A lil' more Cali...

So, the Exploratorium was ... mind-blowing. Imagine an entire aircraft hangar filled to the rafters with the best, coolest, most exciting science-y stuff. (Yes, they even had a Tesla coil.)



Honestly, I just want to post picture after picture of the exhibits that they had on display. But instead, I'll just direct you to their website, 'cause there's no way that I can morally explode your bandwidth like that. And as for *that* bridge? Meh. It's a bridge. A big, orange bridge. I don't like heights. Therefore, I'm not terribly fond of bridges by default.

The day after the bridge/Exploratium, we drove down to Carmel by the Sea, which is the closest town to where the wedding was. It's an entire city filled with little cottages that look like a village that the Grimm Brothers dreamed up while drinking absinthe.



We were fortunate enough to stay in a cottage B&B that was not only close to the beach, but had its own working fireplace. Every single night after the wedding events, we headed back to the cottage and started a fire, often falling asleep to the pops and crackles of the flames.

Now then - about the wedding. My little brother and his beautiful bride are a gorgeous couple...but I'm not about to post pics of the wedding for the Internet's general consumption. What I *will* show you is the beautiful setting for the wedding.



California really is stunning.

The day after the wedding was my birthday! Yay! I'm old! Seriously, I'm about due for a good old fashioned mid-life crisis. I chose to celebrate the day with a trip through the Carmel LYS (Knitting By the Sea)



and treated myself to some gifts in the form of plush, lovely sock yarn.



Then, off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. LOVED this place. It was absolutely packed with fellow tourists, but we managed to see the Seahorse exhibit



and some Sea Turtles.



We had ... an incident ... at dinner that I won't punish you with, but suffice to say that I didn't get any birthday cake. Boo.

The next day was our final one in California. We took the scenic route back, along the coast. Once again, the GPS was the source of a wonderful unplanned surprise - we decided to take a side road and found ourselves in a massive forest of Redwoods. (We took the 84 from San Gregorio, if you're wondering.) I think that if there was ever a part of California that I would like to live in, it would be this particular slice of shady heaven.

Finally, since we needed to kill some time before our flight, we went back to the Lego store in San Mateo. Best. Idea. Ever.

I really enjoyed my time in San Francisco...don't know if I left my heart there, but it sure was fun while it lasted.