The first of our many adventures with Dan.

Thursday morning our friend Dan arrived at the Oakland airport, ready for adventures.  They woke me from my night shift slumber then we all piled into the Sentra and headed into the city.

We got a late lunch at Fisherman's Wharf and wandered around the area for a little. 

 On our way back North to San Rafael, we stopped at our favorite spot to see the bridge..

This is me trying to discuss the options for my next job with my company all the while trying not to laugh at Tanya and Ashley..

It was so lovely out. We kept driving down a back road past  the bridge and to a beautiful beach, where we did some hiking and explorin'

We got back to the apartment in the evening. Aaron and another traveler named James joined us for pizza and lots of laughs.

Early Friday morning we loaded into Ashley's car and drove across Cali to Yosemite National Park.

What could've prepared us for two days and a night in the wilderness more than a stop at In n Out Burger?

Yosemite was so beautiful and fun.. There will be a blog post dedicated to our wilderness adventures coming up. Stay tuned to see mind blowingly beautiful pics :)


just a taste..

Hi Hello, Haile!

Thursday afternoon Laura Haile arrived in San Rafael.  Still in a night shift stupor, I drove to pick her up from a conveniently close airport shuttle stop, then we went to breakfast/lunch at Theresa and Johnny's.

Later in the afternoon we went shopping at some of San Rafael's thrift shops and spent money on other people's unwanted clothes. In the evening we went to San Francisco, more specifically the California Academy of Sciences for their Nightlife.  Every Thursday they have cocktails and exhibits until 10pm. Most evenings also include a themed dance party, sometimes swing, blues, jazz, or for our visit, a local DJ.

We grabbed a drink and walked around the huge aquarium, first. 

I really like aquariums.

And this one was really great.

 The feature in the Planetarium for the evening was about Earth's adventures and history exploring space.  Very interesting.

When we exited the theater it seemed like there were way more people at the museum than earlier.

We made our way to the dance floor where they were having a "silent dance party".

They gave everyone that entered the dance floor headphones which played the DJ's music.  This decreased sound pollution, but still allowed people to dance and have a good time.

It was so bizarre to see all of these people dancing to no music, then you put your headphones on, and it made total sense.

 We made our way through the dance floor and left to explore more exhibits.

We left the museum and the scientific dance party, got some frozen yogurt, then came back to my apt and crashed.

Friday am we got up and left San Rafael early for a special wine tour with the winemaker at Iron Horse Vineyards.

It was a beautiful day today, we couldn't have asked for nicer weather.  It was only four of us that went on the tour; me, Laura, and a retired couple from Ohio (small world). The wine maker drove us around the vineyard in his truck and told us as much as he could in, laymen's terms, the basics of grape growing and wine making.

Wine making is fascinating.  And wine tasting is delicious.

The winemaker was really interesting and let us do and see all kinds of things.  The couple that was also in the group was really friendly and asked great questions that Laura and I never would have thought to ask.

After three hours we had to stop, for two reasons; one, we were hungry. Two, a few more samples and we would have been feeling a little silly..

We stopped for lunch at a local place, then ventured north again to Lynmar Estate Winery. 

This place is just gorgeous. 

We moved on again, this time driving due West, to the coast. 

We found Bodega Bay, but most of the shops were closed.  The beach was lovely, but with gale force winds blasting sand in our faces, we couldn't do much exploring.

Next we went South down the Pacific Coast Highway.  While in Southern California much of this roadway is directly on the coast, it's more inland up here for a bit. For about an hour, Highway 1 wound through farms and state beaches.  

We had beautiful views of sounds and bays, but the ocean was separated from us by hills or trees. Until we reached Stinson Beach.

We watched the sunset for a short time because the freezing cold wind pushed us back in to my car.  But what we did see was beautiful.

There are tons of these bushes on the beach full of these purple flowers, so I took a few for my table..

Back in the car, we took the windy and narrow PCH inland, go on the freeway, and arrived at my apt for the evening.  Tired from a day of wine, driving, and beautiful views, we ordered pizza, watched a movie, and crashed.