Apparently we like this place

Guess where we went last week?! San Franciso, of course! And I did not complain one bit because I have become quite bonded with that city. Our friend Dan and his sister Shar came out for several days and they chaparoned us to the beautiful city while we showed them the sites. We actually drove across to the other side of the Golden Gate bridge this time, so we got pictures on the other side. So much difference, I know.

Apparently, this is a classic "Alecia" face. I believe it.

Gabe, don't push Dan off the wall, thats not very nice.

Through the bridge on our way to Muir Woods. San Fransisco just had to represent their "diversity". Ick. The town on the other side of the Golden Gate is such a gorgeous city! It's a city that I wouldn't mind living in. Shar was a trooper and drove us around finding somewhere to eat. The roads were CRAZY! Super windy and lots of back and forth and up and downs on almost one way streets through the whole town. It was worth it though, because we found this cute little pizzeria where they bake all their pizzas using solar power. It was delicious up until the point where some guy puked in the garbage can a couple feet outside the window and I just happened to look at the wrong time. Fortunately I was only a couple bites left from being done. Unfortunately he came back and we had to sit there for 5 minutes until he was done. Moving on.......

Now entering Muir Woods. So, look to the right of Gabes shoulder, see that man in the black hat? Its an amish man. There was a whole family of them and the first I had ever seen. We tried to catch some photos, but this was the best we got.

Becoming a tree, of course.

Dan was flipping with joy when he saw how huge the trees were, so he showed his excitement by doing back flips. She that man in the background with the camera? He saw Dan flipping and convinced him to do it again so he could put it on YouTube. ha ha, he was super excited.

Standing in front of a tree that was taken out by El Nino. It was the tallest tree in the forest before it fell.
"Thats the thing about trees, you just never known when they are going to fall." --Gabe Dickes

We all squeezed into the tree.. so sorry about the sideways-ness. Its annoying.

Can you see all of us?

Can you tell it was the first time Dan has seen the ocean? He is a wee bit excited.

The beach was FREEZING cold and super windy but the boys wanted to keep playing in the sand so Shar and I took a hike up to the top of the hill so we could get moving and warm up. We came back to this:

We shouldn't have left them alone :) We wanted to go back to San Franciso before it got too late so we drove back over and found a restaurant on Pier 39 overlooking the bay. We sort of lost track of time and had been there for hours when we looked outside and the sun had gone down. It was such a pretty sight looking out over the water, seeing the bridge lit up and overlooking all the sailboats in the harbor. I could have looked at that view for a long time! We did some shopping along the Pier, and Gabe spoiled me and bought me a really cute hoodie I had been eyeing from the Hard Rock Cafe and then we just had to stop by the Ghirradelli shop. It just wouldn't be a trip to San Francisco without it. It was really interesting to see how the city changed at night. The whole touristy area by the bay COMPLETELY clears out and becomes empty except for the average street corner bum and everyone moves further downtown and gathers at the bars and clubs and the hookers come out. Just the time to get out of town! We had so much fun seeing Dan and Shar and glad they came out to visit us. We have the greatest friends :)

The other side of Stockton

One thing that we have learned while living in Stockton is that there is a great part of town and a not so great part of town. We unfortunately, live in the not so great part of Stockton. So we like to take every opportunity we can to meandor to the other side. A couple weeks ago we were looking for a Krispy Kreme store and it took us over to the other side of freeway. Um, It was heaven! There were tree lined streets, completely spotless, beautiful buildings, hygenic residents who drive lexus', cadillacs and BMW's, and lakes with gondola boats!  That one litterally made my jaw drop.
This job is pretty interesting in the fact that housing is chosen for you by the company and you have no idea where your going to live. My only question is why couldn't Pinnacle have chosen housing on the other side of the freeway?! We live on the other side of the freeway where there are bums on every street corner during the day, thugs by night, crazy drivers in broken down cars, dirty stores with parking lots full of shopping carts, etc. etc. You get my drift. Fact is: we're jealous of the other side.
The other day we took a ride to the nice side and got ourselves some Panera Bread and relaxed at a park. Every few weeks Gabe and I go through a new food obsession. We had a long obsession with Baskin Robbins, then there was delivery pizza, and now its Panera Bread. Gabe was introduced to Panera Bread on his mission and now we like to make excuses to go whenever we can. We had a really fun time! We got our food in take out and then drove to a pretty park and ate on the park bench and enjoyed the warm weather and peacefulness. It was a perfect afternoon!

The Harbers come to visit!

This past week has been lots of fun. On Thursday our friends from Utah, Blake and Ali Harber, were nice enough to make the drive and come and hang out with us for a few days. We are soo glad they drove out, we had such a great time! Thursday night we went out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, took a walk around the neighborhood and then played some games. Friday morning we woke up early and drove out to San Francisco. I LOVE San Fransisco so much, it is such a neat city and there is just something about that city that keeps me wanting to go back again and again. I love the character and diversity of the city and the fact that there is so much to do there that you see new things every single time you visit. It never gets old. We had a blast roaming the streets and hanging out. The first thing we did in San Francisco was take a tour of Alcatraz. Its been something that we’ve wanted to do for a long time now. We took a little boat ride over to the island and walked around the insides of the prison during an audio tour. It was so hard to wrap my brain around the thought that I was walking in the same place all the criminals were long ago.

It was freeeeeezing cold and super super windy on the boat ride over!

After the Alcatraz tour we went looking for something to eat and ran into some street performers on the corner. This was one of the highlights of San Fransisco for me, I was very entertained! It was a family from Austrailia and they were talking all crazy and cracking jokes and doing wild stunts. Unfortunately we didn’t catch the greatest pictures, but we took a couple.

We went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and filled up on some yummy food.

Once our stomachs were stuffed full, we spent the rest of the evening walking around the city site seeing, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, and going to Ghiarradelli for dessert.

 On Saturday we got some lunch at Panera Bread (mmmmmm!), went to Target to buy some toys, and went to a nearby park to goof around. They had paddle boat rentals at the park, which we couldn’t turn down of course, so we chased each other around on those for a while. There was a few weddings that were going on at the park while we were there and lots of family reunions. It was a happening place!

Then we came back to our apartment and Blake and Gabe played with their new toys they bought, remote control helicopters! They loved them and it was fun watching them get so excited about it!

We went to dinner at Olive Garden and then to the movie theatres to watch the last Harry Potter movie, the best ending to the weekend! We all got into watching all of the movies so we were way excited to see it and it didn’t disappoint. Blake and Ali left (too soon) Sunday morning. We had so much fun spending time with them and can’t wait to be back in Utah with all our loved ones!