oliviandchris.com

Now I bought a new camera, so the photos should get a little better than these iPhone shots you've all looked at if you've made it this far into the post.

Ok, another San Francisco weekend

2009-08-26T21:56:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was full of music. On Friday we got it together and went to see Kacey Chambers and Shane Nicholson at The Independent. Awesome. Here is a picture of Kasey and Shane from a camping trip we all went on last summer when we trekked across Australia.

From SF weekend, August 22-23 2009

The next day we took the T line to the Ferry Building Farmer's market where Chris enjoyed some oysters,

From SF weekend, August 22-23 2009

while Olivia nibbled on some San Francisco-style hot dog.

From SF weekend, August 22-23 2009

The under-the-bridge bluegrass was also pretty rockin'.

From SF weekend, August 22-23 2009

We experimented with some pasta we bought at the Farmer's Market for dinner that night.

From SF weekend, August 22-23 2009

The next day Chris rode his bike to the top of San Francisco's second highest point -- Mount Sutro, discovering a great system of mountain bike trails on the UCSF campus in the process. Good news indeed.

From SF weekend, August 22-23 2009

All in all, another great, local weekend.

Takin' it easy

2009-08-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend, didn't leave San Francisco. On Saturday, we drove to the Presidio to hike some new trails.

From August weekend II

We walked down to a quiet beach,

From August weekend II

and ran into a beautiful example of California' state rock (I think!),

From August weekend II

The mussels made us think of tasty food,

From August weekend II

so when we returned home, we fired up our new deep fryer,

From August weekend II

and made some french fries.

Visit from Mom

2009-08-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Olivia's mom visited.

From Lynn visit

We had a great time.

From Lynn visit

We went to see the Elephant Seals at Ano Nuevo (again...).

From Lynn visit

This time, the males were molting and practicing their fighting skills.

From Lynn visit

pretty impressive...

From Lynn visit

We also celebrated this and that...

From Lynn visit

Amazn.com return

2009-08-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

Title: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time
Quantity: 1
Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC
Condition: new
Reason: Accidental order
Return Details: Did not want Children's version; not clear on Amazon.com that this copy was Children's version. bought correct copy at small, local, independent bookstore.
Action Requested: Refund

August weekends

2009-08-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

For once, we stayed home. We went to the baseball game (take that defending World Champions) with Emily and Casey.

From August weekend

The weather was typical for San Francisco in August (i.e. down coat time):

From August weekend

We also enjoyed some locally grown scrambled eggs.

From August weekend

Tahoe in the Summertime

2009-07-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we camped on the shore of Lake Tahoe (along with about 37 million other people and a few bears) and had a lovely time.

We hiked up into the Desolation Wilderness,

From Tahoe

and went swimming in a clear mountain lake,

From Tahoe

with a lot of nibble-happy fish.

From Tahoe

We spent some QT at our campsite where we explored uses for the bear bins other than protecting food,

From Tahoe

and we finished our day on the beach.

From Tahoe

The next day Chris went on another "top five" mountain bike ride up the Tahoe Rim,

From Tahoe

and down to the Flume Trail,

From Tahoe

with its amazing views of the lake,

From Tahoe

while Olivia went to the beach.

From Tahoe

Tahoe weekend!

2009-07-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

Colorado in July

2009-07-22T20:57:00.001-07:00

July is, without a doubt, the best time to go to the Colorado Rockies. I've been promising Olivia I would take her to the mountains in July ever since we met. Finally, last weekend, we hit Colorado in July to visit my parents.

From Colorado 2009

First, Western Colorado has had a bumper cherry crop. We picked cherries and tasted wine at the Mountain View Winery in Olathe.

From Colorado 2009

The next day we drove to Crested Butte for some mountain biking and hiking.

From Colorado 2009

Finally, we hiked to Ice Lakes Basin in the heart of the San Juan Mountains to see the best of the Colorado wildflower show.

From Colorado 2009

We had a great time!

Ice Lakes Basin

2009-07-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

Low hanging fruit

2009-07-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

Cherry picking

2009-07-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

July weekends

2009-07-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

We had a great summer weekend in San Francisco.

Beverly Beach, Crater Lake, Shasta, Bumpass Hell and Lassen

2009-07-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

We tacked a few days onto the Independence Day Holiday and took last week as our summer vacation.

We left K&M at the Golden Gate Bridge,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and drove north through the Central Valley (it was hot there!)

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Late that night, we arrived in Beverly Beach State Park, a lovely spot just a few miles north of Newport, OR. We spent the next few days enjoying the cold Oregon sun,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

exploring tide pools,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

drawing in the sand,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and camping kid-style.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

It turns out Oregon Coast is a cold and windy place in the summertime,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

but we found ways to enjoy ourselves,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and even managed to fly this kite with a considerable amount of skill.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

We warmed up at the coffee shop,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and parted ways, with O and I driving east to Crater Lake.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Crater Lake is very blue. Do you know why?

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Olivia tried to find out by taking a swim,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

but it turned out the only way to really understand the blueness of the lake was to jump in.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Yeah. Pretty awesome.

Crater Lake also has a lot of mosquitoes this time of year, so we spent a lot of time in here:

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

To avoid the mosquitoes we drove south, around Mount Shasta (which, incidentally, makes Chris' Top 5 Mountains list),

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and went swimming in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Lassen is also a pretty volcano,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

with a lot of snow,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and a place called Bumpass Hell,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

which is like a mini-Yellowstone.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

The summertime meadows were beautiful.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

We ended our trip with a climb up 10,500 foot Mount Lassen,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and drove home.

Lassen Bubbler

2009-07-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

Crater?

2009-07-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Camping with kids

2009-06-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Visitors!

2009-06-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

They say it best:

http://kandm1.wordpress.com/

Moving

2009-06-22T07:20:00.001-07:00

What did we do this weekend? Oh yeah, we moved. Check this photo of
our truck backing up our "street", with one of the movers standing in
the back of the truck, holding up the power lines as the driver
threads his way between a cliff, a telephone pole and an SUV.

Please ask me if you'd like our new address. You may even get it
without asking.

Olivia also played a lovely concert with her orchestra.

Yosemite Otra Vez

2009-06-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Chris' parents road-tripped from 'rado to Yosemite. We met them there on Thursday night, an after-work drive made that much easier by having a tent set up for us when we arrived (thanks mom and dad!).

