Black Friday

We spent our Black Friday almost exactly as we did last year and it was still pretty awesome. We slept in, munched on leftovers and then headed to Bad Ass Coffee for Jackson to catch up on emails and me to catch up on blogs (Ball State closes for both Thursday and Friday. Bless them.). It was nice and warm there and Jackson was able to get quite a bit accomplished before we headed to the beach.

Working at Bad Ass Coffee Co.

Ahhh. We set up camp in our normal spot near 33rd street and just soaked in the sun and warmth. We went for a walk along the beach and even did a little push-up circuit to get our heart rates up. I've never worked out in a prettier "gym."

Our favorite chairs

Not a bad view

I love to read on the beach

I spent the entire time reading a book which is pretty much the best way to spend an afternoon in my world. My dear friend Jenny sent me this book a couple of months back and I'd been waiting for the perfect time to break it out. Jenny and I both really like this author and it was such a treat to get an unexpected package in the mail, too!

Jackson celebrating wine o'clock

We came home to get cleaned up for dinner and Jackson decided to have a little wine. He's so funny. I came out and he had his feet up and his wine glass in hand like the fancy boy he really is.

Shrimp nachos at The Dock

It was an obvious stop to have dinner at The Dock outside on the patio. We finished dinner so early that we decided to go shopping. We hit the outlets up the road in Miromar and scored a few great deals before the mall finally closed at 9. (It had been open since 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving so many of the stores' workers were just exhausted from really, really long shifts.) We did accidentally buy a few things for ourselves, but we mainly shopped for others which is always a big win. ;) I do not at all regret spending the day at the beach and shopping at night. I think that will be my new strategy annually! 

Thanksgiving in Naples

We both worked all day Wednesday before heading to the airport to catch an evening flight to Punta Gorda (just North of Ft. Myers). The flight was $300 per ticket less than flying Southwest so we sacrificed and flew Allegiant. Ugh. The seats are so small and cramped. They are nuts about the size of your luggage. They charge you if you print your ticket. It is just overall an experience of holding onto your wallet to avoid new fees. We made it safely, though, so all is well.

Allegiant. THE WORST.

Susan picked us up at the Punta Gorda airport and drove us to Ft. Myer's airport to get our rental car so that we could return it there on Wednesday without any additional fees. (We are cheap, guys, that is how we get to travel so much.)

We got home and started some cooking for Thanksgiving before finally calling it a day. That was a long evening commute! ;) 

I made us sign up for a Turkey Trot 5k so we were up and at 'em in downtown Naples by 7 a.m. Thanksgiving morning.

Pre-race photo

Petefish.

Jackson ran the race in just under 33 minutes. That time is not bad at all for having not trained or run since May's half marathon! Susan and I walked it in a very slow 55 minutes thanks to my silly knee, but at least we did it!

Finishers.

Medals up 

71.895 years old and can still hang

Aaron making fun of MacK

We had a good laugh at Uncle Aaron comparing his son Justin to MacKenzie when discussing his morning run.

After the race Jackson and Susan played golf and I cooked. Yes, you read that properly. I'm still in shock myself. I made the green bean casserole, washed the potatoes for mashing, and made deviled eggs. I'm relieve to report that Jackson beat Susan during their round. Only by 1, but a victory is a victory.

Susan and Jackson hanging in the kitchen

Petefish.

Heidi girl came to visit!

Aunt Kathy, Jackson, Will & Susan praying

Aunt Kathy coming down for Thanksgiving means we get to see little Heidi girl. She looked SO good and was just a ball of energy. My mom soothed my missing of MacKenzie by sending down photos of her hanging with Uncle Aaron at their family Thanksgiving dinner.

MacKenzie resting on Uncle Aaron

We made it through family dinner and headed for the beach to catch sunset. That is the best part of celebrating down here: you skip dessert (which is usually pumpkin and thereby gross anyway) and go to the beach!

Sunset was gorgeous

Catching sunset

It was a really great holiday!

Must love dogs

Besties

These two really like each other. :) I like them both a lot, too.

Trying out her new carrier

MacKenzie will be flying to Florida with Grammy on December 11th to spend the winter so we've been working on getting her comfortable with her airline-approved carrier. She's starting to get used to it. Slowly. :)

Ella & Emmie

Mom got a cute shot of both her new pups. I prefer the little one. :)

Cutest passenger

MacKenzie on the way back to Uncle Aaron's to spend Thanksgiving. They seem to really enjoy each other. She goes nuts when we turn into his neighborhood!

Thanksgiving greetings from Ella

Little Ella won't get her ears done so she won't look exactly like a black version of MacK, but it is still fun to see such a polar opposite little pup!

D&D's Birthdays!

My Dad and Diana have birthdays super close together (Oct 24 and 28) and they were traveling then we were traveling so we celebrated both birthdays a little late. Jack made grass-fed, organic filet mignon on the grill with asparagus, twice-basked potatoes, sautéed mushrooms & onions, and Aunt Jan's famous orange, almond salad. It was SO good.

Homemade dinner

I made birthday brownies (just cream cheese iced brownies with sprinkles) for dessert and made them blow out 6 and 7 candles with the sixty implied. ;) My Dad HATES having his photo taken so naturally I took two photos of him in one day. What are daughters for?! I'm biased but I thought the dinner was better than most restaurants and the chef was really handsome, too.

Birthday brownies

10 years of Petefish

On November 18th we marked 10 years of marriage. It is hard to believe it has been that long already. I guess time does fly when you're having fun! We celebrated our anniversary with our trip to California and will again with the trip to Australia/ New Zealand and China in a couple of weeks so we kept the day itself pretty low-key.

