June 12: Lafayette, California

In the morning we woke up and sneaked out early before anyone could notice that we weren’t the Roberts family and that we were not very legit campers. But not before Emily got extremely lost coming back from the bathroom. Louisa would have sent out a search party if she had even noticed that Emily had been gone for an abnormally long time.

Finally Emily stumbled back and we made plans to stick our feet in the water before finding some hot chocolate or coffee at a bakery to warm us up. We found a rocky beach that was painful to walk across, but the walk back was less so once we stepped in the water and they got numb.

We made our way further down the coast, looking for a coffee shop that was open. We noticed some people standing outside a small store and parked the car, finally ready to satisfy our hunger. We went to the door and found that it was locked – and not to be opened for another two hours. Someone else drove up to stand with those milling about on the sidewalk, but we were not invited to join their hang-out sesh so we drove away again.

The drive back inland was once again mountainous and slightly terrifying for Emily, who was once again in the passenger seat, hanging on for dear life as the tires squealed (only once….)

However, once we entered wine country, we found a cute café where we enjoyed delicious blackberry scones. Louisa had organic coffee (with organic milk and sugar) and Emily had freshly squeezed orange juice. She was immediately inspired to start squeezing oranges herself in the Ratty (our dining hall at school).

Back on the road, we quickly made it to Lafayette, where Louisa’s uncle, aunt, and cousins live. No one was home so we dunked our feet in the pool, taking a small break from our fast-moving lifestyle, and then headed to the BART station so we could take the train into San Francisco.

When we stepped out of the train, we found ourselves inexplicably in a mall. It was lunchtime and we realized that we hadn’t eaten, so Louisa introduced Emily to the wonders of Jamba Juice, which served as our meal.

We were scheduled to meet Louisa’s friend Griffin outside the giant Forever 21, but since she wasn’t due for another 20 minutes we decided to head inside to check out the clothing options while we waited. We sneaked our Jamba Juices past the security guard at the entrance, who was busy texting, but we were almost immediately kicked out by another employee as soon as we started looking at the bathing suit selection.

We chose instead to walk around the block for a while, as we were pretty sure we could not get kicked off of the sidewalk.

Once she arrived, Griffin took us down to Fisherman’s Wharf, where we checked out the touristy shops, making our only purchases in the candy store. After taking some pictures in front of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, we headed back uptown, munching on our candy.

In order to get to Chinatown, our next destination, we had to climb up and down a huge hill – we wished we hadn’t left our hiking boots in the car. However, the hike was worth it, as we found some very cheap souvenirs – including $2 t-shirts. Unfortunately the “Escaped from the psycho ward at Alcatraz” t-shirts weren’t in our size.

After saying goodbye to Griffin, we headed back to Lafayette. Louisa’s cousins, Will and Peter, were adorable, as always, and Will immediately put us to work whittling sticks into spears. He also showed off his saw and axes, while Peter dressed up like a cowboy for our benefit.

Dinner was barbecued shrimp, pasta, and salad – absolutely delicious. If anything, Louisa’s aunt Melissa’s apricot tart was even more delicious, made from the piles and piles of fresh apricots she and the boys had gotten that morning.

After a very filling dinner, we were forced by Will to go swimming with him. Will was preparing for his swim meet the next day and showed off his talent. He also organized a diving competition for us, as well as a hold-your-breath competition. The results were quite even. Peter ran around collecting mud from the garden the whole time.

After a tour of the boys’ room, we helped tuck them into bed and headed down the poolhouse, where we would be staying (just like Ryan!!!).