A vacation within a vacation

After Grant's reunion, we were able to drive back to Davis and stay with my parents for almost a week. We had a lot of fun and were able to relax, but also get lots done. At the end of the week, my dad was able to take a day and a half off, so we drove to the coast and spent the night at a hotel in Pacifica, just south of San Francisco. I found a great deal and we had this beautiful view from our room!

Standing outside the hotel before going down to the water

Thursday we wandered around the beach by the hotel and enjoyed the gorgeous northern California coast. It was a little chilly, but not bad, and so beautiful with tons of fun creatures, shells, etc that we found on the beach.

This was our greatest find...the crab claw that my dad made into an earring :)

We just wandered around for awhile, I got into the water up to my knees (and a little higher unexpectedly and ended up with wet shorts, but I didn't mind :)
We built up quite an appetite after exploring for awhile, and headed to Sam's Chowder House in Half Moon Bay for dinner. Seafood is Grant's all time favorite food and I enjoy it, especially when I'm on the coast, overlooking the water...and this meal was delicious!

My dad and Grant shared the clam bake for 2, which was a meal that required a bit of work as everything including the lobster was still in its shell, etc. but they loved it!

Working hard to get every last piece of meat out of those claws!

All of our food! It was all seriously so good...my mom and I shared some delicious fish and one of the Today Show's top 5 sandwiches in America, the Maine Lobster Roll, yum!

A wonderful day...but we played hard and ate lots, so after dinner we came back to the hotel and crashed...but don't worry, there was lots of more had the next day...