Gillies weekend away, Ghirardelli chocolate sundaes, Golden Gate Bridge...

What a fantastic weekend away! We are so grateful to have seen Northern California! It is so green and hilly. It was such a treat to get to know the Gillies better and to be exposed to their exponential tour guide talent!
Hopefully this blog post will give you a small hint of our wonderful adventure!

In our last post, I wrote about how Izak had pinned the little South African flags up on our curtains for decoration... well... Dave had put up a big South African flag on their curtain when we came downstairs for breakfast! Talk about making your guests feel 'at home'!

Here is a picture of Izak and I in front of the Gillies home in San Jose:

On our first day, we headed off to San Francisco! I have been wanting to see the Golden Gate Bridge for ages and did not think the event very likely... but here it is!

Here we are on the Golden Gate Bridge:

This is at the 'Lookout point':

Official 'Lookout' equipment:

What is there to see out there?
Well, Alcatraz....
For more info on Alcatraz: http://www.alcatrazcruises.com/website/history.aspx

Here is one of our lovely hosts (Actually more like family than hosts now!)

A look at San Francisco Bay:

My new favourite picture:

Then off to the San Francisco Wharf:
We first met 'Gimme, gimme, my name's Jimmy!' He had a picture with Desmond Tutu and could speak a little Afrikaans! (Such a character!)

And this typical of the wharf:

Our first ever Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl... Mmmmmm!

And... if that wasn't mouth-watering enough... we had dessert at Ghirardelli's. What unbelievable chocolate fudge sundaes!
http://www.ghirardelli.com/about/ 

 And like Izak noticed, you know its going to be decadent when there is water readily available!

Once again... I WISH you could taste this:

Then, on our way out of San Francisco, we saw China Town:

Streets of San Francisco:

On Day 2, we traveled to Santa Cruz...
(It was a very cold weekend- you may have gathered from what we are wearing...)

There was one brave surfer willing to paddle out:

And... the original O'Neill shop, where we got warm hats as souveneirs!

Then, to Castroville... note the giant artichoke! We had our first ever deep fried artichokes!

 And then to Monterey! 

After 52 years... you can still feel the love! :)

 Dave, the tour guide in action!

 The beautiful Carmel beach...

This may seem like a book... but it is the very condensed version! Perhaps I'll include some of the additional things in the next post! We had such a wonderful time. The Gillies were so kind and truly made it feel like we were visiting family. We got to go to their church on the Sunday and it was great to get a feel for their home church too. What a blessing to get to spend all this time getting to know a loving and godly couple that truly live in light of eternity! Look forward to your responses!

We hope this new year will be a remarkably blessed year- right now, 2011 just sounds like a futuristic film! :)