California Top 5

It's been over a year since we've lived in California and it's no secret that I haven't exactly loved every minute of being 3,000 miles away from my family and home.  But, that is not to say that there aren't a few things that I do enjoy about the California life.  Since at this point we have no idea where we will be a year from now, I figured I need to start focusing on the positive things about living here... So, here are my Top 5 favorite things about living in California.





Top 5 Favorite Things!



1) The Weather.

All the leaves are brown,
And the sky is gray,
California Dreamin'
On such a winter's day!
Yep.. that song really does sum up the difference between PA and CA.  During the gray, cold days that make up the winter months in PA, central California has moderate temps and rain, which means that it is one of our greenest times of the year. The rest of the year, we get the 'golden hills' because of too much sun... but it's because of too much sun.  I can't really complain with that.  We have no snow or ice where I'm at, but if you wanted to go see snow, you can drive 3 hours and wah-lah! Snow!



At the sunny, beautiful beach in April!



2) The Landscape.

Speaking of driving 3 hours to see snow... that snow is capping the Sierra Nevada mountains.  Mountains that look over beautiful Lake Tahoe, or make up the face of Half Dome, or that glitter at night with climbers making their way up El Capitan in Yosemite.  And the snow?  It melts down into the breath-taking Bridal Veil Falls and feed to Lake Helen in Lassen National Park.  If you prefer ocean over mountains, you can drive 1 hour the opposite direction from us and see blue waves crashing against pristine beaches and cliffs covered with flowers. 

And the best part, we don't HAVE to drive for hours to enjoy the beautiful views... this is the view from our favorite local hiking spot:

 

3) The Drinking.

You can buy beer anywhere that sells water.  And wine.  And liquor.  No separate stores.  Although that should be enough right there, to top it off - alcohol is cheaper.  And, you can drink in public - at street fairs, festivals, parades, etc.  You can even drink in public parks and on the beach!





4) The Activities.

As if the all the drinking, gorgeous scenery and beautiful weather were not enough, there is always something going on.  Whether it's an Arts Festival, Farmer's Market, exploring a new city or visiting a new museum... it's hard to be "bored" in California.  Part of that is due to a shift in perspective and priorities. Something about being somewhere new makes you want to get out and see it... if you didn't grow up with it "right there" and you don't know how long you'll be somewhere to take advantage of it, it's that much more intriguing and motivating.  Some of our other favorite activities:



Skipping rocks at a a nearby lake





Playing in the fountains - one of Andrew's favorite activities! 





The slides at any of the 8 parks in our community are one of Andrew's other favorite activities!







Playing in the sand at the beach - one of Mike's favorite activities! ;)



 

5) The Happy People.

See 1-4.  Wouldn't you be happy to?  :)  

Easter Weekend

Easter Egg Fun!

 

Easter weekend in Mountain House started with their traditional community Easter Egg Hunt.  The weather was a perfect 70 degrees and sunny, so we loaded up Andrew's wagon, complete with sun-umbrella, and headed to Central Park.  Just to be clear, by no means can this be considered an actual "hunt" of any kind.  The green fields are littered with 15,000 colorful eggs, so no one has to actually do any hunting or searching of any kind.  But anyways, unfortunately, since the "hunt" started at Andrew's nap time, we had to do a lot of coaxing to get our toddler to actually participate. He was content to just stand around and just take it all in. Nevertheless, he eventually filled his basket, saw the bunny and took a couple of turns down the slide before we steered the wagon back home.

 

 



Andrew wasn't shy about the bunny at all... he actually had a hard time waiting for his turn.



Love this expression.

Central Park... Andrew going down the slide the wrong way, but Grammy is there to catch him!

This year, armed with the help of Grammy and Andrew's ability to finally not put everything in his mouth, we decided to try dying Easter eggs.  We had one dozen eggs, a Sesame Street egg decorating kit, shaving cream and food dye and went to town.  Andrew wasn't getting the whole concept of having to GENTLY place the egg in the dye, so we broke out a cake pan and put him on the shaving cream project.  This was something I had seen on Pinterest months ago and was eager to try... I'm so glad we did, because playing with shaving cream is so much fun!

Andrew "dying" plastic eggs... notice no dye in the cream here... this was his play batch after we discovered just how easily the food coloring would dye his hands, hair, face, clothes, etc.

He FINALLY doesn't mind getting his hands messy for art!



The End Result

The two eggs on the right were the "shaving cream eggs".  It's a soft, subtle look, but they were very pretty up close.

 

 

Helping Grammy make her famous carrot cake!

Easter morning, Andrew followed a trail of eggs to his Easter "basket".  His basket this year was a wheel barrow, complete with garden tools and his own watering can (he is obsessed with our adult size watering can, so I figured why not give him one he can actually pour?), books, bubbles, and chalk.  We had a really nice day that consisted of playing with Andrew's new toys, Facetiming and Skyping with family in PA and a trip to the park.  The Easter events ended with a delicious Easter Ham dinner and yummy carrot cake for dessert.

What's this basket doing outside my door?

Why are there Easter Eggs on the floor?

After his initial surprised face reaction that he does so much lately, he had to hug every bunny in site... there were at least 3.

