Weekend at Home

After Jacki and Katie's trip, we wanted to go camping in the beautiful spring time weather!  BUT we also wanted to do a bunch of other things, so we decided to have all the best parts of camping but stay at home.

Saturday night we made a fire and enjoyed S'mores and Margaritas in our Alite camping chairs.  The weather was nice (50s) but Alee was still a little cold...and decided that Ed's lap would be warmer.  (Ed's lap which was in a tiny little chair.)

Alee's favorite part of S'mores is licking the left over marshmallow!

Fire in our little fire pit

Alee...our lap dog...

On Sunday we headed out for some great hiking but ended up with snow!  We tried for the Varney Creek trail, but about 1 mile from the trailhead we hit a wall of snow!  We tried hiking the snow, but after both our feets were soaked, we turned back. 

After Varney Creek, we headed to the Cherry Creek trail which was 1500 ft lower in elevation than the Varney Creek trailhead.  Luckily there was no snow on the trail, but there were MOSQUITOES!!!!  They were huge and everywhere!  After a quarter mile with no bug spray, we decided to head back and try in again another weekend...when we have bug spray!

Lastly, we ended the night by checking out the new yoga studio in town, Asana Yoga...that just opened TODAY!  It looks really cool and we're excited to try out some classes!
 

Jacki and Katie Visit!

After tons of travel for the month of May, we decided to take Memorial Day weekend off and just relax and clean the house a little.  The rest and time was very much needed since we had to prepare for Jacki and Katie's visit the first weekend of June!  We met them down in San Fran on Friday and had fun exploring a little bit of California. 

First stop: Point Reyes National Seashore

At the lighthouse

Sea lions on the beach

Katie running to catch up with Alee...who's waiting for her behind the dunes...

Jacki and Katie

Kristin and Katie

Reverting back to childhood...

 After exploring the park in the cloudy weather, we set up camp right outside the park and started a fire for S'mores!  The fire was great, the S'mores were great, the company was great and right about 9pm, the rain decided to join.  We headed to bed in our tents and slept in heavy rain ALL NIGHT!  Luckily the tents held up for the most part...

Our camp site near the park...in the rain

Our little "lap dog" Alee

Saturday we headed to go rafting on the Stanislaus National Forest but the nasty rain and super high river flows had other plans, so we decided to explore Lodi and some wineries instead.  Luckily, Alee's brother, Leo, lives near by and badly wanted a play date with his sister, so we dropped her off for the day.  They were definitely siblings!

Alee leading the chase

Making the getaway!

First we stopped at the Delicato Wine tasting room - the makers of lots of different wine including Bota Box - fine wine in a box!  (Our favorite camping wine.)  Then we headed to downtown Lodi to taste some cheese at Cheese Central.  On the way we passed a science museum called World of Wonder - perfect for Katie!  It was only $6 to get in and they had tons of cool things to play with....I think Jackie and I may have enjoyed it more than Katie! 

Katie and I learning how ball bearings help to prevent buildings from collapsing in an earthquake

Jacki putting together the "human body" puzzle after Katie and I failed

My buddy!

After the museum and cheese tasting, we headed to our cabin in Groveland to make dinner, try out our boxed Riesling and prepare for Yosemite the next day!

Friends for almost 2 decades!!!

Friends for almost 2 days!!!

We headed out towards Yosemite National Park (which doesn't allow dogs to hike) and stopped for a hike on the Stanislaus National Forest (which does allow dogs to hike).  The hike was 4 miles one way along a river to a waterfall, BUT with 3 tired adults and a 4 year old...we decided to hike 2 miles in and then head back out - so no waterfall, but still a beautiful hike!

River out of its banks

Jacki enjoying the hike in the most glamorous way

We love taking our Subaru all over the country!

After our hike, we had 1 tired little girl and 1 tired pup!  We headed to Yosemite for some low-intensity exploring of the valley.  On the drive in we started seeing waterfalls and the Merced River - it was so gorgeous!  We headed straight to the Valley since Tioga Pass is still closed due to snow.

Yosemite was probably the MOST beautiful place we had ever seen - there were waterfalls EVERYWHERE!  When you are in the Valley, you are surrounded by these beautiful vertical rock cliffs with waterfalls in every direction and on the ground is lush green grass split into segments by a gorgeous rushing river.  If it weren't for all the people, it would be the perfect spot for...well...just about everything!  After our exploring and some short hikes, we headed out for pizza where Ed and Katie enjoyed a game of checkers. 

as you can tell, the game was VERY serious!

