Honeymoon

We went on our honeymoon in December, and we took a lot of photos. Here are the highlights!



What's the best vacation you've been on?

A Weekend In The Big Apple

I had a fun-filled (and exhausting) weekend in the one and only New York City (slideshow below). I ducked out of work early on Friday to catch a train to a train to a bus to NY. My bus left at 3:30 (my friend, Brooke, was travelling with me) and we arrived outside Penn Station at 8:30 - an hour late. We met her boyfriend, Mike, there and then waited for Eric's bus to show up! He got there at 9:30, as scheduled, and we all piled into a cab to the West Village where Mike (Eric's classmate) is subletting an apartment while he completes his summer internship. After dropping off our (too-heavy) bags, we explored the neighborhood a bit and got a late dinner at Surya.

Eric and I spent Saturday with my friend, Justin (he visited Boston recently). We went to Brooklyn to meet him and his girlfriend, Sarah, for brunch at Cafe Luluc. Hello delicious pancakes. I'm not sure what made them so good; something about the crispiness. I was full after one, but I ate the entire outer edge of the second. Afterward, Justin showed us around his adorable neighborhood which I believe is called Carroll Gardens. He and Sarah were so sweet. They invited us into their home, showed us the roof deck, and then took us to not one, but two, parties! We went to their friend's lovely Manhattan apartment to watch the US vs Ghana World Cup game (bummer) and then we walked a few blocks and went to a rooftop shindig on 6th Ave. Holy moly, talk about a view! To the right was the Statue of Liberty and the left, Central Park (in the distance). Plus, amazing views of both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building (my personal favorite). After a bit, Eric and I decided to walk back to the West Village to meet Brooke + Mike for dinner. The first restaurant we went to had such poor service that we left (after 10 minutes nobody had even offered us water and it was easily 90°F and humid out). I'm glad we did, because we ended up eating at Móle, and the food was seriously delicious (we did end up waiting for over an hour though, because the hostess wasn't very good at estimating how long it would take for a table to be ready - she said 15 minutes). After dinner, I wasn't very good company because I was completely exhausted after our busy, busy day, so I went to bed early.

Sunday we had brunch with Brooke + Mike at The Diner and then we just tried to keep cool. We spent some time at High Line (an elevated train stop that has been converted into a park) and we walked through some of the Gay Pride festivities. Brooke was catching an early-ish bus back to Boston and Mike had to get some work done, so Eric and I had a few hours to ourselves in the afternoon. Even though we got to see each other two weekends in a row, we didn't have much time to just be alone, so it was wonderful to just sit and talk. Before I was ready, it was time to say goodbye again and go our separate ways.

P.S. It's Summer Colours Week over at Poppytalk. Today is pink (I think I have 3 pink photos in the slideshow). Check out all participants in the Flickr photo pool and join in the fun! 

Slide Shows

As promised, here are more photos of our San Francisco trip and my Grandparents' 80 surprise birthday party.

Most of the photos in the slide shows haven't appeared on this blog and aren't edited. Click here to see them on my flickr page.

Back In Boston!

We landed in Boston on Wednesday morning, around 8:00 AM. It was cloudy, just like when we left, but it was warm.

We flew all night, and I'm so proud that I actually managed to sleep for quite a bit.

Have I mentioned yet that San Francisco was freezing? It was sunny for most of our stay, and it looked like it should be about 100° out. Felt more like 45° or 50°. Maybe Eric will write a post about the weather and the science behind it. I'll just say sometimes there was fog, the rest of the time there was wind.

Luckily, we packed appropriately. I wore a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, and either a hoodie or my windbreaker or both almost the whole time we were there! It felt more like October than July. (I think I still have a few more things to tell you about the trip.)

Anyway, Wednesday I had a meeting at 5:15 PM. I napped a little during the day, but I had trouble sleeping. I was a little groggy at the meeting, but I'm glad I made it there because I had a good time.

Thursday was hard. Eric slept a lot, but I just couldn't stay in bed. Plus, I had to write Lost In Thoughts! Even so, I think I was a little out of it all day.

Friday morning we got up and headed to New Jersey. Yeah, more travelling! I'll write about that adventure next time!

