Yosemite vs Little Yosemite

It's been quiet on the blog for awhile as I've been off spending as much time outside as humanly possible this summer. Back in June I was lucky enough to head up to Yosemite for the weekend to celebrate Liz's birthday with a float down the river...so much fun!! Yosemite is one of my favorite places in California- I need to go there more often.

Red Fest 2014

What is Red Fest you might be asking yourself? Well only the greatest redneck festival in the world!!! (That I know of). Basically my fav little Texan Nicole aka Bus, texted me with 'Red Fest in May. Look it up and book your ticket here now!'. Country music, BBQ and excessive amounts of 'Murica pride??? Um yea soooo down! I packed my best USA gear and got my spray tanned butt on a plane.

2 Canadians + 1 Americanadian + SF = Awesome

Continuing on my need to show all my Canadian friends how awesome SF is- aka part 2 of this craziness- I was SOOOO excited for Brit and Jac to come for a visit in March. I had a pretty intense itinerary planned out since I could only join them for 3 days before needing to go back to work so I tried to pack in some not-so-traditional tourist activities while we hung out. If you're planning a trip to the city or just looking to explore a little more here's what we were up to:

Exploring SF: Lands End

A few weeks ago my family came to the city to celebrate a big milestone in my brother's career. After an awesome party involving way too much wine (on my part) we spent the next day enjoying a beautiful sunny day in SF. It was our first time at the Cliff House where we enjoyed a fantastic late lunch before checking out the massively overrated camera obscura (save your $3).  Afterwards my brother decided he was up for a hike so we decided we would work up an appetite by walking to the Marina for dinner from Lands End. It's a pretty spectacular walk all along the cost with lots of little beaches and fun spots to check out. It was also my first time checking out the Sutro Baths in the almost 6 years I've been living here- pretty cool ruins to wander around but I'm bummed I missed out on seeing Sutro Sam.

Exploring SF: Presidio Trails Part 3.5

I know I've written about it before but I thought I would do another plug for the fantastic Batteries to Bluffs trail right here in the city- but this time at night! Whenever I get a little bummed out or stressed or overwhelmed, I find that I feel better after I am around some source of water- rivers, lakes, rain, but especially the ocean. This year started out super crazy busy at work so I needed to decompress and figured what better way than by watching the sunset at Marshall's beach. So I grabbed a backpack for snacks, water and a jacket and headed out- only detail was I forgot to tell someone where I was going. Because that's a good call...alone at night wandering down a trail with no one else around you...fun times! I always forget about that until I'm alone and then all I can picture is a zombie from the Walking Dead jumping out at me and dragging my body into a ditch (should NOT have watched four seasons of that show so quickly...helloooo nightmares). A quick text later and that problem was solved...now on to the pictures!

Trip to the Homeland

Blogging took a back seat to life (again) but wanted to catch up on a few fun things that happened in the past 6 months...btw how the eff is it already June?!?! Anyways after coming back from such an amazing trip, I only made it until the end of February before I was in desperate need of a break again so I booked myself a ticket to the homeland. With a crazy work schedule right before I left, the break couldn't have come at a better time. It was a very mellow trip (mostly because I didn't have time to tell people I was coming) that involved lots of fam time and sleep. First things first though was to shove some of my favorite Canadian foods into my face asap: the Legendary burger from White Spot (just sauce, gravy on the side for fries/heart attack) and sour keys!!! 

Last Stop = Sydney

Sydney | Day 24

Expectation: I won't have much time in Sydney so an overnight flight from Bali would be the best way to save time (and money on a hotel room!)- plus I sleep great on flights so what could go wrong???

Reality: Six long, sleepless hours of pure flying hell. It seemed as if everyone on the plane was sick- coughing, sneezing and sniffling fought their way over the sound of the plane engines to be the main soundtrack to the flight. There weren't any TV screens, so I used my phone to stream Virgin Australia movies/TV shows except they kept cutting out and I kept getting elbowed by my fellow passenger every time we hit turbulence (which we did A LOT). Lovely.

We finally stopped in Melbourne where I had a very short amount of time (due to the delayed Bali flight) to pick up my bags, clear customs and immigration AND stand in line with the rest of the holiday crowded to check in for my next flight. Ran to the gate just as it was starting to board and managed to grab a quick smoothie before being one of the last passengers on board. At that point, I had the clumsiest 55 min flight of my life. I dropped my cell phone twice (and forced the kind lady behind me to contort her body to pick it up off the floor in a crowded plane), I dropped my kindle, I went to lean my head against the window and misjudged the distance and ended up slamming my head into the side of the plane AND I dropped my smoothie on myself so I smelled like mango coconut for the flight. The second time I dropped my phone was near the end of the flight and I looked over at the (very tall, good looking) guy next to me and at the same time we burst out laughing...yup, I was a total disaster who could barely function but at least I was amusing.