Yesterday was marvelous. I guess I have been missing a lot of the down time I had grown accustomed to. The last couple of days have just been grand.

Anyway, I was impressed when we got home last night and it was only 85 in the house (downstairs where the air hadn't been on). I figured maybe it hadn't gotten so bad, there was a bit of a cool breeze when we got home at 11pm. I thought differently when I woke up in a sweat and it was up to 85 inside (we had whimped out and turned the air to 80 right before bed - usually do this anyway and keeps cool overnight - turn it off once it gets to 80). So I woke up earlier than I intended to, sweltering.

Dh got up a bit ago and grabbed the paper. I guess it was 108 degrees yesterday! A record-breaker! Blech! Obviously we made a very smart choice to get the hell out and not come back until late at night. LOL. But unfortunately they have revised the forecast to 100+ degrees the rest of the week. Double blech.

Anyway, I share because the insulation and energy efficient measures in these houses still amaze me. That the house could stay at 85 while it was 108 outside! not bad. It is days and days on end of heat that it starts to get hot inside. But if we have cooler nights it just self regulates.

Oh well, frankly we are lucky we went this long without this kind of weather. It can be this way from May - September sometimes. Endless 90-100+-degree weather. It is still just a shock to my system since I grew up where the weather rarely varies between 60-80. I feel entitled to good weather because of it - LOL. But we have all the waterways and night cool breezes. Of course it usually doesn't get up to 108 until days of 100-degree weather and no breeze. So rather bizarre. The next week will be pretty unbearable. Thank goodness for a/c!

As for us, we had a great time. Got a bit of a late start and got to the Redwood Forest around noon. IT was CROWDED!!!!!! I guess a bad week to go. admission for us adults was $6. IT seemed pretty on the honor system though. Who knows if anyone checks or cares if you pay. But we did regardless. We ate at their pricey cafe and headed on a nice hike. The kids did spectactular. LM tripped and fell a few times so he is obviously not up to the big hikes yet. A lot of the road was paved and he did fine. But I think he needs another year (or 2) of walking to do any significant hikes with us. BM as usual was fine. HE could probably outpace us with all that energy - I am sure he could do an all-day hike if we wanted to.

After our hike we drove to GRandma's. We were able to avoid the tolls on the way to the forest, but had to take the Golden Gate Bridge down ($5 toll). I REALLY regret not having my camera in the car with me (had put it in the trunk). To us the Golden Gate Bridge is, eh, seen it a million times. But yesterday it was absolutely GORGEOUS. The fog was rolling by and it just looked mystical peeking out from the fog. We saw the city in the distance shrouded in fog as well. We rolled down the windows and enjoyed the COLD air as we waited to cross the bridge, thinking of all those suckers back in Sacramento yesterday - LOL.

There was absolutely no traffic so made it to Grandma's within the hour where the kids went swimming with their cousin. We got out really late but had a good time. GrandDad BBQed and we ate well! (Now I remember why our grocery bill was so low - we have been eating so good on our parents' dime).

Oh well, I have a million things to do today. Grandma is keeping the kids until 4-5 so I guess we best get to it.

With the heat I had an idea for ice-cream cake for the kids. Maybe splurge. I got the idea as we walked by DQ. Went in and didn't have a cake under $30 - yikes. I told dh I knew I had gotten cheap ice cream cakes before - we should try Baskin Robins. But he remembered an ice-cream pie recipe he had - was premade crust covered in hard chocolate (magic shell) then fill with ice cream and top with toppings. Looked so easy and DIVINE! We are going to do that... I am looking online for a simple recipe - something a little more kid friendly. I even found carrot ice-cream pie. LOL. Eeeew - I didn't even look at it - how weird is that. I don't wanna know - hehe.

He is onboard with my frugal pizza plan too. Two premade pizzas from the grocery store ($5/each) and order a couple from Round Table. The pizzas are on par but since we only have 1 oven I haven't really figured out how to bake 4, and I didn't want to cook all day. I think it is a good compromise. I'll take either pizza - they are both just our FAVORITES so it is not like the cheap pizza will be lesser and some people will feel gyped. LOL.

But I have some pics to share:

A hike we did by my folk's house. A little hilly park with trails where I used to ride my bike a lot as a kid. We did this as an easy/experimental hike and LM had a freakout that day. (May?)



But there was this lone house on the hill that struck me. I think I could go for that when I save my first millions of dollars. Just looked so peaceful.



& found some baby birdies by the pool:



& from yesterday... I didn't get a lot of great shots of the forest, but the kids were cute: