{Nor Cal Road Trip} Day Four

Lauren slept like this last night. It was hilarious. This morning we got another early start on our day because today was the day I was the most excited for and was the main reason for our trip. I got to see my dear friends and Lauren got to see her friends too!

But before we left the city and headed out to Concord, we hopped on the Cable Cars one last time and went to the Cable Car Museum to get Lauren her San Francisco ornament. She enjoyed the ride a lot. Unfortunately, the line at the Cable Cars was long...even early in the morning.





We arrived to Monica, Maddie & Sam's House (and Aaron) late because there was MAJOR traffic going through the tunnel. We ate lunch and then the kids all went out to play in the sprinkler while I got to know this sweet little bundle of love, Miss Addison!



I think Lauren and Aaden remembered each other from their trip to San Diego last April...because they seemed to really enjoy playing with each other.



Isn't she just adorable! She fell asleep while I was holding her and I just soaked up every minute of it. I also got to hold sweet Sammy, but we did not get a picture of it.

We had so much fun laughing, talking, drinking wine and watching the kids play and interact that we did not take too many pictures...but we did get one group picture of the moms...

...and one of the kiddos...minus Maddie, who crashed out early,

...so we photobombed her! (See her in the middle left under the pink blanket?) Haha.

After we said goodbye to Monica, Maddie and Sammy and Tanith and Ariana, we headed south towards Monterey, but we stopped at the Griffin's house for dinner and to let the guys hang out since Aaron could not make it up to Concord. Lauren loved playing with Addie.


And she loved being out in the back yard with Aaden too. Last time we were up in Hollister, Lauren did not want to play too much with Aaden. This time, she was so excited to be in the yard playing with him!

We had a delicious dinner and stayed til around 8:30pm I think. We always have such a great time with the Griffins. I with they lived closer!


Then it was time to continue our drive down to Monterey for the night. I reserved two nights at the IHG Army Presisdo Hotel right on the bluffs. The views were amazing, and being that we were on a military base, it was very safe. IHG (Intercontinental Hotel Group) had just taken over the property and raised the rates over $100 per night...but its Monterey, so we took it. We got there around 10pm and checked in only to find that the room we reserved was NOT the room we reserved. It had one double bed. So we had to drive back to the front office and that is when they informed me that they only had the room we had originally reserved available for one night, and not the second night. So I said fine, just give it to us for tonight and we will figure it out in the morning.

The rooms were awful. Apparently they took barracks rooms and converted them to "hotel rooms". There were no elevators and we were on the 3rd floor and our ocean view was now a view of nothing. For the original $40 a night, I would have been fine, but for the $140+ a night price tag...I was not happy. We could have stayed at the Hilton, Hyatt, or Marriott for the same military rate.