Christmas Recap!

Whew, December was a busy month! When I last blogged earlier this month we were having Friday night Tagalong fun so that I could bring something delicious to a dessert exchange party at my friend Jordan's apartment. It turned out that they were a hit! Plus they're so easy to make, so I will definitely keep that recipe in my back pocket. On Saturday that weekend, I took a party bus up to Sonoma with a group of my co-workers for some celebration wine tasting. We went to three different wineries that day: Jacuzzi, Viansa, and Gloria Ferrer. It was beautiful even in December!

After getting back to the city in the late afternoon, I had just enough time to nap before heading out to another Christmas party. This time we ventured over to the Russian Hill neighborhood to my sister's friend Nick's apartment (the one we had dinner with when Katie and Matt were in town). We ended up running into a few Michigan grads there (who were from Toledo!) and had a ton of fun. So much fun in fact that we were a little sluggish in waking up Sunday morning, but we had places to be! We headed out to Jack London Square in Oakland for a champagne brunch to celebrate Lauren and Kimberly's 30th birthdays. Woo hoo! That night was the dessert exchange party, and I don't think I've ever been so exhausted from one weekend!

The following weekend, our last in SF before heading home for the holidays, we spent Friday night celebrating Jordan's friend Andy's birthday and then headed out to Walnut Creek on Saturday for the Raetz family Christmas Party - Bay Area Edition. It's always fun to get together with Jordan's sisters and I'm glad they're so close! Instead of doing dinner we had lots of heavy appetizers. My holiday meatballs even made a reappearance since they had so many fans at Thanksgiving.

After a relaxed last week of work, we finally headed home to Michigan! We arrived on Christmas Eve morning and immediately took a nap to recover from our red eye flight. That afternoon we headed over to Brian and Jill's to celebrate with my immediate family. It was wonderful to all be together again for the first time since the wedding! My niece Claire has gotten so big! She really has grown up so much, even since I saw her in October. Jordan got this lovely t-shirt among other things, and I got new rainboots! I also got a cookie scoop, which Claire seemed to enjoy!

On Christmas morning we headed to Toledo for the usual day of festivities with extended family. We weren't leaving again until the 29th so we had a few days to spend with family and friends! I spent some days shopping with mom, of course, and playing with little Claire. We also had time for karaoke with Katie and Matt at a bar in downtown Rochester - they're pretty much experts at it so now Jordan and I want to practice and find karaoke songs that are good for us!

Now that we're back in San Francisco, we've been relaxing at the apartment and trying to get organized before the new year arrives! I know I'm going to very busy with work for the next 3 months, so it's nice to take some time to enjoy doing nothing beforehand. We don't even have plans for tonight other than enjoying a movie and Sangria at home! I'm just glad I don't have to do inventory counts tomorrow, hooray!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Kicking Off the Holidays

December has turned out to be quite the busy month. Last weekend we had not one, but two ompany holiday parties to attend, Jordan's on Friday night and mine on Saturday night. Oddly enough, both were held at wineries outside the city, but they went very differently. I got to Jordan's a bit late since I had to drive down from the city after work. It was at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, a beautiful location literally on top of a mountain. They still had a great buffet set up when I got there and we had a good time hanging out with his coworkers and people watching on the dance floor.

The view from the Mountain Winery.

On Saturday night, we got all dressed up again to head to my party at The Winery on Treasure Island (an island in between San Francisco and the East Bay. We were fashionably late, but when we got there it was already so packed you could barely move. The space was clearly not big enough for the amount of people attending. We tried unsuccessfully to wait in a few food station lines and then decided to head upstairs where it was slightly less crowded. We managed to make it through the "Napa" station which pretty much consisted of cheese and crackers...and that ended up being all we ate. It even took Jordan 30+ minutes to get our first drink. Ugh. By the time we were prepared to move around, all of the food stations had run out of food. Sooo, needless to say, Jordan and I left and went out to dinner at 11:30pm back in the city. I guess computer engineers know how to throw a better party than accountants :(

Aaand the only picture of us from either night.

