Weekend Wrap Up!

Morning Y'all! Have you ever had a weekend where you have all these things you've set up to do, but nothing ends up happening?! Well we definitely had one of those this weekend. First it started out strong on Friday with a gorgeous afternoon happy hour at Red's Porch. 

view from Red's Porch

 We had planned for a garage sale Saturday morning, but since this was the 3rd time we have attempted this without proper planning  it didn't happen, again. You would think by now we would have just given up and donated the stuff already, but no that would be too simple. Hopefully we  will get this done at the beginning of May when we finally have a weekend in town again, cross your fingers! Instead we worked on the house for most of the day, and ended up trying out a great new restaurant off of Congress near Oldtorf called "Lucy's Fried Chicken." It was pretty delicious, but defiantly an every once in while place with all the fried food on the menu. If you happen to be in the neighborhood don't pass this place up- the smores pie is worth every calorie ; )

 Finally on Sunday we headed out with Chloe to the Greenbelt for a few hours. We hiked and swam a little before it got crazy crowded.  Then we came back and grilled out dinner.  We had originally planned to go us a groupon I had for a day safari ( yes I know you are very confused right now since I said a day safari in Texas- but don't worry you read that correctly), but the place is pretty far and Ricky had some work to catch up on in the afternoon. So as soon as we head out there I promise a blog update on it, I swear.

one of the many swimming holes on the greenbelt

 P.S. here is an awesome photo I came across in our house office this weekend. I had a plan for it with the wedding last Sept., but it ended up being a bust. I'm now going to frame it and have it somewhere in my house. I just think it's a great picture and I wanted to share it with you.

I'm still battling a nasty cold, but I feel like I'm on the tail end of it now. Thank goodness!!!

 Have a great week, and I promise to blog more sooner rather than later!

Luv- Di

SXSW Music Festival 2012

I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA lately, but I have been recovering from a nasty cold that hit me on Sunday afternoon. Last week we had Ricky’s sister Katie in town with some friends for her college spring break. Also his parents came in for the weekend. Their visits  just so happened to coincide with  Austin’sSXSW music and film festival.

This thing is huge it started on March 9^th and went all the way until March 18^th. 

I personally think this is bigger than ACL (the other large music festival Austin puts on), 

but that statement is still up for debate.

This festival is all over downtown Austin. You will find line ups at every bar, in the grocery stores, at the coffee shops, and any open parking lot ( even the airport had a pretty good line up this year, lol). Tons of major corporations such as Pandora, Facebook, Dell, Doritos, Taco Bell, Nike, Mountain Dew, AT&T, Hard Rock Hotel ( to name a few)  have certain areas set up with shows and promotions.

We were in California for the beginning of the festival, and I had to work through most of it during the week. I did catch one of the free shows at Auditorium Shores, and a few cool pop up shows around downtown Friday night. 

Maybe next year I’ll venture out a little more ; )

 

My sister in-law Katie and I at the Auditorium Shores show on Thursday

People waiting around for the opening acts at Auditorium Shores

Ricky and Katie at the AT&T booth with their new shirts they created. P.S. I also schooled them in a game of name that tune in the booth : )

Blocked off East 6th on Friday night

This guy is in a band called "Cold Fronts" from Philadelphia. They set up a pop up show in the parking garage from Ricky's office Friday evening, and we happened to run into the show. They were really good, but I just cannot get over this guy's red hot skinny outfit, lol. Seriously?!

One of the many sites promoters set up throughout the week

I thought this was so cute. This guy had music playing and the little skeleton was acting and singing out the whole song. Just another thing that adds uniqueness to this festival and Austin.

Random tuba and accordion band preforming on 6th st. Friday night

(Sorry for the bad picture) This was the Doritos stage and I thought it looked cool. It's a giant vending machine with 3D bags set up in it. The picture doesn't really do it justice.

 I hope you all have a great week, and hopefully I'll get a few more blogs out once

 I knock out this cold. Luv- Di

Round 2 – San Francisco

Good morning! Sorry this was a day late, but I was caught up in seeing some of the SXSW festivities going on around Austin this week. I’ll tell you all about it later ; )

We headed out once again bright and early to San Francisco on Sunday morning. We headed straight over to the hotel to drop off our stuff and then headed out to lunch. We tried to originally eat at well know place in the mission district called “Mission Chinese”, but they weren’t open ( ugh!) So we ended up stumbling upon a random place that turned out be just what everyone wanted. After that we walked around the district and looked at the different architecture and awesome murals. Joey took us by this cool little alley that was lined with all different types of awesome street art. 

