A Ritzy Day

Yesterday, Claire and I got up early and headed down to the wharf.  It’s a long pier with restaurants, gift shops, an lots of birds!!  We heard there were Sea Lions that make their home at the end of the pier, so we went to see if we could get some pictures.  

On our way, we saw this seagull sitting on her eggs, nesting.  These birds are so tame.  I guess they’re just so used to people being around them.  She didn’t budge while Claire took her photo J  There are so many birds, you can imagine what the pier is covered in, and poor Claire got a little surprise on her shirt.  She had to hold down the vomit…LOL.  We could hear the Sea Lions from all the way up in our hotel room.  There were probably about 6 in all.  3 of them were laying on the wooden framework that held the pier up.  We were like, “how did they get up there??”  We soon realized, because we saw another one of them attempt it, that they literally leap out of the water and try to land on the ledge.  CRAZY!!!!  We saw a momma and her cute little baby swimming around.  It was so precious how it just followed her everywhere.

The saddest part was a Sea Lion that was lying on a ledge and was severely wounded.  It looked

like it had gotten caught in a net or something, and it appeared to be dying.  I wish someone would put it out of it’s misery.  It was awful to look at it.  We also were reminded that obesity runs in every species….lol.  It was obvious to us that obesity in the Sea Lion cultre equals superiority.  Nobodymessed with this big boy J  

On our way back to the room, we stopped at Gilda's and had the best French toast I’ve EVER put in my mouth.  6 huge pieces covered in whip cream, fresh strawberries, powdered sugar, and syrup with bacon on the side.  Definitely not on a diet!  We cleaned our plates J  It was so worth it.   

We checked out of the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz, jumped in our Impala or “Paula” as we call her, and headed up Highway 1 to Half Moon Bay. 

 Let me just say Highway 1 is one of the most beautiful stretches of God’s creation I have ever seen!  On one side, you see gorgeous beaches with humongous rocks, and on the other, it’s mountainous rolling hills with strawberry farms.  Amazing!   It’s about a 45 minute drive into Half Moon Bay.  HMB is actually a really small town that just happens to have a Ritz Carlton and some great restaurants J  

Just driving up to our hotel, I felt kind of ridiculous.  It looked like a royal palace.  There are young guys dressed like old school professional golfers with the funny pants and socks waiting to open our car doors.  LOVED driving up in our impala!!!  They didn’t seem used to a car without a BMW or Mercedes logo on it :)  But they were absolutely so nice, and our bus boy's name was Gino.  We didn't have to touch our bags, that I know altogether weigh about 250 lbs....no kidding:)  When we walked up to the concierge's desk to check in, there was a man complaining that even though he had the 2 bathmats in his bathroom that he had requested, one for his sink and one for his shower, they had never been placed in the right location and he wanted them to know he was dissatisfied.  Claire and I just looked at each other baffled.  It was actually pretty humorous, and the saddest part was the desk clerk acted like this was an everyday thing for him.  I'm sure when you're always dealing with people that are used to having everything they want, you run into a lot of unsatisfied people.  

We went and looked around for the first couple of hours.  The view from our room was absolutely breathtaking.  We just sat outside on our little patio area with the fire pit going, listening to worship music on our ipods, just truly worshipping God for His creation.  He's so amazing. 

We went to dinner at a place called Pasta Moon.  We had heard nothing but great things about it, so we thought we'd give it a shot.  It lived up to every expectation!!!  Our salad had goat cheese stuffed apricots that were absolutely amazing!!  The bread was so fresh......we ate a huge plate of it.  We ordered the house Lasagna and Risotto Basil Pesto and got them to split them both in half so we 

could try each.  Some of the best Italian food I've ever had....maybe the best.  I finished my meal off with the Ghirardelli Butterscotch Pudding, and Claire had the Mascarpone Cheesecake.  Both were to die for.  

Seriously, except for right at this moment, I don't know if I've ever been so sickeningly full!!  But it was all SO good, and our waiter Aaron was great.  We were so full we literally just went straight to our rooms, laid on the bed, and just passed on out......full bellies and all!!!  Oh yeah.....Claire did get to taked some amazing pictures of the sunset before we fell out.