san francisco – Page 6 – East Bay Mama

Mendocino Lake

^^ heart eyes^^ Juno’s Frenchie Boyfriend Jax Driving home through vineyards…

This weekend we camped in Mendocino Lake, about 120 miles north of San Francisco, through wine country. It was absolutely beautiful & the weather was spectacular. It is so nice to get out of San Francisco’s mid to high 60’s & actually experience some summer heat. I always forget how great camping is, it just really makes it feel like summer. And I must admit I think it’s a lot more fun with a dog. Juno got to hang out with her Frenchie boyfriend Jax & a 1 year old golden retriever so needless to say she had a phenomenal time. Although sharing a 3 person tent with a seventy pound labrador puppy is less than ideal. It was so nice to unplug and just enjoy being outside with good friends. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Batteries to Bluffs

The face of a tired but very happy puppy!

Batteries to Bluffs is by far one of my favorite “urban hikes” in San Francisco. I love this hike for so many reasons. The views are incredible, even on a cloudy or slightly foggy day you get beautiful scenes of the Golden Gate Bridge. On a clear day you can easily see the Marin Headlands & the Point Bonita Lighthouse. In the springtime the trail is lined with countless wildflowers that you can see in my photos. Another reason why I love this hike? STAIRS! With more than 500 stairs along this trail you’re guaranteed a good workout & pretty spectacular view for “leg day”. It’s also a sure fire way to tire any puppy out. Not only will you experience phenomenal coastal panoramas but there’s also plenty of history along the hike. These batteries were built in 1900 & designed to protect underwater minefields outside the Golden Gate. By 1943 it was closed & all the guns were scrapped. It’s pretty cool getting to walk literally on top of history where men before our time fought to protect our lives & now I’m hiking with my puppy across the same batteries they stood guard at, crazy! So if you find yourself in San Francisco wanting to try something new & off the beaten path (no pun intended) definitely check out Batteries to Bluffs trail. On the weekends the hike can get a little crowded but most weekdays you may only see a handful a people, another reason why I can’t get enough. Do you have a favorite urban hike? If so I’d love to hear about in the comments below!

Easter Bunny Fun

This year I couldn’t resist putting together a little Easter package for my two year old niece. Everything photographed, except the California bear sweater came from the dollar aisle in target! I hadn’t planned on getting any Easter gear but after strolling through the aisle I couldn’t help picking a few things up, Target’s Easter stuff was just too cute! The sweater dress pictured is from baby gap & I absolutely love how it’s the California bear. I love getting seasonal items and sending little packages to family and friends. Now that my niece is starting to get old enough to appreciate all the holidays I’m sure the Targetaisle will be getting frequented a lot more often. 🙂 I wanted to post this & show you can easily put together a seasonal basket for less than $20 & it’s sure to bring some happiness to who ever received it.

Valentine’s Getaway – Tahoe City

^^^This sunrise woke me up – talk about forgetting you went to bed at 3am!

^^This photo reminds me so much of a Bob Ross Landscape…

I swear this dog and look so majestic one minute ^ and then so goofy then next …

^^My two Valentine’s this year – I’m one lucky girl.

^^Juno actually does really well on car rides – she usually just snoozes the whole way, like below…

^^True Life: Being a Puppy Mom is Exhausting.

When it comes to Valentine’s Day low-key has always been Chris & my take on the holiday; especially since my birthday falls two weeks afterward! Usually a nice dinner out is the extent of our Valentine’s Day plans. This year however we had no plans up until the last minute when we decided to drive up to Tahoe once Chris got off work on Friday. We ended up leaving SF at 9pm which made for a lonnnng & sleepy car ride but thankfully we made it & woke up to the most beautiful sunrise over Lake Tahoe! I can’t remember the last impulsive decision we made that turned out this good, except maybe adopting Juno on Black Friday 😉 Tahoe was the perfect escape – we took Juno down to the lake for a few hours on Saturday & let her play in the snow & she even decided she wanted to go into the frigid lake – she would have kept fetching indefinitely – so we finally had to end the game. The rest of the weekend was spent with good food, great wine & bouncing between soaking in the hot tub & tiring the puppy out. All in all it was a Valentine’s to remember. Hope everyone had a great day celebrating love in all it’s forms, I was thankful to be with my little family in such a beautiful location.

