Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Cousins Visit the West Coast!

This post is so long overdue, it's embarrassing. 
My awesome cousins Morgan and Austin Hawk came to visit in July of last year. We had a blast--here are some highlights of our trip.

Sandwiches as big as our faces!




Lemonade! (Don't get Austin started on the lemonade here in California.)




We headed up to San Francisco for a cruise around the Bay. We're on a boat!



We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a foggy day, but we could see the tops of the towers.
The fog did roll in though...


 .. and here's some of the famous San Francisco fog.






We sailed around Alcatraz.












 Back on dry land, we wandered around the wharf, found some great food and played games at the Musee Mecanique.

Wanting to experience the Golden Gate Bridge from another angle, we decided to walk across the bridge.





The view of the city (and apparently the water) is nice.


Here you can see Morgan's new sweatshirt (it was cold on top of the bridge).


The view of the city just under the fog:



The next day we went to the Santa Cruz mountains, home of some big trees. Henry Cowell State Park has a nice trail among the redwoods. Here you can see the inside of one of the trees, hollowed out by fire and weather.





It's difficult to comprehend how tall they are. We spent a lot of time looking up.


Many opportunities for pictures under the big tree. I like this one because I look taller than my cousins!

One of the trees is big enough for several adults to stand up in. I call this series "tree exit."
Brian...




Austin...

Morgan!



 After the redwoods, we headed down to Santa Cruz, and visited Natural Bridges State Park.



Some of the traverses required concentration.







 Most of the days activities required muscle!


There are amazing tide pools, but not much life in them since the tide was coming in.





 Brian and Austin decided to see how cold the water was. It was... COLD.





 They didn't last long; the otter lasted longer.



 We spent our last night enjoying another delicious meal.


Thanks for coming to visit--I can't wait to see you both soon!