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Miguel had the day off so we had the official family celebration of my birthday today. I left it up to him to decide what we were going to do. On Saturday he went to work and asked his co-workers for suggestions. The first suggestion he shared with me was Train Town, followed by Chuck E Cheese. When I shot those down he suggested Filoli Estate and Gardens. Obviously he intended for us to go to the gardens all along and he presented the options in that order very deliberately so that Filoli would seem even better. It worked anyhow: Filoli it was. The house was very nice, though I didn't get to explore it as much as I would have liked what with herding Az through before she broke something. We had really come for the gardens anyhow. I was worried a lot of the flowers would no longer be in their prime since we are quickly heading into autumn but everything still felt very lush. I would still like to come back in Spring some time though, when the light is not so harsh. The gardens are open from 11AM to 3:30PM, not exactly the most ideal time for taking photos. Most of my photos didn't come out thanks to the harsh sunlight, but Az seemed to have had a good time wandering the garden and laying on the grass. She's had no prior experience with the words, "grass" and "lawn" so telling her to stay off of either was fairly pointless.

 

To the house we go!

 

Dancing in the dining room

 

 They're both determined we not ever take a nice frameable photo together. So far the score is Me: 0 Them: 356

Zae is quickly becoming my go-to "Here, take a picture of me" guy, which is nice because I need one. The more photos I have taken the more likely I'll actually end up liking one, right?

 

Like I said, the sunlight was really harsh while we were there so the quality of my photos were all pretty poor. When the kids weren't standing in harsh sunlight they were hiding in the shade.

Filoli Gardens closes for the day in the afternoon so since the day was still relatively young Miguel suggested that we head over to Halfmoon Bay to grab a bite to eat. By the time we got to Halfmoon Bay Az was fast asleep so Miguel went to eat on his own. When he returned Z and I took our turn eating while M and Az waited in the car. We went into the sandwich shop that we were parked nearest to, but it turned out to be one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. The menu was extremely simple, and didn't feature anything fancy at all. I ordered a roast beef sandwich with swiss. However, the ingredients were fantastic. The bread was fresh made on site. While Z and I were eating and watching the family of feral cats and kittens that were drawing crowds of people Miguel and Az joined us.

A cousin of mine got married a few years back in the area that we were lunching. It was at a very cute little house and I wanted to show it to Z to see if he remembered it. For the life of me I couldn't find it anywhere, which was confounding because the street wasn't that long. After wandering about for a bit I realized that we had actually had our sandwiches at the very house. They had done some remodeling of the outside area. Somehow they had managed to make it even nicer than it was before.

We had been hoping to do some window shopping but it being a Sunday, most of the shops were already closed for the night. We found ways to entertain ourselves anyhow.

Z really wanted me to take a picture of him in front of this mural. We never did figure out all of the meaning behind this particular piece of art. When Az saw her brother posing she insisted on joining in on the fun.

I made Z pose for the following picture. He's such a good boy sometimes.

And then Az wanted to join in again.

Oh well, I never claimed that we were cool.