as california as i get

The title isn't true actually, because I really like California. The two times I visited the state in recent years have been with Jon, and I've loved it more each time we've been. Our first trip there was filled with the spontaneity of being newly married. Jon picked me up after work and told me we were headed on a date. I figured out after a little while that the destination was Las Vegas, and when I suggested a couple days later that we go visit his grandfather in Newport Beach, plans further evolved. Then, when I graduated from BYU, Jon suggested we take a trip down the Pacific coast to celebrate. So that summer, with Paisley still a kitten traveling the roads with us, we spent a week after we visited family in Washington driving and visiting friends and family in Oregon and California. One of our main destinations was San Francisco, while staying with Jon's aunt and uncle in Napa. We took the ferry over to the city from Vallejo, and spent a day in what became one of our favorite cities.

After spending not even two hours on Highway 1 after the 101 gets a little boring, we bagged it and headed back to I-5. The road proved so windy it made Jon, who was driving, sick. And with me as the pregnant passenger, you can only imagine the results of a windy road.

The next photos are some classic scenes from our day trip to San Fransisco, June 2009. I never expected it to be so cold, so when you see my pregnant belly, silly beneath the clumsy zipper of my non-maternity jacket, that explains it all.





We took the next series of photos on our "boat tour" of the bay. We obliged the fisherman advertising his boat for cheap tours, and all was fun and games at first, as we putted out towards Alcatraz and over to the sea lions. Then a cigarette boat flew past us, creating such a huge wake which caught our captain off guard, that our boat literally almost tipped. We honestly still can't believe that we didn't end up in the drink, our precious camera included.





As the ferry pulled away, we definitely felt sad, but also felt like we could live there. I think it really reminded us of Seattle. And we've wanted to go back ever since.

ps today's song of the day is Katy Perry's "California Girls." I told Jon that if Katy Perry comes up on the jukebox tomorrow morning, I'm going to have to disown him.