We've officially been in SF for one week!

It is hard to believe that Mike and I have been in our new city for one week. We toured the Bay Area while Davy was in town and took a Mr. Toad tour today to obtain a better feel for the city. Here are some highlights of our sightseeing adventures. Mike and I hope these pictures make you want to hop on a plane and visit us!

Muir Woods

Muir Beach...north of San Francisco.


What a view! Possibly our Christmas card photo?


We drove through Muir Forest which contains incredibly large trees, beautiful views, winding roads, and beautiful lakes like the one pictured above.

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is a neat beach town. It has the longest pier I've ever seen. Davy and I are pictured on the pier with a shot of the beach/boardwalk in the background.


Sleepy sealion. :)


Santa Cruz was by far the coldest beach I've ever visited. 60 degree weather on the coast in July??!!??!! Guess I better get used to staying fully clothed on the Nor Cal beaches.

Mr. Toad's Tour of San Francisco

Chinatown....what an awesome neighborhood of the city. We ate wonderful Chinese dishes and learned many interesting tidbits about this area. For example, the locals shop for fresh produce/meat twice a day...before lunch and dinner.


The woman pictured above is making fortune cookies. It was a small factory, but smelled wonderful! We purchased an entire bag of them.


Mike really enjoyed his cookies!


Do you recognize these homes? Look familiar? These homes, known as the "painted ladies", are the opening scene of Full House. These beautiful homes cost about $3 million a piece.

So, I hope these pictures have provided you with a lil' taste of our new city. Both Mike and I have been busy working (I started my new job last Monday), but plan to take advantage of every free evening/weekend to explore our new home. Y'all come down and visit now!

The Halls Invade California!

After 2 1/2 days on the road, we made it to San Francisco! Davy joined us and helped drive, plus it was nice to have someone to talk to in the car.

DAY 1

We started our journey at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday and traveled across Texas to El Paso. Remember the good ol' Junction Boys? Well, we passed through Junction (not much to see) and the wind farms in west Texas.

Junction, Texas


West Texas Wind Farm

Pretty West Texas Landscape


Random mariachi band at the Taco Cabana in El Paso. The view on the patio of the restaurant was Juarez, Mexico. We even saw the border wall as we were leaving our hotel the next morning.

DAY 2

We decided to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to get an early start on the road. Mission was to arrive in Los Angeles by 4:00 p.m. Goal was accomplished! Mike's cousin, Matt, lives in LA and was kind enough to take us to dinner and show us the sights of the City of Angels. Matt's girlfriend, Molly, was also a great host/guide...what a fun city!

Beautiful sunrise in New Mexico.


Bella was wide awake and decided to take a peek at the sun's rays.

Beautiful New Mexico landscape.

Thank goodness we didn't experience a dust storm; however, we did drive through some pretty narly storms.

One of the few times Toby was happy during the ride. For the most part, he was sedated.

Arizona!

Not really sure how this sleeping arrangement happened?!

We made it.....hooray for Hollywood!

The traveling trio take a break to eat dinner.

DAY 3

On the road again....

On I-5 through the rolling hills of Cali.

We made it!!!! After 2 1/2 days in the car, we finally made it to our new city, San Francisco. I promise to post more pictures of our weekend adventures soon. You are welcome to visit us any time!

Packing Day

It is hard to believe that our apartment is packed and everything is on a truck headed to beautiful San Francisco. Toby and Bella were quite the help...see below.

Picture perfect!

Isn't this bath mat a great napping spot?


Houston has been experiencing thunderstorms...Toby hates thunder. Between the thunder and the movers, Toby turned to his "pacifier" and walked around the house for 45 minutes with it. He was quite upset, poor thing.

The truck with all of our things inside. Hope it has safe travels out west!

Last time in our first apartment together...this was our home for three years. Goodbye Houston, Hello San Francisco!

San Francisco Bound!

We're relocating to San Francisco next week...yay! Mike is transferring with his company and I am excited to explore a new part of the country. I informed my employer last week and it happened to be the same morning my supervisor quit too. We were shocked! Basically, I went to my supervisor's office (extremely nervous) first thing Wednesday morning to deliver the news. I barely spoke three sentences when my supervisor starting laughing. I just stared at her wondering what in the world she was laughing about. After a minute, she stopped laughing, held up a white envelope, and said she was also turning in her resignation. What are the odds of that happening!!!??? Needless to say, things have been a lil' chaotic in the work place. Plus, we learned in a staff meeting that they are only filling one position for the both of ours. The hospital views this as a way to save more money (the system went through lay-offs four weeks ago). I just feel awful for my co-workers who will now be taking on additional work.

So with that out of the way, Mike and I had a big task ahead of us...find an apartment in one weekend. His company arranged for an agent to take us around San Fran to view various rentals this past weekend. Of the many we viewed, we had at our eyes on two apartments in Pacific Heights. Lucky for us, the landlord picked us out of many candidates for one of our favorites. The perk is that it includes some luxuries not always found in San Fran apartments...a dishwasher, washer/dryer, and a parking spot (the parking spot is huge!). However, it's on the tiny side. The showing was so chaotic that I did not have the chance to take photos, but I promies to post them when it's ours on August 1st.

We were fortunate to have dinner with our great friends, Brittany and Drue, who have lived in the Bay Area for the past two years. They know the area and gave us wonderful advice about the city. Brittany was my roommate in college...who would have thought we'd both be living in California? While Brittany and Drue are relocating to Bakersfield, Mike and I plan to have weekend visits and spend Thanksgiving together!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE come visit us! It's so beautiful out there and I can provide about a million reasons why you should see us and visit beautiful San Fran. Stay tuned....I'll be updating you as plans progress.