Fall in San Francisco

Sacramento is still in full summer weather mode. After having multiple weeks in a row where the weather is in the high 90s, I'll be happy to finally see a dip in the temperature. When we escaped to San Francisco, I took note the night before that the high of the day was going to be 68 degrees. Ahhh.... finally some relief.

I had been waiting to wear my fall clothing so much that when I saw the temperatures were dropping in the bay, I got out my sweater and ankle boots and hit the city. The wind is always making me feel chilled when I'm there so I went fully prepared this time. While I still don't miss the snow from my east coast winters, I am fully happy to embrace the fall when it comes to California.

One thing I love about SF, there are so many colorful walls and murals. This one can be found outside of City Light Books. If you walk around the city, the homes and walls give you so many pops of color.

Sweater- H&M, Leggings- Forever 21, Top- Stitch Fix, Boots- Indigo, Bag- Brahmin.

City Light Books

When my best friend came to town we headed to San Francisco to spend one of our days in the city. One of her must sees was the famous City Light Books.

 

What pure excitement on my friend's face looks like...

City Light Books is an official historic landmark. Located in the heart of San Francisco at North Beach and Chinatown, you'll find this independent bookstore-publisher combination. Both the store and publishers became widely famous for the publishing and the obscenity trial over the published book Howl and other Poems.

The Bookstore specializes in fiction and poetry, cultural studies, world history and politics. The store spans over three stories and offers everything from paperbacks to hard covers. You can even score buttons and postcards from this land mark.

 

If you are in the city check out this landmark. You might just find yourself getting inspired to write your own novel.

Full House Hommage

San Francisco.

 

The famous quote by Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" isn't a lie. We made the less than two hour car ride over into the bay last weekend and it was freezing. While Sacramento and other northern California towns have been experiencing 95+ degree days, San Fran was a balmy 62 degrees when we arrived. I think it reached it's high at 71 but the bay breeze never made it feel hot in any way. We started our day by traveling up to the vista point to see the Golden Gate Bridge in all it's glory.

This bench coincidently was the same one my husband I did engagement photos on

I just love looking at the Golden Gate. I mean yeah, most days it's half emerged in the fog but when you get a glimpse of the entire bridge it just makes you appreciate it a little more. I could spend an hour telling you about why I love seeing the bridge but I won't. Instead, I'll just give you the cliff notes. When I was kid growing up in West Virginia we didn't take big trips to the west coast. My parents were working folks. They had jobs to go to and bills to pay. We were on a budget. I secretly blame my father. I think he just didn't want to get on a plane or go anywhere that he couldn't threaten to drive home from. When we did go on vacation we went to east coast places like Florida for Disney and North/South Carolina for the beach. We toured monuments in Washington D.C. and kept going to our staple location, Pigeon Forge. We didn't get on fancy planes. Some of my best memories were eating cheeto balls from the can in the back seat asking how much longer till we are there?!

This was my best friend's first time seeing the bridge up close and personal. She's a West Virginia girl too so she gets it...

So imagine my wondering eyes when a show called Full House pops on TGIFriday and captivates my young self? 

You probably guessed it! I was awestruck. I was like that's the life! DJ had her cool lips phone, Uncle Jesse was always having famous rockers drop in and her dad was a television host. What could be any cooler?! At the opening of the show the Golden Gate would be there in all it's glory secretly screaming to me, "Come visit me! Come live this amazing life that DJ and the rest of the Tanners are!" I mean granted it probably wasn't but I thought what a cool place in my grade school mind. Queue to the fall of 2012 and I'm living out here. I'm literally less than 2 hours from the place that my kid self had thought was super cool and rad.

 

It was really hard to wrap my mind around it. It's crazy how life can lead you places. Anyways, I digress. After we visited with the Golden Gate we headed to the other Full House hotspot... The Painted Ladies.

These famous row houses are a National Landmark and real people live in them. Ok, fine their very rich people but their still real people. The yellow and red house fondly known as the Full House home is by far the most popular but the other fabulous houses shouldn't be ignored. The colors are spectacular!

