Shenandoah & the Blackberry Festival

7-26-14 - Skyland

Shenandoah National Park is only one hour away and this year we booked just one night of camping in the Big Meadows Campground.  When we arrived, the park was having their annual Blackberry Festival, which included pulled pork with blackberry relish, blackberry ice cream and local cloggers!  Now, that's what I call a festival!

Just arrived at the Blackberry Festival!

After bumping into Ranger Kelly, who used to be our neighbor at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we found our campsite, set-up, and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon in the fresh mountain air.

 

"Oo, a rock!  Can I eat that?"

At nightfall, Nathan and I finished one round of cribbage when it started to rain.  Then it started to pour, then thunder and lightning...all night.  At precisely 4:41am, the whole campground was jolted awake by the loudest, simultaneous thunderclap and lightning strike I've ever heard.  There was a faint electronic sound as if a car down the street had short-circuited, but then everything was OK.  Luckily, we all survived.

In the morning it kept raining, so we packed up our wet gear and went home.  We had some pretty amazing views along the way:

It's pretty awesome to live so close to such a spectacular park!

San Francisco: Part II

It took me 30 years to get to San Francisco, but in the last 6 months, I have been there twice.  The second time was much better because in February, it rained the entire weekend.  If the theme of last trip was, "You know, this would be really nice...if it weren't raining.", the theme this time was, "You know, this would be really nice...if I weren't working."  I was in Opower's San Francisco Office to do some third quarter planning with my team and, though I didn't have a lot of free time, it was still an interesting trip.

In keeping with the company's expense policy, I stayed at the historic Hotel Whitcomb, whose hallways were reminiscent of The Shining and the walk to/from work took us right along the edge of the Tenderloin, a rather shady part of town.

The first night, right before I collapsed into bed at 8:30pm PST, I toured San Francisco City Hall.  It's quite nice, but you have to walk by nearly 100 homeless people settling down for the night on the greens outside.

7-8-14 - Note the sign.  I was not allowed to play on the playground without my children.

City Hall

The second night, I took the BART train to Embarcadero and wandered around the Port of San Francisco Ferry Building.  That was neat, and I quickly spent a small fortune on three organic-local-artisan pieces of chocolate for Nathan and Alison, and then walked along the water for a bit.

Bay Bridge

Coit Tower

I was really happy to see my friend, Jossie, for lunch the next day, but wish I'd had time to do more.    Next time I think I'll bring the family and take some vacation.  Oh, and I'll also make sure that it's not raining.

Foxes Frolic

We have a den with four fox kits under our house and hardly a day goes by when we don't see the babies frolicking in the yard.

4-18-14

4-20-14

4-26-14

White House Easter Egg Roll

After three years of coming up empty-handed in the White House Easter Egg Roll lottery, 2014 was finally our year!  By the end, it completely won me over.

4-21-14 - White House Easter Egg Roll

However, it started out rough.  9,000 people packed like cows in a feedlot, then some walking, then another staging area for 30 minutes in the hot sun and THEN, we were allowed onto the glorious White House lawn, which was also packed with people.

That + 2 young children = almost assured disaster

Waiting

Not quite there yet

Still Waiting

We're In!

Once we got in, we walked right up to the Egg Roll, which was listed under "classics" in the program.  While standing in line in the shadow of the Oval Office, out came a handful of staffers with none other than Sunny & Bo, the First Dogs!  Once I caught my first glimpse of someone famous, there was no going back.  This was a fun event!

Sunny & Bo

Alison did the Easter Egg Roll:

Eggcellent Technique

She also did an obstacle course, listened to someone from American Idol sing, saw an astronaut, got her picture with the Cat in the Hat, decorated a shirt, and learned about organic gardening.  Maddie hung out in my pouch just as cool as a cucumber.  She is the best baby!

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Michelle's Organic Garden

There was a lot more to do, but we'd had our fun and were hungry for more than just the free peeps they handed out.  So by 6pm we wandered out and picked up our souvenir wooden eggs.

In the car on the way home I posed this question to Nathan, "So, are we going to enter the lottery next year?"  He just laughed, which I think meant, "Of course!"  By then we'll have forgotten about the crowds and will only remember how cool it was to see two famous dogs.

San Francisco

Last month Sara, Marie, Amanda, and I met up on what has become our yearly girls' getaway.  This year we went to San Francisco.  California had been having a drought, which meant perfect weather for weeks on end...until we arrived.  It downpoured the entire time we were there, but the trip was still fantastic.   

Day 1:  We all met in Denver and got to navigate the BART subway system which is filled with happy, inventive homeless people (one had fashioned a chair out of a cardboard box and duct tape) and hipsters.  We didn't quite fit in and the BART makes a horrible noise like it's about to tear itself apart as it re-enters the atmosphere.

Day 2:  We bought a cable car pass and rode to Coit Tower to have breakfast at Mama's, only to find the line for the restaurant, which might have had six tables total, was halfway down the block.

We quickly abandoned that plan, rode to Fisherman's Wharf and ate breakfast at Hollywood Cafe.  It had such good food and the world's largest fruit bowl as a side dish with everything imaginable and, in true California style, it was all sustainably grown.  This is the moment I realized that I live on the wrong coast.

Because it was raining, we decided to wait it out at the Cable Car Museum, which is the workshop where they run all the cables for all the cable cars.  It was unexpectedly very cool.

Still raining.  So we headed to Ghirardelli Square, thinking we could probably kill hours in the shops.  I do so love a shop that offers you a square of chocolate EVERY time you enter the door!

Marie, Sara, and Amanda not staying dry.

Next stop was the Boudin Sourdough Bread Factory for a tour.

There were two things I wanted to do before we came 1) See the Golden Gate Bridge and 2) See some wild sea lions.  I SORT OF took care of both.  I could just BARELY see the bridge....

....and these sea lions are KIND OF wild, I guess.

Friday night we took the sunset cruise to Alcatraz.  We couldn't see the sun, but we did get to see the hospital wing, which is normally not open to the public and doesn't have electricity.

Escape to Alcatraz

San Francisco from Alcatraz (I'm sure this is normally a lovely view.)

Day 3: We gave up all hope of seeing the sun and decided to rent a car and leave the city.  On our way to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, we stopped at an In-N-Out Burger and tasted their soggy cardboard fries.  I had never seen a redwood before and this was an amazing deviation from our original plan of staying in the city.  However, like everything else on our trip, the rain made it tough to do things like look straight up to see the tops of the trees.

Amanda, the Treehugger

A fallen tree goes allll the way down past a tiny Sara.

Redwoods make Marie look especially tiny!

We drove back along the coast and, through the fog, could see patches of the famous rugged coastline.  The farms that line the road are all organic.  I love them.

We ended the trip at Church Chow with our friends Jossie and Brian.  I forgot to get a picture, so I guess that means that we'll have to go back soon to get one!

It's been really hard for me to figure out how to describe San Francisco.  It's not beautiful, but it's not ugly.  It's not somewhere I'd want to live, but it was fun to visit.  The architecture of each little city block is so varied and interesting.  The cable cars are novel and fun.  Plus, you can't beat a place with "wild" sea lions.  I'd go back, but maybe next time I'll go when it's sunny.