I heart San Francisco.

Having my cousins visit SF for the first time gave us a great opportunity to be tourists in a city that we have visited tons of time already....what an awesome experience we had seeing what felt like the whole city by foot. Here's a brief of our itenerary:

Friday: Stayed at the Westin on Market- awesome location, great hotel. Shopped at Jeremys (http://www.jeremys.com/) and walked to Firenze by Night in North Beach for an amazing and authentic Italian meal. Walked around and checked out Bix in the Financial District before crashing.

Saturday: Walked walked walked. We went straight to the Embarcadero for the Saturday Famer's Market- it is so awesome! We stood in line for the well-worth-it Blue Bottle coffee, sifted through beautiful flowers and delicious looking foods, and checked out some awesome local art. We made our way to Coit Tower for an amazing view of the city, and all the way to Lombard Street- yes, still by foot. So the way to go! You run into awesome local neighbordhoods and areas, so much to see while getting a great workout! From Lombard we made our way to the Marina District where I fell in love. This is such a cute area! And the Tipsy Pig for lunch- LOVED IT. The food was great! The ambiance was amazing. Wonderful. We continued on our journey on foot to the Palace of Fine Arts. So gorgeous. Onto the shore heading towards the Golden Gate Bridge....where on our way up, Matthew proposed! Down on one knee...in front of my mom, brother, and cousins. Perfect :). This crazy day was not even over yet! We went to Maykadeh for a great Iranian dinner, and out for a drink and dueling pianos at Foley's. PHEW!!!

Sunday: Another great meal started our last day together, we had breakfast at Mo's Diner. Yummm! We headed over to Pier 31 to board a ferry over to Alcatraz. So spooky but really interesting. By the time it was over, the rain was pouring and it was time to part.

Inspiration.

Thanks to Danielle and her new blog, Life: Inspired, I got a jolt of my own inspiration for a much needed update to my blog and just to take a moment aside from my crazy work day. My mind is a whirlwind right now, so I think I just need to get some stuff OUT!

There are so many updates that need to be spread out across different posts but I can sum up the basis as "I'm engaged". YAY!! Well, what a crazy experience this has been. Immediately it has had some interesting side-effects.

1) I didn't think Matt and I could be any stronger. But I was wrong. Seeing his excitement to start our lives together and vice versa has taken our love to a whole new extraordinary level.

2)People. Are. Crazy. I was warned that people will start acting out but I really couldn't imagine this. Unfortunately, something about weddings causes a wave of irrelevant emotions to people outside of the bride and groom, whether it be pressure, jealousy, entitlement, selfishness, or what....I hate to say that off the bat I've been surprised at some people's actions. A wonderful lesson I learned today, thank you Eleanor Roosevlet: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent".

3) That being said- I am THRILLED for our wedding and lives together, and I am SO thankful for the amazing friends and family who I have and who support and love me. It's so great to know that we have been blessed with some incredible people in our lives. Love you all!!

San Francisco was A BLAST. Thanks to Alicia, my love for SF grew exponentially, and I can't wait to go home and post the great restaurants and areas she sent us to. My proposal was truly out of a fairy tale, and now we are on a mission to plan a wedding on a very tight budget. It's been a huge but really fun challenge to our creativity and I'm excited to update my blog with our ideas and progress.

So....thanks Danielle, because I feel better already, and I think it's a sign I need "daily reflections" as you so wisely stated.

Spring Break

I can’t believe it’s already Friday….just a weekend before my time off from work ends. Depression! But San Francisco hasn’t even started yet, and that’s amazing/ has been comically challenging. First off, Matthew took us to Monterey (for my surprise trip) on Monday and Tuesday. We stayed at one of the best places I have ever stayed- Sanctuary Beach Resort- PHENOMENAL. It’s on a gorgeous and oh so clean beach surrounded by wildlife preserved areas, so it’s private, quiet and beautiful! Each room is like its own bungalow, we had just one neighbor, a fireplace, and our own patio right on the sand. We even got our own golf cart to ride around! Thanks to Matt, we enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium, 17-Mile Drive, Moss Landing, Carmel and Pacific Grove. So relaxing and nice.

Now as we await to be united with my cousins arriving in San Francisco, it has not been so smooth, and I really hope that changes. The weather is supposed to be rainy the entire time they are here, they missed their flight, and now my brother’s flight has been delayed. So instead of having the full day we planned for today, we won’t even be all together until this afternoon. We hope that rain doesn’t throw all of our fun plans out the window….. BOOO! BUT I will keep my head up and am very excited for the wonderful food and scenery on our itinerary:

EATS and DRINKS:
-Swan Oyster Depot
-The Tipsy Pig
-Café de la Press
-Mo’s Grill
-Rex’s Café
-Firenze by Night
-A16
-Maykadeh
-Foley’s
-Circa
-Bix

SHOPPING
-Union Street, Chestnut Street, Octavia Street
-Jeremy (LOVE this place, like the Ross of higher end retailers)
-Maiden Lane

SIGHTS/AREAS:
-Alcatraz
-Palace of Fine Arts and Presidio
-Golden Gate Bridge/Park
-Coit Tower and Lombard Street
-Ghirardelli Square

P.S. That second to last picture is a leafy sea dragon (sea horse). Crazy little guy!