Wednesday

San Francisco

We arrived in San Francisco (Oh that's fun to say!) Friday morning, caught a cab, and checked into Marina Motel

Great rates, great people...I family run business since the 30's built in celebration of the Golden Gate bridge. We had an apartment, which proved very convenient when we were exhausted and wanted to have a meal inside. Maybe while watching Wedding Crashers and Transformers.


 We stumbled up a local supermarket, I can't say that I've ever seen brussel sprouts still on the stem like this.




We also stumbled upon a quaint crepery,Squat and Gobble - which turned out to be our favorite spot, we revisited a couple time :)


 Our first meal was crab melt sandwhiches with clam chowder and fruit. Not too shabby.
We continued from the Marina to Ghirardelli Square, where we got espresso and coffee ice covered in dark chocolate Ghirardelli fudge. Yes Please.

We continued to the Wharf...


Visited Boudin, where we later had clam chowder in a bread bowl, aka maybe the best meal of my life.

Alcatraz prison. Leave it to Americans to create a tourist attraction out of a prison. There's a gift shop and everything. A couple asked Chels to take their picture with Alcatraz in the background, I said, "say prison on three!" They did not find it as funny as we did.
We headed to meet our friend Curtis at his office to crash a pumpkin carving party. I must admit I was very jealous of their space, as we've strived to provide this warehouse culture.
Zimride is a simple, fun car pooling system. Connect with friends, reduce your carbon footprint and save money.
Curtis is a lefty?
...and looks very scary with the knife


Finished product, we were real proud.
We woke up the next morning before sunrise and headed to the Farmer's Market by the Baby Bridge in the Ferry Building. We had fresh local peaches, coffee, bread, cheese and eggs for breakfast by the water.



We headed to Union Square to do some shopping, but the stores hadn't opened yet so we noticed a Keurig tent where they were giving out free coffee.

We then headed to the SF MOMA. Have we noticed we're going non stop yet? Because immediately after this we grabbed some food to go and went back to the hotel to take a power nap.
This is real life

Love him
After naps, we put on not-as-comfortable-as-we-thought shoes and headed to/across the bridge...only to be greeted by a sign on the opposite side that said "sidewalk closed". We turned to repeated the 1.5 mile walk, and game planned for something that involved sitting. Which was when we headed back to Boudin, and ate clam chowder by the water. Then we went to bed. Also, please tell me that when you saw this picture the Full House theme song came to mind...which don't worry -we saw the next day.
Sunday we slept late and then headed to Haight and Ashbury - which was basically the Soco of San Fran. We found a great little vintage shop where I found a flannel shirt for $5. Needless to say, I will be living in it for the month of December. It was a little warm so we grabbed a pint fron Whole Foods and headed to Golden Gate park to sit and the shade and cool off.



{ Exit sign at Whole Foods }

We headed back to freshen up, and went out for fresh Seafood on the water, again... and Ghirardelli Square for dessert, again...
Though we never rode this type of trolly, we got a picture with one. Hi Mom!
I had to squeeze in a run because of the Adoption Marathon next week...I was greeted by a foggy windy morning. Let's just say if next week turns out to be cold and drizzly, I'll be ready.
The fog was so thick that even as I ran by the bridge, I couldn't see it.




Lyon street steps.
We visted our favorite cafe one last time, for a smoked salmon egg croissant breakfast sandwhich, with fresh squeezed orange juice.
We had some time to kill before catching our shuttle back to the airport, so we picked up some coffee to go from Peet's and grabbed some flowers, and headed to
We were warmly greeted by Cali Ryan and John Matejczyk. So excited to see these guys again when they come out for SXSW!


Thursday

Dad School

I am very much aware of the fact that these photos make it look like I didn't help at all, but I did.

I chilled the Fresca
I created the provided the "outdoor manual labor" playlist
I measured the boards
I was the comic relief
I tested the hammock
I documented

I have the best Dad in the entire world.
It wasn't until college that I realzied I had taken him for granted.
For his birthday a couple years ago, we gave him a Graduation Certificate from "Dad School" - he graduated top of his class.

For my Birthday, I asked for his help in making my backyard presentable/hostable (is that a word?)

Suffice it to say he far exceeded my expectations, but what else is new.
I always joke with him that he's set me up for disappointment, because I can never find anyone as great as him.


{Knower of how to make anything, provider, and sacrificial spiritual leader}


When I was little, a woman came up to my mom in the grocery store and told her she had beautiful kids, and asked about me - the friend. I told the lady I was black like my daddy.



Tuesday

John 1

Whelp, 6 weeks after "starting" Bible Study, we actually started yesterday.
I told my mom about 30 minutes before I headed that way, that I have no idea how to lead a Bible Study (good timing moll). Being a young life leader and an youth group intern, I think I started to believe that by association I should just be good at leading them, though I never acknowledged the fact that I actually never had.
We started off Young Life style with Hi/Lows, and they quickley corrected me..."you mean Happy Crapies?" -understament of the year, I love my girls. They questioned, the Spirit led.