A family friend, Carla, is moving to Texas so we picked up her extra mattresses and donated them to a man in need in Marion. Guy was kind enough to drop off his truck Friday morning, Jackson did all the legwork and Guy and my Mom drove the donation to Marion. That's what I call team work.

Anyway, that day with Jackson running all around I got to thinking that it was the perfect illustration of our marriage. I dream something up, anything really, and he just makes it happen. We've been exceptionally blessed to find each other and in this life together and 10 years is just the beginning. 

I love you, Jackson. Here is to many, many more years of love and laughs!

Making the donation happen

Ella visits!

We've gotten to watch little miss Ella a few times this week and she's just a ball of fun! Ok, so we enjoy her and MacKenzie isn't the biggest fan. ;) 

Big Basin and Palo Alto

Jackson next to a tree stump

Ready for a walk

The walk was so pretty

Loving this view

Trails

Lovely.

Look at this guy! LOVE!

Someone loves trees

Father of the forest

We finished our chilly morning walks around Big Basin we took the smallest, most narrow, steepest roads in the world. Ok, fine, probably not, but they were terrible. It was 1.5 hours of white knuckle driving. We finally made it back out to Hwy 1. We headed up towards Half Moon Bay. The weather was a little rough for about 20 miles and then it cleared right back up.

Petefish.

Late lunch

We read on Yelp that Half Moon Bay had a train car restaurant that was phenomenal. It was not quite as billed, but it was pretty good. We had their really good clam chowder which tasted excellent on the chilly day.

The trip into San Jose was pretty straightforward. We were surprised at all of the building in the area. We figured it was completely built up already based on all the technology companies here. It was a nice area and we settled in for a few hours of sun at the pool at our hotel. 

We decided to lounge around Monday morning to let traffic calm down before heading into Palo Alto to explore Stanford's campus. The entryway into Stanford up Palm Drive was amazing. The rest of the campus was fine, but it was a little retro. It felt very...seventies or eighties without much in the way of updates so it was not old enough to be classy, just enough to feel dated. It just was not my favorite campus. (I'm also a little biased due to a recent Malcolm Gladwell podcast discussing Stanford's huge endowment and overall sense of entitlement.) We did love the little town of Palo Alto, though. The village area had a ton of great restaurants and shops. We ate dinner there Sunday night and lunch on Monday. 

The availability of organic, wholesome food in California is like no other. I wish we had those kinds of options on the go at home. Maybe in 20 years or so...

An update on MacK

We made it to the airport without issue only to find that our flight was delayed because our pilot did not like the plane they'd selected so we had to wait for another. Then he didn't like that plane. So we waited for them to ready one from the hangar. We had some free United Club passes that we'd gotten with our travel credit cards so we hung out there with free food and drinks until it was time to board our flight. We finally took off and made it home and to bed at 3 a.m. UGH!

Waiting out the delay at the United Club SFO with
decaf coffee (me) and Gin & Tonic for Jack

It was a fun trip, but we are excited to pick up little MacK and catch up on sleep! 

Big Basin

SLO to Monterey

We got an early start on the day AGAIN. We stopped at a local McDonald's for a quick breakfast and were amazed to see they didn't have a drive-thru. (Later research revealed that they're against the law in the town. Interesting!) We then stopped at the Starbucks next door for coffees to take on the road with us. There was a homeless gentleman in line behind us and to the absolute warmth of my entire heart Jackson bought the man's coffee without me saying a word. Seriously, I love that guy. The man was really appreciative and managed to get a cheaper drink than I knew Starbucks even sold! 

We got on our way to Monterey, but saw a billboard for Morro Bay and had to stop to see their large rock. I'm not kidding, we love rock formations.

Morro Bay

It did not disappoint. What a cool little town!

Early morning light

We made our way up the coast to Elephant Seal Beach where we stopped to see the residents. They were awesome! There were so many of them just hanging out. No wonder this area is known for having a high population of great white sharks!

Seals as far as the eye can see

Mr. Bird enjoying a lovely beach day, too!

We kept twisting up the road to the Big Sur area. It was worth the, at times, harrowing drive.

Views.

This guy. LOVE!

Morning hike

How we got to our hike-- a random staircase over the fence!

Views on the drive

We stopped in at state park that we had heard good things about only to be aghast at how crowded it was. The national parks in the area were closed due to recent rain causing mudslide issues after forest fires so everyone was at this one. Bummer. We hung out for a bit and explored before deciding to get back on the road.

I never tire of these types of views

Hiked to a waterfall

We went down the road a bit to another trail that lead to a beach. It was simply stunning.

Happy hikers

We decided to get to Monterey for a late lunch. We stopped at a local seafood restaurant because all of the ocean time made us hungry for it!

Clam chowder! WOOT!

Fish-n-chips

Jackson got fish-n-chips and he (inexplicably in my mind) likes to use malt vinegar on his fish. He went to put some on his plate and about half of the bottle dumped out. It was terrible. He was going to eat it that way, but I was having none of that. Our waiter was super kind and replaced his meal free of charge due to their bottle malfunction. It was kind of funny once we knew he'd get a replacement.

We spent the next hour or so strolling around Monterey. We'd visited a few years ago so we didn't spend much time. It is a very touristy town with some lovely views.

Hanging at the Intercontinental Hotel in Monterey 

Monterey

We went to a place called Sunset Beach to watch the sunset. The moniker fit as it was a lovely place to end the evening.

Sunset Beach

The long day of driving, sightseeing and hiking around got to us so we're having a pretty low-key evening in the hotel here in Watsonville (a little north of Monterey). Tomorrow we are off to the San Jose area after spending the day at Big Basin State Park.