Our summer trip

Ok, so here's the beginning. We drove up the coast of California all the way to San Francisco, with many stops along the way.

Here is the view of the coast once we started heading up into the hills towards Solvang. You can see the island out in the distance if you look carefully.

What a spaz, she did so good in her carseat. We were very happy about that as you can imagine

Our first stop was in the city of Solvang. It was a Danish city established by immigrant farmers. It was out in the middle of nowhere and then all of a sudden you enter the town and there are tons of people and shops and everything but the scenery was beautiful as well.

We wanted this to be Anna's heritage/Halloween costume but they were all handmade and therefore far too pricey for our budget. But so, so, so, cute, so we stole a picture quick

They had a cute little toyshop with a bunch of oldschool toys

We ate in a Danish restaurant and Clayton got sausage with mustard sauce and red cabbage. It was delicious!!!

This shop was my favorite they had a bazillion clocks and they were awesome. I wanted to take them all home with me, I felt like I was in Pinnochio. The guy would change the time forward for us one clock after the next so we could see them perform. It was really cool.

I tried the famous abelskivers which were divine. (I don't know if that's how it's spelled or not)

Next stop was Hearst's Castle

This guy built this house up on the hill overlooking the ocean and he even built his own zoo on the property and imported zebras to roam his land because he liked zebras, etc.

This was the outdoor pool

This was one of the bedrooms in one of the guesthouses. Everything was covered in 22ct gold

Here is the view out one of the guest windows

Everything he used to decorate, inside and out, were museum pieces that he had imported from all over the globe. This is a statue that was imported from Egypt that predates Moses.

Here is the front of the house

This is the dining room, which inspired the room in Harry Potter.

This was my favorite, it is the indoor pool which was always heated and was covered in gold as well. That is the diving board in the center of the picture

Then we finished the day by driving further up the coast to Monterey Bay

We woke up in the morning and toured the Aquarium

They had this cool thing to see what it is like under a wave

Before

After

Sardines, yummy

"Our little pearl" (in a really cheesy voice)

They had a little area for kids to play so we let Anna get her hands a little wet, til she started eating the ledge. She is cute, she eats everything these days. Just the other day, we left the room for 30 seconds and we came back to find a whole 4th of a page missing from the ensign, she chewed and swallowed and everything. Sick

Sardines again

Funny story. So we watched a video of the male seahorses giving birth to the baby seahorses one after another after another. And as we are staring at it, Clayton says, "Wow, they just pop'em right out." And then I hear this little voice behind me ask his family, "They just pop them right out?" To which they all responded with laughter. The poor little boy was so embarrassed. Thanks a lot Clayton :)

There was a Nestle Tollhouse shop across the street where we just had to stop and it was absolutely fantastic