Alcatraz!

This past weekend, Peter's mom was visiting and we took the opportunity to go visit Alcatraz! It's been on our list to visit for awhile now, but we've been waiting for an excuse (someone to visit) to go.

It was fascinating.

You have to take a ferry to get there, which pays for your admission into the park, along with a great audio tour.

The ferry ride has spectacular views of San Francisco, the Bay Bridge and the bay itself. It's about a 20 minute ride there and a 20 minute ride back. This is the one thing you need to plan in advanced, you need a reservation.

Once we got on the island, we started the audio tour. The tour was great - It has you walk throughout the cell house, takes you to different cells, and gives you a real sense of the history of Alcatraz. It lasts about an hour, but we took our time, stopping and exploring parts that the tour went by quickly. There was a lot to take in. It was my first time ever visiting a prison, and it made me really curious as to what prisons look like on the inside these days (apart from my expectations from Orange is the New Black). 

The other perk of Alcatraz is the amazing views from every spot on the island. Each gives you a perfect bay background, no matter which direction you face!

Fall Football

Last weekend Peter and I went out to see the Cal Bears play in a game against Washington State.

I am not the biggest fan of football, but this was actually surprisingly fun.

Last time we went to a game, it was late at night, lasted forever, and Cal lost - pretty badly. This time, everything was different. They've been doing pretty well due to an amazing quarterback (so I've heard), who is apparently a potential number one pick in the draft this year. The game did not last 4 hours this time, and it was during the day which is always ideal.

At the beginning of the day we headed to a t-shirt shop on Telegraph so that I could get a Cal t-shirt and feel spirited for the game. Then later we headed over just in time for the start of the game and had seats near the student section. As someone who did not attend a college with a big football team, this was really fun to be around. They have people to teach you the cheers and to tell you when to be loud and when to be quiet, which is helpful for a football noob like myself.

Some pictures from the game:

Quick trip to Santa Barbara

I took a spontaneous mini trip over the past 48 hours down to Santa Barbara and back up. It's a beautiful city that I would love to visit again, maybe with a little bit more time and planning out.
Here's a little bit about the trip

Getting there
I mostly followed my waze directions to get down to Santa Barbara. I took the 101 instead of the 5 which avoided some of the monotony of I-5 (so boring! so many (dry) farms!). The 101 is also a little monotonous, but I saw the Cuesta forest fire on my way down which was a little scary, it was really close to the highway, like I could see flames right next to my car... and driving by Pismo beach was really pretty. If I were going for a more scenic route I would have taken the Pacific Coast Highway which is beautiful, if not a little scary due to all the curves!

Staying
We stayed at the Wayfarer, which way exceeded expectations. I was visiting with my best friend's sister and her mom so there were three of us. They got there before me and were cracking up as we walked to the room. When the two of them arrived, they were a bit confused because the room was tight and there only appeared to be one bed:

They checked back in at the front desk, confused, asking how we would fit three people, to which the person at the desk responded that there's a murphy bed in the room... again they were confused as to where the murphy bed would be. The guy said he would send over maintenance who came and opened up the murphy bed:

Heh! They used their "air space." Too funny.

The Wayfarer was really clean, had a kitchen you could use that had pots pans and kitchen basics like olive oil and spices. We didn't utilize it but I could see it being really nice if you stayed for a longer visit. The pool was on the smaller side but relaxing after laying by the beach. And our room came with a small veranda with two chairs giving a nice space to lay out if the pool was too crowded. 

I would definitely stay again.

Things To Do

With very limited time to spend in Santa Barbara, we had to choose our activities wisely. We decided to visit two very standard stops... the beach and the courthouse, both beautiful in different ways. We started at the courthouse which was stunning. There's so much history in those walls, I loved that you could just wander around at your own pace.

The beach was also beautiful. We went by the pier by the Wayfarer just to lay around. You could have rented kayaks or paddle boards but we decided to just laze around in the afternoon. The beach wasn't crowded at all despite it being sunny and warm which I really appreciated. Later, after freshening up at the hotel we walked along the coast to watch the sunset. We walked down the cliffs along a path called "one thousand steps" (exaggerated.) and we were able to walk around a bend to see the sun. It was a perfect walk to take right before dinner.

Good Eats
I want to highlight one of the places we went to eat, Tupelo Junction Cafe. After quickly looking up some yelp reviews while downtown and starving for lunch, we happily stumbled into this cafe. They have a southern flare to their food: fried green tomatoes, hushpuppies. Everything we had was delicious, though guilt inducing. I would absolutely head back there for seconds and thirds if I could.

Can't wait for my next trip back to this beautiful place.

photos of The Wayfarer from their website.

trip up to sonoma!

A few weekends ago, my Aunt and Uncle came out to visit Peter and I in the bay. I have few snapshots from the trip:

We decided to do a bike trip around to a couple of different wineries through Sonoma Valley Bike Tours. We decided to take the cheaper route, just renting the bikes instead of doing a planned tour with them and I was really happy to have the experience. 

We went on a really hot day - which was my one regret. I think this would have been perfect in 70, or even 80 degree weather. We were all so beat that by the time we got to the third winery, none of us wanted wine!

The first winery we went to was Sebastiani Vineyards  which had a great tasting room. We split two tastings amongst the four of us. One was their standard wines (which I loved to taste considering all of them are available to Peter and I locally), and their reserve wines (which overall were much better than the standard wines). I appreciated that the tastings were on the cheaper side.

After that we went out to Ravenswood Winery which specializes in Zinfindels. Unfortunately to get there we had to go up our first major incline and the Aunt and Uncle were out for tastings. They enjoyed sitting outside and rehydrating (especially considering it was ~90 - eek!). Peter and I split a tasting of their not Zinfindels since neither of us enjoy Zins. I really liked their rose, but otherwise nothing else stood out to the two of us. However their atmosphere was great! Very laid back and a lot less stuffy than other tasting rooms.

At this point we were about a third of the way through our ride and pretty tired. We biked to our last winery which (to be honest) consisted of one section where the four of us walked our bikes up the hill (again did I mention how hot it was??) We ended up at Gundlach Bundschu (pronounced Gun-Lock-Bun-Shoe) which had a lovely area to catch our breath outside. At this point we were all pretty exhausted and decided to skip the wines. However I think this winery was the prettiest we went through. As we were leaving, I have to admit I was tempted to take a bunch of grapes off a tree, but then realized the grapes would be even more delicious as wine, and decided to move on.

I would recommend doing a bike tour of Sonoma, if drinking the wines is not your priority. The four of us were craving water way more than wine by the end of this trip. However, it was beautiful and definitely an adventure! I think next time I'll take a party bus :)