The rest of the weekend...

Heidi writes:

On Saturday, we headed up to Sacramento and walked around Old Sac. It is a pretty neat place - lots of fun shops and great candy stores!! That evening we went to see a movie in Stockton - "Almost Fiction" and then ate dinner at Pho Lucky's. The movie was good and dinner was delicious! It is kind of a Vietnamese style place.

Sunday was the big day in San Francisco. We left our place around 8am and headed to Muir Woods to see the giant red woods and sequoias. It was a miserable day weather wise, but we still made the most of it. I am glad that I brought extra socks and shoes along!! Here are some pictures of the day:

The pictures above and below were taken at Muir Woods around 11am. It looks dark because of the rain. You can see how big the trees are in the photo below. That is Jeff and his brother, Mike. There are a ton of trails all through the park. We also saw a few deer when we were leaving. A sad thing that I noticed is how unaware people are of their surroundings. For example, the deer were right by the trail eating and people walked right by them - it didn't even phase them that 3 deer were 10 feet away from them.

After Muir Woods, we went to the Fisherman's Wharf for some lunch - of course we ate chowder in bread bowls. One thing I am really going to miss about California is the clam chowder and sour dough bread bowls. It is one of my favorite thing to eat here!! We also went to Ghiradelli Square - one of my favorite places to go in SF!! Wonderful chocolate! We then headed over to Pier 33 to board the ferry for Alcatraz. It continued to rain and was dreary, but it was still really neat. I really enjoyed going out to Alcatraz and want to go back because I feel like I still have so much to see. We were there for a little over 2 hours and took the 4:30 ferry back to the mainland.

These two pictures are of Alcatraz. The one above was taken as we were nearing the island and the one below was taken on the tour. There are so many more pictures we have. We were able to go in some of the cells, the dining hall, and around a few other places. There were also photos of some of the inmates, information about some of the escape attempts, and were able to read about a lot of the history before it became a federal prison. I would recommend the trip to anyone!
The rain stopped when we got onto the ferry. We were able to get some amazing pictures of the sunset and of the city. Those pictures are at the end of the blog. When we got back to land we walked down to Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and some other places in the area. We went for dinner at a place in Chinatown. It was so yummy - they have a really good soup there and I love tea. Below is a picture of Jeff and I at the gate to Chinatown. After we ate and walked around some, we headed to the airport to drop Mike off.

The 4 pictures below are what we saw on the way back to the city from Alcatraz. It was so gorgeous. The rain stopped, the clouds went a way, and the sun made the most brilliant colors.

Above is the SF skyline.

The next pictures are the sunset and the Golden Gate Bridge. I love these pictures!!

It was a great weekend and I hope Mike enjoyed his time out here! We will be heading to MN/WI in 2 1/2 weeks!! I have 2 big papers, 2 big presentations, and 1 oral exam left for my classes. It will be a busy couple of weeks for me, but I can get through it!!

Napa, Thanksgiving, and Monteray

Heidi writes:

What a long weekend!! It started on Wednesday when Jeff and I took a trip to Napa Valley, Calistoga, and Sonoma with some General Mills folks. It was our first trip up there and a ton of fun. We got to taste a ton of wine - thanks Drew for the hook-up - and really enjoyed ourselves. We had dinner that night with Liz - I finally got to see her and then got the sad news about her mom passing. Luckily, Jeff and I were on our way to the airport to pick up Jeff's brother and were able to get a ticket and bring her there! Here are a couple of pictures from our first winery stop at Robert Mondavi:

I love elepants and am so glad that this rock was there! Below, Jeff and I are in the vineyard. There were still some grapes on the vines and the leaves are starting to change colors!

On Thanksgiving, we were at Toni and Drew's house. They made an excellent turkey and stuffing and everyone else brought some yummy food to share as well! I made cranberries and pecan pie and brought some appetizers. After we ate, we played football, darts, and some games. It was a fun day!!

On Friday, we got up and drove to Monteray Bay and some other places along Hwy. 1. We drove on the 17-mile scenic drive adn that was amazing. The views were spectacular. It was a little chilly that day and be by the ocean didn't help at all. The pictures below are from the drive and some of the stops along the way:

Above is bird rock. It has a ton of birds sitting on it and flying around it. There were also sea lions in the water in front of it splashing around. It was pretty cool to see. Below is a picture of Jeff and I in front of the water.

Above is the Lone Cypress. It is kind of interesting how a tree just grows on a rock like that! They have cables holding it up so the wind won't blow it over! Below are some deer hanging out at Pebble Beach Golf Course.
The picture above is a beautiful sunset. It was awesome being by the ocean during this time!

We drove down to Big Sur to see the lighthouse but it was closed by the time we got there :-( I am thinking another road trip will be in the making soon - who is coming to visit next? While we were driving down there it came to me why they say that happy cows live in California. It is because they have amazing views of the ocean!! I attempted to take pictures out of the window so you could see where the cows graze, but they didn't turn out!