The weather was unseasonably crappy so we had to get creative as the monuments of Yosemite Valley were cloud covered for much of Friday and Saturday. As you'll see, there's more to Yosemite than Half Dome.

The Merced River with Yosemite Falls...almost a scroll painting.

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Yosemite Falls

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Mariposa Grove

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Telescope Tree. Yes, you can walk into the middle of the tree and look up, through the tree. Amazing.

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Clothespin Tree

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Fran teaches Chris a thing or two about making a fire while Olivia tries to stay dry and warm under our make-shift awning.

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Vernal Falls

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

The Mist Trail

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

More Mist Trail

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Even more Mist Trail

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Group shot at Nevada Falls

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Nevada Falls from the John Muir Trail, Liberty Dome in the back

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Oh macro setting, where would I be without you?

From Yosemite with Ed and Fran

Catastrophic Molt

2009-05-31T20:13:00.000-07:00

We visited Ano Nuevo State Park to observe the Elephant Seals as the come on shore for their annual catastrophic molt. In case you're wondering,

Human beings shed hair and skin all the time, but elephant seals go through a catastrophic molt, in which the entire layer of epidermis with the hairs attached is sloughed off in one concentrated time. The reason for this abrupt molt is that while at sea they spend most of their time in cold deep water. As part of the dive process the blood is diverted away from the skin. This helps them conserve energy and avoid losing body heat. By coming up on land to molt the blood can be circulated to the skin so a new layer of epidermis and hair can be grown.

-from http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/elephant-seals.html

One of the best parts of this visit is we were able to walk near the Elephant Seals without being on a guided walk, meaning we could spend as long as we wanted with our favorite pinnipeds. We were also fortunate enough to see all four of California's pinniped species: we saw Elephant Seals, California Sea Lions, Stellar Sea Lions and Harbor Seals as well as several Sea Otters.

From Ano Nuevo and others

San Francisco Sourdough

2009-05-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

In case you're wondering, Candida milleri, Saccharomyces exiguus, Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis and I have been collaborating to make some hella good sourdough. You have to visit to taste (if you're lucky, you'll get some sauerkraut, home brew and farmhouse cheddar as well).

Point Reyes Bike Trip

2009-05-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

For our long weekend, we joined our friends for an overnight bike trip from San Francisco to Point Reyes Station. The wind was cold, and the hills were long, but we saw Sir Francis Drake Blvd in a whole new light, and had a great time trekking from the city, to the country, and back.

From Point Reyes Bike Trip

Finally it's summertime!

2009-05-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

B2B

2009-05-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

We ran Bay to Breakers this weekend. A fun time.

Before we start...our group:

A cool down before the Hayes Hill:

O hits the GG Park with a giant swine flu

Ahh...we made it to the Breakers!

Triathelete!!

2009-05-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

Olivia competed in the Napa Valley Sprint Triathlon last weekend. Despite some unseasonal rain she did great (check bib #65)!

From Olivia triathalon

Yosemite!

2009-04-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Yosemite National Park. It was pretty awesome.

From Yosemite

We saw coyotes,

From Yosemite

bears (what, you can't see it??? well, there's a 150 pound bear in this photo!),

From Yosemite

avalanches,

From Drop Box

flowers,

From Yosemite

bees,

From Yosemite

trees,

From Yosemite

stairs,

From Yosemite

waterfalls,

From Yosemite

and rainbows.

From Yosemite

It was hot!

From Yosemite

But we managed to stay cool.

From Yosemite

Thanks John Muir,

From Yosemite

for saving such an amazing place.

From Yosemite

Peeking

2009-04-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

Holy Seattle rainbow!

2009-04-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

Like a blog, except real life

2009-04-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night we went to the Intersection for the Arts where we attended Migdalia Valdes' opening of Every Day in Black and White. Migdalia decided over 10 years ago to take at least one photo every day and to record those photos and other things she's found. Its a lot like a blog, except that she uses film. And paper. And books. So her house is pretty full of stuff. It was a really interesting show, we're very glad we made it.

Presidio

2009-04-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend we woke to warm and sunny mornings with minimal planned events. On Saturday I opened the map of San Francisco and looked for spaces we hadn't explored and noticed The Presidio, a large green space in the NW corner of the city. We'd ridden our bikes through, and walked around this park a little, but hadn't really walked around all the new trails. The Presidio has an interesting history, ya'll can read about it somewhere else. It is also the home of Lucas Arts, which explains the Ewoks we saw on our walk. We also saw some beautiful wildflowers.

Dutch San Francisco

2009-04-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Its spring time here, enjoying the tulips in GG Park:

And the irises on Bernal Height Park.

Glen Canyon Park

2009-03-22T18:43:00.001-07:00

We hiked through here today. Amazing wildflowers this time of year. This park is one of my favorite spots in the city.

Henry Coe

2009-03-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend we joined some of our friends for a birthday weekend (not ours, theirs) backpack trip to Henry Coe State Park. HCSP is California's largest state park. It is a wilderness gem in California's crown just a few miles south of San Jose.

We saw roughly a trillion lady bugs...really an amazing site:

From Henry Coe

Henry Coe is known for its wildflowers in the spring and our visit did not disappoint!

From Henry Coe

A budding California Buckeye:

From Henry Coe

A field of shooting stars:

From Henry Coe

13 stream crossings in 1 mile!

From Henry Coe

The group:

From Henry Coe

Frost??? What's that???

From Henry Coe

The camp at night, 15 minute exposure:

From Henry Coe

Newt?

From Henry Coe

Chillaxin' in the Coe, yo!

From Henry Coe

Smart Cat?

2009-03-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

From Kitty

well...not that smart

From Kitty

Donner Pass

2009-03-04T18:34:00.001-08:00

We showshoed to Lost Trail Lodge near Donner Pass last weekend with some friends. We missed all the snow, which was both good and bad.

Our hike in on Saturday was hot!

From Lost Creek Cabin

but we relaxed by the fire when we arrived at the lodge.

From Lost Creek Cabin

Olivia and Ginger pose with the cabin.

From Lost Creek Cabin

Olivia does a flip in the snow.

From Lost Creek Cabin

Mandolin? No problem!

From Lost Creek Cabin

Oh, so comfortable!

From Lost Creek Cabin

Heading home. In the rain.

From Lost Creek Cabin

Hawaii trip

2009-02-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

We had a great trip to the Big Island of Hawaii.

