Vacation, Day 8

Friday May 7^th

Most of our day was spent exploring Golden Gate Park, which spans more than 1,000 acres and is 20% larger than New York City's Central Park. It's so large that we only managed to see a small fraction of it during the time that we were there.

One of the first things we did was walk through the Japanese Tea Garden, which Andy had really been looking forward too. It was nice, but Andy left a bit disappointed. We had to pay to get in to the Tea Garden (the rest of the park is free) and it didn't seem to be worth the money.

Here we are standing in front of one of the miniature trees.

Then it was off to my pick - the Rose Garden, where I snapped tons of photos. There were so many beautiful varieties! One thing I noticed during our time in San Francisco was that roses are very popular there. I was always stopping to admire the large, beautiful blooms.

Then we headed across the street to the Botanical Gardens, where were just in time for a walking tour. The tour was wonderful - the guide was very friendly and told us many interesting things along the way. (It was what we were expecting to get on our tour of the Palace of Fine Arts)

For dinner we went to New Delhi, and Indian restaurant just down the block from our hotel and afterwards we indulged in desert from Coldstone. The Coldstone was right next to our hotel and the sweet smell of freshly made sugar cones was too much to pass up!

Vacation, Day 7

Thursday May 6^th

We spent our afternoon driving back to San Francisco, with a little detour through Berkeley along the way. We drove up a very steep hill hoping to see some of the best homes. The houses that we saw had great views, but most were very close together and minimal parking meant that many cars had to park along the already narrow streets, sometimes parking on both sides and only leaving enough room for one car to pass. Our impression was that it's a charming, but a crowded and overly expensive place to live.

On our way back into San Francisco we drove across Bay Bridge. At one point the road was 10 lanes wide (all in the same direction). After checking into our hotel we walked to Miette, an adorable French themed candy shop (although their sweets come from many different countries), where we picked up a number of tasty treats, including macarons, chocolates, caramels, and salty licorice. The store was so cute that I actually busted out the camera...

Those sardines are really chocolates! Adorable!


Mast Brothers Chocolate - had to buy one of those! Apparently the flavor Andy bought was salty.


These cute cookies matched the wallpaper (see below).




Graham cracker, Gingersnap, and Chocolate Wafer cookies.


Pastel colored malt balls.


Macarons, gumballs, jellybeans, and more!

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo, but Andy also got some chocolates that looked like little pebbles. It's a really good thing that I don't like chocolate because everything looked so good I'm sure I would have wanted to try one of everything!

In keeping with the French theme we walked around the corner to The Crepe House where we had crepes for dessert. After being on the go for so long we decided to take it easy and spend the rest of the night in, resting our tired feet and enjoying a movie.

Quick Note

The front page of yahoo featured an article today on The Top 10 Road Trips. The featured picture and #1 road trip: Big Sur, California! Andy and I would definitely agree that it was worth the drive! In case you missed it, click here to read about our recent trip to Big Sur.

Also, I've added a new link to the side bar. I came across Sh*t My Kids Ruined yesterday and got to laughing so hard so of course I had to share! Enjoy!

Vacation, Day 6

Wednesday May 5^th

We left Fresno in the morning and headed out to Yosemite National Park. The park itself was beautiful, but overcrowded and it wasn't even the peak of the season when we were there. Our first stop was at tunnel view, where you can see El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls.

After that we went on a hike along Mist Trail. We made it close enough to the waterfall to get a little wet, but after seeing that everyone walking back was drenched we decided that we had gone far enough.

We debated going on another short trail, but with the sun behind the mountains already we thought it might get too cold. On the drive to our hotel in Mariposa we came across an area where there had been a rock slide which left the road completely covered and impassable. A street light was set up to allow alternating one way traffic across a nearby bridge as a detour. After seeing signs warning about the possibility of rock slides the previous days I was shocked to see how much damage could be done. 

