Trip to the Wine Country

On Saturday we headed up to Sonoma with Danielle & Steve, who were visiting from San Diego. It was a beautiful, clear day. We stopped at the Golden Gate bridge and in Sausalito for brunch. Then we went to the Sonoma visitor center which had some cool modern art (like the blue plastic ball tree).



We hit some great wineries and found a fabulous Zinfandel at the Mayo family winery.

Our Visit to Carmel

This blog post is appearing three months later, but Josh's cousins just scanned the pictures to us (I dont know where our digital cameras were).

So back in July we went down to Carmel with the pups to visit Josh's first cousin Scott, his wife Michelle & their kids. We went to Cannery Row for wine tasting (yum). We went to Big Sur (breathtaking!!) & Pebble Peach (the 17 mile drive- beautiful!).

Here we're chilling at the Big Sur River Inn after a delicious lunch!

Here we are in front of the Bixby Creek Bridge on Highway 1 in Big Sur:

Here are Michelle, Scott & Josh on the 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach stopping to check out some deer:

If you come to visit for a little while, this is a must see stop (Pebble beach is about 3 hours & Big Sur is about 4 hours away).

Family Reunion in Atlanta

Well we are just the traveling fools :). This past weekend we went to Atlanta to visit my family. We celebrated Anna's Bat Mitzvah (she wrote a beautiful speech & everyone cried).


There are a lot of girls in my family (you could say thats an understatement). Here's a picture of the 13 cousins:


We also celebrated my Grandma & Grandpa's 63rd wedding anniversary! Here are my sisters, Kari & Nina, with our Grandpa & Josh:


Here is my Grandma (on the right) with my great Aunt Margie:


Saturday night at Alyssa & Marty's was a lot of fun because they have a lot of toys to play with...here are just a couple:


But of course the best was just hanging out all together. Josh & I stayed at my sister Nina & her boyfriend Max's apartment along with my new step sister Audrey & my sister Kari & her husband Ami.

Max is a big fan of threadless shirts too:

Here are Nina & Audrey:


Heres my Mom & Larry:

Josh & his biggest fan:


My favorite picture (Erin, Josh, Kaylin & Maya)

Staying in a Yurt

Last weekend for Josh's 30th birthday we traveled by plane, car & ferry to see Leigh & Deb in the middle of nowhere outside of Port Townsend which is way outside of Seattle. We had a blast!! They live in a yurt; yes, a yurt with a separate bathhouse and an outhouse (that is so Roman with the two toilettes next to each other facing the woods- its a 3 walled structure). Deb made us pizzas and we drank champagne and caught up. Saturday Leigh made us Belgium waffles with strawberries and homemade whipped cream, had a couple of lattes and headed into P.T. Had some beers and apps along the water and strolled around, went out for tapas for dinner & had a dance party on our return. Sunday we had eggs, potatoes & toast and headed out. Their yurt is cool and their cats are sweet. We got to hear the coyotes and about Leigh's encounter with a huge boy sized raccoon while we slept, but I didnt see any animals :( except for Raja & Igor!

Josh & Leigh trying to knock over some wooden pins.
The famous car shot!
Breakfast time in the yurt.
Hanging out in P.T.
Saying goodbye :(

Catch Up Time!

Well, things here have been pretty crazy! We moved downstairs in what should be our apartment, decided to look for a new apartment, found one (YAY) after many craig's list browsing nights, appointments and open houses.

Plus, I now have two nanny jobs to keep me busy for the summer. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be watching a 6 month old all day (she is SO cute) and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons and evenings I will be watching twin 3 year old boys.

We are off to High Sierra for the weekend (a music festival in Quincy, CA)!! We are psyched! http://www.highsierramusic.com/

We'll post more on our return...

Fabulous Weekend

The weather here continues to be abnormally warm with clear blue skies (hey, we're not going to complain).

Friday night we went out with Matt and Emilie; it was so great to see them! We had a fabulous dinner and then went bar hopping until we ended up at this packed Irish pub.

Needless to say, we slept well and when we woke up Saturday close to noon we headed on down to the Panhandle of GG Park for the Panhandle Bandshell Grand Opening Celebration put on by our friend Jen. It was awesme; there were acrobatics and bands and people on stilts. Lyla and Naama got to meet a lot of cool people and little kids.

Then we went over to Jess & Joon's for a wonderfully relaxing evening. It's so funny to see two couples, a baby and 5 dogs all curled up together to watch a movie. By the way we saw "Deja Vu"; it was really good.

