Grandma's house

After leaving Los Angeles we headed up to Ojai, California to visit my good friend Markus. Markus' place in Ojai is absolutely amazing and was a perfect retreat from two full days of "talking tech". Its amazing how exhausted you can get from just talking.

Back to the reason for this post. My Grandma. She is the only reason I am here in California if it weren't for her we'd be in China by now. I couldn't leave the US without getting in some good quality Grandma time. We arrived at her place last week and have just been hanging out. It's been great. Both my Grandma and I couldn't resist showing Diana around, especially this was her first time to King City, her first time to the Salinas Valley, first time to Monterey county, first time... well her first time to a lot of place and a lot of experiences.

One of the first things that Grandma had us do was to head down to Hearst Castle. We, Diana and I, wanted her to come with us but she's steadfastly refused and I learned long ago, through my Sister's mistake, that you don't resist Grandma for too long. Hearst Castle was awesome to see again. When I went as a child the one thing I remembered most were the pools. I longed to swim in the outdoor Neptune pool AND I really wanted to take home the indoor tiled pool. It looks so inviting.. refreshing, clean, clear.. aaaaahhh.. I want to swim!

Hearst Castle took up our entire Friday. On Saturday I wanted to have a nice day with Grandma visiting places, talking, chatting... you know just soaking up the "Grandma time". Nope! Grandma had other plans. Off to the annual AG tour for Diana and I. A luxuorious tour bus toted Diana and I, as well as 80 "slightly older" people around to 5 farms around the Salinas Valley. We toured a seed barn farm, sod farm, Artichokes, potatoes and one of the many Wineries. Sadly the Winery gave us no wine :( Wonderfully Cowboy Suppers in King City now including a full spread of local wines.

Oh how I've missed the tri-tip, grilled chickens and huge steaks of a King City BBQ.