Cali Part One

Yes, it's been over a month since we've been back from our trip, and I am now just getting our pictures up--March ended up being a crazy month for me that I did not plan for, and now April is starting to take it's toll physically... So, I hope you still don't mind me sharing (I haven't even shared my birthday pictures from MARCH, so here are a couple from my birthday to start, geez it was march 1st).

Savoring cappuccino and key lime pie

Snuggling with Nells when I got home

Visiting with Madelynn after dinner

(officially 38)

At dinner; Kevin and Madelynn both got me some really great gifts-

Kevin got me a 100% Silk robe that I had been wanting that I never

want to take off, and Madelynn got me some terrific thrifted

finds all on her own, which was so thoughtful. Here is one of the 

sweet things she picked out for me:

I love it! A vintage Leaf tray/bowl AND I'm wearing the robe from Kevin!

We turned a trip that my husband "won" from work into a spring break family vacation. He works for Google and he works from home here in Minneapolis but he got the chance to go work at the Google headquarters (googleplex) for 3 days, so we lengthened our stay and then went on to San Francisco for the weekend!

While Kevin worked for the first two days, Madelynn and I got to explore the whole San Jose area: Mountain View, Los Gatos, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale (and a few more small towns). What a beautiful area. I grew up the first 7 years of my life in this area, so it was cool to be back, so nostalgic for me. Here are some collages of our time spent there:

 I can't start my travels without some joe, can I? And it was so fun having my new shoes and my bag that I had gotten new for our Greece trip last Fall. Both indulgences.

 California is so mountainous, I don't know why I seem to forget this. It was breathtaking flying into L.A.

The first night we stayed in San Jose. We flew from L.A. into Oakland and then  drove down. We had a kitch 

garden motel, I loved it (photo 1)

Santana Row is a really neat shopping area in San Jose/Santa Clara, and we went there the first night (photos 2&3), and lastly, me waking up to some good coffee at Bill's Cafe on the Alameda with Madelynn in San Jose. Loved that place, if you are ever in San Jose, go.

(Are plans were to go to the Rose Garden right near Bill's but there were hardly any roses blooming, so we passed).

 Our two favorite shops in Santana Row. Maido was a Japanese store with all these adorable tapes and papers. I bought a 2012 planner (ya I'm a couple months late, busted)

 The next thing I'm going to tell you about is Huddart Park! I am crazy over this place. It was absolutely one of the sweetest surprises of my life. A local suggested we go there, and boy did we have fun. It was drizzling but we didn't care. The park was empty and we went for it and were able to interact with the trees so to speak! I gasped and cried when I came upon my first Redwood in 30 years. It left me speechless. Madelynn thought they were pretty cool too. There were also big mossy oaks.

 I love these shots we got of one another! What do ya think?!

Dinner at Lulu's for fish tacos our last night before we leave for San Fran, the best in San Jose. And the manager was from Minneapolis, so he gave us free churros and flan!

 I was so excited to get back to Peet's! I hadn't been since I was in Oregon back in 2008. I love Peet's people, love it.

Oh boy, Google campus headquarters, Mountain View California! This place was incredible, let me tell you. There was free gourmet natural and organic meals-breakfast and lunch for all employees and their families. There is photo processing, dry cleaning and shoe repair, all free! There are smoothie bars, snack bars and heated toilet seats. There are free hair cuts onsite, bikes, and you can bring your dog to work. They grow their own blueberries and they play volleyball during the day! 

Me in line for desserts of course. And the food is tasty!

How do you like my blogger T? I didn't buy it. The one thing you have to pay for at Google is stuff in the Google store.

 One afternoon Madelynn and I went to Los Gatos, a really wealthy town with a cute shopping area. We walked around and ate bagels, drank soda, and talked. The town is quite beautiful, lots of vegetation. It was nice. Oh, we also bought a few things at a boutique store.

And pretty rare to find a building/store with my name on it, so I had to get pictures of that!

 We also snuck some photos in front of the facebook sign when the security guard wasn't looking!

Their campus seemed pretty boring, but really nice! I'm sure it's fun inside...

 And the lastly before we headed to San Fran for the weekend, we visited the Stanford Campus!

So beautiful! And we met the cutest Einstein type guy in the book store. What a bonus.

(Everyone kept asking us if Madelynn was considering the college, haha)

 I really like how my birdie on the campus turned out.

 Ok
XO