Naama Gets Sick :(

So the night before Josh's big first day at frog, Naama got sick. I took her out to the yard at 2am to go potty and she returned with such an itch! All night she was scratching and pacing and because she didn't sleep, we didn't sleep. Her whole face was swollen! At 7am I ran out to the drug store and bought her some children's liquid benadryl.



The swelling went down and after we dropped Josh off at work we went to play at the aquatic park. The girls had a blast on the sand and in the grass and I thought she was all better.

Then we came home and the throwing up began...

So to the vet we went. They gave her meds and said she shouldn't throw up anymore. But all night long (yes, we were up again) she was throwing up and running back and forth between the bedroom and the living room.

So back to the vet again...

I had to leave Naama this time for x-rays (that was rough). So Lyla and I went to my school to work until we could pick Naama up. Lyla did okay; I thought she would freak out without Naama.

Well, there was no obstruction so no surgery- thank goodness. She had eaten some toxic debris from the construction and it was passing. She got more meds and a bland diet (boy is she hungry all the time- she sits in the kitchen looking up at the counter, poor girl).

But she is doing great now!

Here is Josh leaving work after his first day at frog in SF. The rest of the month he's working on a project in the Palo Alto office.

Crissy Field

Another exciting day for the dogs as Josh's time away from work draws to a close. We went to Crissy field which is on the ocean right in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge. The pups played in the sand and jumped into the ocean, though not very deep (they're still scared of the waves)

It was another surprisingly warm day, and Josh probably burnt his bald noggin, again.

We went out with some friends for dim sum and walked around the North Beach street fair. It was fun, we had coffee and espresso's and drank them on the patio.

Bye!

Yay!! I got the job!!

I am so psyched! I got the job teaching second grade at the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish day school in Foster City. Check it out: http://www.wornickjds.org/

Here I am accepting the offer:


Now two and a half months of vacation :) I'm going to try to find a job working at a vintage clothing store (applied to one today) or an independent book store for the next couple of months; that should be fun.

GG Park

Golden Gate Park is just phenomenal!! Seriously it puts Central Park to shame. There's a lake where people race their model boats, a lake where you can canoe or paddle boat around, volleyball courts, a polo field, a rose garden, waterfalls, an arboretum, windmills & a Japanese tea garden. We had a blast!

Then Jessica called so we met her and Raquel back at Fort Funston. We got burned even with sunscreen! I guess yesterday and today have been unseasonably warm...in the 80s. Everyone was taking off work and hitting the beach.

We actually have plans every night this weekend; not bad for our first weekend :)

Lots of Walking!

Well the pups had a full day today (and so did we). Today was a pretty warm day so to cool off we went for a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. They were a little freaked with the passing cars but soon got the hang of it. It was so windy!





Next we drove up to Marin and went to Muir Woods. We went on a hike through the woods. Instead of taking the bridge across the river, Lyla decided to wade on through.

Then we went over to Muir Beach where the pups got REALLY dirty!! Lyla shake-n-baked Naama. They dove into the ocean and into the river and then into the sand; gross!

The Reservoir

Our local doggy park is called the reservoir. It is awesome! It has amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean. Check out our pups playing on the side of the hill (soon they'll be pros at it).

PS The weirdest thing: everyone that we have met has a name that starts with a J (Jon, Jessica, Joon, Jenny & another Jon).

The dogs go to the beach

Sorry about the slow posting, everything we own is still in boxes. We took the dogs to Fort Funston today, a great dog park right on the Pacific Ocean. It was amazing, the dogs loved it, and we met lots of cool people that gave us tons of info on the city, places to see, restaurants to eat at etc.
We even found a Burrito place that rivals El Pelon in Boston!! That's some high praise too if you know your pelon.

We'll have more to tell soon, and hopefully some of our own pictures and videos. There's a good one of me driving my motorcycle into the back of the moving truck!

-Josh

The Ride

The pups had trouble deciding how to sleep in the cab of the penske between us. First they tried to share the seat (that worked for a little bit).

Then Naama decided to get down on the ground on her pillow (Lyla liked that the best). Which was fine for all of us until after many unsuccessful doggy pee breaks, Lyla decided to pee right there on the seat! Day 2 we were smarter and dryer for it: no food or water on the road.

What we looked like on the road.

Here's what you may have seen in your rear view mirror if you were between Scottsdale, AZ and San Francisco, CA this past weekend.

Cows, cows everywhere & windmills too!