Jan 6, 2011 - Happy New Year!

ZooLights!

Riley was overwhelmed by all the lights

A pork shoulder head-to-head competition between the Bullet and the Komodo

Kevin and Darya, Green Bay Packer friends, came over to watch the big rivalry game

Riley loved Darya's earrings

Running beside the ocean at Half Moon Bay

Leading Daddy down the beach

Gorgeous

The waves were impressive this day

Riley and Mommy

Seamus and Riley loved climbing on the rocks. Seamus was a little more sure-footed but Riley is getting better all the time

She loved playing in the sand

Pillar Point Harbor, where we bought some live crab off a boat

Hey, let go of the mitt!

Into the pot you go!

We had a nice, relaxing end to our holiday. We finally made it to ZooLights. Even though it was a few days after Christmas (we really had a busy December!), it was still a lot of fun. And of course Riley, who loves lights, was overwhelmed by the lights everwhere. Chad, ever the meticulous engineer, spent New Year's Day smoking 2 pork shoulders, testing different grills to see which performed the best. The result was some amazing pulled pork to share with friends.

Chad had to work New Year's Eve but had Monday off, so we went to Half Moon Bay. Its a gorgeous spot that's only 45 min away but somehow we had never made the drive. We walked along the ocean, and both Seamus and Riley tired themselves out running on the beach. We ate lunch outside (on Jan. 2! I love CA weather!) then bought some live crabs fresh off a crab boat. The fisherman told us how to cook them and made handling them look easy so we went home and gave it a shot. Chad lost the coin toss so he had to move the crabs and their snapping claws from the cooler to the pot. We watched a YouTube video on cleaning crab and quickly became experts. We were rewarded with the most delicious crab I've ever had.