Graphics

Chris and I discovered this image a few months ago, and we both fell in love with it.  I think it would look great printed on a large canvas as a piece of art.  Can you guess what this is?

Soup Night

Curried butternut squash soup is on the stove bubbling away, chicken is roasting in the oven, there's a movie on, and my feet are up.  Ahhhh..... peace.

Happy First Day of Fall

Hello Fall!  I am so looking forward to you this year, here's why:

• I have just discovered how fun and easy it is to bake bread.  I'm hoping to fill the house with hot fresh bread smell at least 1x per week.
• After work hikes without melting in the heat.
• Watching a pair of good friends get ready for a baby!  And get married (that was planned prior to the baby news)!
• Butternut squash soup; but just using about 1/2 the curry powder called for.
• Starting a family-style dinner club.
• Learning to knit again, or maybe crochet for the first time.
• Turning the above home grown apples from a friend into a dessert of some kind, suggestions anyone?

Boat Ride

Went for a boat ride on the Bay last night for a training for work.... interesting that they chose a training site that we couldn't leave...

I managed to escape to the deck a few times to see the sights, the bay bridge construction, golden gate bridge, and the San Francisco city skyline.

It was pretty astounding and well worth the drive over to the Berkeley Marina. However, the traffic to get back over the bay bridge at rush hour to get back home was horrific!  At least I had this guy to keep me company...  he had just about every wild animal possible attached to his motorcycle.

2nd Annual Last Weekend of Summer Celebration

We have started a tradition of getting away the last weekend of Summer to relax and unwind with our friends at the cabin at Bass Lake.  It is a great time to bond and spend time with some of the people we love best in our lives, and a wonderful way to say goodbye to the season.  Some highlights:

• Campfires and S'mores
• Home cooked family style meals, and I quote my friend D,"I haven't eaten like this since my Grandma"

D at the Lake

• Lots of time at the dock, both in the water, and out.

D at the Lake

• Learning to play Skip-Bo
• Naps

L napping with her dog on the dock

• Stories, jokes, and giggles
• Growing closer as friends

Well, I think it is safe to say a good time was had by all and it was time well spent.  I'm already plotting the 3rd annual 'Last Weekend of Summer at the Lake' for 2011.

Off for the Weekend

Off for the 2nd annual last weekend of summer celebration.  Photos and updates later.

Rue

Check out this amazing, huge, vibrant, and free online Magazine. Rue edition 1. It is amazing what people can do with their creativity.

I spend way too much time looking at things on Etsy

But I find cool things, like the above original watercolor by Holly Ward Bimba. Check out her Etsy shop Golly Bard for more.

The Bride

I think this just about sums up the whole feeling of the wedding...

The Great Northwest: Days 3.5-7

Day 3.5: After the wedding we had enough time to go change and have a little down time, then met the Bride and Groom for the 'after party' at one of their favorite hang-outs, the Lucky Lab Brewery. We had a grand time seeing the strong San Luis Obispo contingent of the guests and catching up with the Bride and getting to know the Groom more. Sandwiches and pitchers of beer were consumed happily and a good time was had by all.

As for the rest of the trip, I guess we started having too much fun to take many more pictures....

Day 4: Started off meeting the bride and groom for brunch at Country Cat Cafe in Portland. We had a group of about 8 from the wedding including the Bride and Groom and had a wonderful morning re-capping the wedding, catching up, getting to know everyone, and having a great breakfast. We then ambled over together and checked out the local farmers market and drooled over the amazing bounty of fresh fruit and veggies, to-go bites, and odds and ends, as well as listened to some great live blue grass music.
We then headed up north the long way around, driving out to the coast and checking out Astoria for lunch. We then continued North towards Seattle on 101, winding in and out of the woods and sounds of Washington's coastal area. The drive was bliss, so much green I felt like it was soaking into my eyes and brain. I felt like if you fell asleep too long in the woods here, you would wake up with bits of moss, lichen, and ferns growing from in-between your toes and out of your ears, a funny thought. We made it into Seattle and on to family friends house on Medina to stay for the next few nights. I must say O&S were wonderful hosts. They welcomed us after the long day with a bowl of fresh washington peaches and ice cream, showed us to our room, and let us settle in. What a wonderful welcome O&S - Thank you

Day 5: We were up and out of the house with O&S in the morning and given a lovely walking tour of Medina and nearby Bellevue. We then headed back to the house and were treated to a great breakfast then sent on our way. We headed up to Woodinville, where Chris had spent his early childhood years. Chris took me by the 'little' Woodinville house and then over to his elementary school. School was closed but we were still able to access the grounds and took a walk through to see his kindergarden and first grade classrooms as well as the playgrounds. We found the United States Map that had been new when he was a kid and hopped around on the states we had lived in and visited before. We also drove to Grandma and Grandpa Hoffman's house and Chris told me some great memories of his grandparents. It is so important to re-visit these places that are history for us, it brought so many memories back for him - that alone was worth the whole trip.

After Woodinville we drove into Seattle and went to Pike Place Market to browse and eat lunch. Pike Place is like no other market I have ever seen. It was incredible. A riot of colors, sounds, and smells - from the flower vendors with their vibrant bouquets, to the craftsmen & women selling handmade jewelry, scarves, and home goods, to the fish stalls and food vendors. It was amazing, I wanted to stop at each stall, stare at and absorb each display, smell and taste everything (almost), and most of all people watch.
We ate lunch/dinner (linner?) at the Pike Brewing Company and enjoyed a great taste of the Pike Market cheeses, cured meats, sausages and homemade sauerkraut. Oh yeah, and the beer, the really good beer. We then took a great walk down by the sound, watched the ferries, got coffee and a cookie to split from Uptown Coffee, walked some more, discovered the Seattle Art Museum's public sculpture garden, watched the trains, took in the night view of the city from the convention center rooftop lookout, got good and rained on, and finally packed it up and head off to bed.

