This seems a little familiar...

So, we got some snow here overnight. I'm glad that we didn't get the sleet and ice that the southern parts of the state got. The snow here looks a little like Pennsylvania did every day. But for the people here, it's a lot, so our office actually was closed today. Which is fine with me. I dug out my car and bopped around town running errands. The first picture is of my car today, the other two are of typical days in PA. Good memories. : - ) Everyone be safe out there!

San Francisco Part 3!

On our last full day, we rented a car and drove up to the Napa Valley, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on the way. I'm not a big wine drinker, but I like it enough that we knew we had to make a trip up to some wineries. It's a quick drive, and there are tons of wineries to taste at. We toured the grounds and caves at the Rutherford Hill winery, then went to the Rutherford Ranch because it was right down the road. After that we went to the Beringer Winery and bought some Pinot Noir for Stacy (she recently watched Sideways). The last picture is of me drinking said Pinot (just kidding!). After that, we went to Milat, where we bought some awesome Port Chocolate Sauce. We stopped by the Rubicon winery, which is owned by Francis Ford Coppola. We didn't taste there because it was expensive, but it was neat seeing the huge estate.

When we got back to San Francisco, we drove down Lombard and drove to Haight-Ashbury. We didn't stop because it's kind of like Chinatown - unless you're shopping or eating it's kind of boring. We packed up all of our stuff and prepared for flying back to Indiana. On Sunday, our first flight left at 1:45, and then we had a layover in Vegas. We got to see the strip, but we plan to go there for real sometime down the road. Our flight from Vegas didn't get in until midnight and we didn't get home until almost 2 am! The DF and I agree that we saw pretty much everything we hoped to, and we really enjoyed the different scenery and the warm weather!!

San Francisco Part 2!

On Friday, we had tickets to ride the ferry to Alcatraz. I had always wanted to see the jail, so I was pretty excited. The tour is really neat because it's self-guided. You can explore the island as much as you want before heading into the jail. Then you pick up a set of headphones and just follow along. So instead of being in a big group of people, everyone ends up being really spread out. Then you just ride the ferry back whenever you're ready. It was just as neat as I'd hoped. I look pretty happy being stuck in solitary confinement in the picture below, but I told the DF it's because I wouldn't have to do his laundry any more! :)

After Alcatraz, we wandered around Fisherman's Wharf, which is a pretty touristy area with shops and restaurants. We ate clam chowder in sourdough bowls at a place called Chowders and watched the sea lions for a while, though there weren't very many there that day. After that we got day passes to ride the cable cars around. This was tons of fun and a little scary when you're hanging off the side, which we were for one ride! The person "driving" the car has to push and pull these huge levers, which control the brakes. It looked like a lot of work! We jumped off the cable car at Lombard Street so that we could see the "crookedest" road in the world. We drove down it on Saturday, and it was pretty neat. We wandered around Chinatown for a while, though if you weren't shopping or eating it wasn't very interesting. It was a busy and great day!

San Francisco Part 1!

The DF and I went to San Francisco for 3 days last weekend. We thought we'd take advantage of his time off from school. We had an awesome time, and I'll be posting about each day throughout this week.

On Thursday we arrived and explored the area a little bit. We hadn't made any official plans for that day, so we were able to just walk around and take some pictures. We saw for ourselves how hilly that city is - it's ridiculous!! All of the townhomes that you see on tv are pretty accurate. Most of them have the garages under the living space and most are two cars deep, with one car parked behind the other. It seems like a pain, but I'm sure it's better than finding parking on the street. We walked up to the marina, which was only about 8 blocks from our hotel, and enjoyed seeing Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. We would see both more closely later on.

Let's go Red Wings!!

The DF and I drove up to Michigan this weekend to visit with Aunt Rachel and Uncle Dixon and to watch the Red Wings play the Sabres. The roads were really crummy with snow, but we made it to the game relatively on time. We missed the Sabres goal (oh well!) because we were waiting to get to our seats, but we saw all 3 of the Wings goals. It was a fun game, and we broke Aunt Rachel's bad luck streak - every time she goes to a Wings game they lose! Here are some pics!!

New Years Fun!

The DF and I went to Katie and Greg's New Years party. It was nice driving only a few minutes this year instead of traveling for hours like we usually do. Quite a few of our friends came too, and it was a lot of fun partying. At least until Katie's kidney stones showed up. She feels much better now, but she has an appointment on Monday. She's a tough cookie, though, so she'll be just fine! :)

Our friends from PA, Mike and Emilie, came out to visit, and we had a great time showing them around the city. On Friday we drove up to Chicago for the day. The DF was the tour guide, and he knows even more about Chicago than even I knew he knew! It was so funny for one of us to point out a building and have him spout out some random fact. He's so cute! We saw Navy Pier, all the shopping along Michigan, Millenium Park (see the reflection pictures from "The Bean" below!), and Shedd Aquarium (pic from 4D movie below too!). And we ate at Pizzeria Uno, which Mike and Emilie really liked. We were so glad that they were able to come see us. It was almost like we'd never left them! Here are some pics from our time in Chicago!