SUNDAY: Home sweet home

After such a wonderful trip with my sisters, I feel so lucky that they are such cool people and I genuinely just like them so much. It was the trip of a lifetime and I will never forget our adventures!!

Ben picked me up at the airport and we had family over to watch some Vikings football. It was nice to hang out with my favorite guys Ben and Gus and to sleep in my own bed with my own pillow... for at least a night or 2. Because I left on Tuesday for Boston for work for the week which really sucked. Boston was fun and exhausting. I'm looking forward to things slowing down a little bit in October. And I'm so excited to have Kevin & Tyler moving to Phoenix in October!!

SATURDAY: My 33rd birthday!!

Ahh the perfect day for my birthday. We got to sleep in. Then we had Mexican food for lunch. Oh how I crave my chips and salsa! Then we spent the afternoon at the San Fran Modern Art Museum (SFMOMA) and saw lots of Matisse, Picasso, photography and more.

We got tickets to Cobbs Comedy Club in the evening and saw the divas of comedy including Caroline Rhea, Aisha Tyler, and Sue Murphey. Lots of great female energy and laughs!!

FRIDAY: wine, wine, wine!!

Friday we took a wine tour to Sonoma. Ohhh how I love to taste wine. Our first winery was Jacuzzi, yep like as in the hot tub guys. They had some delicious wines that you can check out at World Market or Trader Joes: White Arneis Paicines 2006, Red Primitivo North Coast 2005. We also went to a tiny vineyard called Homewood that had fabulous Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as well as a Cab that I loved so much that I bought 6 bottles to ship home! Wine country is so beautiful and calm.

We had lunch in Sonoma and then drove to Muir Woods to hike with the tall redwoods. Our tour group stopped for fantastic views of the Golden Gate Bridge on our return to the city. That evening we dined at the Firenze By Night and hit a trendy North Beach bar on our way home.

THURSDAY: Hippies & old friends

Thursday we spent investigating some of San Francisco's famous neighborhoods. We were in the Haight-Ashbury which was the center of the 60s hippie movement and home to the Greatful Dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. Today it is very touristy with a lot of tie-died T-shirts and botiques - much more expensive than I anticipated.




Then we went to The Castro, which is San Fran's gay pride area featuring the Castro Theater and many independent stores waving proud rainbow flags. We visited Harvey Milk plaza to pay homage to the political gay activist who was assasinated in 1978 with San Fran's mayor. The controversial trial involved the so-called "Twinkie defense" and riots of outrage. We went to a fabulous pet store and my puppy-niece Stella got a very trendy pretty new collar!!

We met a friend of mine from high school, Tony Kim and his wife Brandy for dinner & drinks that night. I hadn't seen Tony since graduation day in 1992 so it was fun to catch up on life with him!

WEDNESDAY: Yosemite

Wednesday we took a small tour to Yosemite. It's over 4 hours away so it was a LONG day trip but the views were soooo worth it! Amazing. I can't wait to go back someday and spend time camping and hiking.

We had a picnic lunch in Yosemite valley and even got time in the afternoon to hike with the Giant Sequioa trees (world's widest trees).

We all slept good that night after being gone from 6am til 9pm!! I even finished Harry Potter on our drive home.

TUESDAY: Crazy lady

Tuesday we mastered lots of public transportation including buses and trains to get to San Jose California, home of the Winchester Mystery Mansion.

Number of rooms: 160
Cost: $5,500,000
Date of Construction: 1884 - September 5, 1922 Staircases that go into walls, doors that drop off from multiple stories, sky lights blocked by walls, and more strange stuff from this crazy lady!

MONDAY: Beatnicks, fortune cookies and beer

Monday was Courtney's 30th birthday. Time to celebrate and what better way that shopping??

We hit Chinatown and shopped for jewelry, trinkets and were amazing by how huge it was. Had a great authentic Chinese lunch and even stopped by a small store in an ally to watch ladies make fresh fortune cookies and bought an entire bag. No birthday cake but plenty of cookies for the birthday girl!!

Next we toured around North Beach which is where many of the Beatnicks hung out. The City Lights bookstore founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and published Allen Ginsberg's "Howl". People like Jack Kerouac and Bob Dillan hung out there. Lots of history from a transformational period in our history.

We hiked up Telegraph Hill to the top to get to Coit Tower. You know how every city has something you climb or go to the top of to see the best views, well for San Fran it's Coit Tower. Everyone who lives in San Fran must be in amazing shape because those hills were quite a workout!!

