Heather's Walking Tour Of The Bay

Hi All!

Happy Easter!  We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful day with family.  We had a great day with our Mattie Grace.  Some Easter Basket fun, a little church and a nice afternoon just hanging out together.  

After giving up Facebook and Instagram for Lent I was finally able to catch up and see what everyone has been up to (not going to lie, I stalked you all and it was awesome!)  I TOTALLY missed my social media and it was a sacrifice to give up.  It did show me that I need to put down my phone and focus on being in the moment at times, and it also made me realize how connected it makes me feel now that we are living in California.  I am surprised at how FB and Instagram helps me fight off being homesick sometimes, because I can still see everyone and stay in the know :)  I'm glad I gave it up for a little while, but lesson learned that it may not be the best thing to do when you are living 2,500 miles away from all your family and friends!!!

Now…on to more fun stuff.  Last week my sister Heather was in town for a visit!  We were so excited to have her here.  I miss her terribly, so it was wonderful to get to spend 9 WHOLE DAYS with her!  I am pretty sure that Mattie was more excited than all of us combined!

We spent the first couple of days she was here in the city.

Heather wanted to check out this sandwich place, and it was awesome.  Super crowded so we decided to take our sandwiches and go have a picnic!

We had the perfect picnic at the park at the Painted Ladies.  The weather was awesome that day in the city.

If your sandwich's name is The Tony Soprano it just guarantees that it will be amazing! 

Mattie loves sock monkeys and was super excited to walk by a window with a sock monkey tea party display.

Photo Credit: Heather

Bart rides home always put her to sleep!

Adam took two days off from work so that he could enjoy some day trips with us.  Heather wanted to check out Sutro Baths which also has a nice walk toward Golden Gate Bridge.

Mattie:  Auntie Heather can I pick up the huge rock and carry it around?
Heather:  Of course you can.

It was a foggy morning.

Everything is still a balance beam.

Writing her name in the sand on the beach.

Photo Credit: Heather

Photo Credit: Heather

Photo Credit: Heather

Eventually the fog burned off and it was a beautiful day!

We also went to the Mission to our favorite burrito place La Taqueria.

Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building in the city… Check!  We are no strangers to the Farmer's Market and wanted to introduce Heather to one of our favorite things to do.  Heather is a fellow foodie and loves checking out awesome food spot with us. :)

My breakfast was so glorious!!!

I think breakfast was enjoyed by all!

After a breakfast of champions, we decided to walk along the Embarcadero, and down to the Wave Organ.  The Wave Organ is a wave-activated acoustic sculpture in the Bay.  I read about it online and thought it might be cool.  Unfortunately, there were people there swimming in the freezing bay and hanging their clothes to dry all over the sculpture.  It was a little ridiculous, so needless to say I didn't get any pictures of it. It does however, have a great view of the bay, GGB and Alcatraz.  It was a longer walk than I had anticipated.  I'm pretty sure Heather was ready to squeeze my face by the time it was over :)

Ready to do some walking around the city.

Alcatraz. 

I do not care how touristy it is, I will never get tired of the Golden Gate Bridge.  It is beautiful.

Finally made it to the Wave Organ.

She is the cutest ever!!

Sunday, we spent the day at the beach in Carmel.  Carmel is so beautiful, and has quickly become one of our favorite places to go.

In Carmel is Point Lobos State Park.  It was a new place to check out and it ended up being so beautiful.  

We were really busy the first half of Heather's trip, so we took it down a notch for the rest of the visit.  We did however make it to our favorite local Pho place and spent a nice day in down town Pleasanton.

Mattie ate her bowl of Pho... 

and then ate half of Heather's bowl!

Always a good day when Mattie finds a unicorn mask and becomes obsessed with it!

Adam and I also got to squeeze in a date night!!!  YESSSSSSS!  We went to a Cellar Door, a wine bar in Pleasanton and it was amazing!

We even had a celebrity sighting… Charles Woodson.  He played for the Green Bay Packers (anyone who knows Adam knows he is a Packers fan) and currently plays for the Oakland Raiders.  He also owns a local winery here and lives nearby.

It was a great week with my sister!  It is always so hard when people come out for a visit and then you have to send them back home!!!  We miss you already Heather!  We hope you had as much fun as we did!!!!

XOXO