A very scary day....

Yesterday started out normal. We were on vacation in California, hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.  Daddy cooked delicious eggs, and we also got to go to In and Out again!  I loved running off and playing in the palm trees again.

And, of course, the burgers were awesome. 

Next we headed to the Winchester Mystery house.  I thought this sounded fun, because I like mysteries.  

I got a chill, just as Mommy took my picture in front of the house.  Then she told me that some people think this house is haunted.  *shiver*  I don't know if I like the sound of that.  But it was pretty on the outside, so I forgot about the ghosts for a while.  

As you can see, Mommy and Daddy were being completely ridiculous, but that's ok.  I think they're more monkey than I am!  

This next one should have tipped me off, but I didn't notice it until later... Can you see the 13 in the photo?  *shiver*

While I was sitting in front of this flower....

Goosebumps again!  Do you see what I see in this picture?  I was suddenly reminded about the stories of ghosts.  

As you go through the house, you learn that Mrs. Winchester built and built and built because she had to to appease the spirits.  I'm really starting to think my family is nuts for coming here.  If there were spirits then, imagine how many there are now!  They've probably had babies and everything!

This is the front door.  They say that only 3 people entered this door; Mrs. Winchester, and the men who hung it.  Creepier and creepier.  

We played in the gift shop for a while.  This was a fun little machine!  

Mommy told me I should have my fortune told... I asked the lady in the glass..... She nodded and looked at her crystal ball.... spooky... How can she know my fortune?  She asked what I wanted, and I said I wanted to be a famous adventure monkey, because that was the first thing that popped in my mind. I wish I'd asked to be safe from ghosts, but I guess it was too late for that.

She handed me a card that told me all sorts of things.  Since it had lucky numbers, I decided to concentrate on those to be safe.  

Then we looked at the haunted churchyard, and we could see someone coming out of a grave!  Mommy said it was pretend, but I knew.  We were in trouble now.  Don't mess with the dead.

I was right, because the very next thing we saw was a ghost playing a piano!  Daddy said it was mechanical, but I know.... The ghost had come out of the churchyard and possessed the piano, and it made music all by itself.  I wanted to go home, but the whole family wanted to stay.

The pedals went up and down, all by themselves!  

 We went through the house.  There were doors that led to nowhere, and when we went into the seance room, I could feel the spirits all trying to talk to me.  Even our tour guide had goosebumps.

When we went into the fruit drying shed, I knew I was possessed, because all I wanted to do was to hide behind Mommy, but instead, bam!  I found myself climbing into the drying area.  

But maybe it was the fake plums that possessed me.  They look so real, and being haunted takes a lot of energy.  

Daddy looked like he was going to operate the bellows and dry me into a little fruit, and I said "Stop!" and hopped right out of the oven.

I was pretty scared, and I spotted a carriage.

I could feel the spirits of the dead horses possess me, and I hopped up right to where they used to run!  Luckily, I wasn't connected to the carriage, or I'd have tried to run it right out of the building.  

They noticed I was a very active monkey, and said I needed to put on a hard hat so I wouldn't get hurt.  I tried to tell them I'm usually a very good monkey but I couldn't help the spirit possessions, but they would not listen!  

I met this very nice man with his bow and arrow.  I stopped and posed while Mommy took a picture, but as I sat there, I spotted a deer in the distance.  Suddenly, he started to raise his bow...

uh oh, no!!! I must go warn the deer!

I made a lot of noise and started running across the garden.  The deer must have spotted me, because he started to bolt.  The man put down his bow, and I went and talked to the deer.

 I saw an angel, and decided that might be a safe place to rest... Until I remembered Casi telling me the stories of the weeping angels... I made a beeline away from that danger, and decided to hide in the bushes.

Unfortunately, I didn't look very closely at my hiding spot.  I started to hear a barking and howling...  But I didn't see anything, except two pieces of wood.  Pieces that were curved on top.  Wait... I know what those are... Grave stones!  AAAAAAaaaaaaa!

