3rd Annual San Francisco Trip

Quinn and I had another opportunity to go and visit Doug and Katrina (Quinn's sister) in San Francisco. I had an event in the city for work, so I flew in early on Monday and worked. Quinn spent the week working at home in SLC and then flew out to meet up with me on Thursday, once my event ended. Quinn has really been putting in the hours appraising and was BADLY in need of some time off. He met me at our downtown hotel and had the weekend to enjoy some family, sun, and ocean views.

Doug and Katrina have lived in the San Francisco area for years...so they had a couple of tricks up their sleeves to show us while we were there.

They took us to the ruins of a once posh bathhouse on the beach, just outside the city. We went around 11:00 pm...making the experience all the spookier! The building used to be a giant freshwater pool and spa that over looked the Ocean; but due to its close proximity to the salty water had been reduced to almost nothing. We scaled down the side of a muddy cliff (I of course wore my new brown suede flats and a smart pink trench coat for the occasion...oops!) and started exploring the ruins.
There was a cave that you could walk through and hear the water come in and out; it literally sounded like you were going to wash away with the tide every time a wave came in. Here we are on the other side of the cave. Quinn is basically holding on to the cliff for dear life; you can't see it very well here, but there is only about an inch of rock between us and the edge of the cliff and the smashing waves below!

We then headed North to Sonoma County where we stayed in a cute little motel on the beach, flew kites, played games on the beach, and of course toured vineyards.


Doug is a kite master and spent a good part of the day teaching Quinn and I how to keep the kite in the air; it's harder than it looks! Quinn mastered the kite well before I did and even learned to make it do flips! Doug took the strings and showed us both up; he is quite talented on that thing; he can get the wind pulling the kite so hard that it drags him through the sand!
Our gracious host's The Spencer's...after they kicked our butts in kube!! We owe you a re-match!


While Quinn and I were in the city, we went on a "Foodie Tour" of the North Beach area. What is a "foodie tour" you ask? Basically, we walked around with our guide to a bunch of really old cafes, bakeries, and resturants and sampled food. Forget the fact that we were the yougest people on the tour by about 30 years and it was awesome! Needless to say, we did not cover a whole lot of ground, one can only be hearded into tiny old shops so fast. The food was great though; we sampled: fresh bread, olive oils, cheeses, truffles, meats, foccatia, bakery sweets, and THE BEST coconut macaroon I have ever tasted!