, we spent $85 there…and yeah, Brad, Carter, and Sam are all now owners of Apple t-shirts. Trust me, you’ll see a picture of the 3 geeks wearing them together!

We left Cupertino and headed to this west coast establishment:

Simple and good! The menu consists of a double cheeseburger, cheeseburger, or hamburger. The fries were awesome, at least I thought so. They peel and cut them right there (we saw it firsthand). It was delish!

Next we hit up Google and stopped for a few pictures:

Those were the two main spots Brad wanted to go. It was barely 7 pm, so we decided to hit up Ikea, which we had passed on the way back from SF. What a fun store…we had no need for anything there, but still managed to spend $99. The last time we were at the one in Schaumburg, we bought 4 steak knives for $2.99. They totally rock. So we bought some knives…how fun to pack those in the suitcase and hop on the plane! We also got a couple things for Carter and Sam.

If you drive a Hybrid, Ikea gives you a prime parking spot:

We also drove past the NASA Ames Research Center. We tried go visit, but visiting hours were over and we were turned away at the gate. We still managed to get some pictures, although I’m still not sure we were legal to be on the road we were on.

Brad informed me this was a big wind tunnel where they test aerodynamics:

We then headed back to Santa Clara and snapped some shots of some tech buildings. Half of these companies I’ve never heard of…but my techie (is it coincidence that techie and Trekky rhyme?) husband informed me of what each place produced. How exciting, huh?

This is the Santa Clara Convention Center, where Brad goes to class each day:

Today it’s supposed to get up to 90, yay! I’m headed to the beach until Brad is finished with class. We’re headed back to SF this afternoon for one more time while we’re out here!