A Walk in the Park

Andrew and I were so excited to stumble upon our new favorite park this weekend, the Niles Community Park in Fremont, CA. A few things in particular had us super excited about our find. This park costs nothing (many around here have entrance fees plus an additional charge if bringing in a pet. Even our community dog park is $8 each time we take Hazel), is very pretty with lots of trees and green grass (a rarity around here), has a lake that pup is allowed to swim in, and is very clean. On top of that, it's close to our house.

For our day at the park we brought our new picnic blanket, another new "favorite" of mine. I'm in love with it because it has a waterproof backing that I can easily wipe off between washings and the other side is a soft fleece. It also came with its own carrier. We have had a couple other picnic blankets in the past that just pale in comparison. We also packed a cooler with snacks and drinks and brought along some special treats for Hazel. Andy and I like to break out the big guns to keep her entertained on long trips, so we packed one of those big, long-lasting chew treats and also a new toy.

After Hazel spent time swimming in the lake, we laid our blanket out, ate our picnic, and read for the rest of the day.

Our beach chairs have been re-purposed and are now our park chairs.

Birthday Weekend

Andy and both turned the big 2-7 in the past few days. To celebrate, we did a weekend in San Francisco. There were a couple of "touristy" items that we still hadn't done and wanted to cross off the list. These included a visit to the Haight-Ashbury area, a stroll through China Town, and a photo op at the base of Lombard Street.

The famous legs above Piedmont on Haight Street

In Chinatown

Lombard Street

After that, we wanted the rest of the weekend to be about getting to know the "real" San Francisco. This would require us to do a lot of walking and exploring. And since we were staying at a hotel in the city (as opposed to just day-trips we had previously taken) we had two full days to do just that. I know there are hundreds of thousands of die-hard San Francisco fans out there and they probably would hate me for this, but I don't love this "city by the bay." It's too busy, crowded, smelly, expensive, dirty, and loud. In just a day's time I had been yelled at and taunted by a homeless man, cursed out by a woman when I politely declined to eat at her restaurant, and witnessed another woman doing drugs on the floor of a McDonald's restroom. Andrew and I both left on Sunday slightly confused as our discussion was based on what all these SF lovers see in this city of theirs. When I got home, I couldn't help but see if we were the only people that feel this way. We're not the only ones. There are hundreds of blog posts and sites that have a distaste for the city, a few are here, here, and here.

I will give you this, San Francisco. You have some cute stores and you can somehow make a non-shopper like me want to shop. Here's Andy displaying one find that I thought was particularly charming:

So while we will be back (my mom will be visiting in a couple weeks and we'll be showing her around the area), we'll be sticking to those touristy attractions and letting the native San-Franciscans keep the "real" city to themselves.

And in other birthday news, although we promised each other no gifts, we lied. Andy gave me a gift certificate for a massage and also a new Bluetooth speakerphone for my car (hands free calling in CA!). Andrew got an ice cream maker, recipe book, and a little custom art I made.

And here are a couple of other things that were surprises on the big day:

 Yum!! A huge cookie bouquet from Jacqueline and Karen.

 Loose leaf tea and infuser from my mom. Seen here with my going away gift from Mary and Marissa.

It's like a match made in heaven!

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes to us. We are very lucky to have so many thoughtful people in our lives. Here's to making 27 the best yet!

Taking It Easy

That's what we've been doing the past couple of weeks. Andy had a medical procedure done and so our activities are slowing down for a bit. We have gone on a couple picnics and also spent some time trying to pick up geocaching again.

 Lewis and Clark with their handy GPS

Geocaching was something Andy and I started while living in Destin. For those who don't know (or aren't as big of nerds as we are), geocaching is sort of like a treasure hunt. You follow a GPS device to a pair of coordinates where you then search for the "treasure." To me that sounds way cooler than it is. In too many cases, we have been led to areas where we have to trudge though tons of brush, risking thorn scrapes and lots of ant bites, then arrive at our destination and often don't even find the cache. On a recent journey, the coordinates landed us right under a tree. Seeing a whole at the base of the trunk, I figured that would be exactly where we would find the cache. A snake also liked the idea of this cozy little hole, too, and I'm very glad I decided to take a good peak in there before sticking my fingers in to fish for the treasure. And since I'm on the subject, I have another big beef about geocaching (besides the terrible locations these things are most often placed). It's just not fun to simply go to a set of coordinates and blindly look around for a tiny film canister that you open and write your name on a piece of paper that's tucked inside (or worse, when you end up realizing the cache isn't above ground and you have to dig for it). If they all had clues or some sort of mental puzzle that had to be done to find the item, geocaching could be something we could get into. But alas, I think it's safe to say that Andy and I are throwing in the towel on this hobby.

To keep the odd activities flowing, how about a trip to the Bigfoot Discovery Museum? Yeah, there's such a place. We happened upon this little gem after an afternoon at the Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

This place was full of Bigfoot pop culture items and also the more "scientific" items: plaster casts of footprints, teeth and their DNA testing, etc... 

Are we any more convinced that there is a Bigfoot? Not so much. That furry 4-year old in the Weekly World News is pretty convincing though, right? But we do live in the land of Sasquatch so we'll let you know if we have any sightings of our own. Until then, we're taking it easy and allowing Andrew some time to recover.