how to escape the heat...

Bridges Beach

made our way down to santa cruz and met up with our friends dave and annie and their cute kiddos.
sunbathing.  great food.  fun conversation.  big waves.  cool breeze.  mmmm :)

lovely day.

**for anyone wanting to take a trip to bridges beach it can be a little crowded.
in order to beat the crazy traffic, we left by 9:20 (which i think is the latest you should leave) and then made our way back after 3pm.  if it's much after 4pm annie advised we'd hit traffic.

prancer-what?

abilities like this don't just come from the womb.  shawn has given many months of study and training from his prancersize guru to be able to move like this...

yoga and a cheeseburger

shawn was a trooper to come with me.  couldn't find anyone else so last minute.

yoga at grace cathedral in san fran (tuesdays @6:15)

• acoustics of the live yoga euphoric music
• light streaming through the stain glass
• colorful ribbons hanging from the ceiling
• cold tile floor
• hundreds of people moving together in complete silence
• soul filled and spiritual connecting

 

the yoga was not quite shawn's scene but we ended on a note that sure made him happy. what's that old saying, "the way to a man's heart is through is stomach"?  true that.

for shawn, it's all in the burger :)

we walked down to pearl's burgers (grass fed beef) and got ourselves some "healthy" (yeah, right) food.  downed that, fries and a milk shake. yeah, not quite the yoga-ish type dinner but the burgers were delish (sadly though they stayed in our guts for the next 3 days) 

such a fun evening but who knew the best part of the evening was to come from walking through the streets of san fran...click here 

nicole&matt part 3: yes, there's a part 3

loved having nicole come visit.
here are a few reasons i seriously love this girl:

• she's a machine, seriously.  she pushes me beyond my physical limit ("encourages" riding up and around the mountain rather than driving over it)
• she's a fun travel companion (after 3 solid weeks of being with each other 24/7 in fiji i still loved being around her)
• she's reliable.  when she commits i know i can count on her.
• she always has time for me.  i'm not the most important person in her life but she makes me feel like i am.
• we feed off of each other's energy to an extreme and i we can laugh for 30+ minutes about absolutely nothing (3 hour night bus ride to Suva)
• she's supports me and our crazy ideas (skinny dipping in fiji just to name one;)
• we communicate in an english/chinese/spanish dialect that only few in the world seem to truly understand
• she loves unconditionally.  would give you the shirt off her own back 
• she loves God and it shows in how she lives her life
• i can tell her anything and trust her with everything
• she married an amazing guy who let's our friendship continue:)

matt&nicole part 2: from east to west

the Ferry Building

what a beauty right?  it's a cool building.  they have fabulous farmer's markets here on saturday mornings (and i believe tues/thurs as well).  we made it just in time to see everyone closing shop but, hey, i live here so i'll have to come down another saturday to enjoy.

i was craving a slab of meat and luckily we came across a burger place (Prather Ranch Meat Co) that was delish.  i got the green goddess burger and shared some fries.  it might have been a little too much except for the fact that we were biking up streets of san fran and i my body burned through burger so stinkin fast.

yeah, that burger the size of my face?  yep, downed it all.

 

watch a little of the West Coast Street Soccer Tournament

Fisherman's Wharf

Ghirardelli Square

we rode along the shoreline and then headed up the mountain towards Golden Gate Park.  beautiful ride but struggled to keep up with the 3 machines i was with.  for every few times i peddled i bet the wind only let me move a little.  by the time we started up and around the mountain i was worn out.  but not the machines :)

our ride through Presidio pushed my physically but felt so good when we reached the top.  this was a tree at the top that was made up of a dozen small trees that twisted together.  

we ended the day playing football on Ocean Beach watching the sunset and grabbing food at Thai Kitchen across the street.  the sound of the waves, the sun falling behind the clouds, the ocean smell, beautiful. serene. and perfect.

the dutch windmill

matt&nicole part 1: riding the bridge

one of my favorite people in this world is nicole downs poulton.
she and her ah-mazing husband, matt, flew up for the weekend from arizona.  with such little time and just oh so much to do here, it took careful planning...and knowing nicole, a day that would require a lot of physical activity and energy.

our saturday looked a little like this:

we started early.

picked our bikes up (amazing deal $20 for all day rentals & free parking) and then took off for the golden gate bridge

seriously though, the way the bridge just peaks through is so exciting.  you know you're in for an eye treat once you break around the bend.  

PLEASE NOTE: with every hill, and there were a number of steep ones, my bike gang was a machine.  the inclines meant nothing to them and they just passed by everyone like it was no biggie.  they rocked those hills.  i stayed futher back to take pictures, uhemm (clear throat and look around), cause someone needed to take it a bit slower up those hills and capture the view.

overlooking alcatraz

 riding across the bridge consisted of a lot of WaHoo's and fist pumping.  you would too if you were surrounded by that gorgeous panoramic view, wind blowing past you, and a smile from ear to ear.

Vista Point

 

the ride into Sausalito was through the forest and down a fun hill.  too fun to stop and take a picture.  sometimes you have to put the camera away and live in the moment and take it all in.  you then ride along the wharf as you enter.  thanks to google images i found a picture of what we would've looked like coming into the town:)

sausalito is adorable.  we locked our bikes at the bike rack, walked around and got some delicious ice cream (which is a must after the ride, @Lappert's) across the street from the ferry before it came to pick us up.  

for only ~$10/person you can take a ferry ride across the bay, past alcatraz to Pier 1 or Fisherman's Wharf.  we got off at Pier 1 to see the tail end of the farmer's market there (darn!  have to go back another day for that) and enjoy the ferry building.  

in back of the ferry building.  Pier 1

i layered up a bit.  the weather was beautiful but from san fran to sausalito the weather went from cool to hot back to cool and then windy.  

*i got a lot of help by going to this bloggers site.  this girl is rad and i love her passion for life, exploration and adventure.