Catching Up. Almost. Kind Of.

Whew! It has been over a month since I last wrote....thank you for hanging in there, if you did. This past month has been buuuuusy. I should probably just coordinate this post with the Cardinals post-season schedule, since watching the games pretty much took over my life. Here goes my catch-up in a nutshell post. 

Work has been getting better and better as each week flies by - and they do fly by. Each day, I'm doing a million different things and before I know it, 5:00pm is here and it's time to send my boss his schedule breakdown for the next day. 

I'm pretty sure that the weekend of October 5, Gabe and I spent Saturday in Pasadena. One of his friends was having a taco birthday party and we needed to run some errands that could not be accomplished in the city.......duhn, duhn, duhnnnnnn to the Valley we go! sort of. 

Every time I think of the Valley, Clueless pops into my mind. You know, when they go to that party, and Elton tries to make out with Cher, and then she gets out of the car and gets mugged and ruins her Alaia dress and she has to call her ex-step-brother for a ride back home? That scene. I rewatched that movie recently, and it just makes me so happy to be here. :)

Well, we left for Pasadena mid-day to hit up the Glendale Mall on the way. I really need to figure out my malls and which one has what. In St. Louis, I always had a soft spot for the Galleria. Here, I'm not sure what I'm getting into - designer stores are pretty to look at, but don't get the job done. Glendale was more familiar stores, but still takes some getting used to. 

So, we got our shopping finished - an unsuccessfully successful trip - and headed to the taco party. Sometimes, I forget about the great Mexican influence and culture all around me, and I especially forget about the food. This taco party was fantastic. The food was catered from some local place, and it was so so so so good. I could've eaten those tacos all night. 

But we didn't. It was a family birthday party, so after a couple hours, people started parting ways, and we did as well. 

We decided to hit up downtown Pasadena while we were all the way up there. After driving around for a while and fiddling with our google maps, we parked and wandered around to a few bars. Our first was a sushi bar with a crowd that gave me a sudden reminder of where I was. So many fugly dresses in this place with sick shoes....ugh. Pasadena is a nice place but not somewhere I want to live anytime soon. 

Onto the next bar - a basement sports bar with pool tables and gigantic mugs a beer. My kind of place. We watched the end of a few games and chugged our mugs before heading out to our third location.

This bar wasn't as memorable, not that it wasn't fun. It was busy and poppin but not a lot to remember it by. Our last bar had a live band playing some great cover music. It was a great finale to the night. 
----sorry, no pictures to post from this one (susan)----

The next week was crazy at work. My boss decided he was going to make a trip to London that weekend, so it was up to me to get everything organized. I love, love, love planning things, but I will never understand the last minute plan. Why wait? I want to ask him that all the time, but again, it's my job, so last minute plan, I shall. 

It was also a great week because the cardinals were killing it. One great thing about this job is the common theme of 'as long as you get your work done and you do it well, do what you want.' (to an extent) To illustrate this mantra to a t, there is a game cube in the lounge room and every day around 3:00pm, the guys take a break and play Super Smash Brothers. We work, but we also have a lot of fun.

So, while I was working, I also would take my fun breaks...to live stream the cards games from my laptop to the tv and enjoy a couple cold ones. It's pretty convenient because most of the games are not PST friendly or even televised. 

That Friday night, Gabe and I stayed in to watch the game, which ended up being an amazing, crazy-awesome, super exciting comeback game. MEANING we were moving on, AKA going to San Francisco that weekend WHICH HAPPENED to be the weekend that Gabe and I were going to San Francisco for a wedding and to see my sister and mom who were also going to San Francisco. Crazy awesome timing.

We woke up at 6:00am to shower, pack and leave for SF. We loaded my car and were ready to hit the 5 north. As soon as we hit the freeway, my front passenger wheel started making a strange thumping noise. Awesome. We pulled into a gas station and Gabe checked it out - a piece of my tire was coming off. Wahoo. So, we turned around, parked my car in his garage and loaded his car. About an hour later than we planned, but still optimistic. 

The drive was pretty great. Scenic and not too much traffic. I think it took almost 6 hours to get there with a potty break in the last third of the trip. We got to my Uncle's house in San Mateo around 2:00pm or so to meet up with my fam. 

We chatted for a little while and hung out until Gabe had to leave to make the 30 min drive to downtown SF to our hotel room to get ready for the wedding. At the last minute, we decided that he would go to his friend's wedding while I spend some quality time with mi familia. Part of me wishes that I would have gone to the reception, but I had a great time with my mom, sister and uncle. 

Right after Gabe left, I freshened up and we left for the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty awesome and the bay looked spectacular with all the sailboats. After some pictures, we headed to our next stop to see the Giant Redwoods. 

The drive to the park was an adventure in itself - a winding road down the edge of a cliff. eek! When we finally arrived and parked, we started our walk within the trees. It was really impressive and awesome for a while. After we got over the trees, it also turned out to be an excellent people-watching destination. 

After the trees, we headed to a spot on the ocean grab some drinks while watching the sun set over the water. No real explanation needed here - it was fantasticly beautiful

yummy gin fiz.

sunset over the sutro bath ruins

We had dinner at an Italian spot near my Uncle's house and headed home pretty early. We were all kind of tired, and my sister had to get to sleep to rest up for the half marathon she was running the next morning. 

Then it was Sunday Funday! 

My sister ran the marathon eaaaaaaaaaaaaarly. I slept a little bit after seeing her off and then Gabe and I got dressed in our cards gear and headed out. Our hotel was downtown, so we decided to walk around and see some things. 

Our first stop was the Full House house...duh. Gabe looked up the address and we enjoyed the beautiful weather on our stroll there. 

Everywhere you look....

Then, we went to the park where they shot the intro scenes of the Tanner extended family picnic-ing and playing. Side note: San Francisco has to be the dog-friendliest place I've ever been. Dogs were chilling and playing together everywhere. I could've watched them for hours....

I think Gabe said the houses behind us are called postcard row or something. idk. But it was pretty. :)

We hit up a local bar for lunch and some drinks. People were fairly friendly to us despite our cards gear, and we even ran into a some groups of people who gave us some "Go Cards!" shout outs. 

About an hour before game time, we started making our way back near our hotel where the stadium is. My sister had been resting all day and was finally ready to meet up with us. So, she, my mom and my uncle were headed downtown, as well, to meet us at a bar for the game. 

We found a restaurant with a huge booth for us with access to multiple TVs. It was pretty perfect. We all ordered a round and some food, and watched the Cards win. A perfect ending to the weekend....

We had a long drive back to LA, but it was well worth it for a great weekend with some of my family!