Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Fabulous 50

Mama, Daddy and I went to my grandparents' beach home in Cambria.
Ty boy was dirt biking for the weekend with cousins so this last trip was a special time with just me and my parents. We celebrated:
Mama's 50th b-day
&
Me and daddy's 50 mile bike ride
{We joked that, in honor of her, we rode a mile for every year of her life.}

Of course we had to drop by for a visit before we left and before gma and gpa went on a long cruise. Mama has inherited her mothers' love for flowers.
Above: Me and grandma in her rose garden. We made sure to bring some home because if WE didn't enjoy them before we all left on our trips, then nobody would.
Below: me and daddy would find ourselves all of the sudden walking alone on the ranch, only to look back and see mama a few yards back, having veered off the path and busily photographing poppies all over the bluff.
Rock towers and tide pools
Every trip deserves a visit to The Sea Chest.
We used mama's b-day as an excuse to get dessert :)
We were all resting on the couch just looking out at the ocean when I swore I saw a whale spout. So we all jumped up, grabbed the binoculars and ran (literally) out to a point on the ranch to where we thought we could get the best view. You could totally see them without the binoculars they were so close, but it's cool to see all the up close detail too. Saw tons!

THE 50 MILER!
We planned for this ride for like 4 months.
The Wildflower Ride in San Luis Obispo

You can't tell, but there were about 2,000 fellow cyclists on this ride. Super popular and through a really nice open beautiful part of the valley. In many areas there were stretches of just vineyard after vineyard.
It was fun to roll into the pit stops, grab some power food like bananas and pretzels then get back on the bike and ride on!
Lots of 20 and 30 mile rides to get in shape=
lots of quiet hours in the country, just me and daddy-o.
~Beautiful rolling hills of San Luis, California~

Just one more thing to add to the wonderful
life long list of memories made in Cambria.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

D.C.

Obviously mama and I went to D.C. & Boston in the same trip, it's just taken me a while to make separate posts cus they were very full and unique experiences in their own right.
George Washington University,
the first of many schools on our week-long trip to visit!
Behind me would have been "my" building.
They presented a very nice and comfortable open house and everyone we met was very kind.
~I was just way more excited and impressed with Boston~
The Smithsonian
We attempted to see as much as we could in just 4 short hours.
Trust me, you get lost in those museums. There is SO MUCH stuff to see and read and learn. Really an amazing public facility. It's a must-do-again-when-I-have-my-own-kids attraction.
We hit the Air & Space museum as well as the American History museum. Above is the historic 'Spirit of St. Louis' plane flown by Charles Lindbergh.
Below is the first plane to ever successfully be "in flight", made by the Wright brothers. A-mazing that it was right there! In a world where anything can be digitalized, virtualized, recreated, forged, mimicked, waxed, etc. it was crazy to be in these museums with the actual honest-to-goodness real things of so many items from history.
This was a big highlight for mama because years ago she was able to visit Kitty Hawk and has wanted to see the Wright brothers' famous plane ever since.
And I was super excited about seeing Lincoln's hat because I'm reading a book on him right now, Lincoln's Melancholy, and his memorial was my favorite of all we visited. I just have some "no real reason why" interest in him as a person.
Can't really see the excitement in my face because I was really hungry and tired and was just a little bit cranky. haha oops. Happens~
That's the actual suit he got painted in who knows how many times.
Seeing as how we had just visited GWU...seemed appropriate.

Julia Child's Kitchen
I'm pretty obsessed with food and cooking so this was for sure a highlight.
Enter..... CuPcaKes
So there's this show on TLC about a cupcake shop in Georgetown.
Naturally, we felt it was our duty as D.C. visitors and just chocolate loving women in general to grace this lovely little shop with our presence.
The daily line out the door speaks for itself. They give you a little menu with all the options for that day and mama and I took, I don't know, maybe about 30 seconds to zero in on the two most chocolate decadent choices offered. Pretty sure one of them was called "chocolate cubed" as in chocolate to the third degree.
Yup
The country seems to be in an all out craze with cupcakes as of late. Throughout our trip we continued to 'sample' these little treats wherever we found a shop, but some of them unfortunately went straight to the trash after only a bite. Not even close to D.C. cupcakes.
So if you're ever there, try them.
{We even bumped into the sister missionaries there! If that's not classic, I don't know what is}

~The CapiTAl and all the sites~
All these Elders were leaving the next day.
We just happened to be there the two weeks of the year the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom.
*Night* Tour
(My camera was wiggin' out in the photo above.)

Loved loved loved the Lincoln Memorial.
So stoic, grand, and clean. Mama and I felt reverence there.
WW2 memorial

It was a fabulous trip. All good and fun things to see all in
one little area.