More Pics from California...

They didn’t manage to get a photo of the four of them together, but at least captured a few photos with my parents. They had a great time!

Ashlynn especially enjoyed going to Cream, which specializes in homemade ice cream sandwiches. Apparently this concept is so popular that people stand in long lines to pick out their flavors. Perhaps Ashlynn should be their model?

More University Tours...

Darlene and Mike live about 1.5 hours from my parents, but that didn’t stop them from offering to take Veronica to visit some other universities. She stayed with them for two nights so that they could visit UC Berkeley (where the daughter of a friend gave them a tour), UC Davis and St. Mary’s (where Darlene and Mike’s daughter graduated).

Veronica enjoyed meeting little Ruby, their granddaughter, and playing with their dog, Lance. They also visited Old Sacramento.

I’m so lucky to have such great friends!

Golden Gate...

My parents also took the girls to San Francisco. After visiting Ghiradelli Square, home of San Francisco’s Ghiradelli Chocolate Company, they had lunch at Pier 39 and then walked on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge.

They continued onto arty Sausalito for a quick look around.

Getting Pierced...

The girls always enjoy their overnight stay with Auntie Leigh-Leigh. This year they spent the day doing one of their favorite activities: shopping.

Veronica decided it was finally time to get her ears pierced. She might have been a little nervous, but clearly survived and even smiled throughout. 

Fun Times...

There’s definitely no complaints from the girls that my parents love to take them out to restaurants.

Yet again, we weren’t with Veronica on her birthday – this time her 16th. And, as usual, she shared her birthday celebration with her sister. My parents threw a small party and the granddaughters of my dad’s best friend spent the night.

Goofing Around on Pier 39 in San Francisco

Visiting with Auntie Eden

Half Moon Bay...

And, here’s few of my favorites from their visit to Half Moon Bay.

Pool Time...

No big surprise that the girls took hundreds of photos during their trip. Then I had the task of sorting through them all and keeping only the best. Here’s a few of my favorites taken at my parent’s pool.

Off in California...

While we were celebrating my 50th in Scandinavia, the girls were living like movie stars in California. As usual, they spent a lot of time poolside at my parent’s beautiful house.

How special that my dad took Veronica on her first university tour on my 50th birthday. Ashlynn joined them for a golf cart tour of nearby Stanford University—nothing like setting her sights high! Veronica definitely liked what she saw.

Melissa’s 50th...

Two days after we returned from Croatia, the girls flew out to California to spend two weeks with my parents. The following evening, Jimmy and I flew to Stockholm for Eurohash 2013, which featured hashing in three countries in three days. The next day was my 50th birthday. We celebrated with lunch at our favorite restaurant, Hermans, a wonderful vegetarian buffet with amazing views.

Later that afternoon, we headed to the port to catch an overnight ferry to Helsinki for the kick off of Eurohash. This was the fanciest ship we’d ever been on; much more like a cruise ship than a ferry. We took a tour of the bridge, which was very interesting. I didn’t bring my camera on this trip, so we only have a few photos from the weekend.

We stood at the back of the ship as we left Stockholm and traveled around the large number of Swedish archipelago islands, which was a beautiful journey.

Jimmy had arranged a surprise for my birthday: a 50-bun salute! Definitely not a pretty view, but a hilarious way to start the hash weekend. When we arrived in Helsinki, we had a few hours to explore before heading to the venue. We hashed around downtown Helsinki, ending at the port for a short ferry ride over to Tallinn, Estonia. We stayed in the overflow hotel, which used to house KGB Headquarters. We had a nice dinner on our own, then met up with some hashers for a pub crawl. After breakfast the next morning, we were bussed to the start of the trails. Jimmy was thrilled to be able to go through an old Soviet training grounds on the long run; I had to stop running because my heel was acting up, so stuck with the medium trail which mostly went through the woods. After the hash, we headed to the port to get on yet another overnight ferry, this time back to Stockholm. That evening was a big party with a viking theme, which was great fun. The next day we did the walker’s trail, then hung out at the venue until it was time to head to the airport. It was an amazingly well organized weekend and we had a blast! Definitely the perfect way to celebrate the big 5-0!

An Evening at the Spa...

We’d originally planned on spending our final evening in Ljubljana, but then I remembered that wonderful spa that Jimmy and I had visited back in 2008, Wellness Park Lasko. So we surprised the girls by staying in Lasko and spending the evening at the water park.

They enjoyed the slides and the many hot tubs plus doing a little scuba diving in the main pool. On our walk back to the hotel, we happened across an unusual light show in the field. After breakfast the next morning, it was time to drive back to Croatia to fly out of Zagreb. What a fantastic vacation!

Fresh Slovenian Milk...

We enjoyed walking around the farmer’s market and eating some fresh berries. Jimmy was especially thrilled when we came across this unusual vending machine that dispenses unskimmed farm fresh raw milk.

Milk is sold for € 1 per liter. You can use your own container or purchase a plastic bottle. What a great concept!

Nearby, was another vending machine unlike any we’d ever seen before, selling a variety of dairy products including yogurt and cheese.

A Quick Stop in Ljubljana...

The next morning we packed up and headed out for a quick stop in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. This charming city is also Slovenia’s largest despite a population of only 280,000.

We were happy when we found a riverfront pizza place for lunch.

Slovenia’s Longest Tunnel...

Why go around the mountain when you can go through it? Rather than having to retrace our route, we took a very quirky way from Most na Soci to Bohinj: the car-train.

We assumed that there would be sides to the train, so were surprised when our van was driven onto a flat train car. It seemed very third world and made for an exciting 45-minute journey.

The scenery was beautiful and it was a great way to avoid those hairpin turns.

The 4-mile long Bohinj Tunnel runs under 4,925-foot high Mount Kobla.

We also crossed a bridge over the Soca River. For the final stop of the evening, we watched the sun set over Lake Bohinj. It was an action-packed day and we all loved it!

More Adventure...

The final adventurous stop was at another bridge over the Soca River, this time with the opportunity to jump the 33 feet (10 meters) to the water below.

No surprise that Jimmy was the first to make the leap or that I stayed safely on the bridge.

The big surprise was that Ashlynn was willing to take the plunge.

I was relieved that both of my daredevils hit the water just right with no injuries.