So for two small town girls, being in the city and seeing these landmarks in person is really special. Now I'm working on my friend to get her to move to the west coast. If it was up to me all of my friends and family would live within a 2 hour driving distance. Clearly so we can go do all these fun things together.

Fuller House

Today is the day. Fuller House is finally here! I can't wait to binge watch every episode. Seriously, when I was growing up it was all about Friday night television. I would be outside playing and once the porch light came on, I knew to get inside because that meant TGIF!

Full House led the line up for young kid- family programing on Friday nights. It was followed by Step By Step, Family Matters and Perfect Strangers. The lineup changed some through the years but the Tanners were on our television every Friday. When the show originally appeared, I was in grade school. I related a lot to Michelle at first and then Stephanie because of the closeness in age. This family was totally cool to me.

When I was a kid living in West Virginia watching the Tanners in San Francisco I never dreamed that one day I would be living in California and only a stone's throw from S.F. When I first moved out here that's one of the first things that I did. I traveled to the famous row houses known as the painted ladies and stood across from the houses and in the spot their well known picnic took place.

 

 

 

Every time I drive into San Francisco and see the Golden Gate I remember sitting in my parents house watching Full House. Maybe I watched the show at a very formidable age but I think I'll always enjoy the show and what it represented. My wildest dreams came true and now I can see the bridge in person any time I want.

 

You can imagine my delight when I heard they were going to make a reboot of Full House. I was slightly cringing because remakes can be horrible if their not done right. When I heard the entire cast besides the Olsen twins was returning I knew we were in for a real treat. The build up for the entire season to be available all at once on Netflix has been amazing. Millions of people just like me who are now adults can't wait to see the show. Generations of kids after me have grown up watching it in syndication. Uncle Jesse still looks good, Danny is still being Danny and Joey is still saying his catch phrase Cut it out! Even the pesky neighbor Kimmy is going to grace the screen again.

I for one will be watching it today! How about you? Were you a big Full House fan? Fuller House... here I come!

Christmas Cruise

On Saturday, Beezy and I headed to San Francisco to attend his cousin's annual Christmas party. This year instead of hosting the entire event at their house, they decided to change things up. We all met up at their house in the Bay ate some light appetizers and just hung out for a little bit.

 Enjoying the food

 Beezy's mom and aunt

The view of the city from their rooftop

 

Then from their house, we headed downtown to board the famous Horn blower. His cousin Tuckie surprised everyone by taking us on the famous Horn Blower dinner cruise. If you've never heard of the Horn Blower it's a very nice dinner cruise that takes you all around the bay as you eat dinner. You can go out on deck between courses, dance in their ballroom and fill up on their amazing chocolate cake. I had never been on the bay so it was a fun, new experience!

 The city had tons of festive lights out for the holiday.

The water around the Golden Gate was very rough but it was worth it. The fog really helped light up the Golden Gate during the night.

I love the Golden Gate Bridge. I think it's just one of those fascinating places that holds so much history.

 Some of the group together on top deck!

We had such a wonderful time at the Christmas party. We didn't want the night to end. Sadly it had to at 3:00 a.m.

This was definitely a Christmas party to remember.

Weekend Review

On Thursday, Beezy and I headed over to San Francisco to catch a Giants game. This past week was their opening week and we were able to make it to their second game of the season. Before the game we hit up Pedro's Cantina where I indulged and ate two nachos.

 

The Giants were giving away scarfs to the first 20,000 in the stands so of course we had to make sure to get there in time. I'm a sucker for a free goodie.

See those seats behind us? That is literally the last row in the stadium. We were that high in AT&T Park. I thought it was really fun. I've never sat up that high and neither had Beezy. If you've ever been to San Francisco or to a Giants game then you know that the day can be warm but the moment the sun goes down it's freezing. SF also has a very strong breeze. Well we went prepared... or so we thought.