Presidio, Marina & Pier 39

Even though we couldn't see Kristen on Tuesday (she had other people to see, of course), we switched our flight to the Tuesday night red-eye because it was significantly less expensive (about $400 less) than the Monday night flight. That meant we had an extra day to explore the city.

I had a 2:00 pm ET phone call (11:00 am PT), so we didn't really do much besides get some breakfast until noonish. At that point, we met Drew for lunch in the Financial District, near his office building. From there we walked over to the Ferry Building, and just looked around a bit. We'd also been there briefly on Saturday for the Farmers' Market.

Then we caught a cab to the Presidio to have coffee/water with a friend from college. The Presidio is a national park that used to be an army post. Now the old houses are used as offices, and our friend works in one of them. We were in an odd sort of behind-the-scenes-looking business section, so I didn't even think to take any photos. Nuts!

After coffee, we basically crossed the street and we were at the Marina. Wow, what a view of the Golden Gate Bidge! It was really windy on the beach, and we saw two guys getting flown by a kite. It looked like a lot of fun until one guy crashed into the ground big time.

We took a bus from a Divisadero Street stop at the Marina over to the North Beach side of town and went to Pier 39. I took pictures of the carousel, the sea lions, and the hilarious tourists (and their dogs).

After a long day, we had dinner with Drew and headed to the airport. We took a cab to the financial disctrict because he was headed back to work (seriously), and then we took BART the rest of the way to San Francisco International. Our flight was scheduled for 11:25 PM, but we took off around midnight.

Extended Stay In CA

As I mentioned earlier, we extended our stay in CA in order to spend some time with Kristen, one of my closest friends.

She and her parents (Bill & Judy - we spent the afternoon with them on Thursday) were staying at her Gramma's, across the bridge in Belvedere. I'm not the only one who wanted to see her, and a bunch of her family members were going to congregate at her Gramma's. Monday morning, her cousins Kate (an actress living in LA) and Hannah (we spent the day with her on Friday) picked us up so that we could also join in the fun!

I don't know how to describe the day to you. It was great and feels sort of like a dream. I still can't believe everything worked out so well.

Kristen and her cousins are very similar in some regards. It's probably most noticable in the way that they talk. They all have a very unique way of stressing certain words. It's pretty hilarious when they're all together. Everybody kept saying that Eric was such a trooper for haging out with 4 girls all day, but it was a great time. Seriously. We laughed all day!

It was fun listening Kristen and her cousins talk and just catching up on life. I also enjoyed talking to her parents, aunts and uncles, and gramma. Eric spent time talking to the grown ups too.

In the morning we had bagels and sat outside soaking up the sun. There wasn't as much of a breeze as there is in San Francisco, so it felt much warmer. We also went for a walk into Tiburon.

I'm sad it was such a short visit, but I can't complain. I really can't believe we got to see her at all!

Kate made this little video of all of us hanging out (so unfortunately she's not in it).

Are you wondering how and why Kristen unexpectedly showed up in CA? Her husband is in the Air Force. When you're a member (or family member) you get the opportunity to hop along on flights that have extra room. It's like flying stand-by so you aren't guaranteed a spot, and she tried to get on one for father's day but there were people ahead of her in line and not enough seats. But this time, she was at the top of the list and was able to catch a ride.

It wasn't a normal, comfortable flight at all. It was a cargo plane and apparently it was very loud and cold. It flew from Japan to Seattle, and it took 10 hours. I can't remember the exact hours, but they left Japan at like 11 am Sunday and arrived in the states at 6 am Sunday because of the time difference. It's like she went back in time, isn't that crazy? That night she took a commercial flight from Seattle to San Francisco.

At this point, I think she's already headed back to Japan. I'm pretty sure she left Wednesday. Isn't that wacky?

I still have one more day to tell you about, but I'll save it for another post.

Strybing Arboretum, Chinatown & A Surprise

Sunday morning Eric, Drew, and I headed to breakfast at La Boulange on Columbus Avenue in North Beach.