We stayed on a coffee plantation high on the mountain for our first few nights. We enjoyed Kona coffee,

From Hawaii

went SCUBA diving and snorkeling,

From Hawaii

saw Manta Rays,

From Hawaii

kayaked with dolphins (check out the one jumping just below the paddle),

From Hawaii

and watched the sunset while grilling fish on the beach.

From Hawaii

We then drove around the island to the volcano. On the way we stopped at the southern most point in the USA.

From Hawaii

We saw steam plumes on the edge of the volcano,

From Hawaii

and smoke belching out of the earth.

From Hawaii

We slept in a cute little house,

From Hawaii

and had "tasty" lunch.

From Hawaii

We hiked in Volcanoes National Park,

From Hawaii

and saw amazing plants.

From Hawaii

We continued our trip around the island and climbed Mauna Kea,

From Hawaii

and slept near waterfalls,

From Hawaii

and drove by huge valleys,

From Hawaii

until we made it all the way back around the island.

From Hawaii

Where we got some rest. On the beach.

From Hawaii

Here is a link to our entire photo album (it has been edited for brevity, if you can believe it!)

Hawaii

Ok, now we're warm

2009-02-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

Keeping warm??

2009-02-15T12:49:00.000-08:00

We're not!

Thanks google!

2009-02-09T22:08:00.001-08:00

For believing we're human.

We're back! And grilling fish on the beach.

Aloha!

2009-02-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

We think we saw some Others today!

Sierra Snow

2009-01-28T19:05:00.000-08:00

We were missing snow in a big way so we drove up to Tahoe last weekend. We spent Saturday in a quaint little cabin with some friends from the Bay Area and woke on Sunday morning to this:

From Sierra Weekend

We had to put chains on!

After driving over the pass we went on a nice snowshoe near Strawberry. The snow, and the Sierra, put us in a very Ansel Adamsey mood. Enjoy.

From Sierra Weekend

Visitors!

2009-01-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

Our friends David and Marta visited the Bay Area last weekend. We grilled out, climbed mountains, ate pizza, celebrated inaugurations and had great times with all the Bay Area Badgers. Unfortunately, out camera was out of batteries and we didn't bring spares, so out photos are few. The weekend will likely be covered in other, more comprehensive media outlets. However, we do have a few iPhone photos showing a little of the fun we had. Thanks for coming out D&M! We miss you guys!

Ascending the North Face of Noe Peak:

From D&M visit

Beers at Zeitgeist after our two mountain adventure:

From D&M visit

Wow

2009-01-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

We had freakishly nice weather this weekend. Hopefully it sticks around for a while.

From January weekends

Kick Ass Postdoc

2009-01-08T20:39:00.001-08:00

Our friend Anna is spending her second winter in Antarctica. Follow her adventures here.

City Loop Bike Ride

2009-01-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

We tooled around the city on Saturday on a great loop ride through the southern side of San Francisco. The route took us through the wiggle, Golden Gate Park, along Ocean Beach, around Lake Merced, through some incredibly nice neighborhoods on the southwest slopes of Mt Davidson, through Glen Park, Noe Valley, the Mission and back to our home.

From January weekend

&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/san-francisco/117877550688"&amp;amp;gt;GG Park to Lake Merced Loop CCW v1.0&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ca/san-francisco"&amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in San Francisco, California&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

California confusion

2009-01-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

I took this photo on Friday, January 2. Sometimes I find the lack of seasonal consistency off-putting and annoying, but pretty nonetheless.

From January weekend

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

We went camping on Mt Tam for NYE this year.

From New Years 2008

This was the view from our tent site:

From New Years 2008

Just below our site there were some cool tidal pools where we got to try out our macro settings:

From New Years 2008

and find inner peace:

From New Years 2008

We celebrated with some homebrew:

From New Years 2008

and cooked up some chili (note the lights of San Francisco behind Olivia...we were so close to home but so far away):

From New Years 2008

Good thing Olivia has a down coat!

From New Years 2008

Calla lilies are so pretty!

From New Years 2008

The next day we nerded it up and used our new binoculars for some bird watching near Bolinas:

From New Years 2008

For once it was warmer on the coast than inland. Look at the clouds trying to jump over Mt Tam:

From New Years 2008

It was a great way to start the New Year. Happy 2009!

Christmas and Chris' parents visit

2008-12-29T20:04:00.000-08:00

My parents came to San Francisco for Christmas. We had a great time exploring the city and the Bay Area. Here are a few highlights:

Christmas Eve on Union Square after an urban hike through Glen Canyon Park to San Francisco's highest peak.

From Christmas 2008

Our hike:

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/walk/united-states/ca/san-francisco/836499574794"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;west portal hike&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-walk/united-states/ca/san-francisco"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Walks in San Francisco, California&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

On Christmas we went to the beach:

From Christmas 2008

and froze our butts off:

From Christmas 2008

The following day the four of us met up with our friend Luke and went to Ano Nuevo for our second annual Elephant Seal adventure:

From Christmas 2008

We then did another urban hike, this time up and over Twin Peaks. For this adventure, we left our house early in the morning and gathered some breakfast on 24th St and enjoyed some coffee at Philz. We then acended the East Face of Noe Peak using the fabled Eureka Valley route. After conquering Noe Peak we traversed the narrow ridge line to Eureka Peak, relishing the views of Mt Diablo, the San Bruno Ridge, Mt Davidson, Mt Tam, Mt Sutro, the Golden Gate Bridge, Berkely, Alameda, Fremont, El Pacifico and Hunters Point. We made a final ascent to the summit of Mt Eureka, San Francisco's second highest point and the city's highest point with a view. From there we descended down the treacherous North Face of Twin Peaks, avoiding the throngs of tour buses that crowd the viewpoint below the summit of Eureka Peak. We then followed the ridge north over Tank Hill and down into Cole Valley and grabbed a bus to Golden Gate Park where we enjoyed the newest exhibit at the De Young.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/walk/united-states/ca/san-francisco/187662331062"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;hike over Twin Peaks to Haight St&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-walk/united-states/ca/san-francisco"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Walks in San Francisco, California&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

From Christmas 2008

We made some nice meals:

From Christmas 2008

And went on a big hike on Mount Tam to Muir Woods National Monument:

From Christmas 2008

And finished it up with some classic San Francisco scenery:

From Christmas 2008

It was a great visit. Thanks for coming out Mom and Dad!

Merry Christmas from San Francisco

2008-12-25T19:17:00.000-08:00

From SF Christmas 2008

December Weekend

2008-12-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

We spent another weekend in the city, doing nothing special but we did have a few highlights to share:

1) Watching Milk at the Castro Theatre. A film worth seeing, even more so when watching it where the events took place.

