We're not in Rochester anymore toto.

Sites so that are so beyond Rochester, Mn

 A wharf

A cable car 

Rows and rows of victorian homes. 

Painted ladies 

The city's cool buildings

Cables everywhere !

So many people, cars, buses, cable cars, trollies, taxi's, it's a busy place that never goes to sleep. 

I'm glad I live in a small town of 108,000... It's perfect  :)

"We Olive"

Even though we are now home in Minnesota I still have bits and pieces

  of interesting things that i will continue to blog on. 

We saw so much, and learned so much about a whole different region of the U.S.

Bear with me as I share some of these things over the the next few days.

A little shop on Chestnut not far from our Hotel in San Francisco

We Olive

the olive oil experience

It prides its self in Home grown California Olive oil

It's the coolest thing I've ever seen....

Sooo many diverse flavors of olive oils, and you could taste them all (if you wanted)

The large containers hold the oils. 

They provide the glass bottles (the ones with tags on them) to fill with your favorite olive oil. 

I might add  this is way too spendy for my taste but if your really into cooking

 with crazy flavored oil this is the place for you.

For example the oil on the right is $12.75 for an oz

or you might enjoy the Meyer Lemon for $19.58 oz

For fun you can check out their website....they ship anywhere.

http://www.weolive.com

 Besides Olive oils they also have a line of body butters, eye serum, oil soaps and lip balm.

We did make a small purchase while there! A small bottle of the oil and a bread mix for my oldest son and daughter-in-love.

It's all coming to an end

Yesterday was a great day here in San fran.

Really too much to tell, we were gone for 11 hours touring the city

We packed a lot in, and have more to see today

I'm glad we gave ourselves thee days here

so much to do....so little time.

Alcatraz (The rock) 

The view from our ferry returning to San Francisco

The Golden Gate bridge

I need to get myself ready for another day of enjoying this beautiful city

Last day of our lovely 2nd honey moon.

The time has flown by so quickly but we are anxious to get back to little old Rochester

and resume life there as we know it   :)

Monday Tidbits from California

It's almost 10 pm Tuesday night here in San Francisco

I have a little time to post some of our yesterday fun

It was our last day in Monterey . 

We spent most of it on the beach just relaxing, talking and reading

Our Hotel...we would come back here in a heart beat!

 Ricks beach recliner, he sure was comfy

After a late afternoon stroll down the beach...

 we decided to visit

Cannery Row in downtown Monterey

It's  a popular tourist spot with lots of shops and dining.

Everything is so pretty

  

Dark Chocolate caramel sprinkled with sea salt

Yummmy yum-yum

(a great way to end a fabulous day)

Some favorites from the last few days

Thought I'd just post a few of my favorite pictures from the last few days...

 This guy made me kind of nervous; fishing from the bluff

 Sand city, a beautiful beach

Me, trying to get a picture of the sea lions

 Coastal trip  Hwy 1

Right outside our Hotel in Montery. I can hear the waves crashing now

 Pebble Beach is more than a Golf course

 They are so used to people....with camera's

coast line

We are having a great time as the week ticks right along. Tonight and tomorrow have been labeled "days to relax". We are staying put, right here in this beautiful beach hotel with our room overlooking the Pacific ocean. I will rest well tonight at the rhythmic waves lull me to sleep.

Tomorrow we will sit on the beach and do nothing.

Looking forward to that :)

Vacation continued

Originally we thought we'd just stay 2 days in Santa Cruz but we are so glad we stayed one more.

The first two days we overcast with a bit of rain but we saw that today was gonna be beautiful so we planned a full day. It was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky and  probably in the low 70's for temps.

This morning we started our day taking a short road trip to

  Big Basin Redwood State Park.

It was so worth it!

I've never looked so small...can you see me?

There's little old Rick

Looking straight up

Such a pretty area with lots of history (and really old gigantic trees)

 *

After a great hike in the state park we headed back to Santa Cruz 

to spend the afternoon on the beach 

 Relaxing and reading a good book.

Perfect beach day!

For dinner we walked over to the wharf

Rick, checking out the "fresh fish"

A look back to the beach from the wharf... It's so pretty here!

Tomorrow we will move on to the Monterey area

More later  :) 

Vacation update

Rick and I left Wednesday morning for sunny California

It's a get-away that we promised ourselves to 

celebrate 30 years of marriage  :)

We flew into Oakland and drove our rented Honda civic down to Santa Cruz

to our hotel which is a few short blocks to the beach...Love it.

Day one seemed like a blur...Long day on little sleep the night before!

Highlights of day two

This afternoon we headed south to Capitola 

(just a few miles down the road)

 We spent some time walking the beach, enjoying the sounds of the ocean.

 A dorky picture just for our kids.... Yes we still think we're 20 something  :)

We checked out of few of the shops before heading to dinner.

My Big brother recommended Shadow Brook for dinner

It's a beautiful 5 star restaurant built into the side of a hill in Capitola

A trolly comes up to pick you up and transport you back down to the restaurant.

 We had a lovely dinner

*

Back to Santa Cruz for an evening stroll on the beach

 View of the boardwalk

My guy

(Santa Cruz Wharf in the background)