We Got More Bounce in California...

Last week we took a pretty sweet trip to San Francisco (by 'we' I mean Matt, Marcus, and myself). It was really fun and we saw a lot, but I was so exhausted after the fact! I (stupidly) wasn't thinking clearly when I took time off from work and had to work the day after we got home. At midnight. I finally made up for it by getting around 11 hours of sleep Monday night, so all is well. Anyway, I totally don't want to bombard your feed with a gajillion pictures of our trip, so this is the concentrated version. I have more that I'll put on Facebook page tonight if you're interested (I'm not the boss of you). Of course you interested! Here we go!

Artsy picture of palm trees!

 

 

Bixby Canon Bridge.

 

 

A waterfall going into the ocean? Yes please! This is the Julia Pfeiffer State Park on highway 1 if you're interested.

 

 

Alcatraz island, ooh spooky. Actually it wasn't spooky at all. Plan on lots of walking and standing. My feet were killing me after this. I was wishing I had one of those canes with the little three legged pop out stool while we were waiting for the ferry to go back to the main land, and both Matt and I seriously contemplated punching the people behind us so we could steal their sour dough bread. #layoffimstarving #noshame

 

 

This is one of the cells at Alcatraz. I couldn't get past how tiny they were. Or the fact that they had to poop just inches from their bed.

 

 

The Japanese Tea Gardens were so beautiful! I love how perfectly manicured every single plant is.

 

 

Muir Woods is about 45 minutes out of town and pretty surreal! I expected a giant dinosaur to come around the corner, a la Jurrasic Park, at any moment.

 

 

 

After our stop in Fern Gully we drove through Napa. My search for a winery to visit suddenly ended when I found Castello di Amorosa "the only authentic medieval (12th-century) Italian Tuscan castle and winery built in America". Expecting something pretty ridiculous, we were actually really impressed with how legit it was. If we go back to Napa I totally want to take the whole tour, while dressed as Cersei Lannister.

 

 

What castle is complete without a moat, drawbridge or torture chamber? None, the answer is none.

 

 

We rented bikes from Blazing Saddles (thanks for the suggestion Lizzie!) and rode across the bridge to Sausalito. A little bit of advice; maybe go to some spinning classes before your trip if you think you'd like to do this. Riding over there wasn't really hard at all. Being from Colorado we are used to pretty thin air and felt like we could ride for days, that is until we stopped for more than a minute. My legs quickly reminded me that I've been slacking in the working out department, and sitting on that bike seat hurts if you're not used to it.

 

 

And because rings are my souvinear of choice, here is my latest addition to the seashell ring collection. I'm up to five now! I also picked up a little jade ring in Chinatown for $2 but never took a picture of it. Maybe I'll get one on Instagram one of these days! (I'm @nikiley if ya wanna see)

 

 

On, and I also figured out that there is a CB2 in San Francisco and made Matt follow me around with a camera while I lost my mind. I'm planning on putting a post together just about that. I've also got an update on house painting and an easy watercolor project in the works to share. Hopefully I can get my shit together (I'm taking an English comp class that's kicking my butt) and get those written soon! In the meantime.... Have you ever been to San Francisco? What was your favorite thing there? Tell me what we missed out on!

 

Nikki Kelly