Year 3 - Day 182 - June 30

In previous years, the Melting Pot birthday and anniversary emails sent a certificate for free chocolate dessert course. Now, they're for a box of chocolate covered strawberries to take home. There were 2 each of milk, white, and dark. We may or may not have had them for a breakfast appetizer this morning. Couldn't rightly say. ;)

Year 3 - Day 127 - May 6

While I was watching the Orioles game this afternoon (and evening, but more on that later), Brad's posted on Facebook that their "U-Pick" fields were open for picking. I decided to just hop over for 5 minutes or so and pick myself a snack. I got more than half a bowl, just more than 2 quarts, for $3 and change. That's a much more reasonable price than the $4.50 a quart they get for pre-picked berries.

So, the O's game. Before it came on, I got my errands done so that I could be back for the start of the game. They've been playing decently and I thought there might be a chance they'd sweep the Red Sox. After 4 or 5 innings, I headed out to pick my berries. I wasn't gone for long and watched another inning or two while I waited for Mike. We went to drop off the car and stopped by the grocery store to pick a few things up that are on sale this week and came home. Watched another inning or so while we cooked dinner and then ate dinner with the game on since they were well into extra innings at that point. When we cleaned up, the game was STILL ON. The last couple innings were the best, because that's when our 1B/DH came in to pitch. I was just worried about him blowing out an arm (I'm looking at you, Jose Canseco!) but he not only survived, he got the Win. Amazing. It was the craziest baseball game I've ever seen. And it was 6+ hours!!!

Year 2 - Day 201 - July 21

We packed so much into today, but took barely any pictures. We left the city early this morning and picked up our rental car to begin our driving journey. We are making a giant loop around central CA over the next 7 days, but if we were on the east coast this much driving would take us through several states!! We cut over the mountains to Half Moon Bay and hit the wall of sea clouds. I could drive next to water forever, but we only stopped once to snap a shot of this lighthouse.

Somewhere between the lighthouse and Santa Cruz, we started seeing signs for strawberries at a stand. Strawberries! Strawberry pie! Strawberry shortcake! Chocolate covered strawberries! After the last one, I was hooked and made Mike turn in.

This farm was a great place. You could pick berries if you wanted, but they also had some picked as well as a ton of desserts ready to go. We split a shortcake and each had a chocolate berry, but I could have kept going easily. :)

We weren't in Santa Cruz long ... just for a few hours. We drove by the boardwalk and walked around downtown. I read about The True Olive Connection store online and wanted to visit after our fun visit to the olive oil store in San Diego last year. We controlled ourselves & only purchased 1 bottle each of oil (Garlic) and balsamic vinegar (oregano.) Mike also bought a bag of "design your own organic trail mix" next door at Nut Kreations.

Our hotel (The Best Western in Aptos) was adorable. We really enjoy Best Westerns wherever we go.

Since we had time and the roads were moving faster than we thought they would, we decided to visit Monterey too. We originally thought it was too much for a day, but we made it work. The whole downtown area in Monterey is cute. Mike did a wine tasting at a place that carried many area wines and bought a bottle. Then we had dinner at Hula's. It was FANTASTIC. I had Kalua pork with rice. It was delicious. Possibly my favorite meal yet. Mike had fish topped with dungeoness crab curry which he also really liked. He tried their bottled cream soda and that was fantastic, too. There were a ton of seals on a beach nearby, but we didn't get a picture. I would have assumed it was the SF Sea Lions on vacation in Monterey if the sign hadn't said they were seals. :)

Year 2 - Day 149 - May 30

My mother & I picked berries this morning. It was HOT! We got 2 bowls full, but she brought a bowl to her friend that she was visiting on the way back to the airport. Hopefully the farmers are right and we get another week out of the berries, because these won't last the whole winter. ;)

Year 2 - Day 139 - May 20

This is in no way the most exciting thing that happened today.  It was much more fun when they were full!  However, I snapped this picture while I was waiting to leave for the strawberry patch, and then I forgot to take a picture while they were full.  Oops. :) Now they're all over the place.  We filled both of these bowls for just $10 in pick-your-own strawberries.  Much better than the $4.50 a quart the same farm wanted for pre-picked ones!

Another good picture from tonight would have been the grill on fire, but alas, we were more worried about putting it out than snapping a picture.  (All is good now.)

And tomorrow we are going strawberry picking again with Sarah!! :)