Evie's Adventures: Mountain Lake Park

On Tuesday, Evie and I checked out a new park. I literally looked on Google Maps for an area to go, saw this little lake, and decided to go! So, we headed to Mountain Lake Park.

This lake is just a 10 min drive from our house and sits next to Park Presidio Blvd, which we take all of the time to go over the Golden Gate Bridge. I had NO idea there was a lake right next to that street!

Here's Evie checking out the lake. She was running in the water and of course, panicked when it got deeper than she wanted to go.

 More history at the park

 I think Evie is sitting here thinking, "Please stop making me pose for pictures"

 Mountain Lake Park is a cute little park with a lake, dog park, and little workout stations throughout the park

This park wasn't as exciting as some of our other walks but it was fun to find a lake for Evie to run in.

Evie's Adventures: The Presidio

 Yesterday, I got home a little early from work and wanted to give Evie a good walk. Some days, I can't face doing a normal walk through our neighborhood and crave seeing a new area or park, just as much as Evie probably does. So, we hopped in the car and went up to the Presidio. We have been up there a few times because she loves to run around. This time, we explored further and found some new-to-us locations up there!

Rolling around in the grass

 Checking out the scene

 Disney Museum - Haven't been yet

Love all of the old buildings in the Presidio

View of the Bridge

Lounging

The SF National Cemetary

The Chapel

We actually (well, I) learned something on our visit today by reading those historic signs. So, that was exciting! I think we will keep finding new parks, drive to them, and explore so that we both don't get tired of our routes!

The U.S. Gymnastics Olympic Trials

When I was younger, I was obsessed with women's gymnastics. OBSESSED. I would tape competitions on TV and try to learn the routines. I knew every gymnast, her coach's name, her floor music, her achievements, her flaws, etc. I loooooved Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes. When the "Magnificent 7" competed in the Atlanta 1996 Gymnastics, I was literally glued to the TV for the week.

Anyway, I loved and still love gymnastics. So, when the Olympic Trials were coming to San Jose, I knew I had to be there. Yesterday, Betsy, Sarah, Cristin, and I went down to the HP Pavillion to see the trials and it was AWESOME.

To start the evening off right, as we were walking to our seats, I saw someone. I thought, could it be her? And yes, it was her - DOMINIQUE DAWES. She was so awesome to take a photo with us. I  was soooo excited!

Me, DOMINIQUE, Cristin

After seeing Dominique, we headed inside to watch the meet. We saw all of the contenders - Jordyn Weiber, Aly Raisman, Mikayla Maroney, Nastia Liukin, Alicia Sacramone.....it was awesome.

Jordyn on Bars

Alicia on Beam

Shawn Johns and MARY LOU Retton!

The one & only - Bela Karolyi, in the tan jacket

More Alicia

What an event. We had so much fun and it was SO EXCITING to be there, see the gymnastics, and of course, get a photo with Dom Dawes. I can die happy now :-)

Action Packed Weekend: Sunday

Sunday morning, I drove up to Sausalito to see our friends Lisa, Justin, and their 2 month old baby, Oliver. It was my first time meeting Oliver and he is so cute - so small and precious! We hung out at their place and then walked to the super cute downtown of Sausalito for breakfast.


After breakfast, we went back up to their place and opened the gifts I brought for Oliver. I literally could not control myself in Baby Gap and got him three, cute & preppy onesies and these adorable little slip on shoes.

After seeing the baby, I headed back to SF and took Evie to Baker Beach to run around. She has been ready to lose her mind so I knew I had to get her out and about.

It was overcast so the beach was pretty empty. She had fun running around in the water and going up into the trails. I wish I could take her off leash but we all know that is never going to happen. Just glad I was able to get her out and let her run.

While we were out, Erik was home working on his computer and computer desk. He has been working on creating a media center for us so that we don't have to use the laptop to stream Netflix. He was able to build it and let it live under his desk and we just use a remote to watch everything on TV. So cool!

Now what I did after the beach, is probably a once in a lifetime thing that I was sooooooooo excited for.....

Action Packed Weekend: Saturday

This weekend was fun filled to the max. On Saturday, we had our Team In Training run with our team at Baker Beach. It was a foggy day and the run was on Land's End trail. This trail is hard to run! We walked this the day before our wedding and we were all breathing heavy. To run it, is a different story! I did 4 miles and Erik did 5 miles.

Erik went surfing in the afternoon while I did some errands/got a mani/pedi. We both took hard core naps on the couch in the late afternoon which were amazing!! haha

On Saturday night, we decided to try out a wine bar we haven't been to called Yield Wine Bar.

We shared a bottle of  Three Wine Company Zinfandel which was delish!

"Golfing"

Last Saturday, a few of us girls decided to go golfing. Three of us have golfed in the past, one of us had not. We decided to go to a local, Par 3 course in Golden Gate Park which is a pretty short course & good for beginners. Unfortunately, there was a 45 min wait so we sat down and had a beer. They still weren't calling our group, so we had another beer. At this point, two out of four of us wanted to just go to the driving range instead.

Sooooo, we packed up and headed to the Presidio Driving Range instead. Turned out to be a shorter wait and more fun than probably attemptin 9 holes.

