Monday, January 3, 2011

Christmas City by the Bay

At long last I made a small trip to my hometown San Francisco for Christmas. I live really close to the city-just across the Golden Gate bridge, a hop, skip and a jump away, but like most Northern Bay Area Californians I am just plain lazy and don't bother to leave my little, warm nest and venture on over, or maybe everyone is broke like me! Anyway, we all hopped in the suburban, my husband and I, kids in tow, and set off for our journey across the bridge. The plan was first to meet my brother and his son at fencing practice in South San Francisco, drop his son off and head off to downtown SF Union Square and then proceed to act like tourists visiting the city for the first time. I of course would bring my iPhone and huge digital camera with me- okay, now I look like a tourist. If you are from here it is uncool to bring your camera... Anyway, it turned out that we actually met on the bridge under the first span heading out of Marin as they were only a few cars ahead of us which we discovered as we were busily texting each other-mind you neither one of us was the driver! Long story short, fencing was canceled and we, eight people total, played tourist in the city which was so amazingly beautiful. Palm trees wrapped in golden, glowing Christmas lights, very Cali style. There was a huge lit Christmas tree in the center of the square next to an ice skating rink chock-full full of ice skaters. Kittens were just waiting to be adopted (by me) in the store front windows of Macy's. Building windows were adorned with beautiful sparkling wreaths row by row. The city was magical, glittering for Christmas, and the crowds were joyously celebrating. We had fun, I took lots of pictures and especially loved the Beatles billboard on top of one of the buildings above the Square- a nod and a throwback to my 60's days in SF. We barely spent any money except for gasoline, parking and huge soft pretzels from a vendor. We had a great day in the city and on the way back home stopped at the Golden Gate Viewpoint to take in the beautiful evening city lights. What a perfect little trip!











Autumn Past

I haven't blogged in some time now, except for the occasional photo and one- liners sent from my cell phone on my moblog, calgaltravels.blogspot.com. This past summer we moved our family of six twice. It was incredibly painful, the economy hit our family hard, really hard, but...that's another story- you'll just have to read the book! :) Now that we have settled down and I have recovered, I am back to blogging! I really wanted to share with you my photos of autumn in Sonoma County, which is in Northern California (for those of you who might not know where I live). I love how the hot summer days here turn to cool, breezy autumn days, such a welcome relief! In October we had two, 100 degree weeks back to back, but we still managed to pull it off, "Thank you God!" I lived in Ohio through my teen years and what I miss most were the spectacular autumns. Californians experience fall but you might have to hunt it out! I have found some favorite neighborhoods and parks where I like to walk my dog Goldie and take in all the beauty. I find myself collecting brilliant yellow and gold leaves, fiery red and orange burnished oak leaves, acorns, berries, and like a kid, pick up the giant leaves bigger than my 24 inch TV screen and bring them home to wave and show off to my family. Here are some pictures I took on my morning walks.