The San Francisco Diaries: The City-Final Day

Time to wrap up the San Francisco posts! Again, this post is a mix of my photos as well as Jess'.

We started our final day in San Francisco right. While everyone was waking up, Emily and I took a cab across town to get a bunch of doughnuts! We decided on the way back that it would be fun to take them down to the beach with some coffee. We loaded all of us and Yeti on the train and headed towards the coast.

It was COLD by the water! Luckily we all wore pants and jackets.





Yeti didn't mind the cold - he was having a great time!



We walked down the beach awhile.


The sand was so cool looking




We took the train back to the Castro and some of us went back to Emily's to shower while some of us went to give Yeti a bath. (I went to take a shower but I had to include these pics from Jess because Yeti's face is just too hilarious)



By the time we all got showered and dressed, the fog was on its way out! Yay!


We grabbed sandwiches at Ike's for lunch and brought them to Dolores Park to eat.




My Mom and I shared the Jim Rome and O.M.G. was it amazing. It had a sun dried tomato pesto that was to die for. It was nice just laying in the sun for a bit - such a nice day.

We walked across the street to Bi-Rite Creamery for ice cream. I tried the honey lavender ice cream which is a flavor I'd never had before. It was wonderful.



We took a cab over to a different part of town to walk down to get a look at the bridge. More hills!

The houses we walked by on the way were incredible! With amazing views!


The Golden Gate Bridge






The bridge is behind us. Believe me. And I wish I could put in all the pictures we tried to take before this one. It was hilarious.


We stopped for drinks at a cute bar near the bridge - The Tipsy Pig.










For our final meal, we wanted sushi. If course we had to walk up an enormous hill to get there. It was a killer. I love this pic of Emily congratulating everyone for making it up.


We had a great sushi meal and went back to Emily's for more wine and conversation. The next morning we had just enough time to get all 7 of us visitors up and packed and ready to go home before the shuttle came to get us. We all had such a great time! I don't know if I'd mentioned it yet but this group of 8 has been getting together since 1997-ish! We don't always go somewhere big but we always get together. It's something I look forward to, it's a pretty special group. It's amazing that 8 people can travel so well! Thanks to Emily for hosting!

Until next year...

Superior Getaway

This week's post will be mostly about Rob and me and our trip up North, but I do have a couple things to mention about the main attraction.

Kasper's last day in the infant room was Tuesday. It was bittersweet to pick him up that afternoon. He's had 1 teacher since he's started (last July) and a second for almost a year. The other 2 teachers are relatively new. Those teachers who have known him for awhile cried when I came to get him! It was obvious they'll miss him a lot. At least we walk by that room a couple times a day so he can wave at all his friends.

Tuesday was his last day because Rob and I left for the North Shore Wednesday afternoon! I wanted to be able to be there for his last infant pick-up so we kept him home Wednesday. We enjoyed the sunny morning and ate raisins - his new favorite snack!



We headed out after lunch and drove up to Duluth. We decided to stop in town for dinner before heading up to the campground. We got sandwiches from Northern Waters Smokehouse (that's a smoked salmon sammie, OMG) and sat by the water. It was SUCH a nice night! We even got to watch a big ship come into the harbor from far away. They move fast. This ship was 1,004 ft long.




After dinner we buzzed up to Gooseberry Falls to set up the tent. It was around 5:30 at this point and we knew we had to be back to Duluth by 8 for a concert.

We made it just in time to have a quick drink with the hosts before the show. Our friends Keely and Mickey - who were kind enough to host the whole family mere weeks ago - hosted 50 people in their living room to watch David Bazan!! It was crazy! I had heard a couple of his songs on the Current but wasn't up on his whole library. Apparently he does these "Living Room Shows" and Mickey and Keely's living room was chosen for him to come play music. They walked in, set up their 2 little amps and started playing while we all sat on the floor. It was one of the best concerts I have ever been to! That guy can SING. (He's the one on the left, and I almost touched him with my foot on accident because Rob and I were so close to him!)



We didn't make it back to the campsite in time to have a fire that night so we made one when we woke up. Campfires are one of the best things about camping.




Nothing like a s'more at 9:30 am.

It basically threatened rain all day Thursday so we stuck close to the lakeshore and the Falls. Fine by me, I just love this landscape.









Skipping rocks



The Lower Gooseberry Falls (my personal favorite of the 3)



Playing with the shutter speed on the camera






Lunch! Merlot from Moshin pairs wonderfully with mac and cheese in case you were wondering.


It started to sprinkle towards the end of lunch so we holed up in the tent for awhile until it passed. We went back down to the shore before the next rain shower was expected.




Dinner! More of that merlot with spaghetti sauce and meatballs I made ahead of time. Looks like we just ate on the towel Rob laid on the table after his shower.


After dinner we went to one of the lodges at the park to go to an astronomy lesson! We got a little star wheel and learned how to use it. It was pretty fun! It was too cloudy to actually stargaze, though. We made do with another campfire.


We also had fun trying to draw things with a burning stick (which we then replaced with a iPhone flashlight). How did we do?

My favorite


It rained a lot of the night and it turned out we have a leak in our tent. Wah wah. It wasn't too bad. We got up Friday morning, packed up and headed out. We grabbed breakfast at this place.


We had what seemed like a million stops on the way home but we made it home by 3-ish. It was Steph's birthday so we had a little party with pizza, red cake, pomegranate drinks and a new card game we're trying out.

We went to the Fair yesterday also for Steph's birthday. We got there early and left right as it started raining. I got most of my fair favorites but didn't feel panicked because I'll be there again Wednesday for work. I felt Kasper was being naughty the ENTIRE time but I don't know if it was just me.

Actually, he's been naughty ever since yesterday morning. Maybe it's because he's sick or has an incisor coming through but he has his whine on repeat and is acting out by throwing things. A lot. I only mention this in case I want to look back and wonder when it was he was being naughty.

Today Kasper and I ran errands in the morning and Rob and I did yard work in the afternoon. We finally ripped out a tree in the front yard. It's been on the to-do list since June-ish. We had fun playing in the hose Papa was using to water.




I like the rainbow following him.


Do you see a friend in the window?

I went inside to start dinner and left a snack outside for the boy. This is what I saw when I looked out the window. Cute.


For dinner I made The Pioneer Woman's BBQ Chicken Sandwiches. Make them immediately and pair with a summery IPA.


Whew! Another busy week. Hope everyone had a great weekend!