Fall has arrived...sort of...

I love fall....absolutely love it. And it's felt like fall in San Francisco up until the official start of the fall season this past week. It's been hitting 90 degrees lately, and living in an apartment without air conditioning means it can become quite toasty. We decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and headed to my favorite spot...the beach! We visited Santa Cruz the first weekend we moved here and loved it so much that we went back. Here are a few pictures from the beautiful day.

I love, love, love the holidays and enjoy decorating for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. To get in the spirit, I decorated our mantel and baked a pumpkin cake (thank you Martha Stewart: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pumpkin-cake-with-brown-butter-icing).

My sweet, lil' Toby loves everyone and enjoys visitors to his home. Our friends Brittany and Drue stayed with us last Saturday....Brittany calls me into the spare room and this is what I find...

Toby had weasled himself under the pillows and would not leave the room. He ended up sleeping with his Aunt Brittany!

On another note, this will be the last blog post for a few weeks. I have a week of events to manage at work beginning with our annual Gala called "Spectacular". This year's Gala theme is "Are you ready for a Wicked evening?"...a take off of the Broadway Musical "Wicked". One of the stars of the show who played Glinda on Broadway and in LA will perform a few of her songs from the musical. It should be a wonderful evening and all of the proceeds benefit St. Rose Hospital.

Ghirardelli = Yummy Goodness

Ghirardelli Square

I've had the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival on my calendar since we moved to SF. I love sugar in any form. So, we take the bus from our place to Ghiradelli Square for their annual chocolate festival on Saturday only to find the lines to sample chocolate at 20 minutes each. Neither of us was down to pay $20 for 6 small chocolate samples, so we went to the Ghiradelli store instead. They handed everyone free chocolate (their new pumpkin spice flavor...yum!) and I purchased my own Halloween treats and chocolate/orange cream bars. I'm super excited for the upcoming holiday season. I LOVE pumpkins, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and became very excited while at Ghirardelli because it was already decorated for Halloween! Here are a couple of pictures of our chocolate adventure.

Here I am pictured with my chocolate at Ghirardelli!



Fort Mason & Marina

It was a beautiful day, so Mike and I decided to take advantage of the sun and do more sightseeing. After our visit to Ghirardelli, we trekked around the Fort Mason and Marina areas then rested our feet at a great Italian dig.

Fort Mason near the Golden Gate Bridge.


Beautimus!!!! One of these days we plan to walk across the bridge.


Gorgeous tree-lined path that led to a beautiful meadow.


Ships from China come to and from SF every day filled with cargo. When it's fogging, you can hear the ships blowing their horns. It sounds a lil' eerie!


Adorable swans who let passerbys hand feed them.

The Palace of Fine Arts

Sneak Peek #3
Here are a few pictures of our living room. I'd eventually like to replace the rug and side chair to match the color scheme a bit better. But so far, it looks great!

First Visit to Napa

Mike and I spent the holiday weekend in Napa. It was beautiful! Napa is only an hour drive from San Francisco, yet it felt a world away. We stayed near downtown Napa at the Embassy Suites for three days/nights and filled our days with visits to wineries and restaurants. Toby and Bella even came along. Here are some pictures of the highlights of our trip.


First wine tasting at Patz & Hall.


We couldn't pass this sign without stopping for a photo opp.


Here's the grand entrance to the beautiful Castello di Amerosa. Second tasting here we come!

The owner of the winery loves castles and frequently visits Europe. Castello di Amerosa was completed in 2007...modeled after European castles. When you visit us, we're taking you here! We enjoyed an hour long tour followed by a great tasting.

I'm pictured inside the caves where the wine is housed in barrels for up to two years. The caves are kept at 58 degrees and about 80% humidity.

Mike tasting red wine straight from the barrel!

View from the top of the castle.

Pretty grape vines! September/October is harvest time; however, Napa and all of Nor Cal have experienced a milder summer so harvest is about 2-3 weeks behind schedule.

Day #2: The gorgeous, tree lined entrance to Sterling Vineyards. Mike didn't care for the wine, but the tour was neat.

We could not pass up the Hall Winery without stopping to say hello. :) While here, we met another couple who decided to stop by the Hall Winery because their last name was Hall too!

Day #3: The beautiful Beringer Estate. Beringer Brothers was our last stop of the weekend...what a great way to end a super fun, relaxing vacation.

CHEERS!