California

The Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco from the Marin Headlands.

September 12-14th I had a conference in San Francisco, so Mark, Michael, Claire and I decided to turn it into our latest adventure. We all flew out to CA on Thursday Sept 9th and were even able to get seats next to each other on the same flight from Atlanta to San Fran. We spent Thursday and Friday exploring the city. Eating fresh seafood on Peir 39, driving down Lombard Street, seeing the many different faces of The Golden Gate Bridge (depending on the fog) and driving out to the Pacific Coast. One of Claire's classmates from Duke let us stay at her house in Dublin, CA (about 45 minutes east of San Fran) for the weekend . . . thank you Esther & Henry!


On Sunday the 6 of us decided to drive through wine country to Bodega Bay on the Pacific Coast, then down Route 1 to Muir Woods and see the Redwoods before coming back from San Fran to Dublin. It was a long day of driving but we had a great time and got to see many different parts of California. We drove through very industrial areas, wetlands, beautiful hilly wine country, down the beautiful and VERY VERY curvy rugged coast, through the fog, over the mountains, through the redwoods and back through downtown San Fran; ending the night with a dinner of dungeness crab, fish and chips and chippino at the Fisherman's Grotto on the Wharf.

We took almost 1000 pictures in the 4 days we were all there (glad the trip wasn't any longer!) so I tried to pick just a few of my favorites to share.

Mark showing us Alkatraz

The Fisherman's Wharf

Boats at the Wharf

View from one of the Piers of Ghiradelli Square

Mark and I on Pier 39

The Golden Gate Bridge

A picture of us taking pictures

Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge

The Marin Headlands (Pacific Coast outside of San Francisco)

Our rental "car"

The bridge in the fog

Michael and Mark at Lombard Street

Lombard Street

Grapes at one of the wineries we passed by in Sonoma

More grapes . . . the light was really pretty

Fields and fields of grape vines

A quick stop to stretch out legs at the Korbel Cellars

Mark and I with the Redwoods :-)

The Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay

All of us at Bodega Bay

Muir Woods . . . where the Redwoods are . . .

Redwood Tree

The path through the woods

Mark and I hugging a Redwood.

The Redwood Forest (or at least a redwood forest)

After Mark, Michael and Claire flew back to the east coast I stayed for an extra 3 days for my conference and got to spend some much needed girl time with Rachel, Megan and Suzanne! Although we spent most of our time together sitting in Audiology lectures, we still had fun walking around San Francisco one evening, and playing catch up over lunch and dinner everyday.

And. . . one of the best parts of the trip was coming home to a house with floors and a desk and new computer at work! Next time when things need to get finished I'll just go on another trip right?

A funny e-mail from my brother!

Sister. I hope this gives you a good laugh.

Some background. I'm taking a class called Exploring Careers. For this next week
we had to do a career Test and it was composed of four different tests that give
you separate results and then they put all the tests into one composite matching
you with your best options.

For my results after test 1 . . .check out careertest1.jpg. Yeah. . .that is
what I am 99% match with...Love ya mom!


POTTER!


But the fun does not stop here. I continued to do all the tests and got my
composite score that shows me which careers match all four tests the best.

Now...please open careertest2.jpg.


AUDIOLOGIST!


Once again. I hope this gives you a good laugh :-)

- Bro

T.G.I.F!!!

Wow, am I glad it's Friday! Getting back from California mid week and then working 2 long days made for a long week! We came home from California to new floors in the house (and I had a desk and new computer in my office at work). Bailey was grinning from ear to ear (literally) when I got home on Wednesday night. She's so happy to be in her house again, with her beds and toys in the correct locations. Things are looking up! We have lots of pictures from our trip which we'll try to post soon, but first it's time to sleep!

San Francisco

We're off to San Francisco this week! Life has been crazy for the last month between traveling, moving offices, school starting, Mark starting a new job and the house being torn apart: This is a much needed vacation! We're rendezvousing with Michael and Claire in Atlanta on Thursday morning and are going to enjoy another long sibling weekend; on the west coast this time. We're hoping to explore downtown San Francisco (Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Lombard Street, etc) as well as take a day to drive up the coast and see the Redwoods. Mark, Michael and Claire fly back on Sunday and then I have a conference and get to spend time with Rachel, Megan and Suzanne through Wednesday. Hopefully when we return to Florida we have new floors in our house, I have a desk in my new office, and life will begin to settle down again. I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures to share when we return.

It's that time of year again . . .

Football season is here, possibly the best time of the year! I am looking forward to this first weekend of college football, even thought I might have an article in one hand and textbook in the other when I sit down to watch. We started opening weekend last night with pizza and good company watching the Pitt game at Devon's, and we'll end this inaugural weekend cheering on the Hokies Monday night. GO HOKIES and GO GATORS!