uno con leche: NorCal

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I was fortunate to take a lovely road trip up to the beautiful coastal town of Santa Cruz with my family. The first day out it started out a bit rough, nasty weather conditions through the mountains made all of us tense and nervous, poor Benjamin threw up thrice on the drive up, and we took the scenic route (more like, momentarily lost). Once we arrived at Santa Cruz things got better. After a short nap, we all got ready and headed down to downtown, ate some delicious Pizza My Heart and got shirts. Walked around for a bit, saw a few bookstores, stores, and boutiques. Then we drove on over to the boardwalk and had a great time. We taught Benjamin how to play air hockey and we all ran around like little kids attempting to get as many tickets for Benjamin. Thanks to a great guy who gave him 185 tickets he had well over 300 tickets!!! He got a nifty double sided light saber, bouncy ball, stickers, and an airplane.

We spent Saturday in San Francisco and the weather was amazing! I was expecting (and prepared) for freezing temperatures and with winds, but we were pleasantly surprised. It wasn't as windy or cold for that fact. We strolled down Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Haight & Ashbury, Market St, and got stuck in downtown traffic.

Sunday was a whirlwind day, since we had to get ready and leave for our long drive back home. However, this drive as long as it took us (read over 8 hours!!!) was well worth it. We took Route 1 or more commonly known as PCH from Santa Cruz to San Luis Obispo. From San Luis Obispo we hopped back onto Highway 101. I had never driven down PCH through Los Padres National Forest, but it was absolutely breath taking! The views are jaw dropping and make you queasy in the stomach if you see how far down the ocean is below you.

It was a great weekend getaway. I got to spend quality time with my family and saw lots of neat things. I definitely love NorCal, as much as I do talk smack about it, I love it nonetheless. I would honestly even love to live in NorCal at some point in my life.