After all that exercise and hard work we treated ourselves to birthday dinner at "The Steps of Rome Cafe" and tapped a Heinekin mini-keg for more birthday celebrations.

Happy birthday Coco - I hope you had the best birthday ever!!

SUNDAY: Prison, chocolate & little italy

On Sunday we took the ferry out to Alcatraz island and took the amazing audio tour learning all about the prison and those who tried to escape!

Then we were lucky enough to be in town for the chocolate festival at Giradelli Sqare. Had a hot fudge sundae. You sensing a food theme to the trip yet??

Then we moved from Fisherman's Wharf to North Beach which is where our condo was for the rest of the week. Home away from home! It was a 2 bedroom condo that had just been remodled and absolutely perfect. We had a kitchen and large bathroom and place to spread out! North Beach is Little Italy and have the best Italian food I've had since I lived in Youngstown. We had dinner at Cafe Pelligrinos and then we even managed to find a fun Irish Pub to frequent called O'Reily's Pub. North Beach is within walking distance to Chinatown, Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf so it was a great location to be.

SATURDAY: Fly to San Fran!!

Saturday we flew into Oakland and took the BART into San Fran. We stayed at Fisherman's Warf Saturday night and got to experience all the tourist attractions. We ate yummy clam chowder and sourdough bread, walked Pier 39, touched the Pacific, walked by Ghiradelli Square and more and it was so chilly Courtney even had to buy a sweatshirt. We ending our evening at Jack's Pub at the Cannery which had something like 68 beers on tap - no we did not try them all!!

Pier 39 & the sea lions was Tyler's favorite thing ever and she can imitate their "bark" perfectly!!

FRIDAY: Kevin has 2 interviews & job offers in Phoenix!!

Kevin had interviews at Performance Software, a small embedded software company, and at Honeywell with their space division. Both opportunities are in Glendale. And he got 2 offers - not a bad batting average huh?!! He decided to go with the smaller company at Performance SW and he and Tyler will be moving to Phoenix in October. Who is the happiest big sister ever? What a most excellent birthday surprise!! Not sure if they will end up living in the west valley or more central in Tempe or Scottsdale but either way I'm thrilled to have them close and willing to put more miles on my car to see them wherever they end up!!

"For Sale"

Look how cute our house is!! We listed it this week. Once we sell, we will rent for a few months while we search for our next house. Lots of great deals out there for the kind of house we are looking for. Such a strange feeling that people I don't know can come into my house any day. And it really sucks to have to make your bed every day just in case someone might want to view our house... lazy me would rather hit snooze that extra 10 minutes. It's fun to apply my marketing hat to something less technical and make fliers and write up descriptions for the internet listing! I'm scared and excited all at once.

Spoiled by Family & Friends

My mom was here for her annual trip to the "Alcott-Colombe" spa as she refers to our house. She stays for a week each summer and sleeps in, suns by the pool, floats and reads about a book a day, gets all cute in time for me to get home from work, and every night we eat out and watch a netflix or movie. It's always so fun to have her in town.

Then I got a surprise visit from Courtney. Most of you know she works in adoptions for childrens services in Columbus. Well one of her kids was being placed with grandparents in Tucson and another case had connections in Glendale that required her to fly out to Arizona for 5 days for work. It was so fun to see her again so close after our trip to the beach this summer. Plus we got to make more plans for our upcoming trip to San Fran!!

And as if this was all not enough, I got a call from Tyler's bfriend Kevin (aka Garage Boy) who has 2 job interviews here in town this week. He is flying in tomorrow and staying at our place for a few days also. Please send good luck karma his way as I try to implement my master plan to migrate my family to Phoenix.

I leave this weekend for the week in San Fran with my sisters to celebrate the week of big "3" birthdays. Courtney turns "30" and I turn "33"!! We have plans to do wine tasting, hiking, Alcatraz, a trip to Yosemite, and lots more.

To top off all this fun activity, Ben and I spent the weekend in Rocky Point with some of our most fun friends watching Wade and Karen's wedding on the beach. It was romantic and beautiful and so much fun!! There was even a rainbow over the point as the ceremony finished. And you just can't beat a weekend with Ben, friends, a lazy river, swim up bar, tacos, beer and great mexican food. It's official that I am totally spoiled rotten.