Shanti and Aimee: August 2008

17 Mile Drive

During our trip we drove on 17 mile road, which follows part of the coastline near Monterey. The ocean views were amazing! The town is called Pebble Beach, with a private golf course right next to the ocean cliffs. Many of the houses were pretty extravagant, but they were fun to look at!

California Coast

We also spent some time with our friends doing some wine tasting and enjoying the ocean views. It was fun seeing their house and having Shilah & Denali play together!

If you look closely in this last picture, you can see a sea otter!

California Redwoods

We spent both weekends of our trip visiting with friends who live near Santa Cruz, about an hour from Monterey. Brian & Jenni used to live in Boulder at the same time we did, and they have an adorable 4-year-old girl named Denali. Shilah and Denali were like two peas in a pod! Here are some pictures of our visit to a Redwood forest.

Look at the size of us compared to these amazing trees!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

On one of the days that Shanti had to be at the conference all day, I took the girls to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the best in the world. Shilah's favorite part was the river otters, and the jelly fish exhibit was breathtaking. We also got to see a penguin-feeding show. There were many hands-on displays for kids. Shilah had a great time petting the starfish and watching the rays! In this first picture, there's a Serena on display...

Serena wasn't too sure about the waves crashing over her in this glass-enclosed area...

Shanti's conference had an evening dessert social at the aquarium the day after I took the girls there, so the exhibits were only open to conference attendees and their families. Serena slept most of the time, and Shilah had a blast showing daddy around!

Shilah's First Day of Preschool!

Yesterday was Shilah's first day of preschool, and she loved it! It's called West Jefferson Preschool, better known as the Little White School House. It was the original school for our town; it opened in 1923 and served students from first through eighth grades. Neat!
Shilah will go to school on Tuesday & Thursday afternoons, from 12:45 to 3:15. Here are some pictures (the bottom one is her at school), and here is a link to her preschool's website: http://sc.jeffco.k12.co.us/education/projects/projects.php?sectionid=9063

Cousin Lisa

Shilah had a great time with Shanti's first cousin Lisa in Santa Cruz! Before this, Shilah knew her from listening to music from Lisa's band. Here is a link to Lisa's band, Aoede:
http://www.aoedemuse.com/

Santa Cruz

Shanti's cousin Lisa and her husband David live in San Francisco, so they met up with us in Santa Cruz the first weekend we were in California. Here we are enjoying some beach time!

We also spent some time near the boat harbor. The girls took their first boat ride, which was so much fun!

We saw some ocean wildlife, including harbor seals and lots of pelicans!

Santa Cruz pier

Back from California!

We're finally home from our trip to California! Shanti had a work conference in Monterey along with a couple of free plane tickets (frequent flyer miles), so we tagged along with him. It was a really nice family vacation! Shilah had a great time wading in the ocean, while Serena preferred the dry sand.

And of course the travel demon struck us yet again... yesterday we drove 2 hours from Monterey to San Francisco after our flight got cancelled to barely catch our connecting flight to Denver. Then we got home to find the neighborhood bear had ripped the back bumper off our Toyota to try to get to the trash we forgot was in the trunk (this is the same bear that has broken into our locked shed). But at least we're home! Stay tuned for many more pics from our trip...

Camping

Last Saturday we went camping up Guanela Pass. It was a little rainy, but we had the van for shelter!

Cosmo didn't mind hanging out in the rain, although the wet dog smell was a bit much for us.

Shilah and I had fun playing one of her board games!

Views from our campsite...

Hanging by the campfire

Saturday Night Reunion Reception

Two Saturday's ago was the reception for Shanti's family reunion. All 40 attendees had a great time! It was neat to see the handful of family members who live in the Denver area, as well as those who traveled from both the east and west coasts!