From December weekend

2) Meeting our friends at The Ramp, an outdoor, Terrace-like place on the San Francisco waterfront about a mile from our house. Our friends sailed there from Alameda, we met them after some shopping at the Ferry Building. We sat outside, but it was chilly as there are no heaters at The Ramp.

From December weekend

Other than that we did a lot of hunkering. Its cold and rainy right now, not ideal California enjoyment weather.

Happy Holidays all.

Santa Cruz Mountains

2008-12-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend we attended Chris' company's Winter Event at a Winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The view of Silicon Valley from the event was fantastic, what was even better was our accommodations that night...we decided to camp near the party so we wouldn't have to drive back to San Francisco and for the fun of it.

Here's Olivia, with a down coat/evening gown combination:

From Christmas tree GCOR party

Here are our friends:

From Christmas tree GCOR party

We woke up the next morning and drove into the mountains to find a Christmas tree. Thankfully our friends are obsessive bloggers, so we knew exactly here to go!

From Christmas tree GCOR party

Olivia wants a redwood!

From Christmas tree GCOR party

Peeking!

From Christmas tree GCOR party

mmm...treeyey!

From Christmas tree GCOR party

Down goes the Cypress!

From Christmas tree GCOR party

This is hard!

From Christmas tree GCOR party

Ahh, Christmas!

From Christmas tree GCOR party

We also stopped at the winery formerly known as Bonny Doon (its much lamer now):

From Christmas tree GCOR party

oh, and we went to the beach too.

From Christmas tree GCOR party

Here it is!

From Christmas tree GCOR party

Thanksgiving!

2008-12-03T21:10:00.001-08:00

We stayed in San Francisco for Thanksgiving this year. Mary, Bill and their kids made the drive down to celebrate with us. We had a great time. For our dinner, we made a lot of really tasty food, including this heritage breed turkey:

From Thanksgiving 2008

We spent the next day in Golden Gate Park, enjoying the roses,

From Thanksgiving 2008

and eating turkey sandwiches,

From Thanksgiving 2008

and exploring the botanical gardens,

From Thanksgiving 2008

and looking at the ducks,

From Thanksgiving 2008

and playing on the playground,

From Thanksgiving 2008

A fun weekend. Thanks Mary, Bill and kiddos for making the trip down to the city by the Bay.

Visitors!

2008-11-26T06:46:00.000-08:00

We had some visitors last weekend -- Olivia's mom and aunt. We showed them some Bay Area fun.

From Lynn and Marilynn visit

We went back to Point Reyes because its so awesome. We saw harbor seal, elephant seals and whales -- again!

From Lynn and Marilynn visit

oh, and some deer too...

From Lynn and Marilynn visit

We swung by Muir Woods on the way home for some big trees:

From Lynn and Marilynn visit

thanks for the visit.

Harbin

2008-11-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

California is a disconnect of traditional seasons. For instance, fall in here is a mish-mash of spring, summer and fall depending on the week, your location, and the time of day. Some of the leaves on some of the trees are turning yellow and orange, but this turning is no blast of color like one finds in Wisconsin or Colorado. There can be crisp days with blue skies and yellow leaves, just like a perfect autumn days. But these days are nearly as common in January or April or July. We've had rain, which is a part of fall as well. Yet, because its a little warmer here, and rain is the first significant precipitation since April, green grass is sprouting everywhere, like spring, in a place with cyclical seasons. Thus, while jogging across campus, I get confused, thinking its summer, then fall, then spring, in three separate steps.

Our weekend in Harbin was a perfect example of this strange phenomena. We saw blue skies, turning leaves, hot canyons and green grass.

We drove two hours north to a lonely canyon off a forgetten valley north of Calistoga. Tucked against the cliffs at the end of the canyon there is a hot springs retreat called Harbin. Harbin Hot Springs comes complete with naked hippies and camping in a vegetarian, alcohol and drug free utopia of enlightenment. We camped there one night, soaked in the hot springs, did some reading in the sun, and relaxed before driving back to San Francisco through Napa Valley. Here are a few photos of our adventures:

Camping with the turkeys (you can't see the turkeys in this photo, but they're just to the right of the tent):

From Harbin Weekend

Fall colors:

From Harbin Weekend

Fall colors in Napa:

From Harbin Weekend

Vines turning red:

From Harbin Weekend

We stopped at Greystone for lunch:

From Harbin Weekend

yum.

And we did a little peeking at the wineries for old times sake:

From Harbin Weekend

Ikea Mash-ups

2008-11-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

So Ikea-hacking was all the rage in, like 2006. Not to be outdone, we hacked our own Ikea table last weekend. Olivia pasted ticket stubs from our (and other's) adventures around the world. She covered the tickets with contact paper and then we poured EnviroTex Lite on the top. EnviroTex lite is the same stuff they use for bartops. Its pretty awesome. Now we have a new table, just in time for Thanksgiving.

From Ikea Mash-up

Obama Street

2008-11-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you heard, but there was an election last week. Check out the street sign outside Olivia's office on Bush and Larkin.

From obama

San Francisco Mountaineering

2008-11-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

What to do on an unexpectedly sunny Sunday in November?

1. Walk down 24th St and get some Philz.

2. Walk over to Church St and relax in Dolores Park.

From Corona Heights

3. Walk over to the Castro. Climb a mountain.

From Corona Heights

4. Climb another mountain with nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Ocean.

From Corona Heights

5. Walk down to Haight St for lunch.

From Corona Heights

6. Call it a day

Rain, right on!

2008-11-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

The Bay Area had its first significant rain since sometime in April. It was a long time coming, and a welcome way to wake up on a Saturday. We're both looking forward to seeing the brown grass turn green over the coming months.

From Weekend cooking

What did we do on our rainy Saturday? We cooked. But we cooked with a twist.

