Cali-forn-i-a

West Coast is where it's at. Reuniting Korean best friends (aka from Ontario and Nova Scotia)...Marcia and I took on the coast of California.  Beginning in San Francisco we took our first stop to the infamous Golden Gate Bridge...but we had to do this THREE times. Fog 2 Rexy 1. We loved visiting the iconic Full House 'painted ladies' row of houses and rode along the trolley up and down the VERY hilly streets. Alcatraz was amazing and strange to walk through the path of prisoners. Fisherman's Wharf made for good people watching, Chinatown some bubble tea, along with national parks, wine with friends, and a good old ball game with the A's playing our beloved Jays.  Our 'I heart BJs' sign made for some Oakland selfies (both with permission and secretively haha). 

We headed down the coast to Monterey to visit with some of Marcia's wonderful CrossFit friends.  We enjoyed some wine tasting at a beautiful winery, a night out, and a lovely time at church.  What was intended to be an exciting tourist attraction made for a weak stomach and thoughts of jumping overboard to end it all...what's that you can't guess?  Whale.Watching. Yep, two out of two and a half hours were spent at the back of the boat...tossing our cookies.  I hate to admit that both Marcia and I are weak sauce. BUT, our stomaches definitely are weak when paired with waves. I did see some Orcas and a Blue Whale for 3.5 seconds. I digress.

Down Route 1 AKA Pacific Coast Highway.  What a scene! Big Sur was really great to see, perhaps not so cool when you're say from the Atlantic coast, but nonetheless, a pretty drive.  We saw a field of zebras enroute, no joke!  San Diego! WE LOVED IT. We stayed in a cute little Air BnB and loved exploring the city, specifically: Seaport Village, Coronado Island, Balboa Park, Pacific Beach, and Gaslamp district. 

We took a gander down to Mexico for tacos. Yep tacos in Tijuana. We walked across the border, it was a really easy excursion and added country 36 to my never ending list.

Back up to LA to watch the CrossFit games.  What a fantastic 5 days of watching and cheering for amazing athletes that I've been following on social media for a year!  They came to life and they were fitter than any 2D picture can display.  Among my faves are Annie, Katrin, Ben, Rich, Fraser, Fisher, Camille, and Abbott. But honestly, I love all 80 of them because they're bad ass mo fo's.  Marcia and I observed the fit fans and all of the booty shorts/topless men around us each day.  What a sport! It makes beautiful people ha ha.  We chased down event four, the swim, at the beaches and finally found them walking down the boardwalk.  We were starstruck :) Back to the Stub Hub and we spent a lot of time in vendor village-buying, sampling, and meeting Christmas Abbott. We loved watching the athletes handstand walk, run their assess off for Murph and Double DT, snatch, squat, handstand pushup on rings, and peg board it for redemption!  What a ride.  It made me love the sport even more and appreciate the hard work that goes into it.

Finally we ended our road trip in Hollywood on the boardwalk and getting the token Hollywood sign photo.  Back up to Sacramento to see Marcia's great place and classroom and chilled by the pool in 110F weather.  

California--you've not seen the end of me yet.  
"I'll be back."