An Update of Sorts

My last major update was kind of a downer. I promise we are still having lots of fun in life and are not letting silly things like the Diabeetus get us down.

For example: A recount of some of our time in California!

Taylor's parent's came to see us in California and while they were there, we rented an airplane and Taylor flew us around the San Francisco Bay and Napa Valley. Both are just as magnificent from the air as they are on land. One of my Top 5 life moments for sure!

Also while they were in town, we got to attend the release party for our very favorite wine. I only have this one picture from that but you'll have to forgive me because I chose to hold a glass of wine and a snack instead of a camera because PRIORITIES. 

Our last adventure before we left was to San Francisco. I loved visiting such an iconic city! Also, all of my dreams came true because I got to visit the Painted Ladies. AKA the Full House row of houses. SPOILER ALERT: they aren't the actual set of Full House. Or Mrs. Doubtfire. I don't know where I heard that and I was kind of devastated when I found out the truth. They were still pretty sweet though!

We also drove down Lombard street which was pretty neat, except that you couldn't really take any of it in because we were herded through like cattle. Did you know that people actually live on that street? I kept wondering if police stopped traffic so that they could back out of their garages. Even though the signs say not to tour the street on foot, many people did and some even snuck into back yards to take pictures! It was kind of a chaotic, creepy scene. I would NOT want to live there.

After walking around the city all day, we made our way to one of the piers to wait for our ride to Alcatraz. (P.S. Over the summer, I re-read all of the Harry Potter books, and so every time I talked about our trip to Alcatraz, I referred to it as Azkaban. Doh.)

We decided to take the night tour and boy are we glad because it was Ah-mazing! It was a walking tour where you listen to a recording as you wander around. I think the most interesting tales were from escape attempts gone wrong.

Sidenote: We had to make a last minute run to Wal-Mart the night before our trip to San Fran for sweatshirts because the temperatures got down into the 40's! We were freezing on the boat ride to and from the Alcatraz island. We didn't bring any jackets to California because it was of course summer, but also since all of our winter stuff had been packed by the movers in Del Rio and was sitting in a warehouse somewhere in New Jersey!

I am a bad U.S. citizen because I knew next to nothing about the prison. (I'm noticing a trend here...Coca-Cola, Jelly Belly, Alcatraz...I am clueless!) The tour was definitely for people like me. As we were leaving the island, I snapped a few pictures of the building and as creepy as taking pictures of an old prison is, I love them and think they are beautiful.

We booked our tickets for Alcatraz the second weekend in June and the first available date was the one we went to. It's a popular tour that most people only find out about when they show up to book a day tour (always available). Some local Californians have never been on or even heard about the tour so that basically makes us better than the locals.

After driving back to Travis that night, we packed up all of our things over the next few days and flew home! We had such a fun time in California and got to hang out with some of our best friends from Del Rio the entire time! Since it's February in New Jersey, we are reminiscing about our summer full of fun in the sun!