Crabs!

The massive oil spill in the bay delayed crab fishing for a few weeks but it has been in full swing for a couple months at least. And since I live relatively close to Fisherman's Warf I can have my hands crabby in a matter of minutes. The warf is lined with fresh fish vendors and you can get crab cakes, boiled crab, crab chowder- you get the idea.

(A word of caution- if you are afraid of seagulls do not go to this part of the warf.)

City Site Seeing

While there is lots to do and see outside of San Francisco, there is also a lot to do and see within the city.

This set of pictures was taken during a day long city hike that took us through the prestigous Pacific Heights neighborhood down the Lyon street stairs (tons of stairs in this city) to the Palace of Fine Arts and along Marina Green.

Danielle Steele's Mansion

Lyon Street Stairs (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi lives along these stairs in a fab house (or she might have just moved to a REALLY FAB private neighborhood - there is some confusion)


Palace of Fine Arts- Built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

Marina area

Sequoia National Park/Kings Canyon

A couple months ago, Brandon and I took a road trip stopping in Fresno to see his grandma and then heading east a couple hours to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park located in the southern Sierra Nevada range. The the 500,000 acre park is home to Mt. Whitney, the highest in the contiguous U.S. as well as home to the third largest tree in the world - the General Grant Tree. The park also has the largest remaining natural Sequoia grove in the world. It was so beautiful there with tons of snow to play in. Due to recent massive amounts of snow, much of the roads were closed. Those that were open had up to 6 feet of snow banked on each side. There is lots to do year round, look forward to going back in other seasons.

General Grant Tree

Inside a fallen tree that has been used as a bar and a bunk room throughout the past century.
Snow shoeing

Tahoe or Bust

The mountains got some great snow this ski season and I finally made it there a couple weekends ago . I've skied Tahoe a few time throughout the years and I love it. It is so pretty there! A group of 10 friends went- we rented a house on the North side of the lake. It took us 12 hrs! to get there - should be 3 and a half- but due to somewhat bad weather the roads were closed 2 times throughout the night for hours at a time. Nonetheless we had a great time and I am ready to go back. Fresh snow, light crowds and good weather made it an awesome time to go sking.

Lake Tahoe (taken from house)

Lake Tahoe taken from top of Squaw Valley
Squaw Valley was site of Olympics at some point in the 60's or 70's?
Me at the top.