Oh how I love California!

This month we headed out to California for the annual Reese Family Reunion! We had an absolute blast! I didn't take many pictures, but I did get some. We ate at our family's all time favorite mexican restaurant Arroyo's as soon as we got into town and met lots of our family there. (We won't be able to eat any mexican in Utah for at least another couple months) Arroyo's is the best! The next day was Sunday, and was the annual reunion and it was a great turnout! Matt got to meet the rest of my family, but it will probably take a few more before he really remembers all the names! While hanging out with the family at the reunion we took some of the kids over to the "stream" with some hotdogs and chicken bones to hunt for some crawdads! SO FUN! I haven't done that for so long, and Matt never had so it was a good experience! Monday consisted of Matt Hayley and I finding our way around Stockton to do some shopping, swimming at my cousin Brett's house, then meeting up with a ton of family at, of course, ARROYO'S! Tuesday morning we left early for San Francisco, we stopped in Oakland on the way because we were going to do a session at the Oakland Temple early Wednesday morning, so we were looking for a hotel, but since none of us new Oakland well enough to know what areas were good, we just decided to do that another time and we headed on in to San Fran. First stop, a lookout that looked onto the Bay bridge, then it was on to Fisherman's Wharf where we enjoyed fresh shrimp, crab, oysters, calamari and of course clam chowder in the infamous sour dough bread bowl. If you love sourdough, and you haven't been to San Fran and had it there, you've never had sourdough. It was so delicious! Then we hopped on a boat that took us on an hour long ride around the bay. We went out to the Golden Gate bridge and came back around Alcatraz all the while listening to an audio tour that taught ME things I had no idea about. It was way fun, but super windy and cold. Glad we all bought our touristy sweaters! After the Wharf we headed to find our hotel we would stay in that night, then it was off to Haight Street! Matt really wanted to see Amoeba Records and he finally got his wish! You really need at least 4 or 5 hours to devote to the store, its huge and has so much music. We wandered up and down the street, checked out all the totally awesome shops and had a blast! Then we drove down the ocean. It was so breathtaking, and also, because the sun was starting to set, super chilly! The water was freezing! After the beach we met up with my cousin and her man and went to dinner on the Wharf. We ate at Allioto's, once again, delicious! Then it was up to Coit Tower and down to Lombard Street! Then we headed back to the hotel to get some rest. We got to sleep in a bit, then we headed to AT&T Park to watch the Giants beat the Orioles. Matt came out of that park a Giants fan through and through. =)

Then it was time to head back into Stockton to eat dinner at Arroyo's again. Can you tell we really love that place?? Thursday and Friday we filled with visiting more family and friends, eating some delicious BBQ, shooting pool, and finding black widows. We left Friday afternoon, stopped and stayed in Reno to visit with my Aunt Barbara, ate at Red Lobster (gosh, we ate a lot of seafood) and Saturday spent the day driving home. All the while I'm trying to devise a way to move back home to California! It was such a blast, and now Matt's wants to move there too! HAH!