Back online...

It's been quite the last two months out here in California.  Since reading about stuff we've been up to, I figured I would throw up a bunch of pictures since they're more interesting anyway. :)

We went up to Tahoe in early March with a group of friends from church.  Here are a few pictures out by the lake.

Clear Blue sky with snow in the background

Pier reaching out into the water

The two of us

Most of the weekend was spent inside playing games and hanging out, so not many pictures there. :)

A few weekends after the Tahoe trip, my friend Mark came into town for a few days.  We had hoped to do some hiking with him, but we got rained out.  So, we went to the movies and saw "Act of Valor", which was a great movie, and stopped by a hardware store and got some supplies for Bridget and I to create our own patio garden. :)  We got two long skinny planters and planted tomatoes and peppers.  They're growing pretty well now, so we're excited for some homegrown produce!

A few weekends ago, we went hiking with one of my teammates and his wife.  It was a nice 10-mile hike through the woods near where we live.  It had rained quite a bit that week, so the gently stream that you cross half-way through became a much more treacherous torrent.  But we crossed it on a huge redwood that fell down across the creek.

Bridget crossing the tree (about 15-20 feet above the water)

The four of us post-hike.  (I guess I didn't get the "sunglasses memo")

In other news, I ran a 10K last weekend in the hills around here with a friend.  The race claimed it was 1600' vertical feet gain throughout the race.  I think that may be a little exaggerated, but it was a tough climb from mile 2 to mile 4 (yeah, pretty much 2 straight miles of climbing).  But I ended up winning the race, which was cool.  Definitely didn't expect that, but if happened. :)

So, that's not as extensive of an update as I used to write; but there hasn't been too much activity as of late. (hopefully we're not just getting boring...)

Anyway, until next time!
Jeremy

Wow, it's almost March now...

So, I didn't realize how much of a slacker I have been until I saw that my last post was January 7th...  Needless to say, alot has happened since then.  I'll try to recount the happenings of the last bunch of weeks...

So, the weekend of January 6-8th has completely slipped away.  But I'm sure it was fun.  We probably hung out, played tennis, and had a blast.

The next weekend, we went hiking with one of the Biodesign Fellows from Singapore.  His name is Tze (pronounced "zee"... at least by me...).  We went for a nice couple-mile hike up on the hills overlooking the Bay.  It was alot of fun.  That was the most noteworthy happening of that weekend. :)

Tze and Me

On to January 20-22...  My brother, dad, and a friend flew out for this weekend and the four of us headed up to Tahoe.  Now, Tahoe has been having a dismal winter as far as snow was going.  They didn't get snow between Thanksgiving and the weekend we went.  The snow forecasts were hitting up near 4-6 FEET over the long weekend!  Needless to say, we were stoked!  And a little scared about driving over the mountains in the snow to get there.  Luckily, it was just raining when we got there.  And by "raining", I mean "RAINING CATS AND DOGS".  The whole three hours from Sacramento to Tahoe.  It was nearly a white-out at times with the amount of rain.   But, Saturday morning greeted us with a good 1.5 feet of snow and more coming down by the minute.  The buses had chains on to get around.  It was amazing!

We snowboarded Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Another storm rolled through on Sunday night and dropped another 2 feet, so we had a fantastic day on Monday.  We got to the lift 30 minutes before it opened to make sure we were close to the front of the line.  And I say "close" to the front of the line because we were probably 10th in line at that point.  Yeah.  But it was so worth it.  The first run with two feet of snow was amazing!

Here are a random sampling of pictures from the time.

The Three Amigos headed up the Gondola on Sunday morning

Bluebird sky on Sunday morning

Jon and Phil just being themselves...  Heavy snow showers by Sunday afternoon...

Jon was pretty proud of his "ice-beard"

Oh... and the best part of the whole trip...  So, there was a little Cinnabon shop at the bottom of the elevator in the hotel we stayed in.  Which is a perfect way to get some carbs before a day of hard riding.  So, we headed down early Saturday morning to get some breakfast.  Being the shrewd (and mostly broke) people we are, we ended up getting 8 day-old Cinnabons for the price of 6 (like $15 or something like that).  So, we each had one every morning for the whole trip!  So cost-effective, it was great!  Although, by the third day of being "day-old", they lost a little of the appeal... :)

Anyway, on to the next weekend (Jan 27-29).  Bridget had the weekend off of nannying, so we headed down to Morro Bay / San Luis Obispo area for a weekend away.  We headed down Saturday morning and went hiking for a few hours right away.  We hiked a bit off the beaten path - went a few miles out of town and hiked up these hills and into a military establishment.  The trail was supposed to end at the beach, but we ran out of time to get there and back.  And we didn't want to get stuck out there with the sun down.  Anyway, here are a few pictures from that hike.

