Sunday, April 19, 2009

Golden Gate Park Day

Today was an unusually hot day in San Francisco. It topped out at about 80 degrees! Yes, we know, that's nothing by Florida standards, but it is hot for us! We figured there was no better way to celebrate the lack of fog and chilly winds than by having a BBQ in Golden Gate Park.  There was good food, bocci ball and a group of guys across the way from us playing bicycle polo (very entertaining!). It was a great day!



Dave very excited about winning...

Bicycle polo










Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Oakland A's game - 4/11/09

Our friend Heather works for an ad agency here in town. They have a suite at the Oakland Coliseum for all A's home games. Heather was kind enough to invite a bunch of us to the game on 4/11. We took BART over to the Coliseum, had a great time at the game and then one of the couples that went along, Todd and Nikki, had everyone over for a BBQ. It was a great day in the Bay!

(click image for bigger view)

Nice overview!


Chillin' in our box:




Dave couldn't resist the call of the pretty flowers:




Heather and Blair and Russ and Nikki:


Kim and Marty Senn:


Todd and Nikki:


Walking past Grace Cathedral on the way to the BBQ:


The great view from Todd and Nikki's apartment!

Pork Dinner! 4/5/09

While in Mexico, we ate some killer pork tacos at the resort. Dave befriended the head chef, Marino, who was kind enough to write out the recipe! It made a ton of food, so we invited some folks over to taste the goods.

(click image for bigger picture)

Marino's food was awesome!


Yummy Pork:




This stuff was made with fresh Habanero, so it was hot!




Jen - very happy w/a full belly and glass of wine. :)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Bear Valley - March '09

We got back from Mexico on a Wednesday night. As exhausted as we were, we couldn't let that stop us from heading up to Bear Valley the next Friday. Bear Valley is about 3.5 hours East of San Francisco, close to Yosemite. Our buddy Lew had a place there and invited us up for the weekend. We arrived Friday night and relaxed. On Saturday, Lew, Russ and Stephanie went skiing while we went cave exploring with Nikki at Mercer Caverns and then headed into the town of Murphy's for some wine tasting. We cooked a yummy dinner Saturday night, played some games and then headed home on Sunday (but not before stopping at the Ghiradelli Chocolate Outlet in the town of Tracy - the milkshakes rocked!). It was a nice vacation from our vacation.

(click image for bigger picture)

Our place:


We went panning for gems before exploring the cave (very exciting!):


Gold! There's gold in thar!


Mercer Cavern:




Wine tasting at Murphys:




There are frogs all over Calaveras County and it's the home of the Jumping Frog contest, as written by Mark Twain in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".


Jen had to have a cupcake. Too bad it got destroyed in the car before she got to enjoy it:


Lew, Nikki and Russ chowin' on some awesome homemade pizza:


Happy about something!








Pretty drive to and from Bear Valley:




The wind farm on the way. Go Cali!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Cozumel - Our Mexico Adventure - March '09

In late March, we went down to Cozumel to shoot Ellen and David Avery's wedding. We met David while he lived out here (he's our good friend Allison's brother) & have been friends ever since. We were stoked and honored when they asked us to come be a part of their wedding.

We went for a week and had blast! Our hotel was called The Cozumel Palace, an all-inclusive resort, where the staff and service were beyond our wildest expectations. If you drop a fork, two people swoop in to get it for you. If your drink is empty, they bring you two more. Some of the things we did for the week - we went on a sunset cruise, snorkeled, saw some ancient Mayan ruins, scuba dove, swam with dolphins, drove around in the crappiest rental car ever (it took us a few hours to figure out how to put it into reverse!) and ate and drank our way through the small island. Good times! Here are some pictures of all the fun. Enjoy!

(click for a bigger image)

Flying in:


Palace Resort from the water:


Yes, the water really was that blue!


Classic sunset over the resort's infinity pool!


Sunset cruise with the wedding crew:






Snorkeling:










Messing around town:






The happy couple:


Jen in action!










This was the sunset at the end of the ceremony. WOW.


Dave multi-tasking. He gets off easier than my other assistants!


The awful car we couldn't figure out how to put in reverse for a day. Go Chevy Comfort!


Living the Mayan dream...




Marley's bar. We ran into some crazy Texans who had been drinking ALL day (photos were not blog appropriate!).




Mayan ruins:


Iguanas everywhere!


Scuba fun!

The Scuba Crew: David &Ellen Avery, the two of us and Ellen's Dad, Michael Terry.




Dave looks like such a pro!




Jen exploring...


This guy was hungry!




Dolphins are cool.


We got to swim with them for about an hour - pretty amazing!




Grabbing drinks w/the Avery's @ Wet Wendy's Bar - Dave made friends w/a local.


Playa del Carmen:


Again, Dave made a friend (this time in Playa) :)


Our hotel offered entertainment every night:






Good times!