Yum!

He loves pushing things... since Easter, we have already had him fill up the wheelbarrow with yard clippings and bring it to the Yard Waste can.  He's such a good helper!

Yes, he dumped the grass all day long and Grammy and I just kept putting it back in...

 

Aunt Barb sent an Easter gift with Grammy - a Thomas the Engine book with playmat and little toy trains.  He loves it!

Easter Dinner

Lake Tahoe!

March brought green hills, warm days and Grammy Foster to California!  Grammy will be staying with us for three weeks, so we planned lots of fun activities to keep her busy!  Our first trip was the weekend after she arrived (no rest for the weary), and we headed 3 hours northeast to beautiful Lake Tahoe. 


Look how green it is!

Mike and I had both been to Tahoe once before - Mike went with our friend Josh on a snowboarding trip to North Lake, and my family made a stop at the lake during our California vacation almost a decade ago.  We were both excited to go back and see if it lived up to what we remembered, and to see just how rusty we had become in the 4 or 5 years since either of us has been on a mountain. 

For those of you who don't know, Mike has years of both skiing and snowboarding experience - having grown up with family ski trips to Vermont and then working at Copper Mountain, Colorado as a snowboard instructor in a former life.  Mike prefers to ride goofy, in the trees and as steep as he can (seems goofy to me all right)... but in his old age, he has grown a healthy awareness of the fact that he is NOT invincible, so although I'm always nervous watching him head off the path and towards double blacks, he swears he used to do much stupider things.  Either way, I am always impressed  by his skill and just how easy he makes snowboarding look.  I will never forget one ski trip to the Poconos with friends about 5 years ago, when he spent time teaching one of their daughters how to ski... it melted my heart watching his patience and ease with her, and I knew instantly that I couldn't wait for the day he'd teach our children how to ski too.

The Expert!

He has been telling me for years that I have GOT to experience skiing on the West coast, because there is no comparison, so I was eager to see what all the hype was about... especially because Mike says the Tahoe trip with Josh was some of the best snow conditions he's ever experienced.  My level of expertise is intermediate at best... although, when I asked for tips to make myself better, all Mike could come up with is, "Don't be such a wuss."  I have a beyond healthy awareness of how easy it is to break something, and just how hard life would be while healing, so I would much rather "cruise" than straightline down a mountain, and the idea of going off a trail is just about the stupidest thing I could think of doing on a mountain... oh, besides going down a double black diamond trail.  I will stick to my blue squares, thank you very much.

How I like to enjoy the mountain - with a beer in the sun!

So, we arrived at South Lake Tahoe, Embassy Suites on Friday night - just in time for two free drinks each at the daily happy hour and then headed out to Stateline Brewery for dinner.  We would highly recommend this restaurant for anyone with kids, looking for a loud, friendly atmosphere with good food.  I should probably mention here that Stateline Brewery is named such, because it (and Embassy Suites) are directly across the street from Nevada.  Like, with the right wind, I could spit out our hotel room window on to Harrah's Casino (okay, that's an exaggeration, but you get the point). 

Andrew's favorite part of the trip - the Koi pond at the hotel!

On Saturday, Mike and I got roped into going to a timeshare presentation.  I know, I  know, but they gave us a $75 gift card and a free two night stay back at any Embassy Suites.  We are planning on heading back in the summer to check out the lake some more... and no, we did not purchase a time share.  Afterwards, we headed back to meet up with Grammy and Andrew for a quick dip in the hotel pool, which Andrew was not a big fan of... :(

Finally, it was time to ski!  Mike and I headed out to get my ski rentals, and while I got fitted for skis, Mike's snowboard boots literally fell apart in his hands.  He rented a pair of boots too, we bought our half day passes to Heavenly Ski Resort, and hopped aboard the gondola to the mountain. 

Heavenly's summit is 10,067 feet (compared to 1,082 vertical at Blue Mountain in the Poconos), has 4,800 acres of skiable terrain (164 at Blue), and 97 trails (versus 39 at Blue)... and still, Mike was disappointed.  Conditions were not great (I had just as good days on Blue's fake snow), and he felt a little responsibility to wait for me and not go wandering off into the wilderness by himself.  I still had a nice day, I didn't fall once and it was the first day that Mike and I had spent doing something together by ourselves for as long as either of us could remember.  

The view of Nevada from the mountain.  Mike was in those far off trees...

Needless to say, we could not have gone skiing without Grammy's help! After a few hours of skiing, Mike rode back down the gondola with my pass and then back up the mountain with Andrew and Grammy.  We played in the snow a little, got a couple drinks, and then headed back down the mountain to get cleaned up for dinner.  Next year, we are excited to take Andrew on the mountain with us and put him on a pair of skis! 

On St. Patrick's day, we drove to Emerald Bay, which I thought was very fitting (we had booked a boat trip but the Captain called out sick an hour before we were supposed to leave).  The Bay was very pretty, and we explored the area's waterfalls and trails for a couple hours before heading out of town.  On our way out, we found an Irish restaurant for lunch!  After some Shepherd's Pie and a couple Guinness's we headed home.