Spectacular Coastline 1

Spectacular Coastline 2

Bridget drinking all of the water in the Camelback...

We had a nice chill Sunday.  We went down to the beach and pitched a picnic blanket and read and chatted for a few hours.  The sun was shining and the breeze was rolling in off the water.  But they were in the perfect balance such that anything in the sun was warm, but not too hot, and anything in the shade was nice and cool.  It was great!

After hanging out for awhile, we grabbed lunch at one of the hometown icon clam chowder shops.  The line was out the door and around the corner for a solid hour.  I got a bread bowl of clam chowder and it was sooo worth the wait.  After lunch, we walked down the boardwalk and watched the surfers and fisherpeople for a little while.  And then had a nice relaxing drive home.

Driving through the rollings hills

So, moving right along into February!  Weekend of February 3rd-5th.  The coolest part of this weekend was going to the San Francisco Academy of Sciences on Sunday.  We went with Jagdish, one of the Stanford-India Biodesign Fellows, and our friend John.  We went right after church and got there about half an hour early.  And the line was literally half a mile long already!  It was insane!  By the time we finally got in, it was half an hour after it had opened!  But the museum was great!  We saw a "movie" in the planetarium, walked through a rainforest (felt like summer in Illinois!), and got an underside view of the aquarium from the tunnels the have underneath.  And it was all free! It was alot of fun.

Then, the disappointing part.  We heard that a bunch of people get together and play ultimate frisbee on Sunday afternoons on campus.  I was so excited to play, until my friend told me that they weren't playing because of the Super Bowl.  So, I was thinking that would happen, but was reassured on Friday that the game was on.  But, alas, it didn't happen.  So, Bridget and I went home and watched a little bit of the end of the Super Bowl.  And then had some friends over for dinner, which was alot of fun.

On to weekend of February 10th-12th.  The coolest part of the weekend was hiking on Saturday with an old friend Troy and his friend Josh.  I worked for Troy at Biomet during my undergrad and we've stayed good friends since then.  Anyway, he and Josh were in San Francisco for a conference and needed to get out and do something active.  So, Bridget and I picked them up on Saturday morning and went for a nice 8-mile hike in the Marin Headlands (north of San Francisco).  Here are a few pics, although Troy took the best pictures hands-down.

Waves rolling onto the beach

Clouds shrouding the hills behind the accent of this cool flower

The three amigos

Oh, and then we did play frisbee on Sunday.  It was a BLAST!  Hadn't played in awhile... and hadn't been for a week in awhile either...  But totally worth it!

Alrighty... February 17th-19th...  We went hiking with an old friend from Purdue up in the Santa Cruz hills.  The trail was supposed to take 1.5 hours and we did it in 20 minutes.  Well, we may have missed the trail, but we just made our own trail after that and hiked around for almost two hours.  Then had Chipotle for lunch.  I'm a big fan of Chipotle. :)  That was Saturday.  On Sunday, we went to church and then had lunch at a friend's new house.  I helped with some remodeling and then three of us went and played ultimate.  Which was amazing (again)!  Repeat with the soreness though...  No pictures, unfortunately...

And then this past weekend.  We actually had a nice chill Saturday and didn't do much of anything until playing tennis and going to a bonfire with a bunch of friends from church.  The bonfire was great.  Especially since it was warm enough in February to chill out and make S'Mores.  And there weren't any mosquitos!  Then today we went to church, ran some errands, and played ultimate.  It was pretty competitive today, but was a blast.  There's nothing really like chasing a little disk around at full speed for 2.5 hours.  And the weather was the perfect 55 and sunny with a little breeze.  Oh yeah... :)

So, that's the quickest update ever.  Hope you made it through without falling asleep (no worries if you did... I'm battling the heavy eyelids and I'm trying to write it!).

Until the next time I get enough energy to crank out an update!
Jeremy

Happy 2012!!!

Well, since I lowered everyone's expectations with the last posts' reference to not posting until after the New Year, I'm practically on time! :)  But, alas, much has transpired since Dec. 10th...

