California Christmas: Day 3

Christmas Eve was a warm, sunny day so I had to spend it outside. I had also been dying to eat some In-N-Out and Sam really wanted to experience the hustle and bustle of Christmas Eve shopping. We decided to go to Costco, In-N-Out, and Sunol Regional Wilderness to meet everyone's goals for the day. My brother, Morgan, spent the day with us as well.

At Costco, we bought some bottles of the finest Alaskan fish oil concentrate and drooled over the smoke salmon. Sam and I also lamented the fact that in Ohio club stores can't sell liquor. This Costco had amazing prices on wine, beer, and liquor. The store was sufficiently crowded for Sam so we left for lunch at In-N-Out. My cheeseburger, animal style, was delicious. It should hold me over until the next time I am near an In-N-Out.

Sunol is one of my favorite parks because it usually isn't very crowded and has some short hikes. The Alameda Creek runs through the park and there is a gorge called Little Yosemite that is a bit of a misnomer. It's never reminded me of Yosemite, but it is still pretty nonetheless. However, it has been a very dry December and there wasn't much water in Alameda Creek so Little Yosemite just looked like a bunch of boulders in a ditch.

Some very dry hills

Trail side diaper change!

Inga was pretty fussy for most of the hike. She really didn't want to be in the carrier and would just start yelling. Sam carried her in his arms the 1.5 miles up to Little Yosemite, but was too worn out to do the same on the way down. I put her in the carrier and let her yell until she fell asleep. Poor little girl needs more practice hiking.

Screaming and clawing at my back

Trail side nursing also left me with a tiny poison oak rash on my arm, but since I am super sensitive to poison oak I still have the rash and it hurts. Poison oak is possibly my least favorite plant.

This was a very different Christmas Eve evening. Inga has a meltdown right before bed and just screams for 30-60 minutes pretty much every night. It kind of interrupted any Christmas Eve rituals. Sam and I took an evening walk (without the peanut!) and looked for orange trees to collect some fruit. We are so building a green house so we can grow citrus.

So excited for Christmas Day!