 

We were freezing. The breeze up in those seats was insane. The wind was cutting us like a knife. Thank goodness they passed out those scarfs! Beezy had only taken a light weight jacket and I took a sweater. Needless to say I bought a hooded sweatshirt. I couldn't take the cold. However in the 5th inning we upgraded our seats to hang out with his cousins. The wind was much more manageable down near the field.

 

After the game we headed back to Sacramento and I was very excited about the heat in the car. It took me the whole ride back to thaw out. All in all it was a fun time! The giants lost by one run though. I spent the rest of the weekend just running errands and relaxing. Since Easter is coming up, I've got a busy few days coming up.

Happy Monday!

The Start of a Vacation

Last Tuesday, I left Sacramento and headed over to San Francisco. I started my vacation! I was leaving very early the next morning on a flight for San Juan, Puerto Rico. Instead of having to get up in the middle of the night to make the two hour drive over, we went over the evening before and spent the night with some of Beezy's relatives. We got to San Francisco pretty early and had a little bit of time to kill. I had heard about a Cupid's bow and arrow statue but had yet to see it.

The time we had before meeting up with his relatives, we headed over to the Embarcadero where the bow and arrow statue is located. It's actually called, Cupid's Span. The bow and arrow is huge and it faces the water and bridge.

 

As soon as I saw the bridge across from Cupid's Span, I thought of the television show, The Streets of San Francisco. It was an older show that stared Michael Douglas. I've been half of season one and it's pretty good. Anyways, the bridge is in a lot of the episodes so when I saw it, it just made me think of the show.

Once we saw Cupid's Span. We headed off to get rested up before getting up before dawn for the long flights to Puerto Rico. I was lucky enough to spend the next 4 1/2 days in San Juan. I'll start to recap the trip tomorrow! Until then I'll leave you with a sneak peak of the views there...

30 Before 30 Progress

1. Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.

On Friday, February 21st I headed over to San Fransisco, home of the Golden Gate Bridge. I've been there numerous times and crossed it by car but I had never walked it. I had always wanted to but each time I had been there I never had enough time. This time I made a special trip just to walk the bridge. Here's some photos from the day and a beautiful one it was.

Walking it!

A view from the bridge!

Love the color of the bridge and it was such a clear day. No fog! I loved it!

 

 

So there you have it! I crossed another thing off my list and had a great time doing it!

Birthday Recap Part 1

This past week I went on a four day, Birthday weekend adventure! I was lucky enough to be able to have my mom come in and help me celebrate. 

To start the trip off right we hit the group running once her plane landed and headed over to San Francisco. We hit the Haight area and visited one of my favorite DVD depots.... Ameoba. We also did a little vintage shopping and grabbed some food at Burger Urge. I can't believe how big the burgers were! The meat alone is 1/2 pound. If you're a meat/burger lover then Burger Urge is for you. 

Once I got my dvd fix and my belly full. We decided to see a few tourist sites. Every time I've been to San Francisco, I've visited Baker Beach. It's such a calm, fun place with a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. I originally heard about Baker Beach a few years ago from fellow blogger, Claire. Since she's a SF girl she knew about this great spot and had blogged about it. I'm so glad she did! It's one of my favorite spots in SF.

My mom had never been to Baker so I was excited to share it with her. I'm pretty for sure she liked it. I love how much darker the sand is there. Plus the black rocks are pretty cool when you can find them. After we left Baker beach, we headed closer over to the Golden Gate to get a few closer photos. I had originally wanted to walk the bridge but it was starting to get later in the evening and we wouldn't have made it across and back before they close it off to foot traffic. I figure I'll go back over to SF in the next few weeks and walk it. 

You can't really tell in this photo but the bridge is really close to us. We were actually on the access point to where you can talk the walking path up onto the bridge. With the sun going down and only a few more minutes of sunlight left we hit up one other famous landmark... the Painted Ladies. The famous row houses which have been featured in many television shows (the famous Full House home) and movies. 

Since it was almost dark and my mom had travelled all day long we left San Francisco and made the drive down to San Jose. We knew that the next day was going to be another long one filled with tons of adventures.