To anyone who may or may not have had a stressful few legs of travelling (or anyone who wants a relaxing holiday in general), California would be one of the first places I'd recommend, but that might just be due to the people we know and the areas we've visited thus far!
With Paul and Debbie's hospitality (Matt's parents), we were picked up from the airport and didn't have to worry about a thing all week! Food, drink, and other forms of entertainment (including the Dog of the Week... Molly!) were all sorted before we even touched down.
On our first full day, Sunday the 29th, our bodies were still a little confused, meaning that we were both up and awake by about 5am. This meant that brunch at a very American diner was very welcomed when we headed over for about 9am.
The size of the portions was unreal, and I've heard of sugared waffles being served with bacon, but what I had was definitely the next step up from that!
That afternoon, we headed over to MoHi winery - named after the area it sits in (Morgan Hill). They served a delicious Granny Smith and lemon-flavoured sparkling wine, which went down a treat with the table, as well as a blend of red wine that Matt and Paul couldn't stop singing the praises of.
Staying up that night was significantly harder...
The next day was slightly more chill, starting with an early morning dog walk, a stop-off in the local coffee shop, before we relaxed for most of the day in the 20 degrees celcius plus and had an amazing dinner that evening.
On the Tuesday (the 31st of October - Halloween), we started the morning by taking little Molly dog down to Alamitos Creek, a calming walk where Molly knew exactly where she could jump into the creek and exactly where to shake herself off to get everyone the wettest!
Matt and I refueled after the walk with our very own cooked breakfast - bacon, sausage slices, and tater tots - that was big enough to last us through to that evening when we'd be going out to the local LazyDog restaurant.
A pitcher of sangria to start was more than enough to set the tone for the evening, and the food wasn't bad either! The only thing that went wrong that evening was the problem of "Did we shut the garage door when we left?". Spoiler alert: yes we did, but bless Paul for driving all the way back and checking!
That evening, Halloween in San José was mainly summarised by the house down the road that had set up a maze out the front of their house, attracting screaming children and even the police! It was all in good sport, though, and the police were more than happy to observe from a distance, using their speaker system on the car to make sure everyone was having a good time, and even taking photos with the local kids.
On Wednesday, Debbie took us to Los Gatos, one of the nicest areas in the region, and we were happy to walk around, getting coffee and cake on Main Street and watching for cool cars (and cute dogs!).
On the way back, we scouted out a new walking route for Molly - a place called Oak Mountain Park. It was also a very sweet green space, but we were very disappointed to learn that the mini train track around the area wasn't in action over winter (having just become November!) so we might have to see about visiting again when it's open...
That afternoon was more lounging about, playing games outside, before we prepped homemade burgers for the BBQ (which was very very tasty). This was also the night we stayed up the latest yet - til 10pm!!!
Thursday was again, very relaxing, and actually where we started writing this blog! We made our plans, made a few first posts, and generally set it up for public viewing! Anything written before this post probably would have been written on those days, and we've been playing catch-up ever since.
Dinner that evening was Chinese takeaway, and the little hole-in-the-wall in the local supermarket parking lot provided some of the best Chinese food we've had in a while, as well as being rather busy!
Friday was probably the least interesting day in terms of what I did... mainly because it involved the boring process of trying to insure my engagement ring (spoiler alert: it is not possible), as well as doing some work while sat out on the patio.
Dinner, however, took place at La Playita (little beach) - a very sweet little Mexican place that we tried to visit back in June but it was unfortunately closed. This time, however, it was very much open and Molly got to come with us!
I had a tortilla bowl, filled with chicken, guacmole, and soured cream (delicioso!) and Matt had a whole chimichanga (now we know why Deadpool raves about them so much!).
Saturday was our last full day and we wanted to make it special. This meant that, of course, we went to the beach!
The whole day was a great experience, as we set off around 9am in Paul and Debbie's campervan (the ride in the back was a little questionable, but also kind of fun at the same time!). We got there at about 10:30am, and Matt and I took Molly to play on the sand while the campervan got set up.
We got there just at the right time; cars were coming and going all day to try and find a spot to park in, By 11am, we were deep into our breakfast BBQ and it was so good (especially for Molly who got to have a whole sausage that happened to fall onto the ground...).
The water was absolutely freezing, and the waves were huge, but that didn't stop us from wandering around the rock pools (see the picture at the top), and throwing a stick for Molly in the slightly calmer coves around the place. When we'd arrived, there had been quite a thick sea fog, but this cleared the longer we stayed there.
By around 1pm, however, the fog had started to move in again, and despite Molly's best efforts to turn the whole beach into a giant hole for her stick, it was time to head back to San José. We left around 2:30pm, and were back by around 4pm - the perfect time to relax for a little before having our second BBQ of the day - dinner BBQ!
Being us, we'd left all of our packing until the Sunday morning, spending from about 8am-1pm cleaning our shoes, putting stuff through the wash, re-vacuuming our vacuum-sealed bags, and saying goodbye to Molly (she's smart enough to know something's going on, making saying goodbye to her very very difficult!).
Paul and Debbie gave us a lift to the hotel at San Francisco (Aloft @ San Francisco - very nice) and we said our goodbyes before rushing out for In-N-Out Burger. It was so good that we almost went back for a second one later, but restrained ourselves due to the fact we had to be up super early for our flight to Auckland the next morning.
Thank you to Matt's parents (and my in-laws!) for such a wonderful time in California, and I'm sure we'll be back one way or another! Another thank you to the Dog of the Week: Molly, and we can't wait to see you all again soon!
- Abi
Isn't Granny Smith an Lemon SParkling Wine just Cider! Americans eh!
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