Spring Break in Northern California

Spring Break officially started this week. Yay! I have been adventuring like a mad fool.

For my non California friends, I included a map of my travels thus far...

 

The blue line looks short and sweet, but with LA traffic that little drive took me 9 hours each way.

 

I HATE LA!

 

Over the weekend I drove up to San Jose to visit my best friend Ashley who just moved back from South Carolina.

We checked out Cannery Row in Monterey, shopped around San Jose, and got our picture at the Winchester Mystery House.

 

 

 

We stayed at my aunt and uncle's house in the Santa Cruz mountains.

They have the most amazing property with hiking trails that lead to log cabins from the turn of the century, beautiful redwood trees, and waterfalls.

 

 

My cousin Ellie's cat, shadow, is literally her shadow.

She went with us on our 2 mile hike around the property.

 

 

Here we are with one of the log cabins. My aunt said it was from the prohibition era and people made moonshine in there! I was disappointed to find it empty, I could have used a little drink drink :)

 

My Aunt and Uncle are some of the most generous people I know. They say they are "blessed to be a blessing" and recently built an amazing cottage that they welcome travelling missionaries from around the world to live in while they are visiting.  In related news, I'm contemplating a career in the mission field.

 

The photos above are of their beautiful cottage/ my dream house!

 

They also have a barn with goats and chickens. I got to bottle feed this baby goat. It was soooo cute!

 

 

 

This is my Aunt Karen. Actually since I was very young, she made me call her my Favorite Aunt Karen. And she is! She's quite amazing and has an incredible story that I will have to save for later, but I will tell you this. My Favorite Aunt Karen is an IRON MAN triathlete. Saturday when we got to her house she had just finished a 60 mile bike ride around a lake preparing for her next triathlon. No joke, she's fierce! The Iron Man competition (unbeknownst to me because it is definitely NOT my thing!) involves biking 112 miles, swimming 2 and a half miles, and then running a full marathon that is 26.2 miles. She did this at Lake Tahoe last year and finished 9th for her age range. 40 percent of the contestants did not finish at all because it was 25 degrees out and absolutely brutal. Several people got hypothermia and had to be hospitalized for days. They start at 7 am and have to finish by midnight. I don't think I could do all that in a week's time, yet alone 17 hours. I kind of want to add it to my bucket list, but I'm not that disciplined. I'll stick with competitive eating :)

 Monday and Tuesday I visited my family and dropped Maddie off at my parent's house. We're getting ready to go to Coachella in Palm Springs Thursday through Monday so she'll stay with my parents while we're gone. She loves vacation as much as we do, so she's cool with it.

 

On Tuesday I picked up my dad and sister from the airport because they were in Ohio for my Grandpa's 80th birthday a couple weeks ago. Cover your ears (eyes?) if you're sensitive... My Grandpa is flipping hilarious: His ringtone is a voice saying "Will the man with the 12 inch penis please pick up his phone?"

Such a dirty old man!

 

Today and tomorrow I have Common Core Math training all day.

It's pretty miserable, but I'm glad to get it out of the way now and make a little extra money on my spring break.

 

I am all packed and ready to go to Coachella tomorrow.

200 bands and a bajillion people in the hot, stinky desert. Woo hoo!

 At least we're renting a house this year with a pool. No more of that camping crap.

 

For your viewing pleasure, some throwback photos from April 2010 when we first went to Coachella...