Sorry it's blurry and the TV is reflecting off my glasses..

It's getting a little colder around here but I know I'm in for a real treat when I get back to Michigan in a few weeks! To be honest, it doesn't really feel like Christmas yet - there's no snow, I wore flip flops last weekend, and I've done pretty much all our shopping online instead of at bustling malls! We've also opted to not put up a Christmas tree this year. It's sad, I know, but by the time we could get one (tomorrow), it would only be up for two weeks and we're not spending the holiday here. So, being the frugal shopper that I am, we're going to wait until all the post-Christmas sales to get a tree and other decorations for next year. Not going to lie - it's a bit depressing, but I'll just have to soak up all the Christmas cheer when I'm home!

Although, we've got even more holiday festivities this weekend that might get me in the spirit. I won't spill all the details now, but I did have to do some baking tonight in preparation for a holiday dessert exchange at my friend Jordan's apartment on Sunday. Well, not really baking..more like melting and assembling. I took the lazy but delicious route and made homemade Tagalongs (my favorite Girl Scout cookie). Yum! Take a look:

We've taste tested one so far..messy but so good! Almost as good as the real thing! And with that I leave you with a picture I took tonight from our rooftop. A nice reminder of how awesome it is to live here :)

A Lot to Be Thankful For!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends! We had a a great holiday here in California, but of course we missed everyone at home too. It was my first holiday not being in Michigan, and also the first time that I've ever cooked anything for the feast. We were in charge of making a green bean casserole and pecan pies, plus we decided to make some snacks to have during the day as well. I was lucky that Jordan didn't have to work all week, so he could avoid the crowds and do all the grocery shopping for us. We were pretty good about prepping early. Sunday we made the meatballs and black bean roll ups and stuck those in the freezer. On Wednesday I made both the pies and we got all the ingredients measured out and ready to go to take the next

morning.

We had to get up bright and early on Thursday morning, since we were participating in the 5k/10k Turkey Trot family challenge! I did indeed finish the 5k with a time of roughly 31 minutes! Nothing to write home about, but I was pretty proud of myself :) Jordan ran the 10k and of course finished first among the guys, even though he claims he's out of shape. I might regret saying this in a few months, but I'd like to try to run a 10k next spring/summer and maybe, just maybe, I'll sign up for a half marathon sometime after that.

After we got home from the race and got cleaned up, it was time to eat, eat, eat! There were so many snacks around to munch on that by the time the meal was ready, I wasn't even that hungry. But ohhh was it good. I've never been a huge fan of turkey so it's all about the sides for me. There were three kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, yummy green beans (if I do say so myself), brussel sprouts, deviled eggs, and probably several other things that I'm forgetting. It was so good. We also were not lacking in the dessert department - there were four pies, two cheesecakes, and a pumpkin roll to share between 9 people. Good Lord. It must have literally caused a food coma for me because I fell asleep on the couch before we even pulled out any games for the night!

Yummy.

The BEST part of the holiday weekend though was Saturday, when we got to watch the boys in blue beat OSU. HALLELUJAH! Jordan and I are a bit bitter that we just happened to be students during the dark years at UofM, so this was a sweet victory for us. And, it will give me bragging rights at the Freels Christmas, which is much appreciated. We had everyone over to our place for the game, including Jordan's cousins and aunt & uncle, and even 2 dogs! I'm crossing my fingers that we get in a good bowl game. But either way, Brady Hoke is my new favorite person and I'm looking forward to next year's season already. We're really going to try to make it back for a game!

Happy for the win!

The only bad thing about the holiday break was that it had to end :( Only a few more weeks until Christmas and we'll be making our way back to Michigan!

I'm Practically a Chef Now..

