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!

Fun in the SF sun!

We had quite the weekend and it was wonderful! One of the many things we're enjoying the most in our new city is the endless outdoor activity. The weather is beautiful most of the time, so the city heads outdoors on the weekends. Mike looked into the San Francisco Bay Area Aggie Club and we lucked out because their kick-off to the upcoming football season was Saturday! We joined about 30 other Aggies at Crissy Field (near the Golden Gate Bridge) and enjoyed chatting with fellow transplants, eating BBQ and talking about College Station. Surprisingly, two other couples moved to San Francisco from Texas the same time we did...five weeks ago. We took a group photo, but it hasn't been posted to our Aggie group page yet. When it posts, I'll be sure to share on the blog.

While at the Aggie BBQ, Mike and I met his friend from high school and his fiance. They asked us to join them at the Giants baseball game the following day and we did! Here are some pictures from the afternoon at AT&T Park. Can you tell what a beautiful day it was? Don't let the pictures fool you though...it was a bit chilly in the 60s. But, the Giants won!

Such a pretty baseball field. I'm not really into baseball, but this stadium was pretty great.

Saturday was themed "The Dog Days of Summer" and people could bring their pups to the game with them. I about died when I saw this bulldog sporting a Giants jersey and baseball cap. He was completely chill and let people take photos of him left and right. I guess he's used to the papparazzi!

Certainly not our last visit to the AT&T Stadium. If you visit us next spring/summer, we'll be sure to take you to a Giants game.

Baseball? What, we're here to watch baseball? I kept watching the boats pass by.

Sneak Peak #2: Our bathroom. Not too exciting, huh? Luckily, Mike stays up late and I wake up early, so it never has to be shared.

This is what I, Erin, have to deal with as I get ready for work every morning. I have a system down, but seriously this counter (can you call it a counter?) is a lil' hard to maneuver with rollers, make-up and various other things.

I can't let my babies go without a shout-out in today's blog update. Toby and Bella say "hello" to all. Even though it's cooler in San Francisco, they still love to sunbathe every chance they get. Look...they are almost holding paws!!!

Wings Over Wine Country

To say that Mike is obsessed with planes is an understatement. When I learned of the Wings Over Wine Country Air Show, I knew we'd be headed there. It was such a beautiful day (sunny and low 70s)...not only did we enjoy the show, but the ride home was fun too!


Showing off my "wings" shirt...worn in the spirit of the air show.


Hitchin' a ride in an F-14 calleded "Buckeye Blitz"...the type of plane filmed in "Top Gun". (That tells you about my extensive knowledge in aircraft....I kept asking Mike if all of the planes were in "Top Gun").


Gig' 'em Aggies....displaying a lil' bit of Fightin' Texas Aggie pride! We are excited football season is just around the corner.

Mike was so excited to eat a turkey leg. Check out the ladies in the background...they thought it was so funny that I was taking a picture of Mike holding his pride and joy.

Sneak Peak

DINING ROOM
I never show anything until it's a finished product. With that said, one room in our apartment is complete and that is the dining room. I'll show you our other rooms as we finish unpacking them. We ran into a dilemna as to what to do with all of our china and crystal. Our Houston apartment had white shelves built into the wall to store everything, but our SF apartment has absolutely no storage whatsoever. It's also our philosophy to not spend big money on furniture until we are in a home, so I turned to Craigslist in search of a china cabinet. What you see is what we found for $110!!! I'd prefer it to be white and look a little more "beachy", but for $110 I'll take it as it is!


Here it is! Too bad we never eat in the dining room.

This is a painting we purchased on our recent trip to Maui. I just love it!

FARMER'S MARKET
Rather than spend another weekend unpacking, we decided to make Saturday a fun day. We started out at the Farmer's Market (at the Ferry Pier) near downtown. We did not have anything specific in mind to purchase (except for kettle corn), so we wandered around and bought a few things that looked yummy. Then, we ended up at an annual festival in Japantown.

I do not eat peppers, but thought they looked so pretty that I took this photo.


Mike found spinach and other not-so-yummy "green" foods. Doesn't his expression just scream excitement?

We were super excited to come across cheese! And all sorts of cheese! We ended up purchasing four different kinds.

I found my kettle corn popcorn! This just made my day!! And yes, I can polish off an entire bag by myself. :)

Painting and Unpacking x 1,000!!!

Mike, Toby, Bella and myself have lived in our new home for 8 days. We've certainly made progress in the apartment....painted the kitchen, the dining and living rooms, and our bedroom. And, we've unpacked an unreal amount of boxes for our tiny 2-bedroom place. We wanted to share some pictures of us from this past week. I promise to post pictures of the "finished product" sometime in the near future. Since we both work full-time, it limits our time to unpack...but we're getting there!

What's going on???


And the painting begins....changing the bedroom color from beige to surf blue.

Cheese.....this is fun!


All of this painting is so exhausting....

Attempting to unpack the living room.

The super, tiny kitchen covered in packing paper. The narly white board on the wall behind me is now gone!