Carmel & Big Sur

Have spent the morning here sipping on a laaaarge cup of coffee and re-tackling the pile of photos I have from our CA trip a few weeks back - already seems like months ago at this point!  Between the moving madness / chaos, it's definitely been relaxing to sneak away to edit and post some photos instead of looking at the bomb of stuff that is all around me 24/7 :)

Speaking of moving.. we are 'officially' on the road late next week and will both be in our new home a week from Saturday!  The whole process has gone so quickly after what seemed like months and months of waiting for things to happen with jobs / transfers and now we are like two cartoon characters who just got run over being all like 'Whaaaaat just happened?!?!'  Luckily, being organized / control freaks comes in handy in these situations and we've gotten through about half of our stuff at this point.  A little final push of packing + purging should do the trick this weekend and we'll be on the road in no time...


Booking the one-way ticket... woop!

Now back to the fun stuff!  Carmel, Big Sur and road-tripping down the Pacific Coast Highway were definitely a highlight of our trip - seeing everything change from Northern CA beach coastline (think rocky, pine trees) to Southern California sunshine and crystal blue water was amazing and even though it takes a bit longer in terms of the drive, it is very well worth it!

Carmel (by the Sea) is home to B's twin sister Tessa, Pebble Beach Golf Course and a million beautiful tiny shops, restaurants and cafes.  The beach in Carmel rivals (and probably beats) our new beach (Santa Monica) with its awesome horseshoe bay, direct view of Pebble Beach and the group of dolphins that regularly make appearances only a few feet from shore.  We spent a morning wandering the beach and the town and couldn't get enough of its charm... excited to go back for another visit once we are finally settled on the West (cough, cough.. Best) Coast soon!



Carmel Fire Station...

Beautiful Buildings & Cottages...

Can't wait to have succulents on our front doorstep!

Made in CA...

Ocean Street, heading down to the beach...

Amazing beach...

Toes in the sand...

Happy twins!

Pebble Beach Golf Course...

Beautiful day...

Dolphins in the bay!

Couldn't get enough of this Big Sis & Little Bro...

Terrorizing me with the seaweed...

Serene.

Taking a break to take in the views...

Beach Cottages...

No addresses allowed in Carmel, every house has a unique name...

California Poppies in full bloom...

Charming Inns everywhere...

Neighborhood map.

Visiting the Carmel Mission...

Spanish architecture...

Loved all of the 'peek-through' courtyards..

After our time in Carmel, we hit the road for the big roadtrip down the PCH - a stop I've been dying to make ever since setting foot in California has been Big Sur.  The pictures of the jagged coast, sea mist and huge cliffs have always stunned me and I was so psyched that we were able to build a stop there into our roadtrip.



Finally a Big Sur postcard of my own!

Tessa had a great plan to stop for lunch at this cafe that hangs over the cliffs and has some of the best views in the area - we had a delicious brunch and took in the 360 views all around us.

Even got a nice little visit from a Hummingbird.. my Grandma Marilyn's favorite bird :)

After lunch, I clearly had to force B into a few photos with a view (can't you see how happy he was about it??)

Then it was back to the road and onto B's hometown in the San Ynez Valley - more pics to come soon!

Fourth of July...

It has been a scorcher in NYC / Hoboken this week, and as much as we wanted to enjoy our last America day out east, we admittedly spent a lot of time trying to sit on the deck, then running back into the AC :)

The highlight of the day out here is always the fireworks, so after a little bit of BBQ-ing and sweet tea drinking (thanks Ashlyn!) we headed out to the river for the show.  As always, NYC's fireworks are not to be beat... glad we got to see them one last time!

Hope you all had a great one, we missed being away from all of our family and friends!




Porch-sittin'...

Ziggy not having any of the sunglasses shots...

Empire state.. Red, White & Blue!

Being goons...

Getting the show started...

Happy birthday America!

Napa & Sonoma

Happy 4th to all of you!  Starting the day slow over here, and with the not-so-great weather today (typical NJ!) figured it would be a good morning to do some photo editing and posting before getting all of the festivities started :)

In my last post, I think I mentioned that we started our CA trip up north in the Sonoma / Napa area for a best friend's wedding...My college roommate of 4 years (Kate) married her college boyfriend (Martin) at her family's vineyard.  Needless to say, it was a gorgeous setting and with the simplicity of a country wedding, the day ended up feeling like one big, happy picnic!  We had a blast celebrating their love and it's always great to have all of the college friends who we rarely get to see in one place!



Goofing off in Healdsburg, Kate's hometown...

My favorite candy store in Healdsburg, Powell's...

View from the hill at Hafner Vineyard...

Inching closer to fall harvest time...

Grapes hadn't turned red yet...

Walking the vineyard...

Day after the wedding, site of the reception...

Hafner Winery tour, entrance to the caves...

Barrel's for miles...

Happy wine camper...

Newest addition to Kate's family, Annie!

K+K...

After the wedding, we hung out in Sonoma the next day and visited Jordan Winery.  We drink Jordan on occasion (holidays, special times... definitely not an everyday thing!) and love their wine so figured it was worth stopping in.  Driving the windy roads into their 2,200 acre winery made us realize it was definitely worth it, and the ladies in the tasting room were nice enough to squeeze us right into their 3pm tasting.  We sampled 8 wines in their vintage 'french chateau' style winery and had amazing food / cheese pairings with each tasting from their house chef.  Definitely felt pretty swanky walking out of that experience and we enjoyed every bit of it!



Entrance to Jordan...

Excited about the 'French Chateau'...

Exploring the grounds...

Came across the Jordan farm...

Too beautiful of a setting...

Happy explorer...

Catching some wind...

One of my favorite flowers...

Went a little crazy on the sunflower pictures...

Oh hello!

Movin' West...

Rose garden...

California Oak...

Ready to bloom...

Back at the winery...

Ready for our tasting...

After Sonoma, we headed to Napa to spend the night at 'Bello Vino' resort to celebrate our 2 year anniversary (a bit late, but hey, there was no better setting to celebrate in!)  We had a very 'us' night and took full advantage of our condo, watching a great movie, cooking together and making chocolate chip cookies (you can never keep us away from those!)  The next day we headed to Trefethen Winery, a recommendation from friends of ours.  Another beautiful setting and much simpler than what we had experienced in Sonoma the day before.  We tried 8 more wines there and settled on bringing a nice bottle of Cabernet along with us as a souvenir (I'll give you one guess at how long THAT lasted!)



Trefethen Building, all made of Redwood...

Delicious vino...

Trefethen Communal Table...

Cellar...

A bit of rain to end the day...

But still happy :)

After Napa it was off to Carmel to visit B's twin sister Tessa, but stopping there for today... hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed the experiences in wine country!