We visited Hahn, one of the wineries that Dan suggested but Josh was also familiar with. Dan said that the tasting was free... wrong! $10 for three tastings! Strike one, Dan! We split one which was fine with me, especially at 10 AM. They had a great deal on their 2007 Cabernet Franc and were selling cases for $75... so Josh bought one! Our first case :)
Dan said that a few other wineries were offering free tastings. We called a couple in the area and they all had $10 tastings and a bunch were closed! Strike two, Dan!
Next we visited the Soledad Mission... strike three, Dan! The mission was boring.
We splurged and got Taco Bell for lunch... Josh got it all over himself!
We stopped in Santa Cruz and watched the surfers in the water. Most of them were wonderful!
We stopped at Pescadero State Beach to take a few photos of the amazing rocks and waves. I even picked up a starfish in a tide pool! We stayed so long that the tide started to come in and the sun started to get... really great photos were a result!
Josh set up the tripod but it was too far away, so Josh turned around and posed because the camera started taking photos before he got to me! We got a few awkward pictures out of it, though.
I love this photo of Josh... very mermaid-esque. And the sunsets were beautiful!
We got to La Honda and the sun had already set; we knew we were surrounded by huge redwoods but we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see them! We met our host, Kathryn, at her home and we spoke to her for a long time while I helped her cook portabella mushroom risotto for dinner :) Her husband, Achim, came home about an hour after us. Achim is from Germany and looks like Santa Claus, complete with a big white beard. He works as a consultant for Microsoft so he commutes to Mountain View, but it seems like his schedule is pretty flexible!
Kathryn and Achim told us great stories over dinner, and at the end of the meal Achim let us sample his many different kinds of European schnapps... Josh pretended to like them but I thought they were pretty gross. They took us to the one bar in town, Apple Jack's, and bought us a few beers. Kathryn said that Neil Diamond and Joan Baez live nearby; so cool!
After the bar we played with the Xbox Kinect, which they had because Achim oversaw the testing and manufacturing of it! The Kinect is actually really cool and it was a lot of fun to play with, but everyone got pretty tired around 11 so we all went to bed.
Josh's high from today was seeing the sunset at Pescadero Beach, and my high was meeting Kathryn and Achim - she is such an old hippie and he is really hilarious. Josh and I had the same low: we expected something neat from Santa Cruz but it wasn't very exciting, just a small beach town. My "ho" was Achim's first laugh... he told a joke and laughed, so we joined in... and Achim was still laughing when we stopped. There was an awkward pause, and then we started laughing again... it was really like a full two minute laugh. Josh's "ho" was how wrong Dan was about the touristy things to do! Thanks a lot, Dan!
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