California

Fresno isn’t known as a top California tourist destination, but there are still interesting things to see and places to eat. Rob and I come out to Sanger, east of Fresno, a couple times a year to visit his family’s ranch and see his grandmother in Reedley.  If you’re visiting family or headed through on the…

My favorite time to visit Yosemite is in the late fall and early spring – when the quiet valley is miles away from the packed international tourist destination it becomes in summer. Rob, Nicole and I spent the night in Yosemite Valley before our cross-country ski trip to Glacier Point last weekend. There wasn’t any more…

This was a great adventure!  Rob, Nicole and I spent the weekend in Yosemite, cross-country skiing on the very last bit of snow leftover from a warm winter.  Any chance to get to the Sierras always proves to be a good time. We started on the 10.5 mile road to Glacier Point at 11:00 am…

What a great weekend!  Rob and I were invited up to Lake Tahoe for the holiday weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Our host, Corey, arranged for a massive rental house for his 30th. But first…I had to get there. Rob had gone up a few days before and I took a ride share through…

Get ready, this is a long one! This weekend included 3 days, 7 waterfalls, 20 miles of hiking, 1 amazing secret lodge discovery.  The start of summer in San Francisco is bittersweet. Warmer temperatures inland pull the marine layer over the city.  Heavy fog last week announced the summer season and left the city freezing…

One of the many great things about meeting Rob was that he introduced me to camping! I now love a weekend spent sleeping in a cozy tent, exploring the outdoors and chatting around a fire.  Rob and I headed up to Whiskeytown this weekend for a mountain bike race and camping trip.  We got in…

We started this weekend at the opera. A new production of Mozart’s Magic Flute was the final show in our summer series. They really pulled out all the stops!  In addition to a new English translation of the lyrics, the production had costumes and digitally-animated stages designed by the Japanese ceramic artist Jun Kaneko.  His…

Only 10 miles away from home and an entirely different world, Marin Headlands provides city dwellers with a bit of nature just across the bridge. And when San Franciscans go camping, we do it in excess: no less than six kinds of gourmet cheese, artisanal bread, fresh fruit, local salami, drip coffee, beer, wine, brandy,…

So, before DC and Palo Alto…there was a weekend. It seems like ages ago, but was very fun. On Friday night, I went out with the ladies from work and things got a little nuts. We hit up some of the hottest spots in SOMA. I woke up the next day feeling a little rough.…

We had a fun adventure this weekend! Rob, Margaret and I left early Saturday morning on the ferry to Angel Island. Isn’t our summer overcast lovely: It was nice and sunny once we landed on the island. Just in time for Rob to bike up the dirt trail with all our camping gear. Our campsite…