Two weeks ago I took a cooking class at Sur La Table in Palo Alto. My mom had given me a gift certificate for my birthday, and I finally signed up for the class called "Updated Steakhouse Favorites". I feel fairly comfortable cooking most things except for meat. I'm always worried about how it's cooked and whether or not it's done - so taking a class on cooking steak appealed to me! The menu for the class included:

• Vodka-poached shrimp cocktail with bloody mary sauce
• Pancetta, chive, and cheddar gratin
• Pan-seared strip steak with cabernet-shiitake sauce
• Espresso-caramel creme brulee
  

YUM! Everything was so delicious. Even the shrimp was decent, and I don't really like shrimp. I could eat the potato dish all day every day, and the steak wasn't even that hard to make! The class was group oriented so we all sort of split up and worked on different things at the same time. I focused on the gratin, the bloody mary sauce, and I got to be in charge of searing the steaks. I learned that you want to pat the steaks dry and season them very well before cooking them on high heat in an oiled pan. And, you only want to cook them until they are browned and don't stick to the pan anymore. Then, you finish them off in the oven until they're cooked the way you want them! The creme brulee was also delicious, but probably a little involved for an every day dessert. Plus I don't have a hand held blow torch (which are awesome by the way). I'll stick with cookies and cakes for now!

If there are any potential visitors out there, I'm going to go ahead and promise to make you a nice home cooked meal with my new found cooking skills when you come! AND, we can now have more than one guest over because we finally got a new dining room table and chairs! It's beautiful :) The only problem is..we're sort of afraid to use it. It looks so pretty and perfect that I don't want to risk scratching it or spilling something on it! We're going to invest in some new table linens to help protect it, and eventually will just have to get over it. Here she is:

I was a little busy this week because I had to stay up in Santa Rosa all week for work, so now we just have a few days to get ready for Thanksgiving and our Michigan v. Ohio State game watching party! We're planning on making a green bean casserole, a few pies, and some snacks to have during the Lions game. We also need to start thinking about getting a Christmas tree. The holidays will be here before we know it!

A Medley of Happenings

This is the Palace of Fine Arts, just a few blocks from our apartment. I took this on an early morning run a few weeks ago. I've been trying to run more often so Jordan and I joined the 24 Hour Fitness gym that's close to our place. We've gone together a few mornings since I'm just too exhausted after work to go. But I have to continue training..there's a big race coming up at the end of the month! Jordan and I will be challenging the Pickens, Sokoloffs, and Stephensons at the Walnut Creek Turkey Trot on the morning of Thanksgiving. I'll only be running a 5K, but that's about 2.5K longer than my normal run right now, so it's a big step for me :)

We've had a few "normal" weekends now without any studying, traveling, or big things going on. It's nice to finally get into a rhythm. A few times now we've headed over to Fort Mason where there's a giant field and tons of people hanging out on a nice day. It's hard to see but there are views of the Golden Gate Bridge!

We've gotten in the habit of making pancakes on a weekend morning. Well, Jordan makes them. I just consume them. And they're delicious! The favorite combination is banana walnut but last weekend he allowed me to pick the add-in - chocolate chips!

And on Friday nights we've been making dinner at home. Last week it was Mexican stuffed peppers. They were a little too spicy, but I would definitely make them again (and maybe drain the chipotle peppers that it called for, first).

Yum!

Continuing on with the foodie pictures, we had some birthdays to celebrate last weekend! Jordan's parents visited for the weekend and we all got to hang out at Kimberly and Jason's in Walnut Creek on Saturday. It was his mom's birthday that week, but we also celebrated his dad's since no one was home for the real thing. Jordan and I were in charge of making banana cupcakes. They turned out okay - very dense and a not like your normal fluffy cupcake. Although, I realized a few days later that I had used baking powder instead of baking soda, so that probably contributed to the problem. Oops! We also got to have dinner with Jordan's parents in our neighborhood that week. We accidently ended up watching Game 6 of the World Series at the restaurant we went to, which was such a crazy game!

