vista hunting

After our fun day in San Fran we came back and crashed at Stephen's house.  A day of walking up and down those hills surely did a number on us and putting heels on the next day for church was only a little torturous.  After our fair share of Sunday naps we hit the park for a friendly game of extreme Bocce Ball.

Let it be known that I creamed those two boys in the first round.  Not to brag or anything.

Steve then took us up in the hills (mountains?) behind Cupertino and Saratoga.  It was lovely curvy mountain drive and when we got to the top we had a stunning view of the whole valley at sunset.

It was such a pretty place that we decided to keep exploring.  We drove up and down those mountain roads until we turned the corner and found this:

It was just one of those perfect pictures (that my iPhone doesn't do justice to).  Beautiful golden hills coming out of this sea of clouds topped off with a sunset like a cherry perched on a ice cream sundae.  It was glorious.  We stayed there as long as the light held and just soaked in that view.

It was a Sunday full of lovely views and it basically made us fall in love with Northern California.  Watch out Bay Area, the Nemrows will be back.

when you're going to san fransisco...

Does anyone else know that Scott McKenzie song?  I didn't know the whole thing until I listened to it today, but I sang that first part (and only that first part) for 2 days straight while we were up North.  Poor David. 

We started off our trip last Friday by hopping in the car and heading up the 5-North to Cupertino.  Guess what?  There is NOTHING between LA and San Fransisco.  Literally.  Nothing.  It was pretty crazy.  We did pass a lot of pretty yellow fields and a whole bunch of farms, but that was about it.

And then we turned the corner and rolled into the charming town of Cupertino.  Our awesome friend and Apple intern, Steve, put us up for a couple of nights and took us out for dinner that night at Apple's main campus which was way too much fun.  Don't worry we hid Dave's Android the whole time we were there, just in case.

It was a GORGEOUS campus and we felt so cool poking around and eating at their lovely Caffè Macs.  Korean beef sliders and sweet potato fries?  Yes please.

The next morning we got up early and hopped on the 280 towards San Fran.  Dave, being characteristically awesome, found this great app that got us a parking spot all day for only $8.00! It was a sweet deal and I wish they had this service for LA for sure.

We started off at Union Square and took a trolley down to the wharf.  When in San Fran, right?  We couldn't resist, and the wait was only 30 minutes or so.  Totally doable.  And we met the most fabulous little couple from Louisiana in line in front of us.  Definitely worth it.  Steve and Dave got super lucky and got to ride the trolley hanging on the rails on the outside.  Yes, I was jealous.

Dave did get a little too friendly with another man going by us on a trolley back up the hill though.  A bum tap and a thumbs up later (from the other guy) gave us a good laugh.  Welcome to San Fransisco.

We headed down to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 next.  Apparently San Fran is famous for their sourdough bread, who knew?  But we tried some and it was delicious.  A few sea lions, lots of fishy smells, and a few pictures later we headed down to Ghirardelli Square for free samples.  Score baby score.

 We were all over that wharf...

We headed up to Lombard Street next.  And when I say up I do mean UP.  A huge hill.  Not surprising I guess, but seriously.  It was huge.  Good thing San Fran is gorgeous so it wasn't too bad.

Now let it be know: I love Lombard Street.  I just think it's quirky and so much fun.  Plus it's covered in hydrangea bushes, and I love hydrangea bushes.  And that view?  Perfect.  I know the clouds cleared up right then just for us.

We headed downhill again then to North Beach, aka Little Italy, for lunch.  We may have forgotten our San Fran tour book at home, but Dave remembered the most important part - where to eat.  We passed a couple cute little touristy haunts and then found Mario's Cigar Shop and Cafe sitting quietly on a corner across the street from Washington Square park with a great view of Coit tower.  It was a great find with fabulous help and meatball sandwiches.  We weren't complaining, even about their tiny, itty bitty, little water closet bathroom.  It was charming.

Next we walked through China Town to get back to our car.  We had been in this fun urban San Fran all day and then all at once we were in Asia.  It was hugely stark difference.  All of sudden we were haggling for better prices and the streets were jam packed.  It was organized chaos.  But mostly chaos.  The highlight was definitely the fortune cookie factory down Ross Alley.  It looked totally sketch at first, but you get to watch the lady actually make the cookies and that was pretty awesome.  PS - It is not wise to go into China Town without cash.  Dually noted.  We had to do some serious haggling to use the only two dollars I had with me.

I'm actually so glad we did so much walking around town.  San Fran is such beautiful city and we had a great time footing it (even up those huge hills).  Plus we burned off those *cough* 8 or so samples we got from Ghirardelli Square earlier *cough*cough*.

A must see for me was the Painted Ladies houses aka the Full House houses, and I'm so glad we made it over there.  You just sit in this great park and can enjoy the view of the whole city.  It was fabulous. 

We lounged about enjoying the people picnicing and picture snapping around us for awhile...and then we saw that characteristic San Fran fog starting to creep back over again.  It was time to hit the Golden Gate Bridge for sure.

