Sunday, May 31, 2009

It's Good to be Home

Big Sigh! It feels so good to be back. I really had a great time in the Sunshine State but I am definately a home girl and I love being home. I had great intentions of posting while in CA but we had no internet access in Carmel and it was $12.95 a DAY at our hotel in San Francisco. I'm not sure if you know, but I'm a tish frugal...

What hapens in Carmel and San Francisco doesn't stay there - I'll be glad to tell you all about it:

Donna and I flew out of Bham at 9:55 AM Saturday morning. I didn't stress about what I packed as much as I thought I would which I thought was really a great thing but now in hindsight... not so much. (More on that later.)



The flight was great. It was really nice catching up with Donna. I haven't seen her since Kay's wedding which was about 7 years ago. We flew into Vegas (ya'll, there are slot machines everywhere in the airport!), had a little over an hour to grab some lunch and catch our next flight to San Jose. We met up with Kay in San Jose where we were renting a car and driving to Carmel.


How can it possibly be that renting a car could be an ordeal? Well, I'll be glad to tell you. TAke 1 - Kay got in the wrong car but didn't realize it until she sat in a line for what seemed like forever and a day. Take 2 - Kay got the right car, waited in line for what seemed like forever and a day and then decided it was trashed and went back inside to get another one. Take 3 - they gave us a brand new SUV that only had 6 miles on it.


We got all our luggage in and finally took off. We had been on the highway for all of about 5 minutes when a guy in a truck pulled up next to us and wanted us to roll down the window. He promptly told us that our SUV was smoking really bad from the back. LOVELY. After about 5 minutes of discussion about whether we should turn around and take it back or keep going we decided to get off on the next exit and assess the situation. Kay and I hopped out while Donna drove up and down a parking lot. We didn't see any smoke but the smell of burning rubber was really bad. More discussion. I won't bore you with the details but we basically decided to pray over the car and keep going. No more problems. Thank you, Jesus.

Carmel was absolutely beautiful. Here's a pic of Donna and Kay on the beautiful beach.

It's hard to explain Saturday. It felt like it lasted about 72 hours. We got up and walked to a cute little place called The Village Corner for breakfast. Right about the time we sat down I started feeling a little queasy. We ordered our food and while we waited, I really started feeling like I might throw up. I went to the restroom but nothing happened. I had been back to the table for a couple of minutes when I threw up a little bit in my mouth. Right after that the waitress brought my plate of bacon, pancakes and you guessed it, scrambled eggs - back to the bathroom. I broke out into a cold sweat and ya'll, I puked up my guts. I couldn't stop. It was beyond gross, but I will say that I felt much better after that.

We got back to the room and I layed down for a bit while the girls took a walk on the beach. By the time they got back, I was completely fine. We all got ready and drove to Monterrey. We ate lunch at a little pub and then walked down this long pier and saw the cutest seals you've ever seen! What I didn't know was that you really shouldn't get anywhere near them. This was me right after I stooped down for Donna to take my picture and this baby seal barked at me.


This Marine worker girl ran over and said we should NEVER get that close to the seals because they will bite you with their very sharp teeth and their mouth is full of all kinds of gross bacteria. Who knew? Obviously, not me.

After Monterrey, we drove to Big Sur which was amazing. I told the girls that when I see the ocean and the mountains I'm reminded about how big God is. It was just unbelievable to look on one side of the road and see the most incredible mountains and then look on the other side and see these beautiful cliffs with crashing waves.


We went to a restaurant called Nepenthe. Again, it was amazing. It was way up on this cliff that overlooked the ocean on one side and had seating all the way around so that you could see the mountains too. It had this really big shop downstairs with some really beautiful things. I got this beautiful Jade ring which as they say in Jerry McGuire, "had me from hello". I really love it.
The next morning we got up and drove to San Francisco. I'll save that for next time.

3 comments:

mamahensmama said...

The pictures are beautiful. I am so glad you are home, but I'm glad you had a good time.

MamaHen said...

The seal picture is great! I love it.

I too am glad you are home. All these kids you have missed so much need babysitting. Just kidding (well, a little kidding:))

Peeperspage said...

Looks like you had a good time. Can't wait to hear about the rest of it :)