Two Days In Tahoe

We headed out to Tahoe a couple of weeks ago to celebrate our 2nd anniversary.  We went in the middle of the week since I work weekends and I've decided that we should do all of our trips during the middle of the week.  It was so quiet and not crowded.  Also, rooms are really cheap during the middle of the week.

We arrived late on Tuesday night and went straight to bed.  We slept in the next day, went to breakfast, and then drove to Tahoe City to go on a bike ride.  This actually turned out to be a not so great experience.  I recently got new bike pedals and shoes for my bike and I'd only used them a few times before.  I hadn't had too many problems, but on this particular day I wore a new pair of socks that were much thinner than the ones I typically wear.  This caused me to have a lot of extra room in my shoes.  And this caused a lot of problems when I would try to unclip from the pedals.  I fell twice.  And after the second fall I was just done for the day.  I think we only biked about 14 miles, but it took us around an hour and a half due to all the problems.  I was ready to swear off cycling for good.  We vowed to rent bikes the next time we go to Tahoe.  We saw so many people on fun, recreational type bikes that they were just cruising around on.  I was jealous that they all looked like they were having so much fun and I was definitely not.

We took a leisurely drive back to the hotel from Tahoe City and stopped along the way to get a few more pictures of the beautiful scenery.

We left the next day, but were able to squeeze in a good hike the morning before we headed out.   

 This is the state line for California and Nevada.

 This picture was taken because my sister recently found this picture of my dad:

This was my first time to visit Tahoe and I can't wait to go back.  Maybe I'll even give some winter activities a try.

Zulu Update

First off, I can't believe she's going to have her first b-day so soon!  Maybe her TX grandma will send her some birthday cookies ;)  We'll probably take her to her CA grandma's house for a party with her two puppy friends so they'll need some cookies too.  

She's been going to CA grandma's house a lot lately.  We love it.  She comes home at the end of the day and she's exhausted from running and playing.  Unfortunately, the rainy season is starting up and she won't be able to play outside very much.  She has soooo much energy and even one day of being at home causes her to be super annoying.  This is mostly our own fault though because we definitely haven't given her proper training yet.  We should probably work on that....

We took Zu to be groomed a month or so ago and I can't say I was pleased with the results.  She came home pretty much completely bald with the exception of her tail being left super furry.  I understood that they had to shave her because her fur had a bunch of knots and stickers stuck in it.  I'm a little confused about why her tail was left so furry though.

I pretty much had a heart attack when she walked through the door though.  She looked so "poodle" and it freaked me out.

It really came at a perfect time though.  It was the middle of the summer and her coat was just too much for her in the summer heat.  It's starting to grow back now and she's getting cuter and cuter every day.

 She loves her baby hippo so much!  When I wake her up in the morning to go potty she always takes her hippo with her.  It's so adorable.  I often find her asleep with her arms wrapped around her baby too.  I have to wash it often.  Her light pink fur gets pretty dirty.  

We're currently contemplating halloween costumes for Zu.   I doubt that whatever we choose will last very long, but we've never dressed her up before and I'm dying to see her wear something cute.

Sonoma County Fair

The fair was actually a couple of months ago.  Please excuse the much delayed recap.

This was my first time to attend the Sonoma County Fair.  I was pretty impressed.  First off, they have horse races!  So classy!  Neither of us had ever attended a horse race before and we totally lucked out on free tickets.  As we were walking up to the ticket booth to purchase general admission, a lady stopped us and asked if we wanted her extra tickets.  Her tickets included the fair AND the races!  We used our savings to purchase extra food.

So here are the pictures.  Not much to commentate on seeing as how it's pretty much just a typical fair...

End of Summer Recap

We've had a busy few months....

We went to the Sonoma county fair (some time in August).  Full post coming soon.


Zulu will turn one in a few weeks (October 26).  Detailed Zulu update and pictures coming soon. 


We went to Tahoe for two days (Sept. 21-22).  Beautiful pictures and a humorous story coming soon.


I survived the Pear Festival weekend (Sept. 23-25) at work.  This included a kick off country concert and bbq on a Friday night (I actually was able to attend for fun and not have to work the event, but it was still somewhat work related), the actual day of the Pear Festival (one of our busiest days of the year) and our annual Harvest Party the next night.  It was a fabulous cajun themed event.  I don't have any of my own pictures, but there are some on the Wildhurst Facebook page.  The event was a huge success and I was so excited to be a part of it.

We attended the wedding of two wonderful people last weekend.  I didn't take a single picture, but it was so beautiful and probably one of the most personal and entertaining ceremonies I've ever witnessed.

We also did the Konocti Challenge last Saturday.  I did the 40 mile bike ride and Jake did the 100 mile course!!!

I know it doesn't look like I did a bike ride at all, but I did.  I just happened to have time to go home and shower before Jake completed the race.  I'm so proud of Jake for accomplishing this huge goal.  He worked so hard and I think he had a pretty good time doing it too.

For our next athletic challenge, we're considering the Orange County full marathon in May.  I've been having some foot problems though so we'll see how I feel after the end of my half marathon on October 29th.  We were considering the New Orleans marathon in March, but I might need to take a considerable amount of time off after the race this month and I want to have plenty of time to recover and then train again.

I think that pretty much sums up the past couple of months.  I'm sure I've forgotten some important details, but you get the gist of it, right?

An Afternoon in Healdsburg

It's funny how this blogging thing works....when I had a job that I was unhappy with, and thus not really loving life so much, I somehow found a lot to blog about. I think that I was trying to make my life appear better than it really was. Ironically, I'm still doing a lot of fun things (though not always on the weekends) but I feel less motivation to blog about them. This is partially because my new job really wears me out. I'm tired in a good way, but I barely have enough energy to make dinner at night, so blogging hasn't been a big priority.