The first thing we made was sourdough bread. I am particularly pleased with this sourdough because the yeast and lactobacilli I used to raise the dough were captured in my kitchen. I didn't use commercial yeast, I didn't get a starter from someone else. I just left flour mixed with water out on my counter top for a few days and waited for the yeast and lactobacilli in the air, and on the flour, to begin to ferment. Because I used local microbes, this bread is truly a taste of our home, of San Francisco, of fall. If I have a chance I want to isolate the rRNA from the bread to see if I can identify the populations of yeast of lactobacilli in the bread. But I doubt I'll have the time. However, I can go to the literature (I have) to see what others have found. A few (somewhat) interesting papers from a group at the University of Ghent interested in bacterial populations in bread ecosystems showed that while the populations of lactobacilli varied from bakery to bakery, they did not change significantly over time, suggesting the ecosystems in their bread systems were fairly stable. However, one thing they didn't test was how the sourdoughs change with season when starting from scratch, as I did a few weeks ago and propose doing again this winter or spring. That's something I think would be interesting. How does the taste of our bread change with the change in season? That is, how does the change in microbial life in the air of my kitchen affect the taste of my sourdough?

Anyway, enough of that, here is the bread:

From Weekend cooking

And here is one of the sandwiches we made using mozzarella we made from citric acid, whole milk, microbial rennet and heat:

From Weekend cooking

In addition to making sourdough and cheese, I've been making beer and have cabbage from our CSA fermenting downstairs. In a few weeks I hope to have enough food for a nearly-all fermented barbecue, with beer, sourdough bread and sauerkraut.

Chewing Gum Lake

2008-10-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

Olivia and I met up with our friends Thijs and Anna for a one night backpack trip in the Sierras. We met early Saturday morning in the town of Pinecrest, California, a mere three hours east of San Francisco. Our hike was fun...and grueling. We'd both forgotten how hard it is to carry a heavy load up a mountain, at a high elevation, with little preparation. We brought enough food for eight people and enough clothes to survive a blizzard for a week. So we were well fed, and warm, as we managed to have absolutely perfect weather.

Here are a few photos of our adventure.

Our friends are much lighter packers than we are:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

However, we can find inner peace purifying water on Chewing Gum Lake:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

Down coats and Cabernet can make even the chilliest October evening bearable:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

Crystal-clear Autumn mornings in the Sierras make the hike worth it:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

Our camp on Chewing Gum Lake:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

Thijs looks for the best route down:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

Resting:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

Peeking:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

Our cross-country route got a little extreme:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

We enjoyed the fall colors:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

All in all, it was a great adventure:

From Fall 2008 Sierra Backpack Trip

Ride Your Bike to Work

2008-10-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

I'd heard from a friend that a bunch of people at everyone's favorite search engine get together and ride from San Francisco to work every Friday. As my place of work is near said company, I thought, hey, if they can do it, then so can I. So I joined up with some folks early Fri morning and rode from San Francisco to Palo Alto. It was an awesome ride, beautiful sunrises on the bay, interesting routes near the 101, through the airport, around bays and marshes and sloughs. At 45 miles, it was a long ride, but this won't be the last time I ride my bike to work (in case you're wondering, I rode the train home...)

View Larger Map

One month

2008-10-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy month. Chris spent a few weeks in Shanghai and another week near Monterrey. Olivia has been busy as well. Check out our month, try to guess what we've been doing.

The Emerald City

2008-09-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

We traveled to the far North last weekend for a quick trip to the Emerald City. While there we enjoyed great food, big laughs and fantastic weather.

We also...

...learned about air travel at Boeing's Museum of Flight,

From Seattle

went out on the town for a fantastic dinner with our hosts,

From Seattle

flew a kite at Gasworks Park,

From Seattle

and participated in all-around general cuteness.

From Seattle

550 Penguins

2008-09-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

After calculating the carbon footprint of my travel thus far in 2008, I (Chris) wondered how I stack up against others in my area. So I explored a few carbon footprint websites and was disappointed with what I found.

Compared to other Americans (who aren't role models in this area, as we all know) I personally score an F for carbon footprint.

An F.

I'm used to getting A's.

This is despite the fact that I carry a thin, green, biodegradable bag dripping with brown, smelly, sticky, nasty, gunk and filled with fly-infested, mold-covered cantaloupe peels ground into crumbling coffee detritus mixed with rotting cucumber stalks to a large plastic city-provided composting container every Wednesday as part of our recycling/garbage rituals; this is despite the fact that I don't drive to work but ride for nearly 2 hours every day on bus and train (for a total of over 20,000 miles per year); this is despite the fact that I live in a modest apartment in an old house in the most densely populated city in North America west of Chicago; this is despite the fact that I think of cars as a 20th century anachronism and managed to spend much of my 20s without owning a car at all; this is despite the fact that I ride my bike or walk when I can and even when I shouldn't; this is despite the fact that I declare carbon-free weekends where I unilaterally outlaw car usage for Olivia and myself. This is despite that I feel (felt?) like I was doing the right thing (even though I knew flying was kinda bad).

Of my 28 tons of carbon released per year (average American is 22 tons) fully 61% (18 tons) comes from flying. These 18 tons account for a slightly below average American's carbon footprint. I imagine this person living in a modest, two bedroom house, perhaps driving a Metro instead of a Jeep and eating steak once a week and not carrying stinky compost out to the street every week.

Or, even worse, my 18 tons accounts for a far-above-average European. How depressing.

That sure makes my elite status a lot less little less special.

Thanks United.

Sorry penguins.

[If you're curious (I was), 18 tons of carbon is roughly equivalent to about 550 average sized Emperor Penguins.]

...I think I'm finished with the serious stuff, our next post will be back to the fluff and Preciously Special Moments, I promise.

Its a good thing we take public transit to work...

2008-09-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a summary of my carbon footprint from January to September that I created using dopplr.com. I'd hate to see what it would be if I didn't take Caltrain to work.

The reason is clear when you look at the 78,000 miles flown according to this map:

Sure, its a little nerdy, but I wanted to get some perspective on my year so far.

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

We labored mightily on Labor Day Weekend -- we labored at having fun that is!

Our weekend started in a big way with some Precious Moments we shared at the De Young Museum with Casey and Emily. There is a Chihuly exhibit there at the moment and we all enjoyed the blown glass.

From Labor Day Weekend

Switching gears the next morning we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge in a thick fog to see some Thule Elk at Point Reyes National Seashore. As our readers must already know, Point Reyes is pretty awesome:

From Labor Day Weekend

and we had the opportunity to see about 50 elk, many with huge antlers:

From Labor Day Weekend

we also saw some amazing bird action. Birds are difficult to catch with our cute little camera, but here is a pelican that nearly took our heads off as it soared down the California Coast:

From Labor Day Weekend

Here are some more obligatory we-only-go-beautiful-places photos (its for you jb):

From Labor Day Weekend

The following day we went to Civic Center for the Farmer's Market and the Slow Food San Francisco exhibits. This was our first visit to the Civic Center Farmer's Market and, with the dome of City Hall in the background, it almost felt like we were at the Madison Farmer's Market...

