Blizzard in Tahoe

Being in the bay area definitely has its perks; you're close to all sorts of beautiful landscapes that are great for outdoor activities. Tahoe is only a 3 hour drive from San Francisco, and we finally had a chance to go this past weekend. Our plan was to leave Thursday afternoon, wake up bright and early Friday for a day of skiing at Northstar, then another day of skiing at Alpine Meadows before heading back on Sunday morning.

However, not all went according to plan. The three hour ride up took 5 hours due to traffic in Oakland and in Sacramento, not to mention a snowstorm that hit the mountains as we were crossing the pass to get into Truckee. We had chains, and once the chains were on, we could only go about 25 mph the last 20 or so miles. It was pretty scary.

Skiing lessons went all right, David picked it up really quickly, and although I felt all right during the lessons, during our runs down the regular slope I had a couple of nasty falls where I hurt my knees, and I wasn't having much fun. I don't think skiing is for me.

When we got back to the hotel, we checked up on the weather to see about the huge storm that was heading in, and when the weatherman predicted near white out conditions for Tahoe Saturday and Sunday, we made the decision to come back a day early. Although we had to give up a day of skiing, we felt we made the right decision for us, and we enjoyed being up in the sierra. (UPDATE: David's boss was also in the Tahoe area over the stormy weekend, and it took him around 9 hours to get back to the bay area; one of my co-workers was also in Tahoe, and they were snowed in so they couldn't leave yesterday, they left at 5 am Monday morning to get to work at 10:30! Looks like we made the right decision!)

Here's a picture taken from my iPhone of the drive out of Truckee, the calm before the storm. I also have a few more pictures posted of my flickr site.

The Office Mascot (or Rent-A-Dog)

I love going down to the Marina Green and enjoying the great weather...especially when it seems that everyone in San Francisco is down there with their dog. Makes we want a dog. Of course, growing up we never had dogs, just cats and a couple of ducks one summer (R.I.P: Mushroom & Government Cheese the cats and Donald & Daffy the ducks). David says I don't really want to take care of a puppy, I just want to PLAY with puppy. This is probably true.

My boss' son was at Rocket Dog Rescue one evening last week and saw the cutest little puppy, he just could not resist, so he brought little Teddy home. And the next day our boss brought him into the office. We are all in love. He hangs out in our office most of the day since we're the only office with a door, and he is adorable. I really wanted to take him home with me. Then he pooped behind my desk. And even though I still have much love for the Teddy puppy, I can honestly say, David was right.

Big Sur

David and I had a 3 day weekend, and instead of staying in doors all weekend and playing Guitar Hero, we decided to go on a road trip down the coast to Carmel. We visited Point Lobos State Park and Julia Pfieffer State Park for some gorgeous views. Although it was cold and we were trying out outrun the rain the entire time, we really enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed being outdoors after a long week of rain. (Only to come back to ANOTHER cold week of rain.... and we are getting really good at Guitar Hero by the way....)

Check out our flickr page for pictures of our trip!

Happy New Year

2007 was a great year; our first whole year in San Francisco, went through 3 earthquakes (2 of which I didn't even feel), we got married in Houston, went to Europe for our honeymoon, visited friends and family, friends and family visited us, and we had a great time! Here's to 2008!

P.S- Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Today is a good day for catching up- I have the day off, and it's storming and cold, even though I have cute new rainboots (like carol's) , I'm so glad I don't have to hike my usual 12 blocks around the city today. The wind is really strong and rattles the windows like crazy. I think I'll just stay away from the windows and cozy up on the couch with a latte and a wii. :)

Happy Anniversary

It’s official! We have completed our first year in San Francisco. I can honestly say that it doesn’t seem like it’s been an entire year. It seems like just yesterday David, Scott and I were trekking across Texas in the Explorer. We are thoroughly enjoying our time here, and I think we’ve adapted well to our new environment…Walking to the market with our canvas bags, regular picnics at the beach, avocadoes on everything. But…after a year, have we become too “California”?

1. More and more organic foods are creeping into the fridge…..
2. We’re all about public transit, though we’re really eyeing that Prius across the street
3. Anything above 70 degrees is almost unbearably warm

Or are we still Texan at heart?

1. We miss Tex-Mex and BBQ like crazy
2. Going to the mall is a pretty nostalgic experience
(or the apartment gets claustrophobic at times)

AND

3. State income tax??!!!?


Ok, I guess we’re a little of both now.

Since we’ve been in our current apartment for a year, we’ve tossed around the idea of leaving Cow Hollow and moving to a new neighborhood, either Cole Valley or Noe Valley (we like valleys). Cole Valley is great because its proximity to Golden Gate Park and Kezar Stadium, but it can get foggy at times. Noe Valley is near the Mission, and enjoys the best -weather in the city, but it’s further away from things. After attending a few open houses, and not seeing anything we really liked, we’ve decided to put off the hassle of moving till later in the summer. Looks like the Marina will do for a while longer.

The weather has been gorgeous lately, which makes exploring new neighborhoods pleasant. The weekend before we set out to Houston we checked out the Macy’s Flower Show, which was pretty impressive. I have a few pictures of the displays, my fave is the giant Ganesh at the front of the store.

CLICK HERE for more pictures

Take a hike

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Originally uploaded by ednalu.

You guys know I’m okay with nature, not ONE with nature, so when David suggested we go hiking this weekend, I was skeptical (do we remember the last outing to Muir Woods?) After all, my idea of a good hike is crossing Market Street to get from Macy’s to Bloomingdale’s.

After dinner Saturday we stopped at our local bookstore and picked up a book on different hikes in the bay area. We decided to try the Ring Mountain loop in Tiburon, not far from Sausalito. It was a perfect day to be outside! The entire hike took a little over an hour, and it wasn’t too steep or hard, and we had a really good time. The views from the top were gorgeous, especially the views of San Francisco. We saw lots of cool rock formations, including some petroglyph rocks. We were also on the lookout for en extremely rare flower called the Tiburon Mariposa Lily, found nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately we were a little early for wildflower season, so we’ll have to go back to look for the lily some other time. Looking for this wildflower made me think of the blubonnets in Texas….I wonder if they’ve started to bloom yet….

To see all out pictures from our hike, click here
*NOTE: For some reason flickr uploaded all of the pictures from most recently taken to last; so the pictures show up with the last ones first! I'll try to fix it, because it is driving me nuts!

Botero in Berkeley

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Originally uploaded by ednalu.

Last weekend we headed out to Berkeley to see the new Botero exhibit. Instead of driving (which would have taken 30 minutes) we took BART out there; it was a longer trek. From the apartment to Union Square was 30 minutes, but then the trip across the bay was something like 20 minutes.
The exhibit was very good; it's always interesting to see the different types of people who come out for art shows. This crowd was a little different though, since Botero is Colombian, there were a whole bunch of Colombianos around.