Fun Times

Heidi writes:

We spent Saturday evening at Josh and Outing's house - grilling and playing yard games. It was a good time. They have a new yard game - Kubb...it was pretty fun, especially playing in the dark with the wine kicking in :-)




Brent, Josh, and Jeff playing Kubb.






Sunday, we saw the movie "Click" and then went and ate at Outback. Our roommate gave us a gift card for watching the dogs.

Monday we drove up to Fairfield and toured the Budweiser and Jelly Belly factories. It was pretty fun. We were going to start at the Jelly Belly factory, but the line was insanely long, so we drove the 2 miles to Budweiser and joined the tour right when we got there. The tour started in the tasting room - 2 free drinks each! Then there was a "presentation" about how the beer is made, etc. I volunteered to be a taste-tester (I didn't do so well, but it was fun) and at the end of the tour I got a certificate saying I am a "Honorary Beermaster"...pretty sweet!

The Jelly Belly tour was a little more indepth and we got to walk around the factory more. We still had to wait in line for a little over an hour for the tour, but it was worth it. Plus, we got a handful of jelly beans while in line and then two bags each after the tour - you can't beat free Jelly Belly jelly beans!




Tuesday morning we went to Muir Woods (it is just north of San Francisco). There are tons of giant redwoods and a lot of trails. We walked this trail and kept walking and then walked some more - most of which was an up-hill climb. We ended up at a camp ground and found a ranger's station so we could buy a trail map. We were a little out of the way from where we thought we were. Luckily, we had packed a lunch so we ate that before heading back. A couple "highlights" of the hike - I tripped a lot on the trails and fell twice! The first time, the side of the trail gave way and I slipped down the embankment and caught myself on a root - I only cut my knee up a little bit. The second fall was a little worse - I slipped in mud and fell on my hands and knees. There was mud everywhere. So, I climbed down the side of the trail to the stream and washed myself up. The water felt pretty nice! The other cool thing that happened - we saw a few deer along the trail.

After that, we were exhausted, but we really wanted to go to San Francisco for fireworks. We changed clothes and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. We parked by the Fisherman's Wharf and headed over to Pier 39. We ate dinner - fish and clam chowder (yummy!) and then walked around the pier for a while. Surprisely, there were 3 sea lions there - usually they don't go to the pier until the fall. The fireworks were pretty neat. They had two barges in the bay - right by Alcatrez - that shot off the fireworks - they shot off the same fireworks at the same time. We could only see one of the shows from where we were at, but it was still pretty cool. There were a ton of people there. It took us around 2 hours to get back to the parking garage and drive the 3 miles to the Bay Bridge - just nuts.
The above picture is of the sea lions being lazy. The picture below was taken from the upper level of Pier 39. There were about 4 times as more people when the fireworks started.