We've had a lot of visitors lately! I'll call it the marathon of guests. Having my parents, Tyler's mom, and Elizabeth out here was amazing. A total blessing to have our family travel out to see our lives in Cali. I know I always want to visualize what my family is doing, so I know it helped them understand our lives by seeing everything that is a part of our every day life! If only they could have stayed longer. We got to do a lot of fun new things with them. Each spent a day in SF and a day in Napa Valley(eating amazing food and aweing at the scenery!), and then with Elizabeth we also got to go back to Stanford so she could have a look around and then venture over to nearby Half Moon Bay. We LOVED getting to go to the beach for the first time since moving here! We didn't spend a ton of time there, but it was really a beautiful day and who doesn't love the ocean!?
I was totally surprised at how nice the beach was that we went to. We actually went a little north of HMB to Montara Beach (at the advice of our waiter at Princeton Seafood Company --delicious fish & chips!) The sand was not nearly as rough as some people describe California beach. I'm used to the softest, whitest sand of Destin and Panama City Beach in Florida, so the California coast was new for me. The sand was soft (in most places) and the water FREEZING! We got our feet a little wet, and it was my 2nd time in the Pacific ocean, so it was nice to be back after many years of playing in the Gulf of Mexico. I loved the Gulf but the view of ocean and mountains touching is amazing, a wonderful work of art.
I can officially say we made it through our first California winter. I have to say, it was everything I dreamed it would be. I wore a heavy coat only a handful of times and only when going outside at night. Jackets pretty much covered the rest, or long sleeved shirts or hoodies! My dream of a warmer winter has finally come true and it made winter completely bearable. Although, we did learn that Californians aren't too sure on how to handle rain. Winter is our rainy season and by rain I mean drizzle. Nothing like spring rains in Oklahoma! We had a few downpours, but I have to say I LOVED those rains, it brought me back to OK in my heart. On Easter we even had some thunder and lightning which is rare out here. It brought me much joy! And it finally taught us why we had to answer so many rain related questions on our driver's tests when we got our licenses... People drive completely different when it rains here and they seem to think the only setting for wind shield wipers is ultra fast!
Spring comes early in CA, for that I am forever thankful. We spent about 3 months without using any AC and minimal heat.. it was fantastic! But I'm beginning to understand why people in Tracy talk so much about the heat. I always think it's funny because it gets much hotter and is way more humid in OK, so I'm hesitant to complain about heat here... but I think the real problem is that it stays hot for a lot longer than in OK. It's been pretty hot for awhile now, I understand why they complain about the heat... and it's going to stay hot for a long time. But it makes me happy, I'd much rather have a long, hot summer than a long, cold winter. Plus, knowing it snowed this past week where I used to live, I cannot even dream of complaining of the heat!
I feel like my family can testify now to the wonderment that is California weather... You look at the forecast for 10 days and it's not in the 40's and 80's within the same week and I love it. I can count on sunshine and warmth for most days, and the days I can't the cloud cover is a blessing. It's so different than any place I've ever lived, and it's awesome. But I'd gladly take a few more crazy thunder storms, that's what I miss most about Oklahoma weather.
Life is moving along. We're about to enter the summer season with trips to SoCal for CIY! I can't wait, I've always wanted to visit SoCal and in just a couple months I get to spend several days down at Biola U. with my favorite high school students! Before we know it, we'll be celebrating a year of living in Tracy. Time is flying by so quickly!