After golfing, we stopped for a snack at Fly Bar. Later on, we headed to Zeitgeist for drinks and discovered Arinell Pizza. I've heard of it but never tried it. It was delicious - thin and NYC-ish.

Me, Tiffany, & Kelsey

It turned out to be a really fun day. It went a little different than we planned but it was a great day with friends!

Food Truck Frenzy

On Friday, Erik and I finally went to "Off The Grid" in the Presidio. Off The Grid has been around for awhile and is essentially the gathering of amazing food trucks in the city. They have Off The Grid in different neighborhoods on different days but Friday is the big Kahuna. We decided to finally go, since we have not been to try everything in one spot before.

We walked around and stopped and ate where we saw fit. I did go into the event thinking I wanted a fried chicken sandwich so I was sort of on the hunt for it.
 
We first stopped at Wing Wings for some limon pepper wings which were pretty good. Then, we found 3 Sum Meats where they had...fried chicken sandwiches! We got one each and also got a Funfetti Twinkie from them. I also wanted the Mac & Cheese spring rolls but knew I would be stuffed. Next time!

We really wanted to try this Vietnamese truck for a noodle bowl but after the fried chicken, we were done. At this point, it was also starting to heavy mist/fog was sitting on top of us, so we headed home.

Off The Grid was awesome and I can't wait to go back!!

Seward Slides Walk

Evie and I decided to take a looonnng walk one day this week and so we set out to find the Seward Slides. The slides are a pair of concrete slides literally hidden in the Castro. They are snuggled in between two homes and a small community garden. So Cool! I love hidden stuff in SF like this, especially all of the random staircases we have found in the area.

We walked approx. 3.5 mile round trip to find the slides and go home. It was a long walk but it was great. Thank goodness for Google Maps on my phone to help us get there! Here they are:



Unfortunately, the slides were closed at the time we arrived. I'm sure Evie would've loved going down. haha. We also hit up Kite Hill on our way to the slides, which had an amazing view of the city.


Evie loved exploring new streets and smells. We really love just finding new places and walking to check them out. It is how we learned to get around and see new things in SF!

Now, we have to head back to the slides when they are actually open to go down.

Exploring Oakland

Now that I work in Oakland, I am SO excited to explore the city. Oakland has so many good restaurants and bars. I really would never go over there if it weren't for work. Think of SF'ers going to Oakland like Manhattaners going to New Jersey. haha It's a shame though because Oakland has a lot to offer.

My first stop on exploring Oakland was dinner at Haven with Nicole & Andrea.It is in Jack London Square, near the water. Great restaurant design; very open and airy. Service was pretty good. The food was just OK and pricey.

We shared a beet and burrata salad to start and that was delish. For dinner, I had the cod which was ok. It was pretty salty. Nicole had a pasta with pancetta and an egg which she liked. She ordered squash on the side though and it was SO good. Andrea had the vegetarian dish with polenta which we all loved and that was probably the winning dish.

Cute place, but the food wasn't that great. Don't think we will be back since there is so much more to explore in Oakland!

Fun Weekend

This weekend was all fun, all weekend! We kicked off the weekend on Friday by heading to Lucky 13 to celebrate our friend Greg's 30th birthday. Betsy was there, Tiffany came into the city, Amy came out, and it was a great time!

Saturday AM at 7am didn't feel like a great time but we all showed up to run at 8 am together. We all ran together because we are training for the Nike half and full marathon with Team in Training! We have been at it a few weeks and it's going great. We run with the team on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We are only up to running the 3 miles at a time. Betsy & I are running the Half and the husbands are running the full. They are already up to 5mile runs!

After running, we headed up to Marin county with Betsy and Greg to the Inkwells in Lagunitas, CA. It was So hot on Saturday - in the 80's and even warm in SF. Underneath the Inkwell bridge, there are these natural pools and streams that you can go to layout near and swim in. We set up seats and just sat in the sun & lounged all afternoon. The boys jumped off the rock at one point into the pool and everyone else there was jumping in, too. I stuck to just hanging out in the shallow water - it was COLD!

After chillin' in the sun, we went to Iron Springs Pub & Brewery for a drink. They had a bunch of beers on tap which was awesome. We were also able to sit outside in the heat which was great. That is not something you get to do often in SF!


It was great to get to be up in Marin and see all of the cute towns, with woods all around, and warm weather.

Sunday was another fun day that started off with breakfast at one of our fave spots, Radish! It was a Doggie Father's Day breakfast to Erik. haha. Evie even gave him a card today to tell him how much she loved him. We hit up the Farmer's Market, Erik surfed, and I got a mani/pedi. To wrap up the day, we saw Prometheus. 

 It's not my type of movie but it was pretty good to watch - action packed with gross alien scenes. haha

Great weekend with friends and lots of FUN. Here's to a great week!

Helllloooo

Wow it has been about a month since I last posted on this blog! We are alive and well over here. We had an amazing wedding weekend and a wonderful trip to Mexico. I started my new job and Erik and I joined the Team In Training team to run the Nike Half Marathon in October. Lots of exciting stuff happening and we are looking forward to a really fun summer!! I will try to post some photos and do some official updates this weekend.