California=Good Eating!

Just 1 of MANY fantastic stands at the Los Gatos Farmer's Market!

Well, always on the lookout for neat new places to eat, we have not been disappointed here in California. One delight, there are a number of frozen yogurt establishments around town...for those of you unfamiliar, its a big trend these days. Self-serve frozen yogurt, usually 4-6 flavors to choose from, all low/non fat, with a huge toppings bar. Toppings range from healthy fruits and nuts or granola to, chocolate, caramel, cookies...etc.

Happy Yogurt, Downtown Los Gatos, but there is also Yogurtland, Pinkberri Yogurt and several others!

Customers get their own yogurt, then fill with whatever toppings can be imagined (and fit in the cup)....your concoction gets weighed and you pay something like 30 cent per ounce. Very fabulous/dangerous!

Another place worthy of special mention is the Santa Cruz Diner. We spotted this place the first time we ever went to Santa Cruz but didn't stop. (We dined on the wharf instead, also great stuff!) This time we made sure to stop at the diner on the way back to Los Gatos. It was way cool and 'dinerish' inside. It had the typical bar and booth set up and all sorta strange stuff on the walls.
Another cool thing was the framed pics of Guy Fieri on the wall. Apparently the place was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the food network.  They had a huge menu with so many great options...hard to choose! Ashley and Rachel finally settled on breakfast and were totally loving that they were allowed to order that at dinner time!

Final 2 words on food are: Farmer's Market! Los Gatos has a fantastic farmer's market downtown on the weekends. The street is closed and set up with tents.  Everyone seems to be there, yet it is not too crowded or picked over. It is the most spectacular selection of fruits, vegetables, flowers and homemade things you can imagine! There are califlower of all colors including purple, squash of all types(even way neat minis), squash blossoms, bags of salad greens with edible flowers, fresh crepes made right there, breads, pies, brie, fresh flowers, musicians...... We will not miss a weekend during our stay here I can say for sure!

Mixed salad bags with edible flowers..Yes, we bought some!

Robert K. Drum

Dear Friends,
We have some sad news to share. Yesterday, Rick lost his brother Robert. It was unexpected and quite a shock. Robert lived in Colorado. He loved the outdoors. I have provided the link below for the obituary that was printed in the Daily Press newspaper.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailypress/obituary.aspx?n=robert-k-drum&pid=145605800&sms_ss=google

Sept. 18 Half Moon Bay

Random roadside farm

We set out today for Fitzgerald Marine Sanctuary. It is in Half Moon Bay, a cool coastal town a little south of San Francisco. We heard there were tidal pools there that you can walk out and explore during low tide! This is exactly the type of thing we love to do so we typed the destination into the GPS and off we went. We were surprised, as we have been so many times, that the journey was as cool as the destination! The drive took us down a small 2 lane road that wound around the mountainside. There were many pumpkin patch type farms along the way and quite a few flower farms. So pretty.

Also, best surprise, Half Moon Bay is full of organic produce farms! There are roadside farmer market type stops that sell produce grown right there, all organic, so inexpensive. We saw so many brussel sprout, artichoke, carrot, pumpkin fields...unbelievable. Many acres of incredible oceanview property is home to brussel sprouts! We shopped at 2 different stands and bought bsprouts, artichokes, tomatoes, corn, garlic, basil,  peas in the pod, potatoes, kiwi and peppers! Oh and of course, a small pumpkin. All for about $30...by the way, they do not take credit cards and this is not an ATM type area...so glad we were prepared!

We finally made it to the marine sanctuary. It was almost 2:00 and low tide was about a 1/2 hour away, so we headed on down the walk. Wooden stairs took you down to the beach area. There were signs around warning not to take anything away and to watch for harbor seals. Cool. Sure enough, just as we had heard, all along the shore, the tidal pools were exposed in the out going tide. It was just as you would picture. There were a few other folks there, less than I expected for such a neat place. Anyway, we got right out into it and within minutes found anemones, fish, starfish, snails and hermit crabs. We saw quite a few seals as well in the distance. We walked and wandered around there for about an hour. We met a couple of Hokies, from Richmond out there...Rick told them we were JMU folks and they nodded at that irony.