The bridge is one of those purely touristy, hokey kind of things that are so great.  The boys were content to park and see it from our vantage point, but I begged them to walk on it with me.  Those good sports.

The view was fantastic, the walk was super windy & freezing (in August, people, August!), and it was great.  We took shelter in the middle of the bridge, behind one of the huge pillars, and just watched these wind surfers tear up the bay.  It was so fun.  (PS Dave is not a huge fan of heights, please note how he intentionally placed himself furthest from the railing in every picture - we had a good laugh about it)

And then we called it a day - and what a day it was!  We had so much fun and are already planning to come back.  Many thanks to Stevo for following us around and being our personal photographer for the day.  He was a trooper - you've trained him well Jarelle (we missed you!).

We were sad to go, but we'll be back San Fran!  You can count on it.

highlights #67

So for the past week Dave and I have been up and down the state of California.  Literally.  We've been down to San Diego and up to San Fransisco and driven a lot of the coastline in between.  Posts to come of our adventures at Apple's campus in Cupertino, exploring San Fran, and driving through Big Sur.  But today is a much needed day of rest; full of cleaning the house, doing a spot of laundry, taking care of real life things (like bills and doctor's appointments, yuck), and watching a lot of The Amazing Race (which we just found out is ALL on HuluPlus.  SCORE). 

So this is a major veg day and I am sooooo ok with that.  Because tomorrow we'll be headed right back down to Orange County for a long weekend full of beach days and celebrate my little sis's b-day. 

While I go change out the laundry here are a few fun finds:

THIS is such a beautiful wedding dress and such a fun story behind it - read it (I want her easy, breezy, beautiful hair too!)

how Cali looks like everywhere in the world

some sunshine for Norway

looks like a delish dessert - a la mode for me please!

so that's how you do that braid...

speaking of hairstyles, these look fool proof (and cool cool cool)

this shadow theatre group is AMAZING

And I know the hype has died down for the little King of England to be, but his birth certificate is kind of great

xo

P.S. As long as we're talking about London...these are great too

to buy a used car

So Dave and I have been searching for a new car for him for about the last month or so.  Ok, ok, Dave has really been heading up this search, but, you know, I helped him out here and there.  Mostly I just said yes that's a good one, no that one's ugly.  Really helpful, I know.

Well, we've been combing through Hyundai's, Toyota's, and Ford's, but this past week we finally found a triple threat.  Right price.  Right year.  Right mileage.  We were stoked.  Unfortunately it was at a little local dealership down in San Diego.  Now, that's not super far, but it's far enough, about two and halfish hours each way.  Luckily my parents are at the halfway point for us in Orange County, but still.

We set up an appointment with the guy on Tuesday afternoon so that we could go down, see it, get it checked out by a mechanic, and get back up to Santa Clarita by that night for a meeting I had in the morning.

Well, we got down there, (after hitting our fair share of traffic) we saw the car, and we thought it was great.  The only problem was that by that time it was 5:00 in the PM and ever mechanic in the area closed in half an hour (we called all 15 of them)!  So we were out of luck.  And we weren't going to buy this thing without getting a third party opinion so were kind of...stuck. 

Best case scenario seemed to be to hop back on the road, bunk with my parents for then night, and then come back down the next day to get the car (opting out of my morning meeting in the process - oops!).  So we showed up on my parents doorstep without even a toothbrush or a change of clothes.  Good thing they like us, cause they took us in regardless.  And the next morning we went car hunting all over again.

Long story short?  We got the car, got the mechanic's ok, and drove our little blue car home.  Not after doing a little San Diego site seeing of course (it took the auto shop almost 3 hours to inspect the car - we had a bit of time to kill).  We took a stroll around the San Diego temple, which Dave had never been to before, and made friends with the most darling little elderly lady.  She guessed we were newlyweds (at 2 years can we still claim that status?), and told us to have a happy life.  She was darling.  We also made our way down to Torrey Pines State Beach and listened to our book on tape with the sound of waves crashing in the background.  Not too shabby.

And then by the time we got back to my parents house for dinner and to show off our new little blue boy that night, well, it was kind of late.  So we bunked over one more time.

So we set out Tuesday afternoon planning to be home that evening - and didn't get back home again til Thursday afternoon.  The best laid plans of mice and men you know...

Monday with Mary

Due to the birth of little Prince George over across the pond, we decided to pony up and go see his Grandmother's exhibit on the Queen Mary in Long Beach harbor this past Monday afternoon.  I met up with my two best girls and we explored the ins and outs of this lovely old boat.

I'd never been aboard the Queen Mary before (or any big cruise ship for that matter) and we had a great time poking around, grabbing lunch, and moseying through the Princess Dianna exhibit on board.  It was a fun, blustery day - plus there were more than one boats fair share of red telephone booths on deck, so, you know, I was happy.  

Minus the traffic there and back, it was a lovely time.  Apparently the Queen Mary is also one of the most haunted places in the US!  So we're planning to come back in October for a proper Halloween cruise - stay tuned!