From Labor Day Weekend

We also attended a one-year old birthday party in Half Moon Bay. Happy birthday Sierra! (She really liked our present)

From Labor Day Weekend

Just in case you thought we were getting lazy, we also went on a bike ride on Canada Road. Here Chris is at the terminus of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct.

From Labor Day Weekend

The following day was Monday. Labor Day. And the weather in the city was ridiculously nice. Chris rode his bike across the Golden Gate Bridge while Olivia went to yoga class. Here is a view of the Marin Headlands from the Presidio. This is the first time I've seen the headlands this clearly, they are almost always shrouded in fog:

From Labor Day Weekend

We closed out the weekend with a Wisconsin-only, California food, good bye (for a short while) to Emily grill-out in our backyard.

From Labor Day Weekend

how precious.

Take me home...

2008-08-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

We visited lovely Western Colorado last weekend for a much needed visit home. We had a great time with Chris' parents touring the San Juan mountains. Here are a few photos.

On Saturday, we drove to Telluride and rode the gondola from downtown Telluride to Mountain Village.

While in Mountain Village we did the most Telluride of activities...we went shopping at The North Face and scored big-time on some end-of-summer sales:

We also toured downtown T-ride where Chris is pretty sure he saw a movie star...but he couldn't remember what her name was, or what movies she had been in. So, obviously, it was a pretty big deal.

The drive from Montrose to Telluride is quite lovely:

We also toured Chris' parent's new house for the first time. It is very comfortable and has sunflowers:

Olivia and Fran tour the new garden:

On the following day, we hiked around the town of Ouray on a new trail.

Here is a view down a beautiful gorge above Ouray:

and into the recently opened tunnel:

We also celebrated our birthdays. Happy birthday us! and thanks mom and dad for such a great visit!

Mendocino

2008-08-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, in Woodbridge, New Jersey in February, Chris was sitting at a hotel bar talking with a fellow traveler and Californian about things to do in Northern California. This computer consultant/hotel bar enthusiast mentioned that he and his wife rent cabins in Mendocino from a company called Serenisea and that the cabins were reasonably priced and in great locations. Chris quickly emailled Olivia this information and before he returned home, Olivia had booked a weekend -- her birthday weekend -- in a small cabin on the Mendocino Coast in Gualala, California.

View Larger Map

Fast forward five fast months and suddenly we realized it was time to go north, to Mendocino, for Olivia's birthday. We had a good time. Here are some photos:

We spent a few hours on Schooner Beach, a lonely, cliff lined beach a few miles north of our cabin:

Olivia befriended some local wildlife:

The bird watching was quite entertaining. Here two pelican soar over our heads like WWII bombers:

This is the view from the hot tub. We spent many hours in this hot tub. You can see why:

It was pretty chilly at night. A roaring fire and some wine kept us toasty!

No birthday is complete without cake!

Happy birthday O!

The next day we drove to Manchester Beach, six miles of lonely, windy sand:

We drove through the Anderson River Valley on our way home. Many of you may know about Anderson River Valley wines, but this verdant Mendocino Valley is also home to a fantastic West Coast Brewery called Anderson Valley Brewing Company (AVBC). The AVBC is in Booneville, California, a town, which, owing to its isolation in the 19th century, developed its own language known as Bootling. We stopped by for some beer tasting. We bearly made it home!

A trip "Up North" wouldn't be complete without a stop at a winery. Here Olivia checks out an old truck at the Maple Creek Winery:

.

We had a great time and before we knew it, it was Sunday night, and back to the grind.

Now watch our movie (please):

Mountain Climbing, Farmer's Market

2008-07-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

We decided to hike to the Alemany Farmer's market one Saturday morning. In our interest in changing things up, we decided to climb a the large hill (a mountain, really) that separates our house from the farmer's market.

View Larger Map

The hill commands a fantastic view of the city:

And the Farmer's Market was colorful too:

2008-07-19T19:59:00.001-07:00

chris

Birthday weekend in Wisconsin

2008-07-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Milwaukee for

birthday celebrations,

cake eating,

karaoke,

Brady Street good times,

more birthdays,

entomology experiments,

chalk-covered sidewalks,

blueberry tasting,

and all around general cuteness.

Sierra Trip

2008-07-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

This was a weekend of mountains, friends, relatives, smoke and serendipity.

We were invited to go to Lake Tahoe this weekend by a few of Olivia's former colleagues (and current friends). We stayed in a funky 1930s-era cabin rented to "friends and family" of some people who are neighbors of the people who own the cabin who some of our friends met on a mountain bike ride a few years ago. And, while there are nearly 7-degrees of separation between us and the cabin owners, we were very happy to spend the night there.

On Saturday we went on a hike in the Desolation Wilderness. Because most of California is on fire, it was smoky, but not so smoky that you can see the smoke in our carefully selected photos.

On our hike we discovered that the Northern Sierras have a lot of granite.

The granite seems to keep the lakes quite warm, as we demonstrate in this series of photos.

We also had the pleasure of spending time with our friend's super-cute kiddos. Here is Sierra smiling on her first trip to her name-sake mountain range.

Serendipitously, a portion of Chris' family was having a family reunion a mere 2.8 miles from our 1930s-era cabin. We spent Sunday afternoon playing with cousins and making dams on the Upper Truckee river.* Growing up in the Colorado Rockies, dam building was one of my favorite childhood activities and I made many dams with my uncle Bob and aunt Karla et al. It was great to do the same with my cousins...though in the end, it was Bob and I who were the most persistent and excited about our creation.

Other highlights of the trip were:
1. one hour of stop-and-go traffic on Highway 50 on our way home (oh wait, just kidding. That sucked).
2. A stop in Davis, California for Boat Sushi at Osaka Sushi (thanks iYelp!) and a visit to the David Food Coop. The Davis Food Coop was awesome, and Davis itself, and the Coop especially, are so full of an East-side Madison uber-vibe that Chris shed a few tears of homesickness on his way out of town (actually, no, he didn't) (yes he did) (no he didn't). In fact, for the first time in two years we were asked the following questions:

1. Are you Co-op members (answer, "No, sorry, we live in the city")

2. Is this onion organic or conventional? (answer, "Um, I wasn't paying attention" clerk's answer to that: "Well, since its small and kind of beat-up, I'm going to assume its organic.")

