I Love You, California!

Last Saturday we stopped in at a new restaurant in Jack London Square, The Forge. It was soft opening night, and due to other plans we weren't able to stay, so we were only able to get a drink at the bar. However, we were invited to come back for tonight's grand opening, so that's what we did! We really enjoy the ambiance a the restaurant and have also enjoyed getting to know the bartenders. The service is great as well as the food. There were a few hiccups during the night such as a lack of cheese in the cheese curds, and they ran out of a few types of pizza by the end of the night. But we chalk this up to getting the glitches worked out and we're sure the quality of the food will catch up to that of the service very soon. We are already looking forward to visiting again! Here are the cheese curds that we were so looking forward to; they are extremely difficult to come by out here on the west coast!

Will got home Wednesday night from his trip to Texas and he's probably home now for at least a few weeks before he leaves again. It's been nice taking some time to relax and do a little more exploring! Saturday we used a Groupon to go visit the USS Hornet aircraft carrier that is docked in the San Francisco Bay on Alameda Island. The history behind this ship is amazing. It has participated in World War II and assisted in the recovery of the Apollo space capsule from the first manned mission to the moon. We had a lot of fun exploring through the enormous ship. Will had more fun out on the bridge of the ship than I did. It was SO windy I thought I was going to blow right off the deck and fly into the Bay! After exploring around the ship, we were excited to go check out a new restaurant that we've been waiting to open since September! From the looks of the website it was open, so we headed over. The Forge is located in Jack London Square, a few blocks ...

One of the things that sold me on moving to Oakland was the weather during our visit last February for Will's interview with Terviva. When we visited, we had a weekend filled with sunny, cloudless skies and temperatures into the 60s. After a bit of a "cold snap" (I use this term lightly. I have not forgotten where I come from!) and a rainy December, we've been experiencing this "winter" weather that I so fondly remember experiencing last February. After I dropped Will off at the airport I headed to beautiful Lake Merrit, right here in the middle of Oakland, for a run. The three mile stretch of trail is glorious for any type of recreational activity and provided for lovely scenery during my run. Here are some pictures I took on my January 20th run! Hope everyone back in the Midwest is staying warm!

We were so happy to have some more visitors from back home. We miss our friends so very much, and it is very surreal to spend time with them in the Bay Area! Our friends Tony and Amanda were in town for a long weekend to visit some of their friends (also Minnesota transplants) in San Francisco, and we were able to meet up with all of them on Saturday between Will's business trips. (He was gone Monday through Friday last week, and is gone again Sunday through Wednesday of this week.) We met Tony and Amanda in the Haight-Ashbury district for brunch at Magnolia Pub and Brewery (fantastic food!). From there Amanda and I stopped in at a few of the boutiques while the boys patronized the local bars. Then it was off to explore Golden Gate Park. Will and I had only seen a little bit of the park, so we were excited to walk through more of it. Did you know that there is a bison paddock in Golden Gate Park? Well there is, and that was our destination. From the map, it didn't appear that t...

If you recall from my post about Christmas, you'll know that Will planned a weekend in Yosemite National Park for my Christmas gift. Yosemite is only about three hours and twenty minutes away from Oakland, so it was the perfect weekend roadtrip destination. We stayed at Yosemite View Lodge, which is just a four minute drive to the Southwest entrance of the park. On Friday we did a lot of exploring of the Yosemite Valley and cooked dinner in our room at the lodge. On the deck of our hotel room, over looking the Merced River. Driving into the Valley. Will on the Sierra Club! At night it did this crazy thing where it got foggy from the ground up. It got higher and more dense as time went by, and quickly, too, over a time span of just a few minutes you could notice it rising up. Cooking dinner in the room. On Saturday we went hiking/snowshoeing in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. There were some amazingly tall trees there. Some of the old...

It's our first New Year's celebration in California, and New Year's Day marks six months of living here, so we wanted to do something different for the occasion. Will and I, along with our good friends Katie and Alex attended a New Year's soiree at the Wyndham Parc 55 Hotel in downtown San Francisco. We had a fun time dancing and ringing in 2013. It's hard to believe that we have lived here for six months now and we are entering our first full calendar year living in California. We are looking forward to what 2013 brings both in our careers and our life together. 2012 was a wonderful year filled with a lot of change and exciting adventures, and we're sure 2013 will be just as fabulous. Happy New Year everyone! All dressed up and ready to party! Warming up for midnight : )