Super Saturday (of the non-sewing variety)

As most who know me may have noticed, I tend to always have some activity planned for each Saturday, whether it be one of our local sightseeing trips, or a trip up to see my grandparents.  This recent Saturday I had not only planned not just one major event...but two:  a birthday lunch for one roommate and a baby shower for the other.

A few months ago, I mentioned to Lisa that, being the baseball fan she is, I thought she'd like to have lunch at McCovey's.  After explaining that McCovey's is a restaurant owned by Willie McCovey, filled with baseball (and particularly Giants) memorabilia we decided it would be the perfect place to celebrate her birthday this year.  And to watch the Giants game, of course.

So come Saturday morning on the anniversary of Lisa's birth, we dressed in our Giants gear and made the trek up I-680 to McCovey's, where we had a fabulous lunch and watched the game to the bitter end (they lost in the ninth), and where I took far too many pictures.

Who doesn't love Bieber?

Free birthday Sundae...no spoon included.

After the game we headed back to our place to celebrate the pending arrival of Kate's baby girl Ava (due in just 7 short weeks).

The spread...

Hard at work coming up with baby names...

Guess how big mama's baby bump is...

Presents!

Adorable!!

Lisa's wrapping paper baby bump isn't quite as impressive...

 All in all, it was a long day...but a great one!

FiLoLi

Fight.  Love.  Live.

One of my very favorite places I've discovered in the Bay Area is Filoli.  It's a National Historic Site in Woodside, which consists of an elaborate (and huge!) mansion built in the early 1900's.  Eclipsing this lovely home are acres of spectacular gardens.  I discovered Filoli last year and have been back 3 times since then (most recently on April 13th).

After visits in April, June and August I've decided I most enjoy the spring flowers...bluebells, wisteria, tulips, poppies, irises. The colors are spectacular!

John Muir House and Miscellaneous Shennanigans

Our ongoing quest: to visit (in some cases) little-known tourists attractions in the area.  The stop this weekend?  John Muir House in Martinez.

First we met up in Pleasant Hill for some tasty Greek food at Daphne's.  Then we headed up to the house.  The house and surrounding orchards are beautifully preserved and I felt like we were stepping back in time.  However, the surrounding city creates something of a jarring backdrop to the pastoral beauty of the land.  Nevertheless, it was lovely (I carefully avoided the jarring angles in my pictures to preserve the fantasy).

It was something of a confused day - at one point it was simultaneously sunny and raining big fat drops on our heads as we explored the grounds.  But the temperature was warm and the showers were brief, so it didn't cause us much discomfort.  And the skies were lovely.

We did get a little goofy about halfway through and had an impromptu photo shoot along the way.  The subject?  Awkward (and/or stereotypical) high school portraits - including prom and senior pics.  We might look pretty ridiculous, but we had a great time!

Oh...and I pretty much loved this palm tree.  I really think I need one of these...

SLC and Temple Square

I know this is rather late, but I don't want to forget it.

I was fortunate in December to get to spend some time in Salt Lake City and specifically in Temple Square.  I had a wonderful time exploring every nook and cranny of the Square.  Although, I somehow managed to miss the Family History Library (which is particularly ironic if you know me...).

I took about a million pictures.  Everything was beautiful, under a blanket of white snow.

Here is just a small sampling...

 Even under a blanket of snow...

Reminds me of home (Oakland Temple Visitor's Center)

By far the snowiest nativity I've ever seen (and that's counting the nativity at the Frankfurt Temple)

 I love, love, LOVE the detail on every facet of the temple.

Brief Travels Abroad

In my work I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel quite a bit, mostly in Germany. I've been there a total of 16 weeks over 8 different trips. I've been able to visit quite a bit of the country in my travels.

Some of my favorites:

-Munich

-Berlin

-Heidelberg

-Frankfurt Temple and Christmas Market

-Neuschwanstein (the castle Walt Disney modeled the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland after)

-Bayreuth (during the festival celebrating the operas of Richard Wagner)

In general I have really enjoyed my trips to Germany (sometimes despite work!).

Recently I again had the chance to travel to Germany. Unfortunately this trip was super short (I flew in on Wednesday night and flew out Monday morning) and not very fun (lots of work politics, multiple flight cancellations, and a very interesting bus trip). But...I did get the chance to visit the Freiberg Temple, which means I have now been to all the temples in Germany (there are only 2). And I spent some time on Sunday walking around the historic downtown of Erlangen.