Thus, the Davis Food Coop had an incredible resemblance to Madison's Willy Street Coop and it was really nice and made at least one of us pretty homesick for Madison. However, to be completely honest, even if some super kynd free-range organic genetic engineer were to clone the Willy Street Coop and the Davis Food Coop and to stitch them together to make a chimeric uber-Coop it still wouldn't beat the Rainbow Grocery in terms of selection and bulk food options. However, it would beat Rainbow Grocery hands down in the categories of "YouTube movies filmed on location" and "Feel-good because you're a member" and "ease-of-parking".

Ok. Enough.

*The Upper Truckee River ecosystem was not "jacked-up" by the construction of our dam. We may have displaced a few wooly buggers but they can handle it.

Ancient San Franciscans

2008-07-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

Inspired by one of our country's greatest scientists, we left our flat on a sunny Sunday on the tail-end of a fun-filled Independence Day weekend on a mission to (1) discover the perfect brunch and (b) to explore the haunts of the ancient San Franciscans. The perfect brunch was easy to find. Obviously, the perfect Mediterranean brunch can be found in the Castro:

After brunch we took a quick ride on the N-Judah to El Pacifico where we enjoyed a laugh.

The free-spirited nature of Ocean Beach was a needed break to prepare ourselves for our archaeological adventures. Our first discovery was this lovely Strelitzia reginae growing in the wild on the side of a trail in Sutro Heights Park.

When we crested the Sutro Hill we came upon our first example of an ancient San Franciscan ruin. This temple-like structure was believed to be a place of worship and reflection used by ancient San Franciscans. A more controversial theory about the use of this large and impressive structure was that is was a meeting-place for a secret society free-range organic farmers, but this theory has yet to be conclusively proven.

We then descended to one of the most impressive ruins left from the ancient San Franciscans. While the uses of the "Bath House" remain quite controversial, I direct our readers to a treatise written by Drs. J. Borrok and R. Mitchell on the subject.

It was a fun day. We also had some good food, met up with friends, took a lot of buses. You know, normal urban hike sort of activities.

Summertime

2008-07-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since we've posted. Since our trip to the ocean, Olivia went to Chicago while Chris made beer, Chris went to Paris while Olivia went scuba diving. We managed to spend a few weekends together as well. Some highlights were the Old 97s show, the Gay Pride Parade, a belated Second Annual Summer Solstice Party and a bike ride from our house in Potrero Hill through the fog in the city, across the Golden Gate Bridge to sunny Tiburon, followed by a ferry ride back to the city. Enjoy the slide show:

To the Beach

2008-06-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco last Sunday so we went to Ocean Beach.

Constitution Day!

2008-06-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

June 5 is Constitution Day in Denmark. Here are some celebratory fireworks:

This is a lovely marina scene in Denmark's second largest city, Arhus:

A canal and cityscape in downtown Arhus:

Arhus' central cathedral:

Oh yeah, by the way, I was in Denmark on Thursday and Friday last week.

Mountain Play

2008-06-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

On June 1 we hiked up Mount Tam with a few new friends to watch The Wizard of Oz. It was a 7 mile hike up from our friend's parent's home in Mill Valley. Along the way we saw homes built on incredibly steep hillsides, sweeping vistas of the Pacific and even glimpses of downtown San Francisco.

When we reached the Western Arm of Mt Tam we arrived at the Mountain Play amphitheatre. The Wizard of Oz is a surprisingly good story. Olivia and I realized that the last time either one of us had watched the movie Pink Floyd was playing in the background...so we never got to hear "Toto too". This time, however, we heard "Toto too" and so much more. It was a lively performance with modern dancing black clad twirling tornadoes, jitterbugging flying monkeys and of course, our favorites: the straw man, the tin man and the lion.

Mmmm...Farmer's Market

2008-05-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

California's oldest Farmer's Market is a mere 10 minute bus ride from our new home. Its a fantastic place, full of produce, tasty food and, as its a pre-yuppie institution, its the most down-to-Earth Farmer's Market either one of us has visited.

Chris' trip to DC

2008-05-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

I (Chris) spent 2/3 of Memorial Day weekend in Washington DC visiting my sister. We had a great time. We toured around the White House, saw the Articles of Confederation, enjoyed a perfect May afternoon in outdoor cafes in Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan and visited a fantastic Farmer's Market/ Flea Market on Capitol Hill.

Here are a few photos of our trip.

Georgetown canal...looks almost like Holland.

Chinatown. Sweet!

The Old Post Office. Has great views of the city from the tower.

View of the Washington Monument from the Old Post Office tower.

Trading places

2008-05-23T19:45:00.001-07:00

Last week Olivia was in Minneapolis visiting her sister... This week
I'm in DC visiting my sister while on my way home from NYC. Its nice,
a perfect time to be in our nation's Capitol. Its great to travel and
see family but we're looking forward to posting our weekend events
together next week. Here is a picture of Manhattan as seen from my
airplane window.

Chris' weekend in SF

2008-05-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

While Olivia spent the weekend in "the Cities" (aka Minneapolis and Saint Paul) I explored our new San Francisco home. On Friday I went to a Giants game with Casey and Dipa. The White Sox won.

On Saturday I rode my bike to the ocean. We live on the exact opposite side of the city from the beach and there are several mountains between our home and the ocean, but San Francisco bikers have identified a route from the Mission to the Panhandle that effectively avoids all hills called "The Wiggle". I took the wiggle to the park and in under 40 minutes, I was at Ocean Beach, which was much faster than I was expecting. San Francisco is a pretty small place in terms of actual distances. That windmill looked so familiar I had to take a photo.

More ocean views.

From there I rode around the peninsula, through the Presidio, under the Golden Gate Bridge, through Fisherman's Wharf and along the Embarcadero back to our flat in Potrero Hill. It was a fun ride on a beautiful day.

Baseball!

2008-05-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

Casey, Dipa and I are at a baseball game.

From Chicago to Madison

2008-05-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

We took the train from Chicago to Milwuakee and had a quick lunch with Olivia's parents at the best Chinese restaurants in Wisconsin. We then borrowed one of their cars to join Diane and Bryant for their wedding celebrations.

We had a fantastic time at the wedding and a great time seeing all of our friends in the lovely city of Madison.

From Holland to Chicago

2008-05-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

We returned from Europe to Chicago. We kept busy whilst in the city of wind.

