Zebra?

When we were touring with the Pitts, we came across something we never thought we would see in California. We saw a herd of wild Zebra! They apparently live on Hearst land, and were a part of the zoo that used to be owned by Hearst Castle. When the zoo closed, all the animals were taken different places except for the zebra. They flourish on the land, so they were set free. We read that they were really hard to spot (the Hearst's have A LOT of land), but we were lucky enough to see them up close for ourselves!

Sunset Magazine

Sunset magazine did a feature on my favorite central coast beach, Avila Beach! They talked about the farmers market (our Friday night tradition), Avila Valley Farm (a super fun little store, petting zoo, and ice cream shop), and a couple things we haven't done yet, but are eager to try!

The Pitts Visit!

We have been loving having so many guests! Our friends The Pitts (minus Robby) were able to make it up for a few days of central coast fun. We visited some our favorite places. Happy Acres (the goat farm) was one of our first stops. We were bummed that the owner wasn't there, but we were still able to feed the animals peanuts.

The donkey won for favorite animal of the day though. It absolutely fell in love with Cassie and would cry every time she walked away.

We explored several of the other farm stands and farmers markets, drove out the see the elephant seals, and visited my favorite little town of Harmony. Luckily they ended up staying an extra day so they could go to church with us too. I think the all around favorite activity was Montana de Oro.

I stayed home because there was not enough room for me in the car, but they returned with tons of shells, rocks, and even sea glass!

It was so nice to have them up and hopefully they will come back soon! We have more exploring to do.

4th of July weekend!

Sunday morning (after doing set-up at CIV!) Deb, Sarah, and Val made their way up to visit us! It was a short trip, but so fun! We started the day with lunch... unfortunately I still don't know where anything is up here, so it ended up taking a while :) We found a Greek place that was open, and that was good enough for us! We then headed home to make a (gluten free!) flag cake! Deb said that it was tradition in her family to make a flag cake & it ended up being delicious! After the cake was made we headed out to find winery's. Little did we know that winery's close early. So we really only made it to one. Since they were closing they offered to give us 2 complimentary tastings! Yum!

This is a picture of us at the beautiful Talley Vineyards!

After Talley, we hit up one of my favorite places up here, Doc Burnsteins Ice Cream Lab! It's the best!


After filling up on ice cream, we came home for more food! As my dad fired up the BBQ, Deb read us the Declaration of Independence so we could feel like real Americans :)

So proud of the flag cake!

After dinner we headed out to watch fireworks... everyone told us Pismo Pier was the only place that had fireworks and that it was SUPER crowded (think 30,000 people on a little beach), so we went to the church and had a pretty great view of fireworks all along the beaches. It turned out to be a really long show too...

Monday morning we woke up, had pancakes, and went to Montana de Oro for a hike. It was absolutely beautiful. We were able to see amazing views of cliffs, and caves, and huge waves. And luckily for us it wasn't too strenuous... we were able to easily walk & laugh :)

After our hike (which Sarah and I think was at least 4 miles) we played in the woods for a while, and we went to Pismo Beach for a quick picnic. The water was freezing though!

It was such a fun trip and it was so nice to have the girls up! It went by way too quickly, but we've already been planning the next trip :) Get ready for canoe races!