We saw...
really HUGE...
trees! Today Josh and I went up to Calaveras Big Trees State Park about 60 miles east of Stockton. We were both in awe of the size of these things. The craziest thing was the 30 foot diameter stump we got to stand on! We also really enjoyed trompsing around in the snow in our boots.
Saturday Josh and I drove into the city to get a new desk chair. My old one had a rip in the seat and I've been eying this one for awhile after a long search for it. It's a reproduction of an Eames Aluminum Management Chair. I wish I could have gotten the real thing, but we thought $1500 was a little pricey.
Yesterday we attended the annual Lodi Light Parade for the second year in a row. The parade had a 1950's theme. Above is a float decorated like a 50's style car.
On the way home we saw this house from the interstate. We had to get off at the next exit to get a closer look.
Today we went up to Apple Hill with Kyan and Lisa. We stopped at High Hill Ranch again (same place as last year) for some apples, fudge and cider. We also did some wine tasting at Madroña and Boeger (above) Wineries, and stopped at Jack Russell Farm Brewery for beer (Josh finally found a beer he enjoys) and pistachios.
Yesterday Josh and I drove over to Mount Tamalpais (Tam-ul-pie-us) to hike. Mt. Tam (for short) is just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County and is 2500 feet tall. We started at about 1000 feet by the Throckmorton Fire Station. Hogback Road Trail was about half a mile but it took us up about 450 feet. Then we were at Old Railroad Grade Trail which was a much easier incline. We only took that for a little ways before we took a shortcut on Fern Creek Trail. It pretty much went straight up from 1600 feet to 2250 feet. From there we were only .2 miles from the parking lot near the top.
At the parking lot there were bathrooms and a visitors center. They had an old gravity car on display which would haul passengers down the Old Railroad Grade to Mill Valley and a Train would bring them back up. The last one went down the hill exactly 80 years ago, October 31, 1929.
We liked the views from the top of Mt. Tam even better than Mt. Diablo (that we drove up last fall). We could see San Francisco, all of the San Pablo Bay, Bay Bridge, Richmond Bridge, Mt. Diablo, San Quentin Prison, west to the sparkling ocean and north to Vallejo and Novato.
Saturday after church and dinner at Thai Basil, we really wanted dessert, so we walked over to Rick's Dessert Diner. They have cakes, cheesecakes, pies, tarts, tortes, cookies and brownies. We had the blueberry cheesecake which was really good, but not quite as good as Muddy Paws. We miss that place!
We must be on a hamburger kick lately because here's another one. We went to Burger Joint and it was AWESOME! Burger Joint is a 50s style place but they don't use retro ingredients. The burgers were made of local naturally feed beef without hormones or antibiotics. And the fries were thick-cut and fresh. Yum!
We brought our bikes with so we could take a ride through Golden Gate Park. Golden Gate Park is sort of like Central Park to New York City. There are museums, gardens, sports fields and trails.
We rode all the way downhill to Ocean Beach. By then it was later in the afternoon and the overcast sky was casting a gorgeous light over the beach and all the colors were very soft. Another great day in San Francisco.
Sometimes I do things that remind me that I'm my father's son. This happens to be a great example...getting excited about hitting a milestone on an odometer. Last night Janelle, Matt and I took a 12 mile joyride to hit our target. We celebrated afterwords by going to Jamba Juice for smoothies.
Last week Matt flew into Sacramento for his third visit. We played golf three of the five days he was here. Saturday we drove south of San Francisco to play the Links at Half Moon Bay. The course was amazing, perched on the bluffs overhanging the Pacific. 
Matt and I standing on the 18th tee at Half Moon Bay. This hole was a long par five that wrapped around the bluff and ended in front of the hotel.
Saturday after golf we drove down highway one and stayed overnight at a hotel just outside of Monterey. Sunday we got up and made our way to the Links at Spanish Bay for our second round of the weekend. The scenery and golf course was just as amazing as the day before. After our round we drove the 17 mile drive stopping at Pebble Beach again for one more look before heading back to Sacramento.
I frequent Craigslist regularly, and last night I came upon this gem. A Danish mid-century modern serving table made by Selig. I called this morning about it and picked it up in the afternoon while paying for it with some of my birthday money. The guy I bought it from just refinished it, but in doing so lost the casters that were on the bottom. It looks great next to the sofa which is also a mid-century style. Happy birthday to me.
Today Matt and I met Josh in Galt at Squeeze Inn. The restaurant was featured on Diners Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network and they are known for their Squeeze Burgers. As you can see they have about 5 slices of cheese on the burger melted to make a cheese skirt. I love cheese and I couldn't even eat all of it. While the first 3 bites were awesome, it definitely caught up to us and we all had to wash our faces when we were finished.
I am so excited about the new look of my website. I've been learning more and more web techniques at work and I was finally able to put my new skills to good use. I don't quite have all the pages finished yet, but I just couldn't wait to share! You can find the link to my website on the right as always. Please check it out and check back soon after I've finished my portfolio page.
We didn't have anything planned for this weekend, but we were able to make something out of nothing. Saturday, we drove over to Clarksburg to see the Old Sugar Mill. The building is very old, but they are renovating the inside, providing wine tasting rooms and a wedding reception space. The entire place is gorgeous and I can't wait to go back with some girlfriends to do some wine tasting.