We visited our friends Lee and Brian,

had lunch with Nick and Jessamyn and toured Nothwestern's beautiful campus,

and met Craig and Stacey's new daughter and Samantha's new sister Lexi.

Quick European Vacation

2008-05-07T03:47:00.000-07:00

We took a quick trip to Holland and Belgium over the weekend. A few facts about our trip:

-We shot 631 photos
-The dollar is at 1.60 against the Euro
-Number of one-way road driven the wrong way in our SMART car: at least 4 (possibly more)
-We had a great time
-Curiously, we experienced little to no jet-lag

On Thursday we arrived in Amsterdam and admired the canals.

The next day we explored the city. Olivia wanted to swim in Amsterdam's canals. We also went the the Van Gogh museum.

We then drove a SMART car to the lovely Belgian city of Bruges. Our decision to drive a car instead of taking the train was a new one for us. It was driven primarily by our interest in using the time we had in Europe to its fullest (the train is slower than driving). Plus, Chris had always wanted to road trip in Europe. In fact, driving a car in Europe was a lot of fun. Its not all the different from road-tripping in the US. Drivers are roughly as aggressive as in the Bay Area, freeways are about as congested, especially in Belgium. The differences are that there are no road signs in the city centers (or so it seemed) and there is little to no country music on the radio. Luckily we had a SMART car, so we could go anywhere (and we did...see facts about our trip above)

Bruges, too has canals:

The spring flowers were beautiful.

We then drove to Ghent, another medieval wonder:

Ghent had a very classic castle that we enjoyed touring very much:

The following day we drove back to the Netherlands and stopped in Leiden:

We woke the following morning and rented bikes to explore Holland's tulip region. We pedaled past fields of tulips. It was beautiful.

We have a photo album of more of our pictures from this trip which can be found here (soon).

We made a separate photo album of our flower photos (link soon!) because we took so many and they were so pretty.

A weekend at home

2008-04-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

We spent our weekend in San Francisco. On Saturday we went on an urban hike from our house to Noe Valley. On the way we saw many lovely murals in the Mission, such as this one:

We were also reminded why we're walking this weekend:

We walked to Dolores Park and admired the view of the city:

We hiked higher and admired views of our neighborhood, Potrero Hill:

On our walk back home we stopped in the Mission and bought scallops and mussels for a fantastic shell fish dinner:

Then we went to bed. Here's a view of Noe Valley from our kitchen window:

The Relay

2008-04-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Chris ran on the Genencor Relay Team (the Lean Gene Machine) from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. This run was 199 miles and run by twleve people. We finished in the fastest time ever for Genencor. This team called Google 1 won. Lame name, at least compared to ours.

Here is some of our team:

Here is our van:

Visitors

2008-04-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

Olivia's friends Kathleen and Chris visited last weekend. Here they are in Sausalito.

Cincinnati

2008-04-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

better than you'd think.

Spring is here and its great. I head back home, via Fort Collins, tomorrow and then participate in a relay from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. To see what happened last weekend, go here, or here.

First!

2008-04-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

New Home

2008-04-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

A month ago we moved from our home in Mountain View to a new flat in San Francisco. Thanks to all our friends who helped us move. Here is a photo of some of our friends who assisted in our big day:

Lake Tahoe

2008-03-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

We drove up to Lake Tahoe this weekend and stayed in a cabin on the south shore of the lake. We went snow shoeing and cross country skiing and did a lot of relaxing on our lakeside cabin. There was a lot of snow up there, but it was nicely sunny and warm, so it was a nice taste of winter without the bite. Here is a link to some photos:

Tahoe

Chris' parent's visit to California

2008-03-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

Chris parents Ed and Fran visited fair California this past weekend. They told us the spring time weather was quite welcome after the long winter. We said, "gosh, we know what you're talking about, it rained for three weeks. It was miserable. California winters are so tough."

That snarkiness aside, we had a fine action packed visit. Upon landing in San Jose we whisked them over the Santa Cruz Mountains for a sea kayak adventure on the Monterey Bay. We saw sea otters, harbor seals and sea lions. It was a fun, if windy, trip. We then jetted back to Mountain View and listened to Olivia perform in the Nova Vista Symphony. The next morning we got going nice and early, bought some crab, grass fed beef tenderloin and oranges at the Mountain View Farmer's Market. We then drove to Pinnacles National Monument for a 7 mile hike through the High Peaks. We returned to feast on crab and beef. The next day Ed and Fran headed to the city on the train where they then rented bikes and rode from Fisherman's Wharf and across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. We met them in SOMA and brought them to an apartment in Potrero Hill where we proceeded to sign a lease. We have only 3 weeks left of suburban life. At some point during this visit we slept, laughed and ate. We all had fun and look forward to the next visit.

Clearly we had a big visit. For the trip from the point of view of Ed and Fran, go here.

Here is a link to a photo album of our trip:

Mom and Dad Adams visit to California

When California gives us rain...

2008-02-24T20:02:00.000-08:00

...we drink wine. Here we are with our friends Brandon and Karen who
graciously rode the train down from the city to explore a few Santa
Cruz Mountains wineries with us. It was fun. The wine was tasty and it
took the bite out of another rainy weekend.

Ano Nuevo

2008-02-23T21:18:00.000-08:00

We braved the wet and windy weather today to travel to Ano Nuevo State Preserve to see one of California's elephant seal breeding grounds. It was an amazing experience. We were on a docent lead hike through the breeding colony, we saw hundreds of elephant seals and, considering the males weigh as much as a Chevy Suburban, we were surprisingly close (~25 feet). Here is a link to a few of our photos:

Elephant Seals at Ano Nuevo

Here is a link to a video we took of the elephant seals. The most important part of this film is the sound. The monkey-like screeches are the baby seals, the motor-cycle-like sounds are the males.

We were joined on this adventure by davidandmarta.com. In fact, D&M organized the entire adventure, we just showed up. They also probably did a more complete job of describing the day, so check their site for additional photos and stories.

Peeking

2008-02-17T11:12:00.001-08:00

It wouldn't be a vacation without a little peeking now, would it?

Symphony

2008-02-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

We also went to the symphony. This is a shot of the SF city hall.

Cherry blossoms

2008-02-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

Plus, if we had flown to Japan, it would have been cold. Here we can
celebrate spring in February with cherry blossoms.

Low carbon footprint vacation

2008-02-17T11:08:00.001-08:00

Instead of flying to Japan, we drove to Japantown for the weekend.
Here I am eating some udon. Yummy!