California Trip

We spent Labor Day in California.  It was SO NICE!  The weather was beautiful and it was great to have 2 days off work.  Here's a little recap of our trip-

We started in San Francisco.  Chris was out there working all week, so I joined him on Thursday evening.  We have both been to SF many times, but we love it more and more each visit.  The Golden Gate never gets old and we find something new on each trip.  I had actually never been to the "Painted Ladies" so that was something new and nice for this trip.

On Saturday morning we headed to Monterey.   I visited Monterey as a kid, but didn't really remember it.  We spent Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday in Monterey and Carmel.

I love these Sea Otters!  They are so cute and have so much character

We visited the Monterey Aquarium which is one of the best in the World! I recently took a digital photography class, so I tried to put some of my new skills in action at the aquarium.  It's hard to photograph the tanks, but I think I did an alright job.  I will definitely be using some of the "manual"  skills I learned more often!

 I touched a Stingray for the first time.  It was sooooo slimy- gross!

 On Sunday we took "The Wine Trolley" to Carmel.  It picked us up at our hotel and then took us to Carmel Valley to wine taste at 5 different wineries.  Such a fun time!

On Labor Day we headed up to Half Moon Bay to finish off the trip. We found this beautiful lighthouse on our scenic drive up the West Coast.

 We stayed in a cute little lodge in Half Moon Bay, but I really wanted to visit the Ritz-Carlton Property.  It's one of their Flagship properties, so we went and hung out on their beach.  Very nice, but glad we didn't fork out the $500/night to stay there.

Back in our cute little hotel with a fireplace!  It was actually kind of chilly, so a fire was perfect to finish off the night.

It was such a fun time.  I got home around 2am Wednesday morning.  My family arrived in Cary on Thursday and we headed to Williamsburg this past weekend for my cousin Aaron's wedding.  Post on that soon!  

I am re-packing now to head to Charlotte for the week for work. Hope everyone has a great week!