We've also been doing a bit of furniture shopping lately. We got a new coffee table this week (and literally rolled it down the street on a cart from the Pottery Barn a few blocks away). And we ordered a new dining room table which should be delivered on Saturday. We're going to take a little decorating break but then I'd like to get some more wall art and accessories to make the place feel warm and homey! Pretty soon Christmas is coming, and I can't wait to decorate for that :)

And finally, the good news..I PASSED MY LAST CPA EXAM! Woo hoo! No more studying! It feels awesome to have that over with.

Next week I'll have an update on a little cooking class I took today. Hope you all have a great week!

A Visit Home

Last weekend (or two weekends ago..I'm a little delayed) I was able to spend a total of 36 hours in Michigan before working for the week on the east coast. I took the red eye on Friday night and landed at 6:30am on Saturday morning. After a nice little nap on the couch, we spent almost the whole day at Brian and Jill's, and guess who's cute face I got to see?

Isn't she precious? I missed her! And she's gotten so big since I last saw her in North Carolina! It was super fun to play with her all day. We were hoping to see a UofM victory, but it didn't go our way..bah. I didn't necessarily think we'd stay undefeated the whole season, but it always hurts a little more when we lose to a rival. I'm hoping for a win this weekend!

Brian and Jill live in Oakland Township in a heavily wooded area, so they get a lot of visitors themselves - in the animal form. The deer were out in full force while I was there and came right up to their basement windows. Here's a mama and her babies:

Speaking of animals, I was excited to see Reba last weekend as well. She can't Skype very well, so it's hard to keep up with her. Claire seems to be excited to see Reba too! My two favorite little girls..

And since I won't be home until Christmas, I got a little sneak peak of what's to come Halloween weekend. Have you ever seen a more adorable pumpkin?

So after hanging out with Claire all day, I met up with my friend Janelle who also just started work at PwC in Detroit to catch up about our lives! The one hard thing about being on the west coast is that it's hard to make time for phone calls when people on the east coast are awake, so it was nice to finally talk to her without time limits :)

On Sunday, my parents and I went to Toledo to see my grandma and grandpa before rushing off to the airport. It was a quick trip but wonderful! Then I spent the next four days busy at work commuting between Maryland and Virginia. By Thursday when I headed home, I was exhausted. Finally I had my first free weekend in San Francisco - more on that to come!

Rubbing Elbows with Wine Critics

Last Wednesday evening, I spent a few hours hobnobbing with the best of the best in the wine industry. My friend Jordan's dad bought her two tickets to the Wine & Spirits Magazine Top 100 Tasting event, and she asked me to go with her! The event is a classy affair that showcases wines from the top 100 wineries in the world every year.

Let's just say, we did not exactly fit in. We were definitely the youngest people there and considering I hadn't heard of 96% of the wineries represented, probably the least educated in wine too. There were some serious wine critics there. Like, walking around to all 100 booths, introducing themselves and then spitting into a bucket after just a little taste. I, on the other hand, didn't want to waste anything! But don't worry, I didn't make it to all 100 booths either :)

To be honest I couldn't tell you everything I tried and have no idea what my favorite was. It was all so good! If I'm happy with 2 buck chuck from Trader Joe's, I think I'd be satisfied with any of the top 100 wines in the world, right? There were a few that stood out...oddly enough they were all ones I tasted towards the end of the night, after a fewww glasses of wine. Coincidence? Oh well. And if I'm being really honest, my preferences probably don't have much to do with the taste of the wine, but more with the interaction with the wine maker. At the beginning, we tried acting like we knew what we were doing and people seemed a little snobby. After awhile, we just admitted that we didn't know anything and a few of them were nice about it!

So without further ado, the ones I liked were:

Penfolds (Australia)

Mark Ryan Winery (Washington)

Bodega Catena Zapata (Don't remember but I liked the name!)

And last but not least, good old Chateau St. Michelle, which was already one of my favorites because it's where I spent my 21st birthday outside of Seattle with Katie!