I found high ground, and thought I was safe.  Too bad I'm not a great reader yet... There was a hole in the ground, and down I went a tumbling.  Into the basement of the Winchester Mystery House, with the ghost of the old caretaker that pushes the wheelbarrow.

I escaped, and hopped to some higher ground.  I was finally calming down, when I heard a noise over my shoulder.... The chair was rocking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... They say Mrs. Winchester used to come out here and look upon her gardens from her porch.  Maybe she was back, and didn't like me being on her porch!  I took off running...

High ground, high ground, high ground.... I didn't want to end up in any more grave yards.  There!  A fountain!  And it was dry!  Perfect for hiding in.  

It suddenly started filling with water.  I took off, and decided to look for my family.  There they were, pretending nothing was unusual.  How could they be acting so normal?  Although Casi is looking funny... Maybe she thinks Daddy is possessed, since he's using her to lean on.

I was feeling a little calmer, until a stone statue leaned over and picked me up.  AAAaaa!  What was going on?  

I was just a monkey, minding my own business!  I didn't ask for any of this!  

I tried to get away, but she tossed me to another statue!  I am not a football!  

I escaped, and told Casi the whole story. She looked terrified.  Phew.  Maybe I could get her to convince everyone to leave.

After that, I decided the only safe spot was on top of Daddy's head.  No one could possess me or haunt me up there.

  Look at this place... Would you go here?  

Before we left, I introduced myself to another monkey nearby, and warned him to run ,run away quickly! This was no place for monkeys, they just get possessed!  I don't know if he listened, but at least I did my part to protect him.

After a long day in a haunted building, I needed to relax.  Luckily, Grandma had the best idea.  I floated around the hot tub until I fell asleep.  No more mystery houses for me.  I'm done with ghosts and spirits.  I am a monkey that wants to hang out with the living! 

Do you know the way to San Jose? Do do do do do do do you?

This trip we're going to visit Grandma and Grandpa in California!  I like Grandpa, because he lets me taste his beer. We got to start out by driving over one of my favorite bridges in Portland!  The St. John's Bridge is beautiful and green.  Mommy said we were going to see an orange bridge in San Francisco called the Golden Gate Bridge.  I am very excited about that.  I like to imagine swinging from cables on these kind of bridges.

When we got to the airport, we got to take a bus.  It stopped a lot, and I just wanted to get going to go see Grandma and Grandpa!  

We rode past the control tower and I imagined being the person in charge of watching all the planes take off and land.  That sounds very exciting.  

When we got to the airport, there was a new crew filming!!  I started dancing around and playing, because I thought maybe I could get famous on the news!  Mommy could not stop laughing and got a picture.

We went through what Daddy called "security."  Mommy and Daddy and Lissy went through a machine that they had to stand still, but I got to go on the conveyor belt machine.  I danced in there too, and the security people stopped it, popped their heads in, and said "please sit still."  They were very serious, so I sat very still the second time they sent me through.

Everybody was hungry, and there was a Mo's at the airport!  Mommy, Daddy, and I shared the fish and chips.  They were SO yummy!

 Our plane was boarding when we finished eating, so we took a quick carpet picture on our way to the flight.

Once on the plane, I got settled to catch up on blogging.  We've had so many adventures recently, I got behind!  

I love the part where the airplane takes off.... You go faster and faster and faster until suddenly, the plane lifts into the air, and my belly did too!  It is so much fun!  I didn't think it felt faster than Mommy's motorcycle, but daddy showed me the speedometer, and it said we were going 429 miles per hour!  That's fast!

Of course, on the airplane, you have to look out the window and see the clouds.  It's amazing to me that we were above the clouds!  You could see the farms and hills, but you couldn't see any people or cars. Mommy told me that sometimes people jump out of airplanes for fun.  I hopped over to the window to think about that.  Mommy and Daddy think it sounds fun, I like the idea of swinging from tall bridges and trees more than jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

When we got to the airport, you could tell we were in a new city because they had different sports wear!  Mommy said that the 49ers were the best!

