Our Vacation - Day 1 - Saturday, August 8/11/2007

Man, who was the dummy that booked our flight that left on Saturday at 7:55 in the morning? Oh yeah, I would be that big dummy who wanted to get an early start. So much for having a relaxing vacation. We made it to the airport by 7:00 a.m. but then had to spend 45 minutes in the security line because it was so backed up and incredibly long. By the time we made it to the plane almost everyone had boarded.

Finally, we were getting on the plane and I heaved a huge sigh of relief. As we headed up the isle of the plane to our seats there was a brief argument that ensued over who was going to get the window seat. As many of you know Craig is not fond of heights and if he must be submitted to such torture he prefers to sit by the window. Why I'm not quiet sure I've figured it out but if that's what the husband wants then that is usually what the husband gets. Oh, but that was before we had the demanding 4 year old in our life and on a plane. You can clearly see who won the argument. Did you have any doubts? I didn't. My money is usually on the little one.

It's funny how a little scrawny 40 pound four year old can triumph over her own father. What poor parents don't do for a little peace. Poor Craig had to while knuckle it during the plane take offs and landings. Thank goodness there was no turbulence on the flight or it just would have pushed Craig over the edge.

Here she is sitting at the window enjoy mommy's iPod and taking a gander at what I believe is the Grand Canyon outside of her plane window.

Once we were finally in Sunny Cali we decided to have a easy day and just relax and do lunch. The Wonderful Woods took us to one of their favorite California BBQ joints, The Central Texan BBQ located on Merritt Street in Castroville. The Central Texan is a great little place with sawdust on the floor and Texas artifacts on the walls. The owner, Don Elkins, is a real character. He smokes all of his own meats and makes his own sausage, which we were lucky to be offered a free sample of. It was my first time trying homemade sausage and while I'll say it is an item I would probably wouldn't ever order it was good.

If any one knows good BBQ it's the Woods. They've just returned from a fifteen day, 4,500 mile southern states BBQ tour. As Andy tells it "from Texas to North Carolina, the unifying theme of our journey was a mutual love of awesome BBQ."

Here are the Woods, Andy and Jenny posing with Hallie Well, the Woods do know their BBQ as the Central Texan rocked. Craig enjoyed a huge plate of beef brisket while I tried the pork plate. The meat was succulent, tender and tasty but the best for me was the beans. I'm not usually a huge bean fan but these beans rocked with onions, and tender morsels of meat mixed in. I could have easily eaten two bowls of them but I was stuffed from the meal. We did take a dogie bag home but never got the chance to enjoy the leftovers. Hopefully someone else did. It would be a shame to waste BBQ as good as that.

Now here's a little piece of trivia that I bet most of you don't know. Castroville is the Artichoke Center of the World. This small town lies in the heart of California's Central Coast farm country less than 100 miles from San Francisco and less than three miles from the Pacific Ocean and public beaches. It also host the worlds largest artichoke. If you are interested in finding out more here is a link: http://www.beachcalifornia.com/castrov.html

That's it for our Saturday. We spent the rest of the day catching up with our good friends and enjoying their gracious hospitality.