So another day on our quick nostalgic vacation to California. Today we are heading over to the beach, Santa Cruz to be exact. But before we get to the boardwalk, we stop in Capitola. This is a special place to Scott and I for many reason, but the most important one is; this is the place where Scott proposed to me almost 14 years ago. We didn't follow the normal dating time frame to marriage. We dated 2 1/2 years before getting engaged and then were only engaged for 7 weeks before getting married.
After Capitola, we drove over to the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. We let the kids choose which coasters they wanted to ride. Garhett and Scott rode The Giant Dipper, which is one of the last wood roller coasters. I was surprised that Garhett wanted to ride this coaster because he isn't usually our fear seeker (or coaster lover). He had a blast on it, even though he rode the ride with his eyes closed the whole time, he says. When the kids were done riding coasters they were begging to go out to the beach. So away we went. We collected shells as we walked along the beach. The boys chased the seagulls. I thought it would be fun to write our name in the sand and then have a family picture taken. So I wrote our name and Scott found this nice couple to come and take our picture. One picture is showing our name and a great back drop of the boardwalk and the other picture was edited to show our family a little closer. We had a great day at the beach. There is something about the ocean air and walking on the beach. Oh how I miss it!! When Scott and I were first married (well probably up until we moved out of CA 6 years ago), we would spend the weekend or at least Sunday afternoon walking on the beach or sitting listening to the waves crash.
As we wrapped up our time at beach and headed to our next stop, we drove through Watsonville (not an exciting town), but a place where the best strawberries are grown - Driscol Strawberries.
Our next stop was Hollister, CA. Again, not an exciting town, but this is the place where Scott and I bought our first home. We received the keys to our first 1600 sq foot home on our 2nd year anniversary. We put a pool in the backyard and had the most beautiful palm trees lining the fence around the pool. We had a cactus garden in the front yard. We loved this home. We drove the kids by our home and told Garhett that he lived in this house until he was 3 years old. Scott and I would get up at 4:30am to leave the house at 5:30am, drop Scott off at the office at 6:50am, drop Garhett off at daycare at 7:00am, and then I would get to the office by 7:30am. I would get off at 4:00pm and make the rounds to pick up Garhett and Scott and then we would join the traffic on our 2 hour commute home. Oh the days. We talk about it today wondering how the heck we did it, but you do what you gotta do to get by.
We finished our nostalgic tour and headed back to Scott's parents to sleep. Today was new years eve and I think the kids and I were in bed asleep by 9:30pm. Oh well - Happy New Year! Scott kept an eye on the weather for our travel back to Idaho and decided that we needed to head home a day earlier than planned because a big storm was coming. So the next morning we left and a good thing we did cause the day after the freeway over the pass closed due to snow. Phew!
We are back in Boise and getting everyone ready to get back to school and work. Even though this track break was one of the longer ones, we spent a lot of "family" time together and made lots of memories. I enjoyed this break with my kids, but am going to enjoy getting back to schedule and a routine.
