Amy's trip to California

Last weekend, I went on a girls' trip to California - it was soooo fun! I flew into San Jose, and we drove down to Cayucos, which is 3.5 hrs south of San Francisco area. I LOVED driving through the Salinas Valley, marvelling at the hundreds of miles of fields of lettuce and every crazy vegetable in the world!



My friend Ali's parents have a house right on the ocean, and the twelve of us girls stayed there. It was such a beautiful house - and view! Right in front of the house we regularly saw dolphins, seals, surfers, plus the occasional whale spout!



This is looking north to the town of Cayucos.



It was only about a mile to town, so we walked there a few times to visit the shops. Here I am at the end of the pier.



Me by a gorgeous California sunset.

Cool shot of the sunset reflected in the house's window.

On Saturday, a few of us took a day trip to Hearst Castle. It was a private residence that was donated to the CA State Parks system, and is open to tours. OMG it was incredible! The art, the gardens, the opulence! Here is one of the guest houses.

This is the outdoor pool, with real Roman art.

One of the many gardens.

In front of the main house.

The indoor pool, with 22karat gold tiles! I took tons of pics inside the various houses, but won't bore you with them all. Take my word that it was AMAZING! I could have sat in each room for an hour, just taking it all in.

The last day we spent tons of time on the beach, even though it was cloudy. There were always surfers and paddleboarders.

Here's Beth jumping rope with a strand of kelp!

Here's the house we stayed at, it was soooo nice of Ali's parents to let us stay there! We loved being all together in the same house, instead of in different hotel rooms like last year.

Right before we left, the sun came out, so we sat around lounging for a while longer. I had to get this toe shot.

Grape vines galore! On our drive back to San Jose, we took a slightly different route and passed tons of apricot and walnut orchards, and mile after mile of grape fields. So of course we stopped at a winery!

It was such a wonderful trip! I'm so grateful to Mom C. and Chris for covering for me so I could escape for the long weekend! I feel so refreshed after this getaway!