day 2 // slowing down in Santa Rosa

After the hustle and bustle of yesterday, it was great to go at a slower pace today. We woke up unusually early  and eventually rolled out for breakfast. We hit up a cute local place in Santa Rosa, some Cafe Croissant, for bagels and croissants. It was there I found out I'm not a fan of bagels with burnt garlic shavings on the side (-:

My bad, next time I'll order what J got [a delicious looking croissant with cheddar cheese and basically every breakfast meat possible.]

After breakfast, we hit up a local Target [they're everywhere and I love it] to stock up on supplies for our next excursion to Tahoe. 

2 things I learned about Cali Targets today [or at least, Santa Rosa Targets]:

1. They charge extra for plastic bags. Even then, the bags are super thick and nice and look like they're supposed to be used again. Gold star for California for being eco conscious.
2. They control their shopping cards with magnets! We saw a sign that told us that the carts would "lock" past a certain point, and lock they did. It was rather surprising and confusing and I didn't know what to do. But apparently they do this so the homeless don't take the carts. Ha.

We then headed to Aunt Linda's for a reunion with J's favorite red-headed cousin [someone I've grown close with over the past 3 years or so who I'll  be referring to as "raspberry Jam" [for reasons inside joke-y and otherwise XD]. I met a few more of J's relatives and they made us a delicious dinner of BBQ, potato salad, veggie kabobs, fruit salad [always my fave] and ice cream sundaes for dessert.

We caught up after dinner and tried to plan for tomorrow. Somewhere during that, we broke a wine glass, J's mom got stung by a yellow jacket, and we unearthed a treasure trove of hand puppets. 

Soon after J and I left with Jam and her dad [a legendary man to which we refer as "Ted Hair"] to her house to help her pack and so J could gather some clothes he left while visiting a while ago [the articles of clothing I believe were parts of a mermaid costume.... don't ask.... XD]  I'd never been to Jam's house before and the reality that keeps coming up is that in order to live in California you a) have to rent places or 2) have to be rich. Which is so true-- Jam rents her place, a really cute towering yellow house hidden beyond winding roads and towering redwoods.

On our way there, we drove those winding roads [the lines on the road are actually drawn with raised, yellow/white reflective dots about the size of halved baseballs-- something I'm not used to because in VA we get all four seasons and when it snows we gotta plow so having 3D reflectors isn't the best idea to have], went over a bridge that had a spectacular view of towering redwoods [see above!], and I realized that vineyards are common as HECK out here, and it's not limited to Sonoma County either. It was gorgeous nonetheless. The Fray and Ed Sheeran were bumping through the car stereo and it was perfect as we whizzed by the mountains and vineyards. 

After Jam was all packed [she gifted me with a Forestville CA sweatshirt-- 1st article of clothing from the West Coast :D!!!!!!!], we headed back towards a baseball field in Windsor to watch a cousin's championship softball game. We got to the field to early, however, so we hit up Starbucks in the town square first. 

Skip ahead 9 innings and J's cousin lost his game. But we made kick-ass fan signs for him, found a baby froggy, and ate delicious strawberry rhubarb cupcakes! (:

I feel like a grandma as I'm super tired and it's only 9:00pm here [though my laptop insists it's midnight still]. 

Tahoe bound tomorrow, let sweet slumber call my name pls. 

Til next time, 

xx

steph

☀