Day 6: We headed off to the University of Washington campus for a tour of the William Gates Hall, home to UW's School of Law. We were able to meet with admissions and discuss application processes, then wander the beautiful recently completed building. The Building's Law Library alone would make it worthwhile to go to school here with it multi-level expanse of books, open clutter free space, and study tables with views to downtown Seattle. It was impressive, and stunning, and stressful...
After our wandering, we set of to explore the campus. Chris's parents both attended UW, and it is where they met and fell in love, so we called them and got the scoop on finding the dorm Chris's Dad. stayed in as a student, and to find their old classrooms and meeting spots. We found the fountain that Chris's Dad bumped into another student and that students stack of painstakingly hand punched and organized computer programing cards fell into, the Marina they learned to sail from, the football stadium, and even ate in the canteen at one of the dorms. It was a long day of walking, the campus is huge, and fun yet terrifying at the same time. I couldn't stop thinking that touring the campus meant we were really truly thinking about moving, and that turned out to be way too stressful for me. Not to say I will never move away from the Bay Area, though I love it here, if we do move I would rather it be on our own time instead of on a deadline like the beginning of a new school semester. But who knows, maybe it will be an opportunity not possible for us to pass up one day.

Day 7: Packed up and ready to go, O&S offered to take us to one more destination on our trip then head off to the airport. Chris and I opted to visit the Locks and Fish Ladder just North of the city to see if we could spy some salmon headed into the sound. When we arrived we got to watch a beautiful day boat pass through the Locks, then headed to the Ladder to spy on the fish. There were a few headed up-stream, and a sea lion gleefully catching some downstream from the locks. It was a nice final taste of Seattle before heading off to the plane for the trip home.

The Great Northwest: Day 3 - The Wedding

What a joy to see my great friend M.S. marry her sweetheart M.S. - it was a wonderful, personal, thoughtful, hand-spun, loving, happy, lovely day. M&M were glowing. It was plain to see that they were really meant to be together, and had a strong deep understanding love for each other. After getting to know the groom better I could not have wished for a more perfect match for my good friend. How lovely.
There were so many personal details in this wedding. From the hand cut hearts used for garlands and 'flower petals' for the flower girls from surplus pages of the children's books M&M craft into clever journals together. To the pie served from their most loved coffee shop date in there home neighborhood. And the picnic blankets stacked up for use at the reception site. Thank you M&M for involving us to witness and be present for you on this unique and special day.

The Great Northwest: Day 2

After sleeping late in our awesome hotel Chris and I woke up and headed down one block to the light rail to head into downtown Portland. We got off the rail at the China Town station and headed off for the first place that looked good for lunch. We turned a corner and spotted the Fox and Hounds, a typical english pub looking place and stepped inside. Little did we know this was the home of the 1Lb burger... and also a gay bar.... hmmmmm... Portland was off to an interesting start!
I don't have to tell you that of course Chris ordered the crazy 1Lb burger, and that he ate the whole darn thing (Yuck), or that it was reportedly divine, or that the bartender and regulars were very attentive to him..... It was a blast! What a great place.

We walked around a little, then headed of on a quest to find Vodoo Donuts (as if we needed anymore food). Ever since watching Anthony Bourdain's 'No Reservations' episode on the Northwest cover Voodoo donuts, we have wanted to come check it out.
After waiting in line for 45 minutes, we ordered a Maple Bacon Bar (mmm... think pancakes, bacon, and maple syrup), a Voodoo doll donut with house made raspberry 'blood' filling, and a chocolate donut with cocoa puff topping, and a large milk and headed down to the river park.

Here I am with the awesome Maple Bacon Bar, yum.

Here Chris is with his Voodoo Doll Donut with Raspberry 'blood' filling; Needless to say all the donuts were delicious and we ate way too many calories in a period of about 2 hours, but it was totally worth it.

We ended up hanging out in the park for a while, Chris fell asleep and I people watched. We spent the rest of the day hopping on and off the great light rail system in Portland and getting the layout of the land. We walked off the calories downtown, took the tram from the river to the hospital on the hillside and took in a wonderful view of the city and all her bridges, headed to Powell's and got lost in the stacks of books there, and found a funky pizza place for dinner. All in all, Portland was love at first sight (and bite). What a great town, and friendly people, and incredible food. If only we had had about 5 more days! More to follow soon.

The Great North West: Day 1

Wednesday night we flew out of San Fran for our first real vacation (meaning not a trip primarily for visiting family members which is also a good thing, but not really vacation). Our very good friend M is getting married this weekend in Portland and when we were invited a few months ago we decided to expand the weekend into a week long vacation. Chris was born near Seattle so we decided we would fly in and out of Seattle, drive to Portland and spend a few days, then drive back to Seattle and spend a few days. I have always thought I would love the North West, and luckily, I was totally right! This has been an incredible trip so far. Below, a few highlights.
Chris on the SFO light rail car, ready for vacation!

The light rail system in Seattle, special underground tunnels for light rail AND buses, amazing!

Heading up to Johnston Observatory to view Mt. Saint Helens Volcano. Fascinating, awe inspiring, unbelievable!

The 19-mile house for dinner, burgers, fresh cobbler, and a porch with a river view. Who could ask for more?

And finally, a well deserved plop on the bed at our awesome hotel room in Portland. Great well designed room, football, and some happy hour (10pm!?) snacks, and then bedtime.