Winchester House and Hanging Out

Hey Folks! Still blogging about our California adventure that happened about a month ago. Let's get to it.

The Redwoods were on the top of my short sighting seeing list. With that checked off, the next day we hit the 2nd one on my wish list - The Winchester Mystery House. I had told Mike before we went to CA that I wanted to go here and sent him the link to see if he was interested in going. If so, great! If not, even better because he could watch the kiddos and let me go and actually focus on the tour. I asked a few more times and he said he wasn't sure he wanted to go. They day before we were to go on the tour, he all of a sudden was like (to paraphrase the conversation):
Him-You said it was a mansion...you didn't mention it was the Winchester House?!?! (all incredulous like)
Me -Um, ok. I sent you the link.
Him - But that house is totally famous. I saw an awesome show on it on the History channel.
Me - Ok. Never heard of it before Ana Maria sent me the link and I decided I wanted to go but ok.

Turns out this wacky house is pretty infamous. Mostly because the woman who built it was a whack job and did totally bizarre things. The house was under construction for 40 years, 24 hours a day and includes strange things like stairways to no where, stairways that zig zag with tiny little risers to the next level, secret passageways as well as doors and windows to walls. Definitely weird, definitely a sight to see.

The kids did pretty well on the tour. We played up the "mysterious" part of the house and, of course, that made my spooky lovin' Dylan totally into it. Mike and I took turns entertaining Cade. In one of the rooms, Cade and I counted the hooks in a nook several times. For some reason he thought that was great. How many hooks were there? Glad you asked. 13. There were a lot of things that happened in the number 13 in the house. Kind of a thing wacky Mrs. Winchester did.

In usual house tour form, we couldn't take interior pictures. The only time we were free to use the old camera was when we got up on this deck. I tried to get some shots of how wacky the roof line is to show just how non architecturally sound this house is, or rather is not.

The spider web design was also recurrent in the house.

Here are some kids that are kind of over the tour now:
Elise, Cade and Dylan (not me...I thought it was great)

Dylan's absolute favorite part of the whole experience (other than the room with cracked plaster damaged in an earthquake that he still talks about today...the broken room) was the gift shop. Not for the knick knacks though. There was an old school "game" that was totally up his alley and really one of the oddest things I've ever seen. When you put in a quarter, the "spooky" church graveyard came alive and the zombie and skeleton came up and down out of hiding. The drunk guy in the grave also sat up and down and the gate swung. Totally weird, right? We were also entertained by dropping a few quarters in the player piano.

The Haunted Churchyard

After that morning's activity, it was naps and night time hanging out. We did a lot of that at the house but didn't get many pictures of it. Dylan, Cade, Elise and Cate really got along great and did lots of drama free playing together. Here are some of the few (and not so great) hanging out pics:

Dylan and His Friends Cate and Elise.
Dylan announced last week that he was flying to California to see his friends Cate and Elise and he would be back in a few minutes. Then he set up his seats in the play room to be the plane. He was the pilot, Cade the copilot and me the passenger. Too cute!

Aren't Theo and Ana Maria just adorable? That purple polka dot kid chair really suits Theo.

We also read a lot of Skippy Jon Jones. The kids loved that book and now a couple of the books live at our house, thanks to Mr. Cupid.

With only 1 more full day left with the Preller's, we had a lot to pack in. More tomorrow.

Wine from the vine

While most of our vacation was spent all together as a family, I did have 2 quick jaunts away from everyone. One day, Ana Maria and I were able to go out on our own (thanks to sweet Mike who took responsibility for all the kiddos) and go for a little hike. We took the same route that we went on with the families but were able to explore a little further. We got to see our deer friends again. We saw them briefly on our hike with the kids, but with the noise that came along with our group, they quickly skedaddled. This time, we got fairly close to them and got to spend a little time observing the herd of 8.

Only a short trip up another hill past where the families made it to, the trail ended at a road. Continuing on just a very short bit, we saw a sign for wine tastings. Obviously, there was no choice but to travel down the road where the sign pointed and see what we could see. It being right at 5 o'clock when we arrived at the winery, we missed our window for wine tastings. But, we got some info on when they would be open and checked out the stables also on sight. We vowed to come back the next day. As we traveled back trying to beat the oncoming darkness, we ran into some folks on horseback. We spoke with Ana Maria's neighbors for a bit who were heading back up to the winery from where we had just come...that's where they stabled their horses. Nice folks. And we got a nice sunset view of the landscape on the return home too.