I got to sit all the way up front while grandpa drove us home.  San Jose is sunny and has a lot of different kinds of palm trees!  Lissy liked those too, so we oooed and aaaahed all the way to Grandma and Grandpa's.  

This is mommy's old bedroom.  She was really into drama and 50's when she was growing up.

Grandma has a special lamp that drips oil, and you can watch the teeny tiny drip from the top to the bottom.  Casi and I sat for hours and hours watching the oil lamp.  Grandma's house also has lots of mirrors, so I played a lot of silly mirror games.  Mommy called me a goofy monkey.

The next day, we headed to San Francisco!  This was the view of a rest stop on the way.  The freeways here are very wide, and get even wider in the bigger cities.  

 When we got to San Francisco, Casi and Lissy were hungry.  I looked at the map over Mommy's shoulder, and spotted In and Out!  Once I said that out loud, we made quick business of getting over to this fabulous burger joint.  

You can see how excited the family was by this idea!  Daddy said I should marry someone from the In and Out family and bring In and Out to Portland.  I don't like to think about getting married.  That sounds very grown up.

We walked along the waterfront, and in the distance, we spotted Ghirardelli! I didn't know much about Ghirardelli except that I like their chocolate, so I was into this idea.  

On our way, we found these HUGE boat propellers!  I imagined being under the water, swimming while they spun in circles around and around and around.... This sounded fun, until Mommy told me it would be quite dangerous and I might get chopped to bits.  I decided they were better to play on like this, on dry land.  

Mommy liked the cool boats in the distance, so we went and played on the beach and took a picture.  I got wiggly because I wanted to go play in the waves.

We wanted to climb the cool towers with the spiral staircases, but they said No Trespassing.  I told Mommy that I could sneak through the bars and go check it out for everyone, and she said that unless I wanted to be talked to by scary government people, I should just get a picture at the bottom.

We made it to Ghirardelli and had amazing ice cream with toppings!  I tried everyone's out!  Mommy had vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, and Lissy just had chocolate ice cream.  Casi had Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream with hot fudge.  Hot fudge is my favorite.  Grandma and Grandpa shared a banana split, with pineapple, strawberry, and hot fudge topping, and that was amazing!  Casi and Mommy stole whipped cream from Grandma and Grandpa. It was very yummy and very good, and I think this is my favorite part of San Francisco.  

While we were wandering around, we found some Motorcycles that were almost small enough for me to ride!  I love riding on Mommy and Daddy's motorcycle, but someday I dream of getting my own.

Then they found me a car to drive, and I drove it right through the wall!  Just kidding.  But it was a cool car.

There was a pretty fountain of nursing mermaids.  I was hot, so I splashed and played in the water for a while.  It cooled me right down.

We stopped an enjoyed the view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, with the San Francisco fog rolling in.  It was beautiful.  

We stopped and looked at the Trolley Cars, but the line was very long and they didn't seem to be working.  We decided to walk up to Lombard Street.  Mommy said it is the crookedest street in the world.  

This was a VERY steep walk.  I ran ahead and looked down at Mommy and Daddy and then back down and then back up, because I have a lot of energy.  It was so steep, it was like climbing a wall!  

This is near the top of Lombard Street!  It was very very twisty!

This is from the bottom of Lombard Street.  It was so pretty; the houses had beautiful plants and fun colors, and the street had dozens of hydrangeas. 

After this, everyone was way too tired to do any more sight seeing.  We headed to a restaurant called The Smoking Pig which had silly pictures of pigs smoking cigarettes all around, and we had REALLY good BBQ.

I asked Mommy and Daddy what we were going to do tomorrow, and Daddy said we were going to a haunted mansion!  That sounds really scary to me, but Daddy said he would protect me.  I'm going to try to go to sleep now, but I hope I don't have nightmares.

Buh Bye!