I Love You, California!

For my Christmas present this year Will planned us a trip to Lake Tahoe. He booked a cozy cabin with a fireplace and hot tub in South Lake Tahoe and snowshoes for snowshoeing. Now, when he booked this almost two months early, one would assume that the "rainy season" would bring plenty of snow to the area. No one was anticipating one of the worst droughts California has seen in decades. As a result there was nothing in the way of snowshoeing to be found, and word among the locals was that even the skiing wasn't the greatest. Despite the drought, we still had a great time. With daytime temps into the 60s, we were able to get out and hike and enjoy the warm sunshine. With nighttime temps into the teens, it was chilly enough to enjoy a fire in the fireplace and a soak in the outdoor hot tub. It wasn't quite the winter getaway we were planning for, but nonetheless, we were in Tahoe! How can you not have a great time? On Saturday we left the Bay and drove to South Lake Ta...

We are so happy for our friends who recently had their little boy come into the world! These are our dear friends introduced to us by some of our friends from Minneapolis. Joe and Paola lived in Minnesota, too, and now live in SF! We were so happy to spend a little time with them, catching up and meeting their new little guy!

As I'm sure all of you know, Will has a thing for spicy. In fact, his colleague is convinced that Will's super power is tolerating, and enjoying, extremely spicy food! Well, the end of the world was occurring in our fridge (i.e. Will's hot sauce bottles nearing empty) and recently I read online about a hot sauce store in Berkeley. They were unfortunately closed for a couple weeks around the holiday, but they recently reopened and I couldn't wait to take Will! I didn't tell him where we were going, but he did know that it had something to do with hot sauce (a few weeks ago I told him I'd help him take care of his dwindling stash of hot sauce). The store was really great and had so many hot sauces! They even had a "tasting bar" with tortilla chips so you could try them out and pick your favorites. Will loved it! This was the "extra spicy" section. More tasting. Found some great local hot sauce!

We were a little stuck on what to do to ring in the new year this year. As I looked around online for different celebrations I came across a party at a place that had been on our list to visit. Era Art Bar and Lounge had gotten great reviews on Yelp, and looked interesting from their website. It also happens to be pretty close to where we live, so it seemed like the thing to do! One of Will's co-workers and his wife were also trying to figure out what to do for NYE. On New Year's Eve they decided to join us and got a table with bottle service and invited several of their friends (many of them we know too!) as well! We had a great time with everyone dancing and ringing in the new year. We are very excited about everything 2014 will bring us. As we were talking with our friends we came to the conclusion that 2013 was a "set up" year for everything great that 2014 will be! Will was surprise, I guess!