Our Trip To California

Al and I went to California recently to babysit my grandson while my son and daughter-in-law went on vacation.  It was so much fun being there with my grandson and having that time to bond with him.  He is such a good little boy and is so very easy going, just like his daddy.  I love the little babbling sounds he makes.  He is always 'talking', and it's so cute.  He loves the book, 'The Napping House'.  A CD  comes with the book, and he knows how to put it in the CD player.  Every night we followed this ritual,  and then he would sit on my lap to listen to the story.  As soon as the story was over he would take the CD out and put his favorite music CD in, to listen to as he goes to sleep.

 

After my son and daughter-in-law returned from vacation, we spent a day visiting with them and hearing about their amazing trip and filling them in on how my grandson did while they were gone.  I am so happy they had a wonderful time.  The next day Al and I drove up to Napa Valley.  It's probably not even an hour away from where they live.  We had beautiful weather as we strolled through some of the wineries.  Robert Mondavi was our first stop, and we were both feeling pretty good after sampling some of their finest wines.  We were laughing because we had the rest of the day ahead of us!  Robert Mondavi is one of my favorites so, of course, we had to buy a bottle.  We found a little cafe to have lunch and then set out for some more touring.  Our next stop was Beringer, where we sampled some more wine and bought another bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.  From there we went to the Beaulieu Vineyard, drank another glass, and bought our third bottle of wine to take home.  It was a wonderful day and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  All of the wine we bought is going to be saved for special occassions since it's quite a bit more expensive than what we are used to buying. 

The next morning we drove to San Francisco and lucked out because the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  There was no fog, and it was very nice and warm.  In fact, we parked the car so we could walk across the bridge, and I got so hot I had to take my sweater off.  That's the first time it's been that warm in all the times I've visited the city.  We did the usual touristy stuff, like ride the cable cars, and walk around Pier 39 and eat and shop there. While strolling down by the piers, I got spooked by the 'bush man'.  All of a sudden a big bush fell over on me.  It scared me and I jumped out of the way and screamed.  I looked over my shoulder and saw a guy crouched down with a big  bush in his hands just looking up at me! I couldn't believe it!  When we got home my son asked us if we saw the bush man.  And I told him yes.  Well, from what my son says, this guy has been doing this for years.  At one point the city banned him from scaring people, but then they let him come back because he made people laugh, I guess.  It's funny, because a lady a few steps behind us got spooked too.  She obviously didn't see him get me!   We also went up the hill to the Top of the Mark restaurant and saw incredible views of the city.  We spent the entire day there just walking, eating, and soaking up the atmosphere.  Both of us like to do things like that, just see places and experience things together.  It was a lot of fun!

We left San Francisco and flew directly to Chicago to spend Mother's Day with my mom.  That will be my next post.