We headed back home to Rockford on December 17th; just in time to celebrate Christmas with Bridget's family on the 18th.  Everyone was there, so it was a fun time with family (and food too, of course).  They celebrated a week early to help reduce the busyness on Christmas Day for everyone and make sure everyone could come.  It was a pretty decent plan and worked out pretty well.

The next week was pretty much a blur of getting coffee with friends, shopping (Bridget did more than I...), watching movies (saw Alvin and the Chipmunks III and the new Mission Impossible), playing games, and catching up with family.  My brother surprised my mom by coming back early in time for Christmas, so my whole family was together for Christmas.

The most unfortunate part of Christmas was the lack of snow.  I even brought my snow pants and gloves home, but to no avail.  It was a brown Christmas this year.  Always hope for next year.

We came back to California a few days before the New Year because Bridget and I had to work (well, I didn't have to, but did want to get some loose ends tied up).  But it was quite relaxing and the 60-degree temperatures warmed us back up from Illinois.

On New Year's Day, we drove down to Big Sur, which is a coastal town/region a little over 2 hours south of Palo Alto.  We got a sweet deal at a hotel for a room with meals included at the hotel's restaurant.  We rolled into town Sunday mid-morning and promptly drove to the wrong hotel to check in.  For some reason, I was thinking the hotel was inside one of the state parks.  Alas, it was the one just outside the state park.  So, once that was squared away, Bridget and I set off on a 9-ish mile hike up Mount Manuel.

Yep, that's me in a picture!

Those elevations say we have 2,800' of vertical left...

The trail was pretty rugged at times; parts were washed out a little and others were more overgrown.  Plenty of poison oak around too.  But the hike was great.  We were in and out of the shade the whole way up, which was nice because it was 72-degrees out (hence the summer clothes...)!  But, enough rambling and on to the pictures!

See that small line along the hills... that's where the trail went!

On the trail!

Panorama from the top! [Click to make bigger!]  The panorama is about 270-degrees of rotation (almost all of the way around)

Still many more peaks to explore!

The trail was a bit overgrown at times...

"Now I've gotta go back down that?!?"

We eventually made it back down and to our hotel.  We tried to catch the sunset before dinner, but it happened so quickly that all we got were some pink clouds, which were still pretty cool.

Just missed it...

All of the hiking made for quite an appetite, so we were definitely ready for dinner by the time we made it back.  Dinner was great.  We were sat on the far wall, right next to a huge window looking into the forest.  After some post-dinner strategizing for the next day, it was lights-out.

Monday morning was supposed to start with bagel sandwiches and a quick hike along the coast before we checked out of the hotel.  Luckily, the bagel sandwich part went fine, but the "quick hike" would have required crossing a small river without a bridge.  It was much cooler that morning, so we didn't feel like getting our feet all wet and then hiking and risking blisters and all.  So, we went back to the hotel and checked out and figured we would head the other direction and try another hike I found.  Half-way there, we pulled off to admire the coast (it's really tough to not stop at every vista point because it's just so spectacular!) and ended up talking with a Highway Patrolman who gave us directions to our hike and recommendations for a few other hikes to check out if we had time.

The coastline...

And again...

Anyway, so we kept going along the coast and pulled off for our hike, only to find out that it was closed.  So, we went to third-string hike, and weren't disappointed...  We hiked down to a secluded cove beneath a hairpin turn in the highway.

Nice little lookout

The cove...

Another view of the cove

Ready for any whales or dolphins to pop up

And, yes, we did see dolphins and whales out that day.  Bridget took a bunch of pictures of them, but they are really hard to see... (not sure if she actually got them in the picture or not...)  But it was pretty neat to see them just swimming along nonetheless. :)  After this short hike, we drove a little further and got out to see a famous waterfall (McKay falls, I believe it is called) onto the beach near one of the state parks.

The Falls and the beach

The coastline to the north

After that, we grabbed some lunch food and went on a short hike out to the beach for a picnic lunch on the coast, which was fantastic.  It was a bit chilly, but we ate and read our books for a little while.

Lunch Spot!

After spending a few hours here, we went and found a good spot to watch the sunset.  Totally worth it.  It was amazing!

The dynamic dropping of the sun

The water and sky glowing pink

The horizon aglow

The finale!