But aside from all the wine I drank and the meatballs and deviled eggs I devoured, it was so much fun to be there and just take it all in. I hadn't seen Jordan since the Notre Dame game, a result of my lack of life in September, so we probably spent more time catching up than we did drinking wine! I'm sure this event was just a once in a lifetime opportunity, but it made me really excited that I'll finally have free time to get out and do things in San Francisco, hang out with friends, and meet new people. There's a lot to see and do and I already feel like Jordan (my Jordan, the boy) and I have missed out on two months of fun because of my studies and tests and work.

So here's to new adventures! But starting next week cause I'm in Michigan this weekend and DC for work next week. Ha :)

My friend Jordan!

Highway to the Danger Zone

Cue the Top Gun soundtrack...

For your viewing pleasure:

Blue Angels Fly-By from Kristen R on Vimeo.

Blue Angels - Fleet Week 2011 from Kristen R on Vimeo.

Oh my, where did September go?

Suddenly it's mid-October! Time flies when you're working 60+ hour weeks and studying for CPA exams. I won't dwell too much on what I did or did not do in the past month. The short story is that I was very busy with work, and in the free time I did have I was studying for what will hopefully be my last exam (I passed the one I took in August!!) BUT, I took the test last Thursday and thought it went fine, so it was time to finally relax and celebrate. In the world's most perfect timing, Katie and Matt came to visit for the weekend and arrived late Thursday night.

They took off to the north on Friday for a little coastal driving and wine country meandering, but unfortunately I couldn't join them because I had an important day at work...

An afternoon boat cruise!

Somehow our organized work events always happen when I have visitors. But yes, my group at work had an afternoon boat cruise to watch the Fleet Week air show practice. We saw lots of cool planes that flew right over our boat, over Alcatraz, and over the Golden Gate Bridge. We spent a good 3 hours out on the water and had beautiful weather! After we got back to shore a bunch of us went to a nearby bar for happy hour and then I made my way back to the Marina to meet up with Katie and Matt.

More boat cruise pictures..

That night we had a fabulous dinner at Green's, a vegetarian restaurant in Fort Mason, which is just a few minutes from our apartment. After our feast and a bottle of wine, we headed to a wine bar on Chestnut St, where we shared a couple more bottles! All in all, a very good day :)

We woke up on Saturday and headed to the farmer's market at the Ferry Building. There, we picked up cheese and crackers, heirloom tomatoes, squash, and pears for the night's dinner. We had invited Katie's friend Nick and his girlfriend over for dinner and Lauren and Lance happened to be in the city then too so we ended up having a nice little dinner party! But before that

happened..it was lunch time. We took Katie and Matt to Tacolicious on Chestnut St and snagged a table outside. Tacolicious, as you can guess from the name, has pretty awesome tacos. It started as a food tent at the Ferry Building farmer's market and got so popular they opened a restaurant. While we were there we chatted with the guy sitting next to us who happened to be from Oklahoma, near where Matt grew up. More on that later..

So after lunch we walked down to the waterfront to take in the highlight of Fleet Week, the Blue Angels. It was actually pretty awesome. Then we headed back to the apartment (a long, 3 block walk from the apartment) and discovered a bunch of people heading up to the roof top at our place for a party. Now..when we moved in we specifically asked if there was roof access and were told that there wasn't..lies! Turns out there is roof access, it's BEAUTIFUL, and there was quite a party going on up there. Who did we run into but our Tacolicious buddy from Oklahoma, who seemed to be the life of the party. Here's what it looks like up there!

So after partying on the roof for a little bit (Jordan and Matt took off to the bar to watch the Michigan game), it was time to run to the store to get the rest of dinner ingredients and start cooking! Katie and Matt took the lead in the kitchen and we put together a pretty delicious meal. Our first time entertaining was a success :)

On Sunday we headed over to the Haight St. area for some wandering and had tapas and sangria for lunch. We had a little time before Katie and Matt had to leave for the airport so we finished off a movie we had all fallen asleep during the night before. It was awesome having them here for the weekend and I can't wait to see them again!