The three of us shared two pastries and a gigantic bowl of fruit, gourmet granola, yogurt, and honey. I don't know what type of yogurt (maybe greek?) was in that bowl, but believe me when I tell you it was magical! And the honey on top - swoon! It was a marvelous way to start our day.

After that we took a bus across town to Golden Gate Park. I really wanted to visit the Strybing Arboretum & Botanical Gardens (located in the park), so it was great that Drew and Eric were up for it.

I took around 200 photos while we were there, but I'll just share a few here.*

We had lunch nearby at San Tung Chinese Restaurant, because they have the best wings in the city (according to Drew). The food really was delicious, and most of the people in the restaurant seemed to be Chineese (seems like a good sign, right?). After lunch we went back to the gardens for a little bit before catching the bus back toward Drew's apartment.

On the way home we walked through Chinatown, just to check it out. We didn't buy anything, but it's a colorful place to pass through.

That evening we had leftovers and made some fresh coleslaw. Then the boys smoked cigars on Drew's roof (I only stayed for a few minutes because it was freezing).

We were supposed to catch the red-eye home on Sunday night, but our plans changed when Judy called to tell me that Kristen was unexpextedly coming to town Sunday night. I found out on Saturday afternoon, and we rescheduled our flights so that I'd have some time with one of my best friends. We haven't seen Kristen since her wedding, a year and a half ago. Her husband is in the air force, and he's stationed in Okinawa, Japan. They moved there just after the wedding. Originally we'd looked into spending a few days in CA and then going to Japan from there, but we just didn't have the money. Switching our departure date was much more affordable!

At about 9:15 I went to the airport with Bill and Judy to surprise Kristen. She was surprised, but very sleepy. I gave her the biggest hug. :)

*I'm working on an album that will include many more photos of flowers and of our trip in general. I'll let you know when it's ready and you can browse at your leisure.

Note: It's Thursday, so check out today's Lost In Thoughts over at Everything Little Miss!

Alcatraz

My feelings about our visit to Alcatraz on Sturday afternoon are mixed. Before going, I had no idea what to expect. Numerous people told us how amazing the tour was going to be, and I was excited about visiting. If you don't know, Alcatraz was a maximum secutiry prison for about 30 years. It closed in the 60s, but it's still creepy, so I was also a little nervous.

Our trip to the jail started with a ferry ride. The vantage point from the boat was very cool.

It turns out that I was worried about our visit for the wrong reason (the freaky-factor). The audio tour wasn't bad, per se. It was a tad hokey, but I can live with that. Basically, a whole slew of people comes over together on the boat. Then everybody makes their way to the cell block (up a hill that's equivalent to 13 flights of stairs, by the way) to get audio devices. Everybody presss play and the tour begins. As a result, most people start the tour at the same time. That means that we all moved around as a giant mob even though we'd only travel 5 paces at a time to look at something the size of a doorway. While not ideal, I could deal with that by just staying at the back of the group and looking when the crowd cleared.

My problem with the tour was this: all of the damn tourists! Stop rolling your eyes. I know that I was a tourist too, but at least I was being considerate. Some people are just plain old rude. People let their kids roam around unattended. There were moms yelling at their kids throughout the tour. They did't know how loud they were because they had headphones on, but they were also trying to be heard since their kids were wearing headphones too. Plus there was a drunk woman. Our tour was at 3-something in the afternoon and she was stumbling-drunk. I'm telling you, the people were just ridiculous.

I was also a little taken aback by the photographs people were taking. They'd put their kids in a cell and they'd be all smiles and thumbs up and I'm watching, thinking "this isn't Disney World, it's a jail that housed the country's most dangerous convicts." The thought process seemed a little disjointed to me, and I found it disturbing.

Anyway, I'm glad we went. It's an historic site with compelling stories. Plus, there were some fabulous views.

I took this photo of Eric and his brother, Drew, on the ferry back to San Francisco. All in all, it was a pretty cool day: Farmers' Market & Muir Woods in the morning and Alcatraz in the afternoon!

Later on we met Drew's friend for dinner at Joey and Eddie's before going to a very laid-back bar called Church Key.

Note: It's Thursday, so check out today's Lost In Thoughts over at Everything Little Miss!