After taking at least 25 more pictures of the sunset, we started the trek back to Palo Alto, although we did stop at the farmer's market on the highway.  Cheapest produce around.  And it's good too.  :)  We made it back in time to catch the 2nd half of the Stanford game.  In case you didn't catch the game, it didn't end well for Stanford.  And to make matters worse, I was watching the game with 2 friends from church who are originally from Oklahoma.  They were actually really good about it, but the fact they were pleased with the outcome (as opposed to the other 10 Stanford fans in the group) couldn't be ignored.  But it's just a game, so we're back to friends again.  :)

This past week seemed like a blur since we started a day in.  But this weekend (so far), we've taken it easy.  Relax, read some books, play some tennis, make pancakes for breakfast (oh yeah...).  :)  Nothing huge planned for tomorrow either, so looking forward to some more R&R.

Stay tuned for my next post (most likely in another month or so...)
~ Jeremy

Thanksgiving, etc.

So, it's only been 3 weeks, which is a slight improvement...right?  Anyway, back to business...

Thanksgiving Weekend
This was the first Thanksgiving that we haven't been home for since we got married and my first Thanksgiving away from home too.  But with our work schedules (I worked the day before Thanksgiving) and practically the whole Bay Area going somewhere or another, we decided to stick it out in CA.  Our friends John and Julie were also staying in CA instead of flying back to the East Coast, so we decided to go hiking on Thursday.

So, we packed up early on Thursday and drove 2 hours up to Point Reyes, which is a state park a bit north of San Francisco.  The weather was a little damp and chilly on the drive, but it cleared up as we were getting closer.  We were feeling pretty adventurous, so we picked out a 13-mile loop to hike.

We started out hiking up a "mountain" through the woods and then came out along the coast.  The sun was basking the coast and a gentle breeze was making its way along the cliffs at the water's edge.  It was fantastic.  The only un-fantastic part was that my camera broke...  so I only got pictures from the first little bit of the trip (shown below)..

Banana Slug! (There were lots of them)

The trees were covered in moss...

So, it was a little wet in the woods...

The only picture of the coast I got...

The 4 of us... and the last picture my camera took...

The last few miles of the hike were back in the woods and seemed to drag on a little, but that could have been due to the fact that we were hiking a half-marathon...  After we got back to the car, we were starving.  So, we stopped a grabbed some food on the way back.  I got a turkey sandwich (like you're supposed to...) and Bridget got barbecued chicken (not sure why...).  But it tasted so good regardless. :)

Bridget made plans with Julie to do some Black Friday shopping together, so John and I decided to hang out and watch some movies and football.  So, after a nice night of sleep, that's what we did.  The girls shopped for hours and John and I watched 2 of the 3 Bourne movies and watched part of the LSU-Arkansas game.  It was quite relaxing, to be honest. :)

Later that night, one of the couples from our church group invited us over for a Thanksgiving dinner.  The husband is a resident at the Stanford hospital and had to work on Thanksgiving, so we all celebrated the day after.  It was alot of fun to hang out with them, meet their friends, and eat lots of good food (of course!)

The rest of the weekend was pretty much just chilling out.  We ran quite a few errands, played some Wii, watched a movie or two, and basically caught up from the past few weeks of busyness.  It was pretty great!

12/3-12/4
It seemed like we did quite a few things this weekend.  Saturday morning started with volunteering with a group from church that does home repair for needy families in the Peninsula.  So, we helped build a wainscot in a lady's house.  I had no idea what that was until I got there, but it's pretty much a decorative wall covering with fancy trim and stuff.  However, the lady who lived there is blind and in a wheelchair, so she had kind of demolished the bottom parts of her walls.  So, we made a sturdy protective wainscot so she wouldn't hurt herself (or the wall) anymore.  The guys running the operation were really cool and let Bridget and I use the saws and measure the cuts and all, so that was alot of fun.

Rebuilding The Peninsula Together Team

That took up the middle of the day, and Bridget worked that night and I stayed home and worked.  Which ended up working out alright.

Sunday started with church as usual and then we went to a grilled cheese social to meet more people from the church and interact.  It was really fun.  We ended up talking to a woman who works with a group in Africa that does entrepreneurship training for predominantly women.  It was really neat to hear what her ministry is up to.

After church, I went and volunteered with another church ministry that fixes up old bikes and gives them to needy people in the community.  So, we got around 30 bikes from Stanford's impound and did some tweaking and repairing for a few hours.  As an engineer, I (ashamedly) hadn't really fiddled with bikes very much, so it was fun to get my hands dirty with some tools and learn about bikes while helping other people.

