Spring Break in San Fran - Day 3: Redwood Forest Adventure

I know what you might be thinking "Day 3? Wasn't the last post Day 1?" Well since driving technically took us 2 days, our first day in San Fran was actually day 3 of our trip. Surprisingly, we recovered well from the drive and were out the door headed to Muir Woods by dawn (aka noon). The amazing location of Nick's aunt and uncle's house meant we only had a 15 minute drive to get there, but heavy fog made it pretty intense. Soon enough though, we arrived at a place that made the Piney Woods of Southeast Texas look like……something not so tall (I’ll put something better here later).

(Please prepare yourself for TONS of pictures)

The main trail was a wooden path along a valley floor. There were tons of little bridges crossing the creeks, and we stopped to take pictures at pretty much every one of them.

When we first got there, the fog made the woods look extra creepy.

Trees that had fallen over the path were simply left where they fell, but they cut chunks out to free up the path.

We found a setting on Kelsi's camera that only included the dominant color of the area, so plenty of pictures will only have green in them like this one of a piece of trunk left standing.

This hollow tree was one of the MANY places we stopped for all 6 of us to take multiple pictures of ourselves.

And just a few more pictures for ya...

These trees were so effing tall that it took 3 pictures to get them all in.

At one point we decided to take a small dirt side trail so that we could get away from all of the people and see more of the woods. We quickly came upon this GIGANTIC tree that had fallen over the path, and again we stopped and took a million pictures.

One of the best things about the side trail was that there were more opportunities to get up close and personal with the trees (there were rails everywhere keeping you on the path). There may have been a rail somewhere near this fallen tree, but there was also a large rail-free area by which I made my way onto it, so I feel no guilt. We also got an awesome group shot of us squatting on the log (it looked like we were all dropping deuces into the stream) but we didn’t take it with our camera.

This is the picture of me running away before I got caught standing on the log. Yeah I’m that fast.

Our next group stop was at maybe the largest redwood we saw the whole hike. Even with two people we were only wrapped around maybe half of this tree (go ahead with the tree hugger jokes).

Again another photo op spot.

This tree had fallen over the path, so Kelsi held it up with all of her might so we could pass….until I got there and held it up with my finger.

Photo op #1000 was another fallen log that had been cut to make a perfect set of natural parallel bars for Nick to do gymnastics on. I also risked my life jumping from one side to the other for an awesome photo, but somehow it got deleted (There’s currently an investigation underway to determine what happened to it).

At this point the path split, and we decided to take the high ground. Nick, Eliud, and I decided that it would be awesome for the girls to take pictures of us on the lower path, but we forgot to take a camera so we could get shots of them up higher.

We spent what felt like the next 3 hours climbing the hills/mountains before finally enjoying a nice slightly downhill trek through the rest of Muir Woods.

At one point, we found this lonely bench on the side of the mountain. Thanks David Sarlin for making your grove so luxurious.

Once we made it back to the main trail we saw this rather large cross section of a 1,000 year old tree. They had placed markers on it pointing out important events in history between ~900 AD and ~1930 AD including: the building of cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde [1100], Columbus sailing to America [1492], and the signing of the Declaration of Independence [1776].

Our next stop was the gift shop. Outside there were multiple wooden carvings of animals (mostly bears), so I decided to ride one Texas style.

After purchasing some goodies, we decided to drive to nearby Stinson Beach and have lunch. When we got there though we felt the cold wind, saw the huge waves, and read the advisories about great white sharks….so we decided a picnic in the car would be better.

To end the night, we watched Avatar, which a few of us had never seen before. I had been reluctant to watch it, but I now agree that it was pretty awesome. I’m ashamed to admit that I am psyched for Avatar 2.

*SIDE NOTE: On our drive out to California, “Princess” Noa would signal for Nick to give her another chip by simply holding her hand out like this. I thought it was funny enough to document.

I also got an action shot of the exchange.

Spring Break in San Fran - Day 1: Epic Drive

So I hate when people say "epic" when referring to everday things, but the length of the drive from San Antonio to San Francisco is deserving of epic status. We completed this marathon driving trip in our AWESOME stow-n-go minivan rental. Seriously, this thing had compartments everywhere, and we used them. We left late on Saturday, so the drive from San Antonio to Tucson, AZ was mostly dark and uneventful. With the coming of dawn however, Arizona turned on us and became evil.

In Phoenix we decided to stop and see a sculpture made from old weaponry. We were all picturing something tough looking, but apparently most of the weapons were melted down and then cast into this random thing. The bottom however showed some of the weapons that were placed into the sculputre.

After a disappointing sculpture visit, we decided to get some breakfast at a local cafe that we had spotted across the street. BAD IDEA. The doors proclaimed this cafe to be "open and accepting to all" and blah blah blah, but what they really meant was "we are going to be douches to everyone who comes in here". When asking for a recommendation about their sandwiches, the cashier acted like I had insulted her. She gave me a rude look and said "I'm a vegetarian. I couldn't tell you." I thought 'okkkkkk, how about you at least tell me which one people buy most or something' but I shook it off and simply ordered. Also, Kelsi had to go request that they bring her sandwich out, because they simply didn't make it after telling her it was on the way. And then, they threw away Ashley's coffee while she was in the bathroom. She had literally ordered it a minute before to take for the rest of the trip and it was full. After asking the lady who threw it away about it (she was also the lady who had JUST made it for her), the a-hole didn't offer to get her another and didn't even apologize for the mistake. Needless to say, we were done with Phoenix, so we bid the place effing adieu.