My mom told me she wanted to get this key holder off my wist for me, but the shipping would have taken too long so yesterday, we went up to Anthropologie to pick one up. It was much larger than I thought it was, but I still love it. And it actually worked out well because Anthropologie actually sent me a birthday coupon, so I got 15% off and didn't have to worry about shipping. We hung it here in the little nook by the kitchen.
Last Friday we drove down to Santa Cruz and Josh and Steve tried surfing. They were pretty good and had a great time.
Then Saturday we spend the day driving. First the 17-Mile Drive, then we continued down the coast and got as far as Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. The scenery was gorgeous.
Sunday, we finished up our adventure with a trip to the aquarium. My favorite were the otters, but we also saw seahorses, jellies, birds, sharks, starfish and other various sea life.
We'd been looking forward to Andy and Tine's visit since they told us earlier this summer they were coming out, so when Saturday rolled around, we couldn't wait to get down to SF. Since the Bay Bridge was closed (for construction) it took us a little longer than normal to get there, but we got to spend plenty of quality time walking, talking, eating and drinking together. They were also nice enough to let us stay with them in their room Saturday night, so we could stay out late.
This was the crazy sunrise we woke up to. We were on the 24th floor with a great view of downtown and Union Square. It was foggy but the sun was able to peek in before the fog totally took over.
Last week Josh found out he was nominated for a Champions of Finance Award. He found out today he was nominated by his boss for his Risk & Opportunities model. The winners will be announced in October and if Josh gets one of the 6-8 awards (out of 70ish nominees) he would get $500 and a cool trophy for his desk. Of course, he would never post this himself, but I'm proud of him, so I thought I would.
I had been hearing about the California State Garage Sale (the actual state government) so Friday I decided to check it out. They were selling mostly old wooden furniture from the 70s, repo cars and older computers. While I was snooping through some of the drawers of cabinets I found this little card catalog. There wasn't a sticker so I got it for only $3!
Today we packed up or bikes and headed up to the American River. There are 22 miles of path going from Downtown Sac all the way out to Folsom. No, we didn't ride the whole path.
This weekend we went with some friends up to a house we rented near Lake Tahoe. We were on Serene Lakes in Soda Springs. It was so much less crowded and more quiet than Tahoe, and our house was awesome. We had 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, game room, kayaks and a canoe to use at the lake.
Here's a picture of all of us. We stayed with Kyan & Lisa, and Colleen & Kirk. 
At the lake we got to hang out at the beach, kayak, canoe, sunbathe, shade-bathe, and swim. It was so fun to get away from Sacramento for the weekend and smell the fresh mountain air.
Saturday night Josh and I got to meet up with Victoria & John in San Fran for dinner and drinks. Victoria picked a great place called Slow Club in the Mission for dinner and we all enjoyed what we ordered. Then we headed back over near their hotel for drinks. We had such a great time catching up with them!
Today was flea market day and since we hadn't been there in 2 months, we decided to go. We picked up these 2 prints. The first is a catalog page of hockey skates (future man room material) and the second is a map of Minnesota.
Then we drove into the city. We had seen Dynamo Donuts featured on Food Network, and we have been wanting to try their Apple Maple Bacon Donuts.
They were good.
Yesterday, Lisa and I went down to Gilroy to the Garlic Festival. Gilroy is just south of San Jose and they produce 90% of the country's garlic. They had everything from garlic salt to garlic chocolate.
We also wanted to see Fabio and Jamie from the last season of Top Chef. Fabio was the MC and Jamie participated in a cooking challenge. They had to use garlic and a secret ingredient that was revealed right before the challenge started which was heirloom tomatoes. I wish we could have seen more of their cooking, but it was still fun to see them in person.
On our walks with Lucy the last few nights, we've seen something very different than normal. Goats! Either the city or county has hired these goats to eat the dried grass next to the path. The grass is a fire hazard and the goats love it. They get put into a pen that is about 30 feet across and 100 feet long, and they mow it down in less than a day. Then a farmer sets up a new pen right next to the one they finish and they get herded into the new pen by 2 dogs. Lucy LOVES the goats (and working dogs) which is a nice change from the feelings she has toward the cows in the same pasture.
Yesterday was our year anniversary of living in California. We can't believe that it's already been a year. We've had some really bad times (us freaking out), but we've also had some of the best experiences of our lives. Above is when Josh and I drove up to Tahoe the first time on Hwy 88. Here's looking back to some of our other favorite moments...
Having Matt and Brie out was really fun. This was at Sterling in Calistoga.
Here are Josh, Christine and I at Stinson Beach. Although my favorite moment when Steve, Deb and Christine were here was going over the hill on Divisadero Street and Christine screaming like we were on a roller coaster!
We waited until my parents got here to go out to Alcatraz and it was worth the wait. It was so gorgeous out there with everything blooming in the spring.
Then Matt and I planned to surprise Josh in April. We got him good. And I think they had a really great time in Monterey together golfing.
And most recently was our road trip down to see Christine, Anna and Ryan in LA. It was so fun to see familiar faces and a whole new city.
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