After the bike repairing, Bridget and I went to some friend's house for the evening. We had homemade pasta for dinner and then we played a game called Carcassonne.  It was a pretty fun game.  I won, so maybe I'm a little biased... :)

By the time we got home, we were exhausted and rested up for upcoming week!

12/9-12/10
So, I know it's not Sunday yet, but I'm kind of on a roll (of sorts...)

Anyway, my friend Johanna was in the area, and came down to Palo Alto from San Francisco Friday evening to hang out for half of the weekend.  She hadn't been around Stanford's campus, so I gave her a nice tour while Bridget wrapped up her tutoring for the afternoon.  I still like walking around Stanford's campus... it's really impressive.  After the campus tour, we grabbed some dinner at home (Bridget made some of her famous lasagna!) and then went back into downtown Palo Alto.  The city lights the trees at night and most of the shops stay open, so it's fun to just walk around.

Saturday morning was a relatively early start so we could fit a hike in before she flew out.  So, we grabbed a quick breakfast around 7am and headed out.  We went up to the same are we hiked around the first weekend here.  That time, it was really foggy and cold.  This time, it was kinda chilly in Palo Alto (34-ish), but it was sunny and in the 50s up on the ridge, so it was fantastic weather.  We had a nice, leisurely hike for an hour or two.  The scenery hasn't gotten old, and I highly doubt it ever will... :)

Cool Tree

Johanna and Bridget on the trail!

Bridget and Johanna at the top of Borel Hill

After the hike, we dropped Johanna off at the airport and head back home.

So, that's about all for now.  We head home for Christmas next weekend, so I'm doubtful I'll post before next year.  So,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
~ Jeremy

I'm not so good at this anymore...

11/20/11
So, I guess I have a much greater respect for full-time bloggers.  These people crank out posts every single day!  Like without fail!  And I can hardly write once a month anymore!  I'm so pathetic... or too busy having fun with everything else to do in life aside from sitting in front of a computer screen... :)

Anyway, I realize that I haven't posted in awhile and really need to catch you all up on our lives so I can quit feeling bad about it.  So, here's goes nothing... well, not quite nothing because we've been up to some stuff... :)

So, the weekend of 10/22-10/23, the most notable event was the Stanford-Washington football game.  A bunch of our friends from church had a tailgate all afternoon, so we hung out for the afternoon with them and then went to the game afterward.  The game was a blowout, which is always good when you're rooting for the team doing the blowing out.  :) 

Oh, and before that, I went for a run/hike with my friend John over in the East Bay.  It was supposed to be a run, but about 50 feet in, I realized that while my brain may be getting quite a workout these days, but legs are getting anything but (infer any and all puns).  So, we had a nice run-till-we-can't-breathe and then hike-till-we-could-breathe-again cycle.  And that lasted about two cycles.  And then we hiked the rest of the way up. :)  But the weather was phenomenal.  A crisp 45ish when we started and then the sun came out and heated the countryside up a bit.  Just enough to break a nice sweat to fool me into thinking I was getting a really good workout.  And the view from the top was great.  I didn't have my camera on me (since I was running, remember?) so you'll just have to believe me. :)

Anyway, that was before the tailgate, which ended up being a good thing because I could eat the tailgate food without feeling guilty.  Which probably more than negated the almost-workout I got on the trail.  Quite a pity...  But those were the most notable activities of that weekend.

10/29-10/30
My mom came and visited us this weekend!  It was great!  She came in on Friday morning and hung out with Bridget while she did her nannying and then met me on campus after I wrapped up.  We had a nice campus tour, compliments of your truly.  I still don't know most of the buildings, but can successfully navigate in a nice loop, so it feels like a genuine tour.  :)  We then grabbed dinner at an Italian place in downtown Palo Alto.  I called ahead and put in a reservation for three.  When we got there, it looked like they just added another chair to a 2-person table...and viola! - a 3-person table.  Quite clever... So, it was a cozy dinner, but the food was great.  The server even gave us half a loaf of sourdough bread to take home with us in the doggie bag.  :)  Major bonus.  :)

On Saturday, we slept in for a bit.  Well, I slept in and Bridget and my mom played games on their iPods.  After that, we went hiking over by Half Moon Bay, which is west of Palo Alto.  We hadn't been there before and it looked nice, so there we went.  :)  We took a trail that was a couple of miles, nothing too bad.  And it was a nice mix of forest and prairie-with-a-view.

