Mom's Birthday in SF

We as a family went on a day trip to San Francisco for my mom's birthday. The weather was perfect and the view was clear and beautiful.

http://s827.photobucket.com/albums/zz198/chiarastella79/Moms%20Bday%20in%20SF%202010/?action=view¤t=0febe13c.pbw

Halloween in San Francisco...one to remember

After a late afternoon at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park, Yuliana and I decided on a whim to check out what was happening on Haight and Ashbury. She's never been there and it's been ages since I cruised the streets. There were a lot of people out, some with friends, some with dogs, some with kids, some just too damn old to be out asking for candy from the store fronts!

After checking out a few local shops, grabbing a bite at McDonalds and people watching as we wandered Haight for about 5 blocks...we stopped off at a small local pub. It was quiet, the only bartender was dressed as a serving wench and she had her beautiful Samoyed dog there hanging out at the bar with her.

Sometime after 9 pm, the bar started filling up and Yuliana and my glasses were empty! We met a group of people there and chatted and drank for a while. They invited us to a private Halloween party several blocks away so after a stop at the liquor store, we were headed over to the party where we hung out and met tons of characters.

Here is a glimpse of our fun evening in San Francisco and some of the nice people we met, including a guy I graduated from Chico State with in the same major! Small world, even in a big city.

A pretty cool store front we stumbled across

I had to do it!

Yuliana and I being silly at the pub

Halloween party

I love fog machines! The smell brings be back to all the Haunted Houses I went through as a kid...

And we are headed down the steep, foggy staircase to go home....No worries, I was sober and taking good care of both of us!

Japenese Tea Garden...Golden Gate Park

Yuliana and I drove out to San Francisco the afternoon of Halloween. We drove the long way over the San Mateo bridge and the Golden Gate due to a closure of the Bay bridge for repairs. We had decided earlier in the week to go check out the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate park since we both love Japanese architecture, tea and design.

As usual, I had to get a picture of nearly every opportunity I saw...I'm addicted to taking landscape photos. I also have a difficult time sorting through the photos and chosing just a few...so here are twenty-two images from the afternoon out of...oh, over 125 images!

When we saw this sign, we just had to laugh at our good luck! We arrived at the gate at 4:45 pm, Saturday, October 31st! Had we put off the trip to the next day, and arrived at the same time, we wouldn't have made it in time! (in case you can't read the sign, begining in November, the garden closes at 4:45 pm)

I would love to have this as my backyard...although knowing Jade and Timber, they'd destroy it!

The branches of these trees are incredible!

I love bamboo!

Mochi (a Japanese sweet...very gooey, sticky and squishy)

Yuliana and Me enjoying our Jasmine Tea (I absolutely love the smell of Jasmine and now I can comsume it!)

Sunday at the Beach

Sunday, Timber and I went out for the day with some of our friends from the dog park. We drove out to Point Isabel in Richmond to hang out for a while at the big dog park... I totally spaced and forgot my camera in the car...

We decided to drive out to Fort Funston, San Francisco to go to the beach when we found out that it wasn't too windy there after all...Antioch was incredibly windy and we deduced that SF would be the same, so that is why we opted for Richmond...

But...we caravaned out to SF and despite the reduction of wind, we still got blasted by sand until we made it down to the beach where the sand was wet enough to give us a break from exfoliation. lol

The beginning of our walk...and our sandblast facials...

"Battery Davis"

Timber's first waves...

Typical "dog park play" for these guys...Max, Tucker and Timber

Climbing up the cliff side and creating sand avalanches as we ascended...

Timber, Chopper and Kari

The View
I made my way up after the dogs...

Timber ran back down...I had to call him back up...

Tired and Dirty

Back to the water and chasing Jewel, Kari's "sister"

All the dogs...

Headed back to the cars...cold, wind-blown and wet and full of sand.

One last sniff before we go...