Meet, Ava, Kristen, and Sara! These are Ella's closest friends this year and the ones she will live with next year. They met through Biology classes. Ava is from DC, Kristen is from LA, and Sara is from Portland. For Spring Break, these lovely ladies planned a fun road trip! They started with a few days in Southern CA, staying at Kristen's family home, hiking in the LA mountains and visiting Slovang. Then they made the trek to Central CA where they filled my house with laughter and fun for five days.
I'm learning that I LOVE feeding hungry college kids! I stocked the fridge and planned a delicious menu of non-caf food. We heard about a special birthday during the visit, so we popped the old 2 and 1 candle in the pie to celebrate.
Ella's Spring Break was quite early and did fall while we were all still working, teaching and going to school and play practices. But the girls entertained themselves, making fun brunches, visiting coffee shops, and getting some studying done. Nights were for board games and movies. I loved how much time and attention they gave Delia, having long conversations with her about what to expect from college life and what to look for in a compatible roommate.
One day I met them after school at our friends' almond orchard to take some blossom pictures for them.
They're a bunch who loves to laugh! They also could not have been more polite! I didn't wash a single dish all week and they even laundered their own towels! I complimented Ella on what it says about her character that she's chosen such solid people to surround herself with. Every single person she's introduced us to from college has just been amazing.
Another day, I was able to take the girls up to Big Trees State Park when I was done teaching. We packed up some sandwiches and dug every boot and raincoat we own out of the closet to bundle up for some expected rain.
What we did NOT expect was the snow!! It was the best! Fat, fluffy, idyllic flakes floating down in an already gorgeous landscape. We were wet and cold, but we did not care!
I loved Ava from DC on this day taking and sending her mom a hundred pictures of the Giant Sequoias, something she had never seen and has always had on her bucket list.
On the one day Delia did not have a big practice, I got a sub and we all took a whole day off to show the girls around the pretty parts of San Francisco. We started at Golden Gate Park, were the tulips around the Queen Wilhelmina Windmill were in bloom.
Next it was a stop at the Golden Gate Bridge Visitor Center and a windy walk to the first column.
The girls loved the aesthetic of the Palace of the Fine Arts and took all kinds of cute pictures of each other here.
We drove down the twisty Lombard Street to get to our lunch destination in Chinatown. I did a little research and found a tiny, but highly rated, restaurant in Chinatown that did not disappoint! When we walked in, the tables were full of SFPD and construction workers, so we knew we hit the local hotspot jackpot. After lunch we walked to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company to get cookies hot off the press. You can actually watch the workers folding the fortunes in! This historic business was THE one that brought fortune cookies to the US.
The afternoon destination was another view of the Golden Gate, but this time from Fort Point, one of my favorite paths to walk in SF. Sara fell in love with the city enough to text her family that she wants to live here. They were like, "Ummm..." Haha! Like any big city, if you stick to certain neighborhoods, you see the best. The day could not have been prettier.
Ella and her friends were blessed with travel mercies as they journeyed back over the mountain pass and through the LA traffic to make it back to school. But, not before one more fun outing to a So Cal beach, were Ella reported a sunburn! How funny to go from snow to sunburn and county to city in a matter of days! A little taste of everything California for these sweet spring breakers!