Banana Slug!

View to the West

Big Trees!

After hiking, we went and walked around the tide pools at the beach.  There is a relatively well-known area with a huge plateau of rocks that is filled with starfish and sea anemones and even saltwater trees!  I didn't have my camera because I didn't want to drop it in the water, so that's just another reason to come and visit us yourselves!

After the tide pools, we grabbed dinner at a seafood place along the highway.  Pulled up next to a pretty snazzy-looking Lamborghini. :)

Orange Lambo

Amazing Sunset over the ocean

On Sunday, we went to church and then headed into San Francisco.  We had lunch at Fisherman's Warf (a must-do) and walked around Pier 39 (which is famous for its seals).  And then we hiked around Lands End trail (mentioned previously) and then up to Twin Peaks, which is a cool lookout point from which you can see almost the whole city!

Photo Shoot on Pier 39

The Golden Gate almost shrouded by the clouds

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks Panorama (click to see it better)

Then off to the airport... :(

11/6-11/7
So, we went hiking this weekend with our friend Julie.  We went hiking in a new part of the East Bay.  A nice little hike around a lake and up into some hills.  And aside from missing a turn onto the trail we wanted to take, the hike when flawlessly... :)  (It wasn't a big deal, but still kinda funny)  But the hike had some great views of the whole Bay Area.  See pictures below. :)

Julie and Bridget made it!

Panorama at the top

The calm little lake

Headed back down

So, on the way back down, the trail took a strange turn and it was clear why, until we saw this tree that was literally hanging onto the edge of a cliff.  Only it wasn't at the edge, it was over the edge!  It's roots were somehow keeping it anchored to the rest of the cliff-side.  The trail used to curve over that way, but must have been diverted to keep people from falling off the edge or causing more erosion.  It was pretty crazy...

Really?!?!

On to the next weekend, 11/13-11/14.  We honestly didn't do much this weekend.  We both slept quite a bit.  Stanford lost to Oregon in football.  We went to a friend's house to watch the game, which was fun.  However, another friend (who happens to be an Oklahoma fan) came to root against Stanford so that Oklahoma would move up in the rankings.  So, it was a tense game.  Well, not really.  Stanford was just out-played and we all knew it.  On Sunday, Bridget wasn't feeling too well, so being a great husband I am, went to the drug store and got her some medicine and watched movies all afternoon.  :)  Not to toot my own horn too much though, because I probably would have watched movies with her anyway... :)  And that pretty much wrapped up that weekend.

Wow, now this weekend.  So, I ended up catching Bridget's cold/headache/sore throat thing this week and was finally getting over it by Friday.  So, we went hiking yesterday up behind Stanford's campus.  There is a huge satellite dish to "look at whatever scientists look at".  But there are a few miles of paved paths around there, so we grabbed some Chipotles, our picnic blanket, and our hiking packs and headed up.  Only problem was there weren't any picnic tables or trash cans.  So, we would have been like the only people picnicking (is that how you spell it?) in the whole place, or we could wait until we got back and go eat on campus.  So, we waited.  But, the scenery was gorgeous.  We have been surrounded by fall colors for the last month or more and it seemed to be at its pinnacle.  We could see splotches of colors all over the place.  We could even see all the way up the peninsula to San Francisco.  Totally cool.  Here are some pics.

REALLY bright tree on campus

View from the dish

Bridget :)

Then today, we went up to San Francisco with John and Julie.  We hung out at Baker Beach and took some pictures of us with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.  The weather cleared just as we arrived and it was fantastic!  There was even a huge rainbow across the bridge.  After that, we drove past the "Painted Ladies", which are a row of intricately decorated houses along Alamo Square.  I guess the TV show "Full House" had these row of houses in its intro to suggest that's where the show happened.  We just drove by, so I didn't get any pictures, but you can just type "Painted Ladies San Francisco" into Google.  And then we headed to Twin Peaks again to show them the view before heading back south along the peninsula.  It was quite the whirlwind tour of San Francisco, but alot of fun. :)

Panorama at the beach (which is pretty tough since the waves don't really "hold still")

KABOOM!

Double rainbow over the bridge!

Well, that's about all I can type right now... hope you survived to the end!  Hopefully I'll post again before Christmas.  :)

Until then,
~ Jeremy