Vacation, Day 5

Sorry for my lack of posting this week. I was preparing for seeing my very first patients. I could go into all the interesting things I saw, but my guess is no one would have a clue what I'm talking about or even care. In a nutshell, I have glaucoma service on Tuesdays so I see only patients that have glaucoma or are at risk for developing it. However, most of these patients are older and have other things going on with their eyes as well so it can definitely be a challenge. Fridays I see "regular" patients, although they can come in with anything, including glaucoma as one of my patients did yesterday. Thankfully I survived my first week, woohoo! Now, back to the story...


Tuesday May 4^th

Andy woke up to a very unpleasant surprise - a tick latched onto his side! (You'll be glad to know I don't have any pictures to share) I tried to remove it, which involved lots of squealing and shrieking in disgust, but I was only partially successful in my endeavors. We spent two hours waiting at a walk in clinic to get the remainder of the nasty parasite removed and to get prophylactic antibiotics for Lyme disease. Since we missed our continental breakfast at the hotel (which Andy had been very much looking forward too) we grabbed a quick lunch at Rally’s, an equivalent to Checkers (hard to believe we still had an appetite after all that!).

We set out to Sequoia National Forest which involved another very windy drive through steep mountains.

I pulled over at the first sight of snow along the side of the road so we could get out and play. I was totally excited, even for this small amount. As we continued to drive up the mountain the snow went from a few inches to a few feet!


I didn't see snow until I was 20 and even then it wasn't much so I had to get out and frolic some more.

Andy took this photo as I was driving so it's a bit blurry, but if you look on the left it gives you an idea just how much snow there was.

 Part of a fence post and a sign peeking out of the snow.

A stream running through the trees.

Here we are standing in front of General Sherman, the largest tree in the world. It stands 275 feet tall and the diameter at it's base measures 36.5 feet! It's estimated to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old.


We wanted to go to Moro Rock, but it was still closed due to the snow. Instead we went for a short hike and came across some deer. We also saw a brown bear, but didn't get close enough to get a shot like this!

This was a beautiful spot so we hung out here until the sun set.

Vacation, Day 4

Monday May 3^rd

Monday was the first of three days we had set aside to explore other parts of California. We hopped in our rental car and headed south of San Francisco. We made a short detour to Mountain View so Andy could see Google.

We then took Highway 1 to Big Sur, stopping at many lookout points along the way to take in the amazing views. It was most likely at one of the lookout points that Andy picked up a tick (more on that later!)

We stayed at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park until sunset and took photos of the waterfall in the cove. 

We took this photo after the sun had set and used a long exposure which is why it's a bit blurry.

The drive back along the winding roads was a bit frightening, especially since it was dark and there were no street lights. In addition, for much of the drive there was no railing to help calm our fears about driving off the road, tumbling down the rocky cliff and being plunged into the icy cold water. However, Big Sur is so sparsely populated  that we could drive as slow as we wanted (which was pretty darn slow) and as a bonus we had a great view of the stars!

We arrived at our hotel in Fresno around 1am and rested up for our trip to the Sequoia National Forest.

One year ago today...

we tied the knot! Happy 1 year anniversary to us! 

Vacation, Day 3

Sunday May 2^nd

Since we were without a camera the day before, Andy and I took a bus down to the marina and snapped photos with our new camera of the Golden Gate Bridge, which we then walked partway across.

From there we went to the famous Pier 39 and saw the sea lions soaking up the sun. While we were at the pier Andy indulged in some chocolates (some for coworkers, but they never made it home) and I enjoyed hot, fresh doughnuts. Mmmm!

Andy even got a few pics with the street performers...

A bit later we went on a night tour of Alcatraz which was awesome! The lighting on the boat ride there was fantastic and there was a slight haze that added a nice softening effect. As we walked around the former island prison we listened to an audio tour, narrated by former correctional officers and inmates.

On our way home Andy typed in the wrong hotel address into his GPS so the bus we took dropped us off about 8 blocks from out hotel and we ended up walking through a very, shall we say, colorful and active part of town around 1am. 

Lesson of the day: Make sure you know your address as well as the parts of town to avoid!