Strong Arms Saturday!

This Strong-Arms-Saturday is brought to you by Fort Funstion. Fort Funstion is a sandy bluff high above the ocean where people take long strolls and dogs are allowed to run freely. Is is one of a few places in the San Francisco area that dogs can be off-leash. We discovered it last Saturday, and will probably make a habit of going there. The views of the ocean and beautiful, the breeze is calm, and there are all sorts of little trails you can follow. ...Along with the fact that it is a doggy wonderland! Our pup, Mr. Buckles, had the time of his life romping around with other dogs. (Which is why he isn't in any of our pictures. What a little socialite he is!)

What exciting things do you have planned for Saturday? Feel like snapping a picture of your own Strong-Arms-Saturday, send me a picture and I'll post it:  E-mail Me!

All Worlds Fair

A few weekends ago Andy and I went to the All Worlds Fair in San Francisco. You may be wondering, what IS an 'All Worlds Fair', yes my reaction exactly.

Find my fun vintage blazer Here.

A friend of ours said she was involved, and that it would be an unforgettable night. So obviously we had to go! I looked it up online and noticed that the tickets were selling like wildfire! There were still two weeks before the event, but it was just about sold out. Not having any information on the event I signed up for some of the last tickets. I snatched them right up! Then I figured I should do a little reading on the event, so we'd know what we were in for. Funny thing though, there wasn't much information...

Everything I could find on the 'All Worlds Fair' was about galaxies not our own and species from other planets. There was talk of a strict black and white dress code, and passports involved. As the event grew closer, we had to fill out online information for our inter-world passport and agree to the dress code. I began to get more emails about risks involved with traveling to this out-of-world experience, along with news of the fair and its vendors...with no specifics of course.

Both Andy and I grew more and more curious. What was this event?? What on earth (literally) had we signed up for? The night of the event Andy and I got ready together. We went through our closet to see what we had to wear in terms of black and white. We found simple outfits and headed into the city. The event was held at the old Mint building where there was a line down the sidewalk when we arrived. We jumped in line and were quickly questioned about our passports. Yes, we answered, we had filled out all the passport information.

After waiting a little longer, and observing all the black and white outfits around us, we were ushered through the passport booth and into the building. Unfortunately, there were no electronic devices allowed, so my pictures from outside are quite bad, and I have no pictures from the inside, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Once we were in, it was a free for all, a fair. Each room held a different vendor showing us something from another world. We dug for silicone (from the silicone valley, ha!), tried healing elixirs, were entertained by kings, told jokes while sharing tea, viewed out of this world images...and on it goes. At one point we were ushered upstairs, where the fair took a different turn. The rooms were more like works of art, installations, but they were alive. One room was filled with live statues donning the most wild and interesting looks, clothing, and makeup. A fog machine blew into the room along with dramatic lighting and music. It was incredible! We also saw a 4-legged stilted lady dance in one room, and played an out-of-body game in another room.

Towards the end, we were once again ushered into another part of the Mint building. It was a large open room with paper installations hung from the ceiling to the floor in all four corners. Everyone sat, as we listened to a musician in one corner playing buckets, chimes, and cymbals. He even did some tuvan throat singing at one point. Out of nowhere a group of dancers tied together and wrapped in white cloths came out. They moved as one, like a breath, and weaved in and out of us. It was strange, but awesome at the same time.

When the music and dancing stopped, the event was over. We left the Mint building through the front steps. Most people were speechless at the incredible event we had just left, others couldn't stop babbling about what they had experienced. Andy and I walked quietly in awe to dinner, then we re-hashed the whole experience over sushi. Wow, what an event! San Francisco never ceases to entertain and mystify.

Strong Arms Saturday

This Strong-Arms-Saturday is brought to you by Franzi in Switzerland. She says:
"The photo is on Madeira, one of the portugese islands. We'd been hiking and hanging out on a black volcanic beach all day and had caught way too much sun.... so here we are about to head off to the island's best restaurant (by our definition) and convert the one in the middle from (foodwise) fish-hater to fish-lover."

What an adventure, thanks Franzi. This is the first international Strong-Arms-Saturday on the blog, yay!

What exciting things do you have planned for Saturday? Feel like snapping a picture of your own Strong-Arms-Saturday, send me a picture and I'll post it:  E-mail Me!

Slot Canyon Hiking, Palm Springs

Last week I wrote about our trip to Palm Springs. I mentioned that we had gone slot canyon hiking and I am finally posting about it.

What an adventure we had! Before going to Palm Springs Andy mentioned that he wanted to do some slot canyon hiking. Once we got there, we acquired a lot of information on trails through the visitors center and hotel. After sifting through a lot of information we ended up settling on a trail that Andy picked. Andy had found a rough map along with some written directions for a trail into a slot canyon that we would be hiking. (I honestly don't know where he found the trail information, but I don't think it was from the visitors center or the hotel.)

The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and left for our slot canyon hiking adventure. We found our way to a dirt road that said 4 wheel drive cars only...oops, we weren't driving a 4wd but took the road anyway. Luckily it wasn't too bad. At the end of the dirt road were huge rocks and boulders, that was where the hike was to begin...according to the random directions that Andy had.

After glancing at the rough trail directions, Andy took us into the first rock entrance that he found. (Sure he was following directions...) We quickly found ourselves in a very tight slot canyon. In some places we were en-caved by the rocks and had to get on all fours to crawl along the trail. Other places we had to climb 20 feet of rock and disintegrating rope to get to the next part of the so-called trail. It was definitely an adventure, but all the while I kept thinking of the movie 127 Hours and how he was trapped in a slot canyon until he sawed off his own arm to get out. Yikes, maybe I was a little paranoid.