The next day, we decided we would head back up while the gang was napping. Unfortunately, Cade was not cooperating with the nap effort. After trying to get him down for some time, I decided he was coming with us. We were running out of time to make the tasting again and we were determined not to miss it. And man, it was tough practically running up that long stretch of uphill trail with a squirming almost 2 year old on my back. Despite the cool weather, we were both sweatin' by the time we got there....luckily just in time for some wine sampling!

Cheers!

Cade had a great time drinking water from his wine glass and having a few palate cleansing crackers.

Cute Building Where They Held The Tastings

After our tasting, we went to visit the horses. Cade, not surprisingly, absolutely loved it! He even got to feed one and pet a few. 

We also ran into our new friends that we had met the previous day on the trail. And as a special treat, we got to meet their miniature pony. That lucky little guy resides in their house!

After meeting the mini, we headed back down to the house and had dinner as a group.

Good workout, good wine, horse petting. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours of a vacation afternoon!

The Amazing Redwoods

As I said in my last post, I had low expectations for things "to do" while in California. The focus of the trip was spending time with friends, not sight seeing. However, there were two things I really wanted to prioritize and do that week. One of which was to seek out these amazing Redwood trees I've heard and seen pictures of. In photos, they are so large in scale that they seem impossible to exist. I needed to see them with my own eyes.

On Tuesday, my boys and Ana Maria and her girls all packed into our hot minivan and took the extremely windy 16 mile road to Big Basin State Park. It was a beautiful drive! Well, it was definitely scenic from the front of the car looking forward at it. From the back of the car, well, it was more of a roller coaster that went on far too long. We stopped midway for the back seat passengers to get out, get some fresh air and try to de-green their cute little faces. Then we set out again. Right after we passed the 1 mile sign to the park, poor little Cate tossed her cookies. So when we got there, we took some time to do a little clean up and get folks feeling better. Good thing we still had some extra clothes for the boys still in our backpack. Cate rocked the camo pants and skull shirt!

Once the kids were back into sorts, we headed to the visitors center. Right outside was a humongous Redwood that we all took turns hanging out in....not that we needed to take turns because the whole group (and then some) could hang out comfortably, I just couldn't everyone corralled in there at once.

Hanging IN the Redwood

After everyone got in a potty break, we got a trail recommendation, checked out the displays in the visitors center then headed out for a wee little hike.

The kids did a really great job on the hike and I was amazed and completely in awe of these magnificent trees. While pictures are cool, there is definitely nothing like feeling like an ant next to the skyward Redwoods. I highly recommend this to anyone. Put it on your bucket list. Words and pictures cannot do this experience justice. So, I'll stop blabbering and let the captioned pictures speak for themselves.

Cate and Elise
This Redwood fell in 1983 (?). What is seen here is what's left of the root system.

We all walked up this lain tree for a group shot.

If you pan out, you get a much better idea of how far up we all are...
and we all fit side by side on a portion of the exterior of the tree.

Some of the "smaller" trees

Rippled Bark

I Spy a Cutie

Looking Up

This tree was called the chimney.
Redwoods are very fire resistant.
The middle of this tree had burned out but the exterior was still thriving.

The Chimney Tree
ALL the kids are actually hiding inside of it in this picture!

Another tree that burned. This one wasn't as lucky as the previous on and is no longer living.

It was an easy trail with lots of cool natural wonders to discover. If you find yourself in the Bay area, I would highly recommend this park. You get all the beauty of the Redwoods and get to miss some of the bigger crowds that other parks have. In case you're interested, here's a link that tells about the trail we did. I'd love to go back someday with older kiddos and attack some of the more challenging hikes.

Back to Cali

Other than the must have trip home for the holidays, we have been avoiding planes for a very simple reason....and his name is Cade. Our last big trip was last June to California to see my cousin get married and to visit Mickey while we were there. While the big event was wonderful, seeing and spending with family was fantastic, other parts of the trip were not so enjoyable. Cade was kind of a mess and it scarred us enough not to travel for a while. If you don't remember the details, you can read about some of it here. Anyway, we knew quite a while back that there was another occasion we absolutely could not miss happening on January 25th in Oakland....my good friend wedding. Since we have a lot of friends in the area, we decided to make a longish vacation of it...hopefully long enough to make the long plane ride with the kiddos worth it.