On Monday we had planned to just head back to San Fran but decided to take a detour to Alee's birthplace in Pacific Grove/Monterey.  We enjoyed a nice lunch on the beach and explored downtown Monterey.

Katie's photography at lunch

After Monterey, we headed back to San Fran to drop Jackie and Katie off with Jackie's uncle for the evening to get ready to head back to VA the following morning.  It was great seeing them and sad to say good bye but we hope to see them again soon!

Vegas for Andrea and Chris's Anniversary!

Kristin's cousin Andrea married her wonderful husband Chris 3 years ago and they have been so happy every since.  In order to celebrate, they booked a trip to Vegas for the week of their anniversary!  Since Vegas is a whole lot closer than Atlanta, we decided to join them for a few days. This was a classic Vegas trip and we had a blast!

We saw 2 shows: KA and Peep Show - both fantastic, but KA was very impressive from an engineering point of view. 

After KA - great show!

We got to visit our absolute FAVORITE breakfast spot again - Hash House A Go Go for their amazing french toast while Chris enjoyed their famous rosemary chicken and waffles.

Hash House A Go Go!!!!!

 After a great breakfast, we headed to the arts district to visit the Neon Sign Museum.  This place is awesome!  It's run by a non-profit organization and currently their tours are by appt only.  It's only $15 and well worth it!  Soon they will have a full building and will be open more often.

This was used in the movie "Casino"

All handblown glass!

Ugly Duckling used car lot

That night we hit up Peep Show to see the famous Holly Madison.  It was exciting to see Holly (and our seats were so close we really did SEE her!) but she was not the biggest star of the show - there were some amazing dancers and singers! 

Cabo Wabo before Peep Show

Friday we visited the Carnegie Deli in the Mirage for some ENORMOUS sandwiches and then headed to downtown to explore Fremont Street.  We won a little money and lost a little money, but didn't pay for our trip this time.  

MGM Pool area - look how far it is from the actual hotel!  It was a long walk!

We headed home on Saturday after a Mexican breakfast in the Miracle Mile shopping mall.  Ed and I had a little time to kill before our flight so we hung out by the pool at the MGM grand...with about 1,000 other people.

Snow in May!

Well, after so much traveling and more to come, we decided to take the Mother's Day weekend off to clean house and for Kristin to get ready for a 4 day work trip to Denver.  We decided to go on a hike with friends and their dog on Sunday somewhere in the Cascades. We headed out to numerous trailheads and they were all snowed in!!!!  While Klamath Falls was a decent temperature, a little higher in the mountains it was snowing!  So we decided to scratch the hike and just let the pups play at a near by park - Daphne actually got Alee into the freezing cold water!!!  She didn't seem to thrilled about it, but still it was the first time we'd ever seen her jump into the water!


"oh - I see how this works - the humans throw the stick into the water and you go get it and bring it to me...perfect!"

 

"Thanks for getting the stick so we can play..."

"I think I'm goin in this time!!!!!"



Spring in the Bay Area!

After a hard, cold week at work and many headaches, we headed out this past weekend to visit Ashley and Matt for a green hiking weekend.  We were really excited to do some "short sleeves hiking" but we were even MORE excited when it snowed in Klamath Falls on Thursday and Friday!  It's definitely not spring yet here, so we headed south to see the blooming flowers and smell the fresh green grass.
We arrived Friday night and had a grill out with artichoke, Teriyaki shrimp and a rice pilaf - delicious!

Saturday we headed out to Sunol Regional Wilderness area for some fun hiking with Ashley, Matt, Alee and Ashley's friend Danny.  The hike was gorgeous, the weather was perfect and they allowed dogs to be off-leash!  It doesn't get better than that!

Alee with her new pack loaded with 2 Nalgene Bottles

Family photo/Rest break

Ed and Alee hiking...great shot of Alee

Kristin and Ashley

Alee climbing on some rocks near the non-existent falls

After the hike on Saturday, we headed out to another on Sunday!  Sunday's hike was at Mission Peak Regional Park.  Alee was still exhausted from the hike the day before, so we left the pack at home and headed for the very populated trail!

Hittin the trail!

Mid-hike photo!

Apparently the park land was also open-range

A rattlesnake on the trail...and NOT afraid of people!

Great view of the Bay Area

Ashley and Kristin

With us both exhausted and Alee just pooped, we headed home to get ready for our next adventure!