Our day in Monterey

Best news of the day = we didn't get in the car and drive anywhere!
But, we did get on a boat
We went whale watching today and we're quickly reminded that North Cal is not as warm as Southern Cal.


Seals everywhere!

One of the whales we saw

I'm on a boat

Pic of the fam...i'll have to photo shop my face into the open circle later

best meal of the trip was dinner at the fish hopper! Great food and a great view from our table.


Back in the car tomorrow to drive to our last stop....San Fransisco! We have tickets to the Giants and Cardinals game tomorrow night.

Go Cards!

Hearst Castle and driving up the coast to Monterey

Another Day!

We left Santa Barbara this morning and the first stop was the Hearst Castle. It was well worth the stop and a pretty amazing place to visit (yes chrisite, more people should make this a CA destination) The whole Bindbeutel family was impressed.







We continued on our drive up the coast and stopped to take some pics along the way (laura would not get out of the car, so she is missing from these) The view was amazing for the entire drive.



We are now in Montery (once home to callie hansen) and have all decided to stay here till Friday.

Day 4 or 1 of the Bindbeutel Family Vacation

Yes, my family has been in CA for four days now, but this is the first day we have all been together.

My mom and sister spent Sunday and Monday at Disneyland, while my dad and i stayed in the Venice/Santa Monica area.

Today we left the LA/Anaheim area and are at our first stop...Santa Barbara.

It's a pretty perfect area of California. I now wish i would have made this trip a long time ago. We had lunch at the Cold Spring Tavern (http://www.coldspringtavern.com/menu.html) The rest of the day was spent walking around down town and spending way too much money at the farmers market. Anything my dad sampled he had to buy.

Currently we are taking a small break in our hotel room watching the cardinals vs brewers game Thank You ESPN!!! This is the first Cardinals game i have seen all season!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Hearst Castle

*pics*

where we had lunch, the cold spring tavern. It reminded me of YL's camp, Frontier Ranch.


the view from the drive to and from the cold spring tavern



downtown Pasadena...there was a farmers market going on when we were there. The bag my dad is holding is full of the best cherries in CA. The same cherries Emilee and i bought when she was in town at the Santa Monica Farmers market = the cherry lady gets around

Happy Saturday

I'm waiting for my parents to arrive in LA right now at Susans house. Around me our suit cases and garbage bags filled with my stuff from the intern house. I have not unpacked anything and have had no idea where anything has been all week. I just washed a load of clothes and have been only wearing whatever was in the basket. I have no idea where all this stuff came from, I swear I only brought 2 suitcases with me....whoops.

Here I am one week after the internship has ended, still in LA.

Really, I did not think I was still going to be here when I visited St Louis in March. I had my whole summer planned and all intentions to come back, but then the AT&T commercial launched and I started to LOVE TOMS.

Everything just fell into place from there.

Susan's movie got green lit and she needed a house sitter for the summer = Me.

A short term job developed in the customer service department/online store and the rest is history.

I am one of 4 interns that decided to stay in LA. I'm anxious to get settled into my new style of life and see what it's like to not live and work with 14 other people. I keep joking that the Real World is over and we are the spin off show from the original cast.

The last two weeks have just been unreal and a ton of fun...
*I went to Las Vegas for a random weekend get away to see Dave Mathews and Jason Mraz (most random two days/weekend of my life)
*Came back for our last three days of work
*Celebrated the end of our last day at a Karokee bar on Wilshire (so not my typical scene, but was one of our best nights out)
*Went back to Disneyland last thursday (a gift from TOMS)
*Packed up all of my stuff and said goodbye to my roommates
*Emilee came to town! She was my first LA guest, so i tried to pack in her 5 days with as much as I could think of. A highlight was going to a Jay Leno taping, even if I am a loyal Dave/Conan Fan. She for sure got the full Cali experience by being here for the 5.0 Earthquake on Sunday night.
*Worked for three days
* Had my hard drive crash. Good news is MAC is fixing it for free, Bad news is everything will be gone. Pictures, Itunes, etc = GONE. I went and had a beer right after that news to help cope with the lost/news.
*Developed a huge crush on Kris Allen. Why did i not know about this guy?? I would have been watching American Idol a lot sooner
*and now my parents are on there way to spend a week together driving up the coast from LA to San Fran, where i will go to my first Cardinals game of the season at the Giants stadium Friday night (marking another life goal off of the list)

After I get back from that trip my summer LA life offcialy starts. I'm looking into trying to take a class (cooking? art? surfing?), anything that will help to maybe meet some new people.

this city has never felt so big

cheers to the summer!

This is it!

Last day as a TOMS intern....



tomorrow we are off to disneyland
and starting saturday people start to move out

3 days till Emilee is here
10 days till my parents are here for our family trip up the coast

more to come for sure