We climbed the last and longest rope up the rock to get out of the slot canyon and were in the middle of the desert. We chose a direction to go (based on Andy's version of the directions) and over an hour later we quickly realized that we were lost. Great, lost in the desert with only 1 water bottle for two people and a dog! Andy and I fought over the directions for a while before deciding to back-track to the slot canyons and find our way back via the way that we had come. Luckily, we were able to find the same slot canyon and retraced our steps back. I have to say, climbing down the 20 foot ropes was a LOT harder and scarier than climbing up them. I never want to do that again!

All in all, we got out safe and were not trapped for 127 hours, phew! It was a fun adventure, but next time we will be sure to pack more water and leave our dog at home. I would also prefer to take a legitimate trail, rather than one that someone half ass created and then put out there on the internet for Andy to find.

This was the way we transported our dog up (and down) the ropes and rocks. He was a trooper of a pup!

A self-timer family picture in the desert before we got lost and cranky.

Palm Springs

Last weekend Andy and I headed south to Palm Springs. We had an unexpected 3-day weekend (Presidents Day), so we opted for a spontaneous trip. On Thursday night we quickly planned it out and made reservations at a hotel. We got lucky with hotel reservations because once we were there we found out everything had booked up really quickly due to the holiday weekend. Lucky us!

Andy left work at 4pm on Friday and we started the 7 hour drive. Most of it was in the dark, so we had no idea what the surrounding landscape looked like. The next day we woke up to crisp clear blue skies, and a plethora of palm trees. Palm Springs is truly an oasis in the desert.

We did some slot canyon hiking (more in a future post), and relaxed by the pool. We also visited a date farm. We thought it was a palm farm, but it turns out that dates grow on palm trees. I had no idea! Did you know that? There was a great date center with information on how they are grown, samples of dates (12 different varieties!), and a restaurant full of date dishes. We decided on their famous date-shake and enjoyed it outside among the green lawns and date trees, aka palm trees.

It was a fantastic weekend! Taking this spontaneous trip to Palm Springs was the best idea that we have had in a long time. It was neat to see the California desert and the oasis in it, not to mention all the relaxing we did there and the fun that was had.

He's always willing to pose for a picture...just not in the most graceful way. :)

Sonoma Wine Country

Last weekend Andy and I headed up to Sonoma for a day of wine tasting, bike riding, and picnicking. We were debating whether to go to Napa or Sonoma, but heard from friends that Sonoma is better. Apparently Napa is far more touristy and built up, where as Sonoma is more down to earth and truly about the wine.

We packed a picnic lunch, loaded our bikes, and drove the hour north to Sonoma. It was a pretty drive through an area we haven't seen yet. Because it is 'winter' here in California, Sonoma was more brown than it usually is and the vines were all empty of grapes. The area was also more empty than it would be in the summer, which is considered high tourist season. The tasting rooms that we visited were full of people though, so I can only image what their busy season is like!

We found a wonderful 15 mile bike ride that would hit 6 different wineries. Some are in the small town, but most of them are out in the countryside. If you are interested in doing the same route here is the map. You can also get a map and bike rental at Sonoma Valley Cyclery if you don't have your own bike.

The first stop we made was to Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery. Both Andy and I did a full tasting here and while we enjoyed it, it was probably a mistake. The guy pouring for us had a heavy hand. Each tasting that we did with him was probably a full quarter of a wine glass! When you are trying 12 wines that equals to be about 3 full glasses of wine. We enjoyed the wines a little too much and left quite sloshed. That is definitely NOT the best way to start a 15 mile bike ride to visit 6 different wineries.

All the wine that we drank was absolutely amazing and fantastic. It was fun to compare California wine to Virginia wine. California definitely has had more time to perfect their wines, but I think Virginia is coming along. Of course, none of our wine pourers would agree with us. Every time we mentioned Virginia wine their noses would turn up and the conversation would lull. We quickly learned not to bring Virginia wine into the conversation. Wine conversation etiquette anyone??

It was a lovely day of wine tasting and bike riding, but I must admit that after the first tasting our bike riding skills were not so great. (Luckily we were in the countryside without many cars or people to see us, ha!) After 3 wineries and a picnic we decided that we were far too drunk to finish our bike trip. Whoops! This California 18% wine is not what we are used to! No matter, we had a lovely (and long!) picnic and then some pizza and coffee to to work off the wine before heading home. I am already planning our next visit to do the same Sonoma bike trip, but next time we'll pace ourselves so we can be sure to hit all the wineries that we missed.

Big Sur post two, Highway One Beaches

A few days ago I posted about our backpacking trip to Big Sur. We took one day to backpack and camp, and one day to explore the area and Highway One. We have heard from countless people that Big Sur is the outdoorsy place to be around here. Well, other than Napa, Lake Tahoe, Muir Woods...oh wait, this whole area is scenic and beautiful!

Big Sur is about 2.5-3 hours south of the Bay Area, but totally worth the drive. A lot of the drive was boring highway, but once we hit Highway One the scenery started. We drove up and down Highway One stopping every few miles to get out and enjoy the coastal beauty. Some places the water was transparent blue, and other places we saw huge seals. There were cresting waves, miles of rocky shoreline, pristine white beaches, fog, sun, waterfalls, pine trees. Oh beauty!

It was an incredible day exploring Highway One in the Big Sur area. We did a few hikes right off the highway, and enjoyed the abandoned rugged beaches. We also stopped for lunch at a beautiful rooftop gallery restaurant that had some of the best bacon mac and cheese we've ever tasted. There are no words for that kind of delicious! We enjoyed lunch and beer in the blazing February sun with a view of Highway One and the Pacific Ocean. Does it get much better than that? I know I say that every time we get out and explore the area, but really, California has so much to offer.

 Check out the waterfall on the left side of this picture. Andy wanted to go bathe in it, but the trail didn't have beach access.