Last week we took a trip to visit our future home town and to look for a place to live. We left Monday morning and started off our trip with some fun in the bay area.
Enjoying some snacks at a rest stop. I accidentally ate the wrong sandwich. (It may or may not have happened once before.)
We stayed for the first two night at the Coral Reef Inn. James loved the lagoon outside our room. We ended up buying bread to feed the ducks.
We spent some time Tuesday in San Francisco. I'm excited we'll be so close to The City. Sure we'll be visiting it a lot. The first things we did was hang out with the view of Alcatraz while enjoying fresh crab from a crab stand.
James, a seagull and Alcatraz.
We took a ride on the Cable Cars and visited the Cable Car Museum.
Watching the Cable Car on the turn table. He thought it was the best thing ever.
Photo opp. while waiting in the Cable Car line.
Ready for our ride. James loved it. I don't think he remembered his first ride on one a little over a year ago.
Learning how the Cable Cars work.
Watching the cables where enter the museum before going back under the streets.
We also stopped at Ghirardelli for some chocolate and in some of the many shops for jackets. I forgot to pack us some and the evening near the cost get cool. We ended up with matching fleece jackets. :) Then enjoyed lunch at Boudins. Got to love all the delicious food you can get in San Francisco.
You can tell Tracy ended up behind the camera most of the time.
James makes the funniest faces, sometimes.
I'm a sucker for cool or unusual looking buildings. Occasionally one ends up among my photos, like this one:
After San Francisco we took the short walk from our hotel and enjoyed the beach nearby.
James of course loved it.
Here you can see two of our three matching Jackets.
Wednesday we left the bay area and went towards Davis. We actually drove past Davis and went into Sacramento. We spent the afternoon exploring Old Town Sacramento.
We had a great view of the tower bridge during lunch.
James particularly loved this train table in a toy store.
Thursday and Friday we spent most of the day looking at apartments. It was a long tiring two days for a 4 year old. But he did great despite the circumstances. We learned that the pickings were slim for apartments. Our top 5 to check out and see were all full for the fall. It turns out that apartments in Davis start pre-leasing for the following Fall semester in January and most are full by March. They only end up with openings if they have current tenants that decide to move out after that. It is kind of crazy. However, we did find a place and have it on hold. It is a nice apartment that will work for at least a year. It is a little on the small side. We'll have a lot of purging to do. As well as get a storage unit for Tracy's camping gear and rocks, our winter stuff and baby items. We're on a waiting list for our top choice, so we'll see what happens between now and August. If all else fails, we can move to one of our top choices next year.
Out side the Safeway is this funny water fountain.
This became a common view of the back seat. At least he found a good way to keep the sun out of his eyes instead of just complaining about it.
This was the end of our apartment hunting and we were getting ready to put money down on one. The car in my lap we bought in Sacramento and he missed placed it shortly after this. Poor guy was really sad about loosing his new car.
We treated ourselves out for some yummy pizza after settling on an apartment. (Ignore my crazy face. I have no idea why I was making that face.)
Thursday evening we took a drive to the Sacramento Temple.
It is similar to the Redlands Temple which is the one we go to now.
Me and my cutie.
He loved all the flowers.
And he loved the fountain.
The lights came on while he was standing there and it took a few minutes to realized it.
I can't remember what he was telling me which I'm sure it was great.
Saturday we headed out to Bodega Bay. We had some of the best clam chowder and an amazing crab sandwich from Spud Point Crap Company. It was a very windy day, so wasn't all that fun to hang out on the beach. Instead we hit the shops and came away with some fun souvenirs. Then had a delicious meal at Lucas's Wharf.
View from Spud Point's crab stand.
View from Lucas's Wharf.
Sunday we attended church at our future ward. We received lots of warm welcomes. James loved primary which will make the transition to the new ward very easy for him. The second counselor asked us when we could speak. lol. I had to clarify that we weren't moving in for a couple more months, so it wouldn't surprise me if they have our names down to speak in September/October in anticipation of our arrival.
After church we started on home. We decided to take the route through Fresno which then lead to a hey, we can go through Victorville and get frozen custard. As we got past Bakersfield, we decided to take yet another route home in order to drive on the musical road. Totally worth the extra time on our drive. The musical road it pretty cool even if it is like a 5 sec experience. If you ever find yourself near Lancaster, CA, be sure to check out the musical road. Don't worry we still were able to go through Victorville and get some frozen custard too.
We first enjoyed some burgers and then Tracy asked James if he wanted some ice cream. James said he was and Tracy said he would go get him some. After Tracy got up from the table, James then turned to me and asked me if I wanted some ice cream. I told him I did. He then said "I'll go get you some, mommy." And got up from the table and followed Tracy. He melts my heart sometimes. Such a sweet little guy.
So that was our trip last week. I know we'll enjoy living in Davis, but we'll miss Riverside at the same time. It sure will be a great adventure for the next 5 ish years.
We ended our graduation celebrations with Father's Day. Though with all previous fun we kind of had a low key day. Tracy's parents and brother left that day. His cousins family left Monday morning. So we had them over for dinner. I wasn't a very good wife on Father's Day and had Tracy make dinner. But I really wanted his yummy steak and steak sauce that day, so it was worth it.
James also had a blast playing some more with his second cousin. He was so good at sharing with her and keeping an eye out. Maybe a good sign that he'll be a great big brother some day.
Now onto the reason James and I celebrated this great day: the man James calls Daddy. I'm so glad to have him in my life.
Even though majority of the time James wants mommy to help him or mommy in general, I know he loves and adores his daddy too.
James is constantly talking about how he's going to get big like daddy. He loves to do whatever daddy does, especially watching "Top Gear" and helps him when ever possible.
He did it! He officially finished his Master's degree. The day of graduation we took our guests to the downtown farmer's market and then to lunch at our favorite sandwich shop down town. Then we parted our ways to get ready for the reception that the geology department was having prior to the actual ceremony. The graduation was very long. The grad-school graduates walked the stage first so Tracy was done with his within the first hour of the ceremony. Then there was about another hour of under graduates. James and I escaped and played on the lawn by the bell tower for the last half hour, but he did do well for most of it. He just got really bored and whinny which didn't surprise me. He had started off the evening whinny.
Again, most of these were taken by Sam.
Tracy's parents at the farmer's market.
At the geology department reception they had rocks as centerpieces.
There were also these signs for each graduate.
This one was my favorite. :)
I'm a little sad we never got any pictures with Tracy in his cap and gown.
Enjoying some yummy food.
Faces of a whinny boy and the ceremony hadn't even started yet.
my
My sad attempt at taking a picture with my phone of the big screen while Tracy walked the stage.
Good thing Sam had a much better camera and got pictures of the real thing and not of the big screen.
I'm so proud of Tracy. It took a lot of work the past two years to complete this degree.
James was much happier playing by the bell tower during the last half hour of the ceremony.