On the other hand though, one of my biggest reasons for blogging is to keep my family up to date on our lives so I will try to make more of an effort to blog about the fun times I'm having (even if it's mostly work related these days).

Today we had a wonderful afternoon in Healdsburg and I took a lot of pictures. We went to a couple different wineries that a friend recommended and they were wonderful.

Our first stop was Quivira:



 
 
They had some wonderful wines, but our favorite was the Grenache.  We purchased a bottle and got 30% off with an inter winery discount!

Quivira is organic and biodynamic.  I don't know much about the biodynamic thing, but I think it has something to do with the stars and moon and other things of that nature.  Google it if you're interested.
Along with their great wine, they also had an amazing garden and farm area.

 

 

 

(bees)

Our next stop was the Dry Creek General Store.  I've read about this place numerous times and have been wanting to try it for a while.  It's basically a deli that makes really good, albeit expensive, sandwiches. 

 

We enjoyed our lunch on a picnic table outside. 

 

Our final stop for the day was Ferrari Carano. This place was so fancy!  The grounds were amazing and wine was pretty good too.  They offered an inter winery discount too, but only on certain wines.  Our favorite one, the Home Ranch Cab, was not discountable, but we purchased it anyway. 

We had a wonderful time and plan on taking advantage of the inter winery discount again in the near future.  

Cutest Pillows Ever

When we went to Napa several weeks ago we found a store that had a bunch of cute items. Some of the cutest were dish towels and pillows from catstudio. I ended up purchasing a dish towel for my mom's birthday, but I recently checked out their website and really fell in love. If these weren't so pricey I would purchase the following pillows:

They have a Nevada pillow, but I don't feel any sort of connection to the entire state of Nevada so I'd definitely choose this one.

These are all hand stitched, thus explaining the hefty price tag. I don't think I'll ever be able to justify $149 for a pillow, but I'll continue to check the website in case they ever have a 75% off sale.

Where oh where have I been?

It's been almost a month since my last post! Well it's been a busy month to say the least.

First, I got a new job. It's a fabulous new job and I love it more than any job I've ever had. I'm working at a tasting room for a local winery. I'm managing the wine club, pouring wine for people, and learning as much as I can about the wine industry.


Soon after my new job started, we had another incident with Zulu (see here for first major incident). Jake decided to take Zu for a ride in his jeep one afternoon. He strapped her in with her harness and took off down Main St. Not too long after their ride began, Zulu decided to work her way out of the harness and tried to crawl out of the jeep, Marley and Me style. Jake reached down to grab her and ended up hitting a parked car. Luckily nobody was injured, but the car was totaled, Jake's jeep was damaged, and Zulu sat in a puddle of motor oil, thus staining her entire back end. One month and several baths later and she still looks ridiculous.

I also went on a trip to Texas this past month. I was there for 8 days and it was fabulous. I did normal things like shopping, eating, movies and just plain hanging out, but it was the most fun I've had in a long time. I miss my friends and family so much. I've tried to convince all of them to just move to California, but nobody took me up on the offer. I didn't really have much to offer them besides cooler temperatures and the ability to see me on a regular basis, but I would have thought that would be more than enough incentive ;)

The only downfall of my new job is that it requires me to work on the weekends. This means I'll probably have fewer fun adventures to post about on the blog, but I'll try to make my weekdays off a little more exciting.

Oh one thing before I start my chores for the day....



This is the trailer for the movie that was partially filmed in Kelseyville. The street that's shown at :13 in the trailer is Main Street. Sadly, most of the store fronts are deserted in real life and I think even more have closed since they filmed last year. Also, the Sheriff's Office is actually an abandoned building next to the tasting room. I'm curious to see if it will be shown at all in the movie.

A Day in Napa

Last weekend we made an impromptu trip to Napa. Napa is about an hour and a half away, but the drive seems to go quickly because of the beautiful scenery.


Our first stop was the Napa Riverwalk. This was actually really disappointing though. There were several nice looking restaurants, but very few stores. The whole area was actually really deserted for a Sunday afternoon. I suppose most people go to Napa to wine taste, but I expected there to more going on near the river on a holiday weekend.

After walking around the riverwalk and nearby downtown area, we drove a short distance to the Oxbow Market. This place was pretty cool. We purchased some AMAZING lemon pita chips and fresh blackberries. We also tasted some olive oils, browsed a spice shop and ate a couple of cupcakes.

We then drove around trying to find some more things to do. We felt like maybe were just missing the "happening" Napa area, but it turned out to just not exist. I did find a World Market to shop at and there was a pet store nearby so Jake spent his time there. He purchased a new bed for Zulu, but she's already ruined it!

Our next mission was to find a place to eat, but we couldn't find anything that seemed appealing. Now before you go crazy on me for not being able to find a place to eat in Napa, just hear me out...I'm well aware that Napa is home to several famous and probably delicious restaurants, but we wanted something low key and we were definitely not dressed in proper attire for a nice restaurant. So we headed for St. Helena to go to a place we've been before. We ended up at what used to be Taylor's Automatic Refresher, a Triple D place. It's now called Gott's Roadside, but they have the exact same menu. Ironically there's a Gott's right next to the Oxbow Market, but we didn't realize it was the former Taylor's and we passed it up because we weren't very hungry after going to the market.

The next time we go to Napa it will definitely be for wine tasting and not shopping/walking around. It's a beautiful place, but we should have put a little more research and planning into our spontaneous trip :)