Out West Trip: Day 16 (Capitola, CA to Half Moon Bay, CA)

Today’s Highlights:
Meeting up with “Aunt Suze” and her friends at the Winchester Mystery House, driving tour of Google and ILOG history, lunch at a crepe place in Palo Alto, new books, spotting dolphins in the bay!

We woke before 7. The girls took showers while Rob and I packed up the van. The road we had taken into town the night before was closed, but we found our way in and to a nice coffee shop with wi-fi. After about an hour of trying to get as much done as quickly as possible, we headed towards san Jose and the Winchester Mystery House. Suze and her friends arrived just a little bit after we did, and we all enjoyed taking the tour of the house together, though our tour guide was a bit on the strange side himself.

winchester mystery house - 6 jun 2011

After the tour, we drove up to Mountain View where we took a little driving tour of Google and the old ILOG buildings. In Palo Alto, we went to Suze’s apartment, gathered up all of our laundry and went to the laundromat. Rob stayed with the clothes while everyone else went for a very, very large lunch at the crepe restaurant. After lunch, we went to Borders to buy some books. We spent a little time at Suze’s before hitting the road. It was slow going to the highway because of an accident, but we managed to leave sunny, beautiful Palo Alto and find out way to cloudy, drizzly Half Moon Bay State Beach.

laundry - 6 jun 2011

After we got to our site, Rob and Camille went off to get Rob some dinner and let Camille look around at the sci-fi bookstore. Chloe and Gwyneth sat on the beach reading; Chloe spotted a group of dolphins swimming by! Rob made a fire in the pit and the girls made some smores before bed.

half moon bay - 6 jun 2011

My Yelp review of Capitola Coffee Roasters.
My Trekaroo review of the Winchester Mystery House.

Trip Stats:
Roadside Attractions: None. (Total: 16)
States: California. (Total: 10 – GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, CO, CA)
State Plates Spotted: None. (Total: 46)
Miles: 93 (Total: 4136)
Gallons of gas bought: None. (Total: 244.1)
Poptops Spotted: 5 (Total: 19)
National Park Stamps: None. (Total: 6)
Miles walked: 3 (Total: 36)
Dollars saved with NP pass: None. (Total: 85)
Continental Divide Crossings: None. (Total: 3)
Time Zone Changes: None. (Total: 7 – EDT, CDT, MST, MDT, CDT, MDT, MST, PDT)