reasons to love california

What a great weekend

We had wonderful time with good friends over for thanksgiving. We laid a beautiful table out if I do say so myself and Jan used the power of the internet to fold the napkins into fancy shapes… Thankfully he uses those powers for good. If anything the fact we could set a table like that shows we need nothing for our wedding. We have everything we need. You know you dont need anything when the only thing you registered for in Target was the lego star wars set….

So dinner was grand, everyone is still reporting in as alive, and we had enough potatoes to do 50 more at the table and I even enjoyed the salad I made! Never thought I’d be using those words… Afterwards we all sat round and used the new chocolate fountain. Dipping fruit into it and then everyone watching the fountain and warmed by the fire and some baileys and good company.

We got up lazily on Friday and wandered into the electronic stores to see if there were any thanksgiving bargains left. A mate of mine Emily had got up at 4am from our place where she crashed after spending thanksgiving with us and went to circuit city and other stores to get the early thanksgiving bargains.. Even with the bargains she got I preferred my bed at that time of the morning.. We did get some new memory cards for our cameras which was long overdue. I had bought about 10 in total for my family over last two yearsm, being much cheaper here than Ireland but none for myself and I can imagine I’ll be using quite a few when we go back home.

Then we drove down to Monterey for the night and had a nice relaxing evening, playing mental floss a new trivia game at the motel. Then Saturday off down to Pismo beach. We pulled into the hotel and decided to chill rest of day by the beach sitting at the ocean front drinking margaritas and watching the sun finally set on the water. Not a bad life. Its so beautiful there - I’ll post pics and its only three hours south of us.

Then we had a lovely massage where my lady had just got back from Ireland and was just finally warming up as she said. Then we snacked on tasty desserts in our room before going to scyamore springs and the amazing hot mineral springs they have there in the woods. They have all the hot tubs laid out in the woods on a hill, each feels like its on its own in the woods and out in the night looking at stars soaking in the warmth. Magical. We both know we are blessed to have moments like that.

The hotel was noisy, a younger wedding going on where they shouted in the parking lot and cop cars had to come. The hotel saw itself as a fancy resort so we were kindof surprised. I mentioned that the next morning and they took money off our bill for the noise. I like customer service ! - Nice of them but next time we will go to a cheaper place and just go more hot tubbing and more wine tasting.

Sunday we drove around to some lovely wineries. Now we’re about an hour or two from Napa and you have to go there to apprecaite these little wineries all the more. Less crowds, less pushing of expensive not very good wine. We tasted some great reds and I’m not a red wine drinker and after buying about 11 different bottles at three vineyards we decided yes, next time we are staying cheaper places so that we can still spend at the wineries. Some amazing wines and then a lovely dinner at a local place before heading up back to our home sweet home where we sat by the fire and then later wrote a Holiday letter for our cards.

So many reasons to love California, and spending a late November weekend by the sea and sitting under stars in a hot mineral springs in the redwoods is up there on the list. So is sharing it with my sweetie and good friends. Its not a holiday we had in Ireland of course but its one I’ve come to love. Eating and giving thanks and sharing it with the family I’ve built here with friends and love. Now theres a great big reason for thanks alone..