Baker Beach Day

^^^ Happiness is a sandy snout – Juno spent a good portion of her time yesterday trying to dig gigantic holes in the sand! It feels like a lifetime but we’ve only had Juno, our black lab, for 2 months. It’s been so fun getting to explore San Francisco with our newest fur-baby. Yesterday we ventured out to Baker Beach. The weather was so strange but when we got to the beach the sun was actually out. The cloudcover made for some pretty amazing photos, especially with that little bridge in the back drop. Baker Beach is an awesome mile long beach tucked beneath the Presidio Cliffs with phenomenal views of the Golden Gate Bridge & Marin Headlands. It’s hard to believe that a beach this beautiful can be empty enough to let my puppy run around! Yesterdays beach trip was the perfect start to the weekend! We’re off to the foot hills this weekend to let Juno explore the 4 acres my parents live on. Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Wintery Weekends

Chorizo & Potato Hash with sauteed mushrooms, topped with micro greens, cherry tomatoes & an over easy egg! So.Nomz.

Our Cheat Day Cheese Board

Slate Board & Cheese Knives : Williams Sonoma Here & Here

The first two weekends of 2016 have been pretty low key I’ve had to work all or part of the weekends so we’ve been just enjoying San Francisco Winter! Juno has been enjoying kissing / biting all the Christmas Trees good bye around our neighborhood, it’s kind of hilarious.

In terms of New Year resolutions? I’m sure ours are a lot like some of yours. I have a few for 2016 that I listed below. The last two years I’ve tried to step up my reading game. I fell short of my resolution last year to read 15 books, I managed to read 13 so I’m still counting that as a victory! My reading resolution makes the list again this year.

2016 Resolutions

Read – I dropped my goal back down to 10 books for the year. Stay tuned for some of my favorites & what books that will be making this years reading list! [pro tip: if you want to try this I highly recommend choosing lighter reads toward the end, I was trying to finish a pretty dense & lonnnng book & ended up struggling the last two months.]

Consciousness Eating – This year I’m going to try to stick to allowing myself one cheat day per week as well as minimizing my snacking at work. The nursing station is littered with temptations: chips, donuts, candy, you name it, it’s there.

10k Steps – I started the new year with a new Fitbit & I couldn’t be more excited for this resolution. When I graduated college I had one of the original Fitbits & I was really into all the tracking. Over time & two trips in the washer (oops!), it eventually died. I’ve been talking about replacing it for ages & courtesy of my husband I’m back tracking steps, flights, mileage & I love it.

52 Week Money Saving Challenge – this is part resolution part challenge. If I just resolved to “save money” I’ll fail. I need specific, goal directed, assessable, realistic goals / resolutions. So using a simple week by week saving chart keeps me on track & motivated; The same way my Fitbit keeps me motivated to get active. Here’s the challenge I’m doing, thanks to the Stingy Saver!

This past Sunday was my cheat day & earlier in the week I had decided I was going to try and make a Chorizo Hash for breakfast! Well it turned out even better than expected, it was so good I forgot to put cheese on it… that never happens! But don’t worry cheese came later in the day when Chris & I broke out our fancy Cheese / Charcuterie set & enjoyed pre – dinner appetizers & cocktails & started Making a Murderer (so good!).

Hope everyone is having an amazing start to the year! Do you have any awesomely attainable New Years Resolutions? If so I’d love to read about them in the comments section below!