And was it worth it? Absolutely! I came well armed with plane activities, expected the worst, survived the flights well and had a really great vacation with the family. Getting back....different story. It's been a rough\hectic couple of weeks, hence this delayed post. But, without further ado, here's some info on our trip.

My good friend, Ana Maria, and her family relocated to the Bay area last year. Since they were all settled in their new place, they graciously offered to host us for most of our stay. So once we arrived at the San Fran airport, we picked up our ride for the week...a minivan....and headed to Ana Maria's place in Saratoga. Now first off, I am a car person. I like cars. Pretty ones. Fast ones. Minivans do not fall into those categories. I resigned to a life of SUV's while having young kids but I absolutely can not bring myself to go the minivan route. Really, absolutely no offense to any lovely folks out there that drive one but they're just not for me. In any case, we got one because 1) we planned to take some group trips that it would be handy for and 2) it was cheaper than other large car rentals. I really tried to hate that thing but man, are they convenient! Cup holders EVERYWHERE and easy access to the whole vehicle. I will absolutely not be purchasing one anytime soon but I definitely understand the draw a bit more. However, I will still curse the minivan in front of me that cannot find the accelerator (Damn minivans!).

In any case, after our last long trip with a big time change, we wisely decided to have laid back expectations of the trip and touristy things to do. On day one, that involved getting to their house and hanging out. We did just that. Dylan and Cade got along smashingly with their girls, Elise and Cate. It was almost like having a baby sitter because those 4 just went off and did their own thing most of the time.

While we had a relaxing time, we didn't exactly have a restful time. Mostly because adjusting the kids to the time change while all sleeping in the same space didn't exactly make conducive conditions to getting a good night's sleep. We did the best we could though and napped when possible.

Our first morning there, we were greeted by some deer that frequent Ana Maria and Theo's hilly yard in Saratoga. They were a beautiful sight to start out what would be a nature day for us.

Near their house, there are some nice trails they discovered that we took the kids on to explore. Their area is really lovely....the hillsides are dotted with grape vines for vineyards and beautiful big houses. The highlight of our hike was a little less scenic. They had discovered a deer carcass hiking the trails a few weeks back and, having Dylan as a son, I knew we had to check it out. Dylan was completely fascinated and still talks about it and asks questions. It was actually pretty cool to see and I took some pictures. Knowing it would gross out my Mom, pictures are not included here so you can feel free to keep reading.

Mike, Cade, Theo, Ana Maria
(and on the "lower" level) Cate and Elise

Us
Yeah, Cade was the one happy to walk the whole way. Tired Dylan, not so much. Good workout for me though!

The Prellers!

Once back at the house, we hung out in their back yard which, in addition to the feature of a big cool hill, they have rocks to climb on and a coy pond. The boys loved it there!

Elise then asked if she could paint and, it being vacation and all, Ana Maria said yes. No sooner then the paint came out, the chaos and mess started! The boys certainly had fun but there was a good mess to clean up after the quick pieces of art our little Picassos made. Cade was definitely to blame for most of the craziness. Unfortunately, I was wrapped up dealing with his clean up and left Ana Maria with the bulk of the art\deck clean up. (Thanks, Ana Maria! Sorry again for leaving you with that!)

That evening, my friend Katie, her husband Justin and their cutie pie Everett came over and we all enjoyed pizza while the kids ran around screaming. It was quite chaotic! Katie and Justin are friends of mine from college. They've been on the west coast for a while so since our wedding, Mike and I have only seen them a very small handful of times....the last one was, I think, when Dylan was a wee tyke. It was great to see them and to get to meet their sweet little boy.

The next day was Monday. It being MLK day, my friend Katie had the day off so we drove the hour to her town of Livermore. We had lunch in the cute center of town, wandering, let the boys run amok then headed to her place for naps.

Dylan and Everett

During their nap is when I got the unfortunate news that the sale of our NH condo fell through. I dealt with that fallout while the kids were sleeping and then tried to put it behind me and not let it ruin the rest of the day\week. After naps, we walked to the park and played.

What up Ev?

Katie

Mom, You're Crazy!

When it got dark, we walked back to Katie's place, packed up, said goodbye, grabbed some Subway sandwiches and drove back to our home for the week in Saratoga.