2 Months?!?

CoCo here, ready to re-enter the blogosphere.

Now I knew it had been a while since we last updated, but two months?? En serio??? Well... yo confieso that I have no good excuse. It's por mi culpa, por mi culpa, por mi gran culpa. Time to get back in the habit.

While I was busy not blogging, I was enjoying the summer with my boo. I'll use this post to fill you in.

The end of July was the beginning of our "Quintessential [Northern] California Vacation", as one of my colleagues called it. We started off by visiting the beach town of Santa Cruz. Surprisingly, Franco had never been and I was excited to introduce him to one of my childhood loves. We ate at great restaurants (Saturn Cafe, Cafe Brasil), hung out at the boardwalk (rides and the imperial circus from China and more rides and salt water taffy and more rides - I was a giddy kid again), and played some fun games (mini golf! bowling!). It was a very chill trip and we really enjoyed ourselves. The perfect way to start a vacation.

Next up was Lake Tahoe. We're lucky because my grandparents have a cabin on the North Shore, so off we went to Grandma Gloria's Bed & Breakfast. I know most people visit Tahoe in the winter but I love it in the summer. I look forward to lazily lying on the beach all day. I got plenty of sunbathing in, and Franco even convinced me to hit a trail. 

From Tahoe, we drove to Yosemite. Neither of us had been and we were extremely excited to visit. Since we were driving from the lake, we drove through Nevada and into the park from the east. I was kind of dreading the drive because it was going to be long and I didn't know what to expect, but it was beautiful. Of course, Yosemite was amazingly beautiful as well (believe the hype). We spent time in Tuolumne Meadows and Yosemite Valley hiking and swimming and taking in the natural beauty. The photos really are nothing to compare to the real thing. I'm already thinking about our next visit.

After our vacation, it was back to the grind. However, we did manage to fit in good food, the outdoors, and another trip to Tahoe in the next month. And we watched our mini porch garden bloom. All in all, it was a great summer. The best thing is, we have another one coming. Get ready for Indian Summer!!!

Summer Escapes

Hi all, CoCo here.

You’ve all heard that infamous quotation about summer in San Francisco being the coldest blah, blah, blah. It makes me mad for two reasons. One: I don’t like to hear anyone trash talking my beloved city of residence. Two: It’s true. Summer in San Francisco is pretty cold. For the past week I’ve woken up to drizzly fog and shivered my way to the train station each morning. Not fun (unless you are the sun-hating half of Francoco). What’s a Bay Area city girl to do? Head to the river.


So far this summer we’ve headed to the river twice. (Far too few times, in my opinion.) Our first visit was a day-trip to tube down a stretch of the Russian River. I spend my entire winters fantasizing about that one-mile stretch just north of Cloverdale. It’s like a home away from home and I am slowly convincing Franco that we need more of it in our lives (he goes back and forth between liking these trips and feeling indifferent). 


Our second trip was this past weekend and we went camping along the Eel River in Potter Valley. It was our first camping trip together and I'm glad to say we made it out alive! And happy! We had some awesome new camping equipment from our wedding registry (thank you Jordan, Andrew, and Hable!), good company (my brothers and their ladies, plus a very cute baby), and beautiful scenery (think Bob Ross). By Sunday Franco was trying to convince me to drive to cell signal to let my boss know I'd be out an extra day. So I'd say it was a very successful mini-vacation.

I'll leave you with some photos from our trips (yay for dry sacks!):

 Root beer on the river. 

One of our many stops as we floated down the Russian River.

Heading home after a nice float.

 Yay! We're camping!

(Sorry for the crappy, front camera iPhone shot.)

 Everyone made fun of our mini tent (right).

In my element. 

Franco's favorite camping companion (our nephew, Sugar).