This next weekend I'll have another dose of family, since I'll be stopping in Michigan for a quick 36 hours before heading to DC for work. I should be a little more regular with my blog posts now and hopefully will actually have exciting things to talk about!

Work Work Work..

I started my full-time job on August 29th. The first two weeks have just been orientation and training, which I've seen already because it's very similar to my training for internships. So aside from a few boring days, it's been fun to get to know more people who I might end up working with. I now have an idea what my client assignments are going to look like for the next few months but they could still change a bit.

I do know that my "busy season" (next winter) will be for the private client I worked on for a week last summer, when I went to Arizona. No, I know what you're thinking (mom), I won't be spending the winter like a retiree in Arizona. I think that's just a once-a-year trip during August. But the client often has opportunities for travel so that's definitely something I could be doing if I stay on it. And as for the next few weeks, suprise!, I'll also be working a busy season (year-end audit) for a smaller organization that is located in Oakland, very close to where I lived last year. So for the most part it looks like I'll have short commutes outside the city or down to the financial district. My neighborhood actually has an express bus that runs to the financial district during peak commuting hours. If I time it right I can make to work in about 25 minutes in the morning. Sometimes it's crowded, but I can handle that!

That's about it for how work is going..maybe I'll have more to report on once I actually start working! I honestly can't wait - after two internships and now these two weeks of training I just want to get started. But between work and studying.

I know my posts have been kind of boring and picture-less lately..I'll try to take pictures this weekend during our game day party. Go Blue!

A Visit From Chuck & Judy

The 'rents arrived last Wednesday. It was their anniversary so after work I ran to the store to get ingredients to make them a carrot cake, from scratch, with my new KitchenAid Stand Mixer!! It was my birthday gift from Jordan and it was a wonderful surprise :) I must say, the cake was delicious and supposedly was more healthy than normal carrot cake, since the recipe came from Cooking Light. We picked them up from the airport pretty late and then just came home and went to bed. On Thursday they did an all-day tour to get all the touristy stuff out of the way and then Jordan met up with them for dinner in the neighborhood. I wasn't able to join because we had a social event for the new start class at work.

On Friday I was able to meet my parents for a quick lunch near the Ferry Building. That night was also a little thrown together because Jordan ended up being busy at work so he wasn't able to make it home for our reservation at the Cliff House, a nice restaurant right on the Pacific Ocean. We drove out there through some intense fog and since the sun had set by the time we got there, didn't have much to see anyways. But we still had a good night and the food was delicious!

We celebrated the holiday on Saturday (the start of college football season, of course) by cooking up a nice lunch and settling in to watch the boys in blue. It was somewhat of an anti-climactic start with all the weather delays and the game ending early, but we won and showed some signs of definite improvement over last year. We're both really excited about the season and finding places to watch games! Although this Saturday, we're hosting an all-day open house since ESPN Gameday is reporting from Ann Arbor. We have our first night game ever against Notre Dame so we'll have friends over all day to get ready and watch! I'll have to try out some game day snack recipes :)

On Sunday, we got started early with a quick drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, the town just north of us across the bay. We walked around, browsed some shops, and then took a shuttle up to the Sausalito Art Fair which was going on all weekend. It turned out that tickets to get into the fair were expensive (they had some entertainers there too) so we just visited a building that housed studios of local artists until heading back home.

Once back home we did a little shopping on Chestnut and Union Streets in our neighborhood. Jordan and I bought a console table for the dining room to serve as a wine/bar table. We might also look for something more suited as a wine cart and use the console table in the entryway, but we'll figure that out later. The table was the floor model at Pottery Barn so it was 50% off and we even snagged the display tray they had on it for $14! I love a good deal! After shopping we went out for a nice dinner on Union Street and then capped off the night by watching Gran Torino.

