Gizdich Ranch

We did something fun on Saturday - we picked berries at Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville. I've done this once before with my sisters but this time Greg, Ryan, Claire and friends Abby and Alexa came along.

At first, we pulled into the apple place - a fun place but not the place we needed to be.

This is where we needed to be, just a few streets away from the apple place.

Greg is ready to go with one of the little buckets the Ranch lets patrons use for free. Nice.

The rest of us used bowls from home to carry our harvest.

Ryan working hard at tossing trail mix peanuts at his sister.

First round of picking was for the boysenberries. That's a big berry, don't you think? I did think until I kept picking and realized boysenberries are just really big.

This is our first round - and yes, that is one of those huge mixing bowls and the other bowls behind it are from our pickers as well but we did let Abby and Alexa keep their harvest. But yeah - I know - that's a lot of berries.

Abby, Claire and Alexa - ready for a second round of picking. This time olallieberries.

Yeah, I know...

The happy harvesters ready to go back to the apple place for pies and pastries. Was a very fun outing. Now to figure out what to do with all the berries!

She's always wanted to do that

This is what she was playing - Deux Arabesque by Debussy People applauded when she was done. :-)

It always seems like a good idea...

Another reason why Claire "loves" convertibles.

Smores

Sitting around the firepit - a fun way to end our week of other fun things.

Always a spot of sunshine

Breakfast Surprise

Ryan and Cara provided breakfast for us Friday morning. We didn't know they were gone and we got a call from them - asking what we'd like from Ruby's for breakfast. YUM!

Fishing off the Newport Pier

Claire "loves" convertibles.

Greg and Eric [Eric arrived on Monday] fished off the Newport Pier on Wednesday. Greg caught two fish, little fish that he tossed back in.

Tuesday afternoon around the pool

When you see a giant chess set do you think "That would be fun to play if I knew how to play chess." Well, Eric knows how to play chess and Claire, well she didn't want to but Eric made her [she would have rather played checkers, which they did have checker pieces as well].

Newport Reunion Time

It is Hardester Reunion time so we are in Newport Beach at the Marriott timeshare. It is lovely as usual. Greg, Claire and I arrived down here on Sat. the 23. We couldn't check into our room until 4ish and we arrived down here around 1ish so we had some time to kill. So, we ate. We ate at the Pita Jungle and it was delicious! We recommend it. After we ate, we headed to the Marriott and on the way came to a familiar intersection that we pass by all the time on our visits down here. On one corner there is a lovely gazebo surrounded by beautiful flowers. There is also a large sign for "Roger's Gardens". Every time we've passed, I have wanted to go see what is there. It takes up such a large space, this gazebo and sign, I just knew it had to be a special nursery. We decided to go check it out and we were not disappointed! First off - there was this super fun ice cream cookie truck in the parking lot. We had to give that a try.

Claire had a cookie with ice cream: chocolate brownie with german chocolate ice cream inside. I had a chocolate chip cookie. Was delicious. And this truck, being mobile, moves around! I asked if they were always there and I was informed that they never know where they'll be from day to day and that we should look on their website to find out where they'll be next. www.chunknchip.com. They go all over so they haven't been all that close to us since. :-( Onto the fabulous nursery. It was great - lots and lots of plants beautifully displayed but it also has a large selection of patio furniture, and a large gift shop and a silk flower and indoor plant section as well.

It was lots of fun and I'm so glad we stopped to take a look.

It was so pretty

I went to Uvas Canyon today for the first time ever - can you believe that? Well, you can if you've never heard of it. It is a county park about 40 minutes from home. It has camping and trails, and lovely little waterfalls. Liz and Dane had visited there recently and I had seen their pictures. It was so pretty I was curious to check it out. Claire, Liz, Maxwell, Kaitlyn and I went this morning.