FroDo, Duck Bills and Elephant Sneezes: The Martins Visit Cali

Mitchell's parents, Betsy and Greg came to visit us for 6 days over the last week and we had a great time with them! What's with the title of the blog? All funnies that happened throughout the week.

To begin, they arrived on the afternoon of the 4th of July.

Arriving to Sacramento!

We gave them a brief tour of Sacramento and walked them around the capitol of California. They have planted all different kinds of trees around the capitol so it was neat to read the plaques and learn what they were.

That evening we went out and enjoyed a firework show over the river. Glad the pyrotechnicians did a good job and our show didn't end up like San Diego's.

Thursday was Lake Tahoe Day! Mitchell and I had never been before so we were excited to experience a new part of Cali. We drove up in the morning, had lunch on a beach off the lake and then went on a Duck Tour! Our vehicle was an amphibious boat that can drive on land and then become a boat when you go into the water. It's a little odd driving down a boat ramp into the water. Tahoe is absolutely beautiful and definitely work a trip in the summer or winter!

On the way to Lake Tahoe!

Our view at lunch

Duck Tours WWII amphibious truck

Driving down the boat ramp into the water!

On Friday we head out for a few days in San Francisco! On our agenda was Muir Woods, Muir Beach, the Golden Gate bridge, double decker bus tour, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square and whatever else we could fit in!

Walking out to the South Tower!

Lombard St - the crooked street 

Banana slug in Muir Woods! Sick!

With my love in Muir Woods

All of us in front of a massive redwood

Muir Beach! 

Lunch in Sausalito, overlooking the bay with San Fran on the other side

Gotta have In-N-Out Burger

Our last stop in the bay area was an Oakland A's game. Not too thrilling but Greg likes visiting ball parks in America.

A's game!

We make it back to Sacramento exhausted on Saturday night and enjoyed sleeping in and having a slow morning on Sunday. We go to church where Besty and Greg got to meet a lot of our friends. They loved every part of that morning.

We were LAZY on Sunday recovering from SF. The highlight of that day! Cupcakes!

With our cupcakes from L to R: Vanilla with chocolate, Red Velvet Cake, Confetti Cupcake and Root Beer Float

On Monday, I had to volunteer at the pregnancy center for three hours so Mitchell took his dad to go hit some balls at the driving range and Betsy stayed at our house and read. They picked me up at 1pm and we drove out to Fairfield to take a tour of the Jelly Belly Factory. That's right. We live 45 minutes from where they make Jelly Bellys! Super fun!

Bahaha, this picture is so funny!

To finish the day right and make their last night in Cali special, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. Greg and Betsy LOVE Cheesecake Factory and since they don't have one in Longview, they go whenever the opportunity presents itself.

With our cheesecake!

Tuesday morning, Mitchell had to go to work so Greg, Besty and I "hacked around" during the morning and then met Mitchell for lunch at Cafe Bernardo.

Midtown Sacramento

After one last trip for cupcakes, we took them to the airport to catch their flight back to Texas! It was a wonderful time having them visit!

To understand the title of the blog, please read the following stories:

While at lunch in Tahoe, I mentioned we could maybe go get some fro-yo before the duck tour. Greg looked at me a little puzzled and asked what fro-yo was. I explained it was frozen yogurt. We were quiet for a little while then Greg laughs to himself and shakes his head. We ask him to share what is funny and he says, no, it (the joke he just made in his head) was too bad to share. You should know Greg Martin makes a lot of jokes that few people find funny. They are usually pretty cheesy but I still think they're funny. We got it out of him that he was thinking if you had frozen donuts would it be fro-do (like the LOTR character)? After a morning of bad jokes (in Mitchell's opinion) we laugh about the fact that fro-do was too bad to share but all the others were good in Greg's opinion?? So for the rest of the trip any time Greg made a joke that wasn't funny, Mitchell would say, "That beat fro-do??".

Also in Tahoe, we were discussing the cost of the Duck Tour when Greg said we could just put it on his bill. Ha, get it. He also told this joke: A duck walked into a pharmacy and said to the pharmacist, "My lips are quacked, I need some chapstick. You can put it on my bill." I thought it was funny.

Lastly, while we were at church in the middle of the sermon, while it is dead quiet, Greg sneezed but he didn't want to sneeze on the people in front of us so he tried to block it by pinching his nose. Well it sounded exactly like an elephant and it was loud! Haha, Mitchell and I looked at each other and tried to not laugh out loud.