One of the many streets in the mission district

one of the murals in the alley we walked

another mural we saw Joey explained that this one has to do with the gentrification of the area

I just love the vibrant colors of this one I saw while walking down the street

View from Twin Peaks

That night we finally made it to Mission Chinese, and then headed over to the Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel. This place is pretty neat. It’s a Polynesian themed bar in the basement of an old fancy hotel. They turned the pool into a shallow pond and have the band’s stage floating on it back and forth. They also had periodic rain storms kinda like the rainforest cafe (you know when you hear the thunder and the falling rain) but this place was a little bit cooler because you actually saw the rain falling into the pool instead of just listening to it.   While we were there we rang in the beginning of Jen’s birthday and started pre-celebrating her husband Nelson’s as well (their birthdays are one day apart). I would definitely put this bar in the cheesy category, but it still was a total blast - I guess the company you are with makes all the difference :  )

Steve Jen and Ricky at the Tonga Room

Jen and one of her college roommate Brooke. She now lives in a few hours away from San Francisco,. She was able to come up, and stay with us for the night.

another view of the Tonga Room

The Tonga Room center with the floating bar to the left

 On our last day we decided to be total tourists before we headed out to the airport that afternoon. Ricky and I got onto one of the local trolley cable cars, and checked out a few of the known parts of the city like Chinatown, Pier 39, and Fisherman’s Warf. At first we were hesitant on going to the well known tourist spots because we were afraid we weren’t going to get a real feel for the city. Afterwards, we were glad we decided to go ahead and check the area out. Since it was Monday morning we were able to explore without it being too packed. It was fun to see all the sea lions around Pier 39, and walk the along the Bay. We were at the pier fairly early so we were able to watch the outside food vendors cook and boil all their fresh morning catches.

Chinatown

Golden Gate Bridge

If you know my mom then you know she is constantly traveling and taking pictures. I was channeling one of her classic go-to photo poses of herself in this picture above - lol don't worry mom I still love your photos : )

Pier 39

 We also stumbled upon the  San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Museum at the end of the Warf. They had some really neat exhibits about the history of San Francisco, and how the city has evolved over time. I’m a bit of a history nerd and loved it, plus it was free so you can’t beat that (lol). We had a great time and can’t wait to go back and visit the Napa Valley area next! Luv- Di

P.S.  You know you are getting older when you are just excited ( if not a little more excited) to tour local coffee shops as you are local bars . Here are a few that were really good. I'm not sure if it's a new trend that just hasn't hit Austin yet, but these places brewed each cup individually on order. It was coffee heaven :)

Yosemite National Park

Hey  Y’all! Wow it's crazy how fast this past week has flown by .I have tons to share with you this week. As soon as we got back from California we jumped right into the middle of the SXSW musical festival here in Austin. Plus my sister in-law is in town with some college friends for spring break, and Ricky’s parents will be in town this weekend. Add St. Patrick’s Day into the mix and we have a very jammed pack weekend. But for now let me get back to our latest adventure- California.

 We took in a lot on our small 4 day vacation. So I decided to break it down into two parts. Today will be all about the amazing-ness (yes I am aware I made up a new word, ha ha) of Yosemite National Park, and the awesome people we traveled with : )

I’ll start off with how this trip was formed. Back in December Ricky and I headed home to South Florida for Christmas vacation, and while we were there we  meet up with a few friends from College for drinks one night. The idea of going out to visit Joey was thrown out there, and everyone agreed it would be great and that we should do it.

Three months later, and we landed in California. I will be honest in saying- I really didn’t see this happening at first, but in the end I am sooo glad we were able to make it happen!!

 Jen, Nelson, Joey, Stephanie, and Steve 

thanks again for making this trip with us!

We set out to from Joey’s Place in Santa Rosa for our 5 hour drive to the park. After a slight detour to a really awful bakery (it was my fault but really I put the blame on Yelp and their flawed reviews) and lots of small pee breaks; we were finally able to make it to the park.   

Our first stop were the Sequoia Trees in Mariposa Grove and let me tell you it was awesome!! It was truly humbling to see such amazing work by God : )  After that it got pretty dark so we headed out to find the hotel and get ready for an early start the next day. 

The place we stayed at was called Yosemite Bug and I highly recommend it!

Ricky and I in front of the roots of an old Sequoia tree

Ricky and Nelson in the center of one of the Sequoia trees

Ricky was a good sport in helping me get a good comparison photo

Our Hotel

The second day we headed out for a full day of exploring and hiking around the park. I feel like my photos don’t fully show the beauty this park has, but at least they  you are getting an idea with them, lol. Since it has been such a warm winter this year we were able to hike with t-shirts on in the lower levels of the park, and play  in the snow in the higher altitude areas. It was seriously the best of both worlds. By Sunday we were packed up and ready to head to San Francisco for the next two days……… to be continued tomorrow

Stephanie, myself and Jen

Ricky and I on the car ride out that morning

our view on our hike back from Mirror Lake

another gorgeous waterfall

another view we had on our hike

We were in the Beaver Pass area when we decided to go sledding

our breathtaking view from the main Valley

P.S. I barely have any group shots on this post because all the pictures are from my phone- but I’ll update them later when we are able to download the photos from our nice regular camera ; )

Cali-fornia Love

Good morning! Today I'm blogging from Downtown Santa Rosa, CA. We are on awesome trip with our friends this weekend to Yosemite National Park for a few days and to San Francisco. I hope everyone has a great weekend! Luv- Di