Family Time in Sunny, WARM Florida

Myself, mom and Lauren flew to Orlando to spend time with our grandparents and family a week and a half ago. We had a GREAT time! We took day trips to our favorite beach that we grew up visiting, New Smyrna Beach, and spent a day exploring a town in the Orlando area called Winter Park. Man, how I've missed warm weather!! It was so nice to put on shorts and a swimsuit for the first time in months. That's my kinda weather....hello SF, get a clue and warm up already!


It's a tradition for me to eat a hot dog from one of the beach stands at New Smyrna Beach. Yummy!

Enjoying one of my favorite activities with Lauren...basking in the sun! However, I wore sunscreen with an SPF of 100....I didn't even know it went that high! It takes about an hour to rub in because it's so thick and let me tell you...it does it's job!

My grandmother and mom in their stylish beach wear...don't they look great?

Entance to the beach from Flagler Avenue.

Small downtown festival at New Smyrna. I just love those palm trees!

All the girls together!

My mom had been wanting to take a scenic boat tour around the lakes of Winter Park. We spent a lovely hour taking in the sights of the water and beautiful homes on the lakes. The lakes are connected with canels like the one pictured above.

Remember Mr. Rogers from the 80s? I grew up watching him! Well, the house above was his home.

We spent the afternoon browsing the shops of Winter Park and stopped to have lunch at this super cute French restaurant.

Just another day at the beach...

The water was a cool 80 degrees....absolutely perfect!

I love the Florida coastline....long, expansive beaches that go on and on for miles.

Happy Grandfather's Day to the best Granddaddy ever!

Another shot of the girls....we had so much fun together!!

Granddaddy pictured with all of his grandkids minus Davy.

You know I had to pick up a lil' something for my fur babies...I've been wanting to buy them beach-y collars and look what I found! They look so handsome/pretty in their new collars.

I had such a wonderful time with family and only wished it could have lasted longer. Thank you to my grandmother for hosting us for 5 days. I can't wait until we can all get together again!!

Fun Day Trips Around The Bay

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA
We spent Tuesday at the beautiful seaside town of Carmel-by-the-Sea (aka Carmel) which is a 2.5 hour south of SF. If you ever visit Californais, it should be on your list of places to see....it's amazing! It has fantastic shops, yummy cafes, beautiful art galleries, and quaint cottages. And here's an interesting fact...Clint Eastwood (yep, the actor!) was the mayor from 1986-1988 and still owns the Mission Ranch and Hotel in town.

We ate lunch at Flaherty's Oyster Bar....I had fried oysters and clam chowder and Mike had
crab tacos....YUMMY!

We purchase an ornament from any new city we visit, so we selected a cute ornament with a cottage on it to represent Carmel. The cottage painted on the ornament is called The Tuck Box, as seen above. It's a popular tea room in town.

Her'es another shot of The Tuck Box built by Hugh Comstock in 1927.

Someone suggested to Mike to stop by Galante Vineyards & Winery for a tasting. It's a cute tasting room with a western vibe.

The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo hosts a huge wine competition....Galante won several awards in March 2011 for their wines. Pretty cool!

This chair takes me back to my Texas roots...

Here's another one of the Comstock Fairy tale Cottages....this one is called Hansel (he made a sister cottage called Gretel) and housed his wife's collection of dolls.

After visiting Carmel, we decidied to drive a bit further along the PCH. We crossed gorgeous views of the Pacific.

Don't let the sunshine fool you...it's was a chilly 58 degrees!

The next few pictures you see are of the famous 17-mile drive in Pebble Beach.

The Lone Tree

"Excuse me sir, could I bother you for a sunflower seed?"

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
On Thursday morning we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. We've been meaning to do this and finally decided Thursday morning was the time to make the trek!

The size of the cables....unbelievably huge!

And the walking begins...

Headed back to China.

View of SF and the Bay Bridge.

WINE COUNTRY

Friday ended up being quite a rainy day, but we didn't let the rain stop us with our plans to visit a few wineries.

This cow called Miss Moo-lot was made out of corks.

Downtown Sonoma.

Mike is a fan of La Crema wines, so we decided to stop by their tasting room in Healdsburg.

Our last stop of the day came to us by a recommendatino from Mike's co-worker. It's called Pride Mountain Winery and sits atop a mountain....absolutely beautiful. I can only imagine how pretty it is in the sunshine.

In the caves.

The pretty mural in their tasting room.