The Melanchuk family came on Friday, February 16th.
We played games including Tenzi and Phase 10, the kids made things with Planks,
used the Music Maker and instruments,
Michael made this Marble Run, and some played with toys outside.
We all enjoyed some drumsticks, both barbecue and ice cream, for lunch!
Camille is modeling a shrug that she crocheted.
We saw all the pieces in the last post.
Sarah was in charge of a YW activity where they would be making collages.
Sarah made this one as an example.
Caleb had a birthday party on the 17th. It looks like he had lots of fun!
Jeff and Suzie received this photo from the family that fed the missionaries dinner!
Sister McClellan, Sister Curtis, Bella and fam
District photo
The Sacramento temple is closed so some of the Perrys went to the Feather River temple.
Grandpa and I decided we needed a road trip, so we headed to the Monterey
area for a few days.
The first day we drove down the coast on Highway 1 to Big Sur.
We saw some spectacular views along the coast.
And it's always fun to spot a lighthouse.
Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park has some great hiking trails,
so Grandpa headed out on his own.
He found the Homestead Cabin
And he found the Big Sur River was swollen from the recent rain.
Part of the trail was steep
Afterwards we drove down Ocean Avenue in Carmel with all of its quaint shops...
...that ends at Carmel State Beach.
We took the Scenic Waterfront Drive with charming cottages on one side...
...and beautiful beach views on the other side.
Later we visited Old Town Salinas. It's hard to tell from the picture
but there were white lights in the trees up and down the street.
As we stayed in Salinas during our trip we saw a LOT of cultivated farm land.
We learned that the Salinas Valley, a small valley west of the large Central Valley
grows a LOT of lettuce. 70% of the lettuce consumed in the United States is grown here!
Our second full day was spent in the Monterey area.
We enjoyed reminiscing about the many times we have visited and stayed here.
As "scenic drives" was the theme for this trip, we decided to take the famous 17 Mile Drive at Pebble Beach. It goes from Pacific Grove to Carmel. We decided to get our money's worth and our sight seeing maximum and go in one direction and instead of exiting the loop, we went back around a 2nd time in the opposite direction. We were not disappointed!
There are some amazing views!
This is Bird Rock. "It was covered in three to four feet of pelican and cormorant guano until it was harvested for fertilizer. Now seal lions like to perch there."
We could see some with binoculars.
The famous Lone Cypress.
This tree has been there overlooking the Pacific Ocean for over 250 years
The Monterey Cypress trees occur naturally in only two places: here and at Pt. Lobos south of Carmel. They can grow to be 70 feet high and live 300 years. They may have been saved from extinction by their popularity as they can now be seen all over the world especially along coastlines.
The other amazing things to see on the 17 Mile Drive are all of the mansions.
This is all one house perched on a cliff overlooking Cypress Point.
Here are a couple of others that I got online.
We either saw these or some very similar.
This one said it was over $38 million dollars!
Here is one offered on VRBO. Next family reunion?
And here is a picture of the famous Pebble Beach golf course.
I decided to look up how much it would cost to golf there.
Turns out one round would cost you $625.00 but to be able to schedule that when you are available, you have to spend two nights in one of the hotels. The cheapest was $1,045 per night so your one round of golf would cost: $2,715.00!
(They did have a deal for $675.00 where you did not have to spend the night, but had to call less than 24 hours in advance and see if there were any tee times available that day.)
It was really great to enjoy the drive in both directions!
Best part of the ride: I got a phone call from Kaiser scheduling my knee surgery!
In the afternoon we went to the Monterey Wharf for lunch...
...and it was very yummy! Happy Half Birthday to me!
On Saturday we headed for home and got to enjoy these
beautiful green hills all the way.
Only in California in the winter!
The official selfie of the trip.
Happy Leap Day!
Jacob is making some special pancakes:
And a special visitor for us! Welcome, John!!