My parents took off this morning. I might not see them again until Christmas but it was really nice to have them here for a few days! Now I have to get back to the books because I take my next CPA exam in a month. Goodbye freedom!

Catching Up: A Taste of Freedom

Let's see, it's been a few weeks since I've blogged and a lot has been going on actually. I took my CPA exam two weeks ago. It did not go well but oh well, it's over. I won't know how I did until the end of September and by then I'll be about to take the next one anyways. Once my test was over, I had about 6 days of freedom before starting my job. It was so nice to have time to check things off the to-do list! I got my haircut, did a little home decorating, went grocery shopping for the first time in weeks, and finally started writing wedding thank yous. I even had a California first - my first earthquake! It was extremely mild, to the point where I wasn't even sure that's what I felt, but I did! So I can check that off the list too...

We also celebrated my birthday last weekend. On Saturday we went out to Walnut Creek for a BBQ in the sun with Kimberly and Jason and Lauren and Lance. Jordan's cousin Melissa and his aunt and uncle also stopped by after their day in Napa. We had a ton of fun - we hadn't seen everyone together since the day we moved to SF, way back in July. Toooo long! We also enjoyed some birthday cupcakes that Kimberly surprised me with. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures :(

Sunday (my actual birthday) was pretty relaxing. We went out to breakfast, went for a nice run, watched some TV and then celebrated with margaritas and tacos at a restaurant in our neighborhood that we've wanted to go to for awhile! Not anything overly exciting, but just what I needed :)

I'll recap on my first week of work later along with my parents visit for the weekend. Just wanted to get a quick update out there so people knew we were still around! Happy long weekend!

Our First Visitor

I haven't been doing much blogging lately, mostly because I've been doing a whole lot of this...

My life consists of studying for the most part. I'm taking another CPA test next Tuesday and since I let myself get behind in July with the move and getting settled, now it's crunch time. This test is said to be the hardest - mostly because of the amount of information available to be tested. So hopefully with a few more days of hitting the books, I'm prepared!

I was able to take a break this past weekend to have some fun with our very first visitor, my friend Courtney! She was in town for work on Friday and Monday, so she stayed with us through the weekend. It was a really nice excuse to get out and be a tourist and of course a much needed break from studying.

On Saturday we started off the day with the famous Irish Coffees from Buena Vista Cafe near Ghirardelli Square. They were delicious until I got to the bottom where it was all whiskey - it was just too early in the day to enjoy that. Afterwards we wandered through Ghirardelli Square down to the waterfront to take some pictures of Alcatraz and the bridge.

We really lucked out with weather both days. It was almost always sunny (somewhat of a rarity in SF), almost warm enough for summer clothes, and the fog was light so we had great views. Once we were done enjoying those views we hopped on a bus headed towards the Ferry Building where the big Saturday Farmer's Market was taking place. We walked around a bit and then decided to have champagne brunch outside on the patio.

After lunch we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather so we headed back towards the Marina (where we live) and went to the Palace of Fine Arts, an outdoor promenade of sorts that was built for a World's Fair a long time ago. The structure is massive and really is nice to walk around in on a sunny day. You may recognize it from a scene in the "The Rock" with Sean Connery - Jordan and I were eager to figure out where exactly they filmed it!

Sunday also turned out to be a gorgeous day so we decided to take a driving tour through the outskirts of SF. We drove through the Presidio (a huge old army fort with lots of open forests) in search of a good spot to view the Golden Gate Bridge. We found one!

We also drove over to the Pacific Ocean and walked all the way down to the water. There were some people swimming, but you'd have to be brave or wearing a wet suit because the water is freezing. Here's a view of the Cliff House, a restaurant overlooking the ocean:

Overall it was a wonderful weekend. We also got to do a bit of shopping in our neighborhood and tried out some local bars. I can't wait until I'm less busy and can get out more often! Only two weeks until our next visitors arrive..my parents are coming to town :)

Back to the books!