The Dyer Family: August 2009

In August, Matt and I were fortunate enough to go on another vacation, but this time with my parents. I flew out a few days early and met my parents for some Disney fun (we're obsessed), then Matt joined us on our last morning in Anaheim. My mom gave Matt her ticket, so we were able to go into the parks together for a few hours. Matt has never been to California Adventure, so it was fun to take him there. After leaving Anaheim, we drove north to Solvang which is a little Danish town. We were hoping it was going to be like Leavenworth, but no such luck...it was a lot of little knick-knack stores and pretty uneventful. Good thing we were only there one night! The next day we drove north to San Jose to stop at the Winchester Mystery Mansion, then on to Monterey and Carmel. Matt got to see both Pebble Beach and Spyglass hill golf courses on the 17 mile drive...he really enjoyed walking the grounds and looking at the incredible greens. We spent a couple of nights in Monterey, enjoying the ocean and the great places to eat. Matt and I even took in an IMAX movie, Sharks in 3D! Fun times! We left Monterey and headed further north to San Francisco. We stayed in the most AMAZING hotel right in the middle of Union Square. We were a short walk to all the major shopping, the cable cars, the F-Line that took us to Fisherman's Warf, and Chinatown. We walked miles and miles and shopped until we dropped! I won't tell you how much I spent on jeans, but I was a patron at both the Seven for All Mankind store and the True Religion store...whoops! Needless to say, my husband was very generous and tolerant of my overindulgence! The highlight of the trip was our tour of Alcatraz Island. I have been there before, but not since they have added the audio tour with clips from former inmates and guards. I could have stayed there for hours. The best part was that we happened to be there for the 75th anniversary and the last guard to leave the island when Alcatraz closed as a Federal Penitentiary was there signing his book, "Last Guard Out." We got to talk to him for quite some time. He had some truly incredible stories about life on the island and what it was like to live and raise a family on Alcatraz. The trip was one for the memory books. We had a great time and loved seeing all the beautiful sights California has to offer.

The Family at the Golden Gate Bridge