West Coast

Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry!

We meant to write sooner, but we were busy and then Will left the charger to the computer in LA (my aunt is sending it to us though).

A list of things we lost on this trip (so far):

Will's sunglasses
Will's sneakers
my two beach chairs
the charger (being returned)
my beach towel
my book

Not too bad I guess, but hopefully we won't lose any more stuff.

Anyway, we were in San Diego for a total of 10 days. It was a real vacation and we loved it. The house we stayed in was gorgeous and all we did was lay in the sun, swim, kayak, fish, and explore the beaches in the area. We especially liked Dog Beach, and La Jolla shores. We spent a lot of time with Eric and his girlfriend Sarah. We also spent time with Eric's roomate John, whose family owns a restaurant in San Diego called Centifonti's (excellent food and chocolate).

After a relaxing time in San Diego, we went to L.A. We stayed with my great aunt and uncle (Lyn and Clive). We had a lot of fun with them and they were great hosts. We went to Grauman's Chinese theatre and saw the stars footprints and handprints. We drove down Mulholland drive and went to Venice Beach. We had really great Cuban food and also fish tacos.

We left L.A. after two days there and were glad to be leaving the city (too much traffic). We drove up the coast and stopped at Jalama Beach Campground. It was really beautiful there and we stayed right on the beach. We liked listening to the waves crash as we fell asleep. We also had a late night visit from a raccoon who tried to get in the tent until Will scared it off. In the morning we continued our drive up the coast and stopped at Andrew Molera State park in Big Sur. We had to walk 1/4 mile to get to the campsite, but it was worth it. It was located in a meadow, and when we first walked to it we saw three deer in the middle of the campsite. We set up our tent under a tree, and it protected us from the loud wind and rain that night. We met some bikers there who were on a two month long bike trip. We also met a really cool campground host the next morning.

After Big Sur, we drove to San Francisco to stay with some family friends of mine. On the way, we stopped in Carmel and Monterey. We saw elephant seals playing in the water, and we walked around and had lunch on the beach.

San Francisco is a really cool city. The first night we got there we had our first homecooked meal (thanks Linda!). Then Will and I left to go to Oakland to see a Will's friend Colin Jones perform as the lead singer in a Rage Against the Machine cover band. It was also Halloween, so the heavy metal venue brought in some pretty interesting characters. It was raining the next day we were there, so Linda and Jeff took us to the California Academy of Science museum in Golden Gate park which had just opened. They had an aquarium and rainforest biodome there. We saw an albino alligator, bright blue butterflies, and all sorts of interesting fish. We had dinner at this amazing seafood restaurant on the water. The next day Will and I woke up and went to San Jose to visit with my friend Megan. Then we went into the city to see the Golden Gate Bridge up close and walked down to the pier to watch the sea lions.

We leave tomorrow to do some camping/wine tasting in the northern part of the state, and then we are heading back to Mass! We should be home in 2-3 weeks.

I apologize again for not updating this sooner, we hope to be better about it in the next few weeks. We miss everyone and hope you are all doing well!

p.s. I put more pictures up on the website (I couldn't fit all of them but some are up there).