Tuesdays with Ocean Beach

My favorite time to visit Ocean Beach is mid week when you share the 3 miles of beach with just a handful of people. I swear there were more people in the water than on the actual beach itself on Tuesday. After living here for 7 years Ocean Beach just never loses it’s appeal, even when it’s foggy and cold I still think it’s one of the best / most beautiful places in the city. Tuesday was a perfect day to head to the beach in sweatshirt with a good book in tow. Above are some of the photos that were captured on this spur of moment beach trip. Hope you enjoy.

Weekend Recap

This weekend was our 3rd Annual Family Golf Open; each year we pick a bay area golf course, my dad & brother travel from the Sacramento area and Chris & I triple bogey our way through 18 holes… It’s always a great time. This year we played Lincoln Park Golf Course in San Francisco, which is located along side the Land’s End Trail. The course is filled with glimpses of the Golden Gate, fairways that open out to the city skyline. The 17th hole has a picture perfect view of the Golden Gate right at the tee off. I’ll also add the the course has incredible customer service. I managed to drop my phone along the way & it was returned to the club house & then delivered to me via golf cart 3 holes later!! Amazing! We enjoyed a delicious dinner in Laurel Heights before my family headed home. That night Chris & I decided to break out the fancy bar set we received as a wedding present & make fancy cocktails. We served them in beautiful TIffany&Co tumbler glasses, another wedding present. As for Sunday scones, football & italian panini were on the agenda. The recipe for these sandwiches is here!

Wedding Card Keepsake

For those newlyweds out there trying to decide what to purge and what to save from the post wedding madness, this is a compact way to hold on to all the well wishes from your guests. All you need is a mini binder, a hole punch & about 40 minutes.

After our wedding there were so many odds & ends to handle, aside from changing my name, storing my dress etc. We had a pile of wedding cards from friends family that I couldn’t bring myself to toss. So they sat on a pile of other wedding leftovers that don’t have a home in our apartment yet…

Typically I am not one to save all my cards, I usually scan meaningful cards and incorporate them in the annual photo album I make, but for our wedding cards that seemed excessive. Instead, I purchased a small binder from Target & punched holes in the cards. There were a handful of cards that couldn’t be punched through because of their design so I added a small pocket on the inside of the binder to keep those cards safe. The binder found a home in the box holding onto the rest of the wedding mementos. All in all this project took me about 40 minutes & cost about $5!

Calistoga Escape

Calistoga you are a dream come true, located 75 miles north-east of San Francisco, experience the same warm weather, fantastic wines but a fraction of the Napa crowds.

Lincoln avenue is lined with tasting rooms, restaurants & boutiques.

Most tasting rooms we found had excellent prices & generous pours of delicious local wines.

^^These pours were found at Huge Bear Tasting Room, which was once the location of the Calistoga Bank.

At Romeo Winery tasting room you can be surrounded by tall redwoods in their outdoor tasting garden.

A can’t miss Calistoga experience is the gondola at Sterling Winery.

A 4 minute gondola ride leads to outrageous views of the valley.

Off in the distance you’re able to see a castle…

Three miles away Castello di Amorosa winery awaits you. $25 buys you general admission & the basic wine tasting which includes 5 wines.

Visitors are able to wander the castle grounds or enjoy the sunshine in the courtyard.

My pretty friends 🙂

After a day of gondolas & castles & many wine pours later we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Sam’s Social Club, located in downtown Calistoga.

^^ Those deviled eggs were no joke; a must if you’re there.

We stayed at The Roman Spa, not only is this resort just one block from Lincoln Avenue, but the resort has 3 mineral pools that stay open until 10:30. The pools range in temperature from 90 degrees to 104.

Aside from the pools, Roman Spa has luscious gardens that I could spend all day capturing.

Hope you can see why & how we fell in love with Calistoga.

	February Round up… on Legos in the Laundry
	February Round up… on Tahoe 25′
	January Round up… on 25 in 2025 List
	25 in 2025 List… on 20 in 2020
	25 in 2025 List… on 21 in 2021