A Short but Sweet Holiday with Family

After an amazing time in Zion, and as the first snow fell in southern Utah on our last day, we ran across the southwest into California.  Leaving the lonely canyons to the bustling of Las Vegas was a terrible feeling.  We cruised through the southern central valley, and up into Bakersfield CA.  Passing by some odd things including a town that processed garlic, and reeked to high heaven, a town that was entirely a truck stop, as in nothing but fast food and gas stations. I loved it.  Another day passes and we roll up the 101 to Sunnyvale to greet my brother and his wife at their place.  We immediately get to work befriending the local wildlife by cleaning their cages.

The following day was spent catching up on GOT (we finished all the audio books, and now onto the show) and eating junk food.  The parents arrived that evening and we met up to discuss a hike the following day.   Our first excursion was a drive down he PCH to a winery in Monterey Bay, tough huh? 

After wards, we decided on visiting the Marin Headlands just across the Golden Gate bridge.  It was a lovely day of walking on the beach, and abandoned fortifications, followed by a picnic. 

Back in the apartment, I made Stacy very mad.  I was just trying to connect Stacy's laptop to the TV and Internet to show a slide show and opened a world of problems.  The computer would freeze every 5 minutes and needed a hard restart every time.  She did not take this news well.  I just now have almost finished messing with the operating system and getting it in a good state.  (Now I can say that it is functioning well after several visits to the genius bar, and multiple clean installs)...I am slowly seeing the light of these Unix-based Apple products.

Onto dinner, what a delicious spread, and what fun it was to help cook and bartend.

The day after we managed (#OptOutside) to go playing the woods at Castle Rock state park,  amongst the trees and huecoes.  A little hike and a little climb with family.  It was severely heartwarming to see so many people not shopping, but playing in the woods.

Good times fly by and soon it was time for the parents and us to go.  We still had 2 appointments at the apple store, and after some consternation, we headed away from the mega-tropolis and back to the parks.

-K