Funny Stuff

Aimee, my super funny and talented sister, has a hilarious blog...if you ever need a good laugh check it out!  Especially read the post about how leggings are NOT pants!  

Good stuff!

For unto us a child is born

“And there were in the same country Shepards abiding in
the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the
angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone
round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said
unto them, ‘fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great
joy which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this
shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in
swaddling clothes lying in the manger.’ And suddenly, there was
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and
saying, ‘glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good
will toward men.’  That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. ”

-Linus, A Charlie Brown Christmas 

Merry Christmas!!!

Not quite elves...

They aren't elves, but they do love Christmas...

Ok, maybe they just love sitting by the fire.

Although...I did get a little extra help with the wrapping this year...

The end of a great vacation

Trolley Car

The one thing I really wanted to do while in San Fransisco was to ride a trolley car (while singing the Rice-a-Roni jingle).  Its just one of those things that you HAVE to do while in San Fran.  It only cost $5 to ride the car one way, but we stood in line for 45 minutes waiting to get on.  Apparently everyone in the city had the same idea.  The trolley runs on tracks that are built into the ground.  When the trolley gets to the turn-around station it gets pushed by hand to the end and turned around.

 

 

 

When it was finally our turn to board the trolley we wanted to make sure that we got a spot on the side so we could stand up and hold on to the poles.  We lucked out and was able to get a great spot, but it was a little awkward because you were practically standing in someone's lap and holding on.  

 

 They tell you to hold on tight when they are taking off, but you have to make sure you hold on tight when they take turns as well!  The turns go pretty fast!  Unfortunately we rode on the wrong side of the car because you can high-five the trolley going the other direction if you are on the opposite side of the car.

 

The disappointing part about riding the trolley car was the fact that it wasn't working part way through the trip.  We only rode halfway up the route when they had a bus met us and take us the rest of the way to downtown.  I was really bummed because we were going to take the trolley up Lombard Street.  There was no way we were going to walk that street!

A few sights around town

These are a few things we saw while riding around on our tour bus...

Apparently I have a store named after me.

 

Next to this Christmas tree is a skating rink...this is the New York area of the city.

Starbucks on pretty much every corner.

Wells Fargo wagon...had to take a picture by it in the Wells Fargo Museum considering we send them a large amount of money every month for our mortgage.

Ringo!

"Whatever happened to predictability...the milkman, the paperboy, the evening tv..."  Awww...Full House memories!

It was a great trip and we had so much fun!  I highly recommend taking a vacation to San Fransisco for everyone.  There was so much more that we could have done if we had more time.  Now I have to think of something for J's birthday next year!    :)

Flying back to South Carolina

San Fransisco birthday adventures continued...

Alcatraz

Friday morning we scheduled a ferry that departed San Fransisco for the island of Alcatraz. Friday was also our worst weather day. As we were standing in line to board the ferry it started raining. It never rained very hard, but it was an annoying misty-drizzly rain that lasted the entire day. When the ferry arrived at the island we had to stand outside for a quick introduction then we could walk around. The whole island has a creepy look to it. There were parts we couldn't walk around on because they were falling apart. The island was very weathered worn. Josh and I decided to walk all the way to the top to tour the cell block house.

Inside the cell block we watched a movie that told the history of the island and then took an audio tour which guided us through the whole cell block. The audio tour was really neat because you could start or stop it at any time so everyone was walking around listening to it on their own. The audio tour was also told by former officers and prisoners that once live on Alcatraz.
Chinatown

One of the things that Josh was looking forward to the most was having lunch in Chinatown. He loves ethnic foods, especially Asian types of food. After we got off the ferry from Alcatraz we took our tour bus to Chinatown. They had the most amazing entrance to this part of the city.Its located right in the center of downtown and packed with little shops and restaurants with Chinese lanterns strung across the street for decoration. Most of the shops had the same types of tourist-y things to buy as the rest of the city, but they did have lots of scarves, jewelry, and other pretty things. We walked around for awhile looking for a place to eat. We finally decided on a really nice Chinese restaurant on one of the side streets. We ate so much food for lunch that day! We tried some kind of sampler that had lots of different things to choose from. I even tried potstickers for the first time! It was probably J's favorite meal of the whole weekend.
Friday night we didn't go out into the city. I had a terrible stomach ache and ended up going to bed around 9:00! I blamed it on all the Chinese food because its not the type of food I usually eat but who knows! Josh was a great husband and didn't mind that we spent one of our few nights in San Fransisco in the hotel, watching Narnia, and sipping on Sprite! Haha! He's the BEST!

Sausalito

Saturday morning we got up and boarded another ferry. This time we headed to the other side of the San Fran bay to a little coastal town called Sausalito. It was a really sweet little town with fancy and expensive boutiques. We walked around visiting the different shops and wishing we had more money! One thing we noticed about this town, and San Fransisco actually, was everyone has little dogs that they take with them everywhere they go. We were constantly running into people with the sweetest, cutest dogs. It really made us miss our little pooches. While we were in Sausalito we ordered a pizza at an Italian cafe on the side of the street. We sat at a table outside the cafe and had a great view of the bay and the town. There wasn't much to do in Sausalito besides shop, so we didn't stay long, but definitely glad we went.

San Fransisco birthday adventures

Ghirardelli Square

On Thursday after we took our first trip across the Golden Gate Bridge we stopped at Ghirardelli Square for some shopping and of course...chocolate! Since we ate such a late breakfast that day, we decided to skip lunch and just have hot fudge ice cream sundaes. They were amazing! I'm not a really big hot fudge fan, I like to just have plain ice cream, but I couldn't eat at Ghirardelli's without having the chocolate. Chocolate is not actually made here in San Fransisco any more, but they do have a little section in the restaurant where they show how the chocolate was once made.Outside the restaurant is a really cute little shopping area. They have lots of other restaurants and boutiques to walk through. The fun part about traveling at Christmas time is seeing huge beautifully decorated Christmas trees every where.

Fisherman's Wharf

One of the things I knew we had to do on our vacation was to visit the wharf. It was the first thing I thought about when picking San Fran. We really lucked out on our hotel location because we were so close to wharf and could walk there easily. Actually...we could walk to a lot of places from our hotel and it was great...not to mention all the exercise we got that weekend. ANYWAY...Fisherman's Wharf had so many things to do and see. One of the attractions is Pier 39. Its full of restaurants, shops, and sea lions!! The sea lions showed up at the pier 20 years ago and haven't left since.

For dinner on Thursday night we ate at a really cute Italian restaurant. We had looked up a couple Italian restaurants, but when we got there they told us there would be about an hour long wait for both places. Instead a man stopped us outside his own restaurant and convinced us to come in and eat. It was such a fun little family owned and operated restaurant. They gave us complimentary appetizers, glasses of wine, and some little Italian dessert cookies. The cookies where actually kind gross, but everything else was delicious!