We were forced to stop in Arizona one more time to get gas, and once again, we had trouble. The gas station we stopped at was crazy crowded with cars, so naturally people forgot their manners and how to drive. As we were circling the pumps (we had already been in the lot) a guy who apprently REALLY needed gas came flying in from the road and without even hesitating cut us off from an open pump that we were obviously driving to. Luckily, the pump was out of order, so he didn't get the satisfaction of getting gas before us. We finally just picked a pump and got in line behind the car. Another fine citizen of AZ however decided that he wanted to be next, so he got in line in FRONT of the car at the pump. I'm not sure if he had never been to a gas station before, but normally, you have to give a car room so that it can pull away from the pump. Again however, this jerk did not prevail. We were able to secure our spot at the pump (of course only after waiting on the woman and her kid to come back out of the store because she didn't move her car to allow the dozens of people waiting to fill up). After pumping gas (we moved the car when done to allow others to fill up) and taking a bathroom break, we got out of AZ as fast as we could.

Once we got into Southeastern California, we drove thru the MILLIONS (okay more like hundreds or thousands) of wind mills they have set up. Our next stop was Beaumont, CA (ah Beaumont).

Beaumont is located east of LA, so after a gas stop, we proceeded thru the madness of LA as quickly as possible. We finally got off of IH-10 and turned north toward San Francisco. The shot below was on IH-5 in between LA and San Francisco. It was definitely an improvement over the desertness of LA.

However, for a 5-10 minute stretch, we encountered the WORST SMELL I HAVE EVER SMELLED. We identified the source of the smell, after a few minutes of it creeping into our car. What was it? Are you dying to know? Well........it was tens of thousands of cows crammed into a small stretch of land (sorry no picture). The dairy farm (I'm assuming that's what it was) went on for a few miles, but it was made so that the cows were concentrated into small areas directly by the road. They were packed in there tighter than Rosie O'Donnell's legs into some skinny jeans. So you can imagine how the Methane Cloud that was flowing from their arses was quite overwhelming. I can't recall many smells that choked me up and made my eyes water, but this one definitely did.

Finally, after 30ish hours of driving, we finally made it to our destination, Nick's Aunt & Uncle's house in Tiburon (north of SF). Below is a picture of the view from the upstairs balcony.

And so ends Day 1 of the 2011 Spring Break Saga.

Celebrate Good Times!

Man! It has been a busy past couple of weeks!!  We celebrated my brother and sister-in-law’s birthdays, celebrated my birthday, celebrated the wedding of the new Mrs. Borho, and celebrated Matt’s birthday… I think it’s safe to say the last two weeks were jammed pack with wonderful celebrations with even better friends and family members. So let’s start from the beginning…

My brother and sister finally made their way up to San Antonio to visit us, it only took them 2 years! ;) They came up on the 24^th, which just so happens to be BOTH of their birthdays. They were spending their birthday weekend up in Fredericksburg and stopped to stay one night with us. Matt and I took them to a delicious restaurant which just so happened to have the largest selection of beer on tap in the WORLD (happy birthday Derek!). After dinner we took them to a bar where we continued to celebrate their awesome day of birth. We loved having them here and loved being able to be with them on their birthdays!

Derek and Crystal

Some of the world's largest selection

The very next day Matt and I made our way up to Austin where we were spending the weekend to celebrate my birthday and go to the wedding. Let me just say, I have the absolute best friends in the whole entire world!! My longest, best friends as well as the amazing new friends I have met in school all showed up to celebrate my birthday with me. I am such a lucky gal! We had dinner at an amazing restaurant which I highly recommend: The Cedar Door. We sat outside on the patio (which was a tad bit chilly!) and enjoyed drinks, food, and good ol’ conversation. After dinner the night continued into the streets of Austin, TX. This was probably one of the best birthdays I have ever had! Everyone had so much fun and I cannot thank them enough for making this a birthday I won’t forget J

My awesome OT friends!

My awesome best friends!

Next stop: Cedar Park for wedding festivities. We finally got to see some of Matt’s family for the wedding. I feel like we haven’t seen them in forever!! We got to hang out with Matt’s dad, step-mom and little sister before the wedding, then slowly got ready for Jena’s big day. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous! It took place in a tiny old, but newly renovated church and the reception was at a beautiful country club. Everyone looked so beautiful and Jena was absolutely glowing with happiness. We enjoyed yummy Salt Lick BBQ and of course, wedding cake! We called it a night, and headed out the next morning to come back to SA.

Jena looking beautiful!

My favorite little family! :)

We didn’t get much rest when we got back because soon enough it was Matt’s birthday!! See what I mean about all the celebrations?! It was never ending for a while! Matt decided he wanted to have dinner at one of our favorite Asian restaurants with some close friends..so we did just that! Because everything had been so hectic I didn’t get a chance to bake Matt anything for his birthday, so I decided to pick up some Couture Cupcakes for everyone to enjoy! They were delicious!! I got a variety of flavors like german chocolate cake, vanilla bean, peanut butter, carrot cake, wedding cake, and chocolate. A little bit of something for everyone. Matt already had his peanut butter cupcake all picked out before we even made it to dinner, but as it turns out the birthday boy got a free (HUGE) red velvet cupcake from the restaurant! I don’t think Matt was complaining at all!!

Yummy cupcakes 

The birthday boy

Although we have been going non-stop we have gotten the chance to make some wonderful memories with wonderful people and I wouldn’t change that for anything! Who knows when we will be back on here to write because come Saturday we will be on our spring break road trip to…….SAN FRANCISCO!! Don’t worry everyone, we will be safe and all that jazz! Love you all <3