Since we had such a fun time yesterday in Santa Cruz, and we felt a little bad that Rick missed it, we decided to drive south down the coast to Santa Cruz. It was an amazing drive. Just really beautiful scenery with cliffs and beaches and coastline.

A great deal of fog was coming in for part of the drive and when we got to Santa Cruz the fog was very heavy at the point where the big wave surfers hang out. We watched them anyway....by the time we drove out onto the wharf, the fog cleared and it was sunny. So strange how that works.
Very cool day. We can now check off -walk a tidal pool , from the list.

Sept. 17 - Santa Cruz

Toes in the sand again!

The girls and I took off Friday afternoon to check out the beach at Santa Cruz. We were looking so forward to seeing the sand and ocean again! If there is anything I have learned on this trip it is that I am truly a coastal person. It feels very strange (uncomfortable) to be so far away from the coast and surrounded by land, mountains, rugged terrain, land, trees, mountains, land, mountains...repeat, and NO water.
Santa Cruz was a short 20 minute drive down the curviest stretch of highway you've ever seen. Whew.

Once there, we found that it has a cool boardwalk, carnival area and drive out pier that people call the wharf. The wharf is lined with restaurants, shops and sea lions. We walked the beach and boardwalk, looked at the sea lions on the dock, then had ice cream/root beer floats at Andy's at the end of the wharf.

Out in the water, there are great longboard surfing waves and we were really wishing we could get out there...problem is the water temperature! Full wetsuits required here. A short drive along the coast brings you to the point where the best surfers are taking on some really huge waves along a rocky coastal cliff.

Crazy. Fog tends to roll in and at times it was hard to see anything beyond the immediate wall of water coming over those guys. They were fun to watch and there was a big crowd hanging around the lookout point.

Yay!

I was feeling good having walked in the sand and seen the ocean... I sent Rick a text, he was still at the office.

Sept. 13....LOS GATOS, CA *new pic

The  Cuda Car!

We are here finally and still settling in. We have not yet had time to explore very much. Trying to unpack and take care of stuff (like that windshield crack that started back in Idaho). Rick is at the office during the day and we are catching up on school work. We are in a nice little house in a nice little neighborhood. We can see mountains from the front yard and back! Over the mountains out front, lies Santa Cruz. I think we are about 25 min. from there and 45, or so, from San Fran. We will get to checking all that out this weekend! Meanwhile, Rick is driving a Cuda car. Fun, funny!

Hot tub, t.v., popsicles!

The girls have been getting used to their new surroundings as well! They have found a new favorite way to catch up with the Cooking Channel.

Sept. 10-12, Tahoe

Driving across Nevada was not our favorite. It was a long, mountainous desert with a scattering of  'off the grid' folks living in random towns. No WiFi, no stores really, nothing to see until you reach Reno (which was lovely). After (what seemed like) the longest drive of the trip, we finally arrived in Lake Tahoe. We decided to rent a condo in Incline Village. Good decision. It was much more cost effective and so nice to have the space, the kitchen, the fireplace and multiple bathrooms! Additionally, we were one block from the beach and playground. We had no particular plan in Tahoe so we just drove around and 'found' what we needed to do.

Such clear water!

The entire town was just beautiful. The lake itself was so clear, it was unreal. For folks from the east coast, I only know to compare it to the clear waters of the Caribbean. One big difference, however, was the cool temperature. Ashley, Rachel and Stevie went out and did fine...I could hardly walk in. There were people swimming all around in it though. I guess it is all what you are used to. It made me thankful for our warm southern water back home!
We ended up spending part of each day at Sand Harbor State Park. It is a lovely park with a long sandy beach and several beaches with big rocks/boulders dotting the shore. It was great fun to climb on the rocks, which were round and smooth rather than sharp and jagged like you would usually see in the mountains.

Sand Harbor Park

Ashley's friend, Chloe, mentioned that she had caught crawfish around the lake when she visited there..so, we had to try it ourselves. We did not have crawfishing 'equipment', so we put together some lines with dental floss and bagel or raisins as bait.  Just like crabs back home, the Tahoe crawfish did not seem particular about what they ate. The girls caught them equally with both the bagel pieces and the raisins!

