California Weekend

My sister-in-law, Ann and nephew, Sam came from Nebraska for a fun-filled, long weekend last week, which is part of the reason that I haven't gotten any farther on my L'Amour socks than I was a week ago, not that I didn't try. We had a wonderful, leisurely time, and I had lots of opportunities to knit, but it seems that every time I ended a knitting session, I discovered that I had miscounted stitches. I happily unraveled my errors, and then proceeded to make the same mistakes again while busily chatting away. I still say that it's all about the process, but I was getting ridiculous. The socks are for Ann, and I wanted to finish them while they were here, but that was a little ambitious.

There's nothing like out of state guests to remind you of what a great place you live, especially when the weather is perfect and everything is still so green. When we weren't socializing away, we did a few things, like:

eating lunch at Moo Creamery in Bakersfield, highlighted by basil lemonade and incredible raspberry jalapeno ice cream.

going to Brad's in Pismo Beach for fish tacos and walking off a few of the calories with a stroll on the wharf.

stopping at Kelsey See Canyon Vineyards to pick up a bottle of Golden Delicious Apple Chard and admire the peacocks.

enjoying beautiful views of Morro Bay from our rented beach house in Cayucos, and ending the day, listening to the waves while eating some doctored up Ragu spaghetti and Apple Chard for the grown ups out on the deck.

visiting Heast Castle for probably my twentieth time, Russ's ten or twelfth, Paige and Kai's six or seventh, and Ann and Sam's very first. I'd say we were all equally happy about it. Hearst Castle never gets old. It's always unbelievable. Although the price has really gone up --$25 a ticket. Guess I've gotten spoiled not having to pay when I take kids there on field trips every year.

We went on Tour 1, which is the best tour for anyone going for the first time. We were on the veranda at noon and got to hear the bells from the bell tower, something they've recently started doing. Way cool! And that was only half of our four days together.