Playing Tourist

My mother-in-law is in town visiting, and yesterday we headed to San Francisco to play "tourists." We only went to a handful of places, but San Francisco is always so much fun!

I thought I'd share a few of my hubby's pictures. Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge.


San Francisco was pretty wintry yesterday ~ fog, wind, and no warmer than about 60 degrees.


We walked under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was an exciting experience because the floor rattled underneath us along with the traffic, and the ceiling above us boomed as the larger trucks passed overhead.


The sea lions at Pier 39 are so entertaining! My daughter could have stayed there all day long watching. She brought home a stuffed sea lion to cuddle with, and we found out later that the sea lion has a button to make it bark. My hubby and I could do without that noisy feature!



We were surprised to find this little nature oasis in the middle of the mall at Pier 39. My mother-in-law fell in love with this fountain area and little bird, and she's actually planning to recreate it in her backyard in Florida.

It was an all around fun day, and it's so fantastic to finally be enjoying summer. Hope you are too!

Smelly Garlic

It's been almost a month now, but during spring break we headed south towards Monterey Bay. Along the way we passed through some amazing farm country, like the fields of artichokes I already mentioned. That region is loaded with top-notch farming of all types. I was reminded of this last weekend when Emily commented that the garlic I sent her for the food exchange was HUGE.


I guess the garlic WAS huge, but I almost didn't notice. Here's why. . . I bought the garlic and the pesto in Gilroy on our trip. And, since Gilroy is less than 150 miles away from where I live, nearly all of the garlic I eat comes from there.

Gilroy is supposedly the garlic capitol of the world. The town even smells of garlic ~ in fact it smells strongly of garlic. When we've passed through on the highway we have often smelled garlic through the vents while our windows were rolled up! Last month we stopped in at a farmstand called "Garlic World" and picked up some super fresh bulbs. I sent a few to Emily in her box, and well...they're big! I'm constantly complaining that the garlic cloves don't fit in my garlic press. Such a problem, right?


Anyway, if you're ever looking for some fun with garlic, you might consider heading to Gilroy's Garlic Festival. I've never been, but I bet it's loads of fun and also pretty. . .er, smelly!

Window Shopping

On our trip last week we spent some time in Carmel. There's a lot to say about Carmel, but one of my favorite things to do there was window shop. And perhaps the window I stared at the longest was at the Carmel Bakery. This little establishment has been in business since the early 1900's and they're still baking in style. Their window showcased their cute side:


It showcased their ability to "wow" customers:


And there was a little humor thrown in there, too:


After staring a bit, we finally realized that the gingerbread men were not actually being "wowed." They were really frightened by their neighbors:


Don't you love witty confections? And the ice cream, coffee, and *brownies* at this place aren't bad either!

Farm Fresh Eating

For our getaway last week we headed south to the Monterey Bay area. The amazing thing about that region is that there are so many different things to see and do. Just north of the Bay is some major farm country, including the Artichoke Capitol of the World ~ Castroville, CA.


I loved showing my toddler the process of how we get our food. We saw enormous fields of artichokes.


There were a number of roadside farmstands featuring the "just-picked" local bounty.


Did you know that the edible part of the artichoke is actually the plant's flower? Honestly, the plants are quite beautiful, particularly with the wild yellow mustard growing around it (which is actually a weed!).


And of course, the local restaurants feature the artichoke in all kinds of inventive ways, like deep-fried artichokes at The Whole Enchilada. We didn't have one on this trip, but we did several years ago. Yum!