I Love You, California!

Today was the big day! We rented a limo to take us to Napa. We had an amazing day visiting Clos du Val and the winery we belong to, Tuday Winery. We had the driver drop us off at the ferry building so that we could get Nate and Emily out on the water! Vineyard at Clos du Val Bubbles in the Limo! Crusin' After our picnic at Tudal Winery Manning the tunes! *smoochies* More smoochies! Ferry ride home! Getting a little goofy! We had a lovely visit with these two amazing friends. Can't wait to spend more time with them on our trip home in June, and celebrate their wedding in August!!

We were up nice and early today, ready to see some sights! We took Emily and Nate up to panoramic hill to see the spectacular view of the bay. Hangin' out on the tree. From there we drove in to the city. We spent most of the day in the Marina. We met Nate's cousin for lunch and one of Emily's friends was able to join us too! After lunch we headed down to Haye's Valley to enjoy the beautiful afternoon at the beer garden there. We soaked up the sun and then it was time to see more sights! We saw the Golden Gate from Marina Green, but we wanted to show Emily and Nate Ocean Beach. We walked up and down the beach a ways and near the Sutro Baths. We also stopped at the trailhead of Land's End to see the Golden Gate from a different vantage point. I love Ocean Beach. It's so beautiful! Don't mind the crazy hair; it's always so windy there! For the evening we went back to the East Bay to see a concert at the Greek Theater in Berkele...

Last year Emily came to visit while Nate went camping with Will. I was so excited when we got another visit on the books for both of them to visit! Nate's 30th birthday is Monday, so they came for the weekend to celebrate! Riggsy and Emily came in late Thursday night. We made them dinner and stayed up waaayyy too late chatting and playing games around the table. Needless to say Friday was a sleepy morning! I made us brunch and then we got ready for the day. It was also raining on and off, so that didn't help the cause! Once we were all set we took Nate to the hot sauce shop in Berkeley. We drove around a little after that, then came home to freshen up and change before we went into the city. We met one of Nate's cousins for a glass of wine at Jamber, a wine on tap bar that serves the wine in mason jars! The boys at Jamber. After a glass of wine (well, the boys got flights of beer) we picked up another one of Nate's cousins and made our way down to Palo Alto. ...

We really love to get out in to nature as much as possible, but unfortunately we haven't been able to make time for it over the last few months. Life is moving along quickly and weekends have been mostly for getting ready for trips or recovering from trips rather than getting out and exploring. Luckily with the Easter holiday we had a good excuse to put life aside and enjoy the beautiful world we live in. The Alamere Falls hike has been on our list for a while, as we've heard it's absolutely beautiful. It is about a four mile hike in and back (so eight miles round trip) and though the hike itself is very easy, once you get to the waterfall areas there are some challenging rock walls to climb. I have become pretty much terrified of heights as I get older, so I have to say that I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone during this adventure. At the end, I was feeling so accomplished and really proud of myself for overcoming my fears! What a great feeling! Here are some ...

We had an afternoon flight back to the Bay, which provided us some time to wake up slow and gather our things. We went back to Town in Kaimuki for breakfast and stopped by Waikiki for a quick photo op of Will with his ride. Hawaii suits him, yeah?! I am so excited to go back to Hawaii. The only question is will it be for one more visit, or will it be a one way ticket to move there?!?! P.S. Yes, the cats are coming, too!

The North Shore of Oahu has to be my favorite place on earth - ever! So I made sure that we'd get to go there for at least a day while we were here this time. Though we didn't get to spend as much time up north as I would have liked, and we didn't get any snorkeling in either, I still had an incredible time! Will had a meeting at the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center Thursday morning, so he dropped me off at Starbucks nearby to hang for a bit. After he came to pick me up we drove up to the North Shore. Here, Will has one of his future planting sites. He met a colleague to install a time lapse camera so they can get video of all their field from start to finish - pretty cool! Next it was time for lunch at Cholo's in Haleiwa town! One of our favorite places! Now, from the following picture you are going to be able to figure out our news if you haven't already: We're moving to Hawaii! With all of Will's travel and business there, it just makes sense. We...

Will had a meeting on Kauai, so we ventured over for the day. It's only about a twenty minute flight, so it's such an easy day trip! (But sounds so crazy to island hop for a day trip.) We started with a great breakfast at a cute little cafe in Lihue before we went to the National Tropical Botanical Garden to find the elusive pongamia tree that was known to be on the island of Kauai, but it was unclear where until Will was able to track it down! We went to explore the McBryde Garden, one of five gardens that are a part of the NTBG. It's loacted along the south shore of the island, in Koloa. Many movies have been filmed here including Pirates of the Caribbean. I totally felt like I was in Jurassic Park while we were here. Found the pongamia!! Monkey Business   Studying the tree! Beautiful growth in a rock! After exploring around the gardens we were hungry! On the way in, we saw a food truck that was in the parking lot. We got a sushi roll ...