Tahoe Crawfish

We did go visit Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe. It was striking in its beautiful color but was a mile hike downhill to get there. No problem, except, that meant a mile hike back UP.  The first day we had ventured down a roadside trail to the lake and faced the same problem, so we are feeling it today! We are thinking we've hiked enough and will just take in the rest from the beach or car! Also to note, The pine trees around the lake are really, really big. Pine cones the size of Stevie's head! Cool.

Really big tree!

Two fun facts...we found the biggest marshmallows ever at the grocery store here. Giants for making smores! You need a whole Hershey bar and two whole grahams to make one! HUGE. The other shocking thing was cantalopes at the grocery for 87 cents! I have never seen them that inexpensive (and they were very good).

   

Finally a picture of me and Rick! Thanks Ashley.

Sept. 9 - Grand Teton National Park

Grand Tetons

Today we drove to/through the Grand Teton National Park. This was such a picturesque drive. The mountain range is just beautiful. The highest mountains are snow topped and sit alongside a lake. We stopped a couple of times just to look. Of course, the girls had to touch the water....icy!

Pastures of horses at base of mountains

We drove on to Jackson Hole and ended up arriving earlier than planned. Rick and the girls rode the gondola to the top of the mountain in Teton village. After that, we made the decision to continue driving so that we would be able to get to Tahoe on Thursday rather than Friday.

Top of the Mountain! What a view!

So chilly at the top we needed hot chocolate!

So we plotted a new course, skipping Utah and driving through Idaho. We stayed the night in Twin Falls, Idaho. The city had a Target, bagel shop, Old Navy....etc. Though we didn't go, it was so good to see! We haven't seen civilization like that in a long time!

Sepetmber 7-8 - Yellowstone and West Yellowstone, MT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNPvrCls1TE

Climbing the rocks with the girls! They loved this!

We made a video (click the link above) to show you the unusual landscape that is around the various thermal areas in Yellowstone. It is steamy and bubbling with boiling spring water and gases. It smells of rotten eggs in those areas due to the sulfur coming out of the 'pits'.
Each area is unique in its appearance. Some are beautiful blue and green, some are clear,  some white (those look like frozen areas) and some are MUD. Very cool to see but not so great to smell!

Buffalo herd...1 of many!

Here are some pics. of the wildlife and our life around Yellowstone! At first, when we saw a lone buffalo we would pull the car over! After a while, you only stop if one is standing in the road (which they do!) or there is a giant herd. We never saw a bear and we were sort of bummed about that but also...glad! We found so many cool things to explore, if only we had more time and bear spray (Rick and I were hesitant to go too far off main road without that).

Canyon Falls...amazing!

So cute!

 We saw some amazing sights like the canyon falls and a huge trout swimming in the river. Yes, the water was so clear I could see it from the side. There were many fly fisherman in the rivers. Though I never saw anyone catch anything. We learned that the most common trout is the cutthroat rather than the rainbow. We also saw elk and many chipmunks (the favorite of the girls).

He could have touched that guy!

 We also learned that the large hump on the back of the buffalo is muscle to hold up their large heads!

Elk

Big elk!

We are off to Jackson Hole, WY today. We will be driving over the Teton Mountain range today. They are, in the distance now, the largest mountains I have ever seen!

September 6 - Yellowstone National Park

I am out of adjectives that mean 'incredible'...Yellowstone is over the top!

Old Faithful

It is a new picture around every curve in the road. It is rugged rocky mountains. It is pine forests old and new. It is grassy flats with winding rivers running through. It is waterfalls. It is thermal spots that release steam, gases and boiling water.  It is geysers and bubbling mud basins. It is wildlife. It is different weather every hour (or less). It is a truly amazing place that we are blessed to have been able to see.

He walked right across that river 30 seconds after this pic!

By the way, when we arrived in the park on Sunday...it was overcast on the mountains and about 55 degrees. The clouds were low and gray and the wind was sharp (20+ mile per hour gusts). We said many times throughout the afternoon that it sure looked like snow type clouds, but, it's Labor Day weekend and 50 degrees. Well, the temperature continued to drop all afternoon, and sure enough, by check in at 5:45 it started snowing. We woke on Monday to frost and 23 degrees! BRR.