The temple was beautiful. I arrived there quite early for the session and took some time to walk around outside and take pictures. It looked beautiful enrobed in clean white snow and there was a wonderful quiet stillness about the temple.

I love that the House of the Lord is His house no matter where on Earth you are and his spirit is always there.

I spent most of Sunday relaxing in my hotel room. But in the afternoon I decided to venture out to the historic downtown area of Erlangen (about a 10 minute walk from my hotel). I got some great shots of Schloss Erlangen (including the spot where books were burned in 1933), the fountain facing the "schloss" and some other general historic sights.

All in all, not my best trip, but I'm still grateful for the opportunities I have and have had through my work. Sometimes I can't believe some of the things I've been able to do that I would never have dreamed would be part of my everyday life.

An Adventure through the Amazon and Beyond...

Over the holidays I was fortunate to have quite a bit of time off (11 days to be exact!). I was really looking forward to some time away from the office.

I didn't have any big plans, just some relaxing holiday activities with the family and chill time at home.

Of course things never quite go according to plan. I did manage to have some great holiday time with family. But unfortunately I spent quite a bit of my vacation fighting off (and finally succumbing to) a cold.

By the last Friday of my vacation I was finally feeling better and ready to get out of the house. In fact I tried to find something fun to do on Thursday, but without success. So by Friday it was definitely time for an adventure!

I rounded up some friends (Katy and Hillary) and we decided to take a quick day trip around the world. On our travels we visited the rainforest of the Amazon, met some reindeer, went sightseeing under the sea in the Philippines and wandered through the wildlife of Africa. In other words, we made a visit to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

I had heard wonderful things about it ever since the renovation a few years ago, and it definitely lived up to all my expectations. In fact my only disappointment with the trip was that I brought the wrong camera battery and didn't get to use my favorite toy very much. Nevertheless, I still managed to get some great photos with my limited battery and the help of my iPhone.

Now...what should my next adventure be?

Birthday by the Bay

To commemorate another successful trip around the sun, my mom and I made a somewhat spontaneous, really relaxing and completely awesome trip up to Bodega Bay.

On the way up we stopped in Santa Rosa to visit my grandparents and uncle and cousins. We had a great time visiting and a tasty dinner before heading over to Bodega Bay.

I'm proud to say that my mom handled the ride to Bodega Bay remarkably well. It was dark (but not stormy) night and I don't know that I've ever driven on such a twisty, unfamiliar road, at least not in this country*. Mom was a great navigator and kept calm through all the twists and turns.

We arrived around 10 at night and checked in at the Bodega Bay Lodge. The room was spacious, but still cozy. And unbeknownst to me, my mom had arranged for a little surprise to be waiting for us: a bottle of sparkling pear cider and happy birthday wishes from the hotel staff! We quickly got the fire going, and made ourselves comfortable in our luxurious room.

I fell asleep early and slept great in the comfy bed. We both spontaneously woke up around 8:30...just minutes before the anniversary of my birth (8:36am) and continued the celebration with more sparkling pear cider and presents! I got the coolest camera ever! A Canon SX230HS. It's compact, slim, with a bunch of features (both automatic and manual), plenty of megapixels and a 14x optical zoom. I think I'm in love! Now I can run around and pretend I'm a photographer like everyone else is these days.

And by the way...when we woke up in the morning, we discovered we had a pretty sweet view.

After spending far too long lounging in the hotel, we checked out, ready to begin a roundabout, detour filled drive home. The first detour - a mini photography session in the lobby of the hotel...and outside the hotel...and next to the sign for the hotel...well, you get

the idea.

Our next stop - the beach! Where I got to play with the zoom capabilities on my camera.

By the way, any beach with a sign like this one, should probably be avoided:

Then we moved on to the harbor (with more pictures, a little shopping, and some lunch).

We had planned to drive up to Armstrong National park and spend some time with the redwoods, but time got away from us a little, so instead we just drove past on our way back to Santa Rosa. We saw some beautiful trees (and again, my mom did great as a passenger on some very twisty roads).

We made a brief stop at Duncans Mills - I couldn't resist this tiny town in the middle of nowhere. I had take a few pictures!

We made it home to Walnut Creek just in time for a delicious steak dinner from Tahoe Joe's and a few more surprises.

All in all...not a bad way to celebrate another year.

*I had a particularly harrowing trip from Bayreuth to Erlangen on a very dark, very twisty German road. If I can survive that...I can survive anything...