Ok, so that was the first part of the weekend. I will post later and share things about Sacremento and San Francisco.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Heidi writes:

Happy Thanksgiving (a day early) everyone! I hope that you all have a safe, fun weekend! Jeff and I have a lot planned. We are going to go to Napa Valley today - and I finally get to see Liz!!! After that, we are driving to San Francisco to pick up Jeff's brother, Mike, from the airport. Thursday will be turkey day with some General Mills peeps. Friday brings a day of travel to Monteray Bay and a drive along the coast. Saturday will be spent eating sushi, visitng wineries, and traveling to Sacramento. Sunday will be a day in San Francisco visiting the sites and touring Alcatraz. I am sure Mike will have a good time!!

Only 3 weeks left of classes for me!! I have so much to get done!

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Busy Week...

Heidi writes:

NASPA (National Association for Student Personnel Administrators) Western Regional Conference was a lot of fun. We had an excellent speaker on Thursday and then headed over to AT&T Park (where the Giants play baseball) for our welcoming ceremony! It was awesome. We got tours of the stadium that took us into the visitors locker room, the dugouts, and the field! Here are a couple of pictures:

The picture above is the locker room for the visiting team. The brown thing in the middle is an old door that was signed by all of the players who were in the locker room the last year the team played at Candlestick Park (now known as Monster Park). The picture below is me sitting in the dugout. It was so much fun!

I went to some pretty good sessions at the conference. My favorite was on legal issues in higher education. I just find it so interesting! There was also an interesting session on assessment and another on women in leadership positions. I was able to network with a lot of nice people and possibly found some internship sites for the summer. The hotel we were at was a block from Union Square. We were able to walk around, go shopping, and see some sites - we could see Coit Tower from our hotel room!

The picture above is the "Heart of San Francisco" - which is Union Square. It was obviously night time, but Union Square is a pretty cool place - an open 'mall area', tons of shopping places, and a cool place to hang out.

This week has been quite busy. I have a big paper and a presentation/paper due tomorrow night for one of my classes. Why they are both due on the same day is beyond my control, but I need to get those done. I am done with the presentation/paper, but need to do the research paper - or start the compilation of my research to write the paper! Once that is done I will be down to 2 big research papers, 1 big presentation, 1 oral exam, and a couple smaller papers. I only have 5 weeks of classes left!! That is so crazy!

We have tickets to the Standford football game this weekend, but not sure if we are going to go. The big Michigan vs. Ohio State game is on and that may be a better game to watch. Not sure what we are going to do, but either way, we will be off campus which will be nice :-)

I hope everyone is having a good week! For all my WI and MN friends - we need to plan a time to hang out when Jeff and I are back. I am sure New Year's will be at Jeff's parents' house. I do want to see people though!! I will send an email out later and we will figure it out. I am sure we will hit a couple of Thursday Night Poker games when we are home!

Oh, one more thing - GO PACK GO!!!! Ha, ha, ha all you VIKINGS fans (and yes, Jeff, that does include you)!!!

Just a Catch Up...

Heidi writes:

I thought that I would write a quick post while I am waiting for my co-workers to finish what they are doing so we can head to San Francisco for a conference. Here are some misc. pictures from our week back home and the 49ers/Vikings game at Monster Park last Sunday.


Here is a picture of me, Tackle, Jeff, and Bait - such a family!

Tackle is above and Bait is below. I know, Bait is standing

wierd, but that is just how the cats are...wierd and BIG!!!

These two pictures are from the football game. It was pretty fun.

I do have to say that I like the outdoor stadium, but I like the Metrodome

a little better - more of a variety of food and parking is much better in Mpls.

The guy below in the white shirt is Joe Montana - they had an alumni day!!

After the game we drove to Pier 39 for dinner. We decided to stop and see the sea lions. There were a few of them there, but the pictures didn't turn out. I love the picture above - it is sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge. It was absolutely gorgeous!!!

OK, well I am off to my conference. I will bring the camera and maybe take some pictures. Talk to everyone later!!

A Quick Update

Heidi writes:

It has been a whirlwind of a week. Jeff and I flew out of SF last Sunday at midnight and landed at MSP at 5am. It seems like sleep hasn't really existed this week. We are currently in St. Cloud at Frank's place having a "relaxing" day. The wake was on Wednesday and the funeral was yesterday. A positive to the week - I have got to see and spend time with my family. My sister, Melissa, and her family arrived on Tuesday from Alaska. We also got to see Jessica and the kids. Jeff and I also stopped out at Wayne and Kim's and saw Blake and Lance and Dad for a little bit. Here is a picture of the kids on Halloween:

Ali, Collyn, Bayley, Tayler, and Cameron - it isn't the best picture, but it is hard to get the kids to sit still together for too long to get pictures. It was fun taking them trick-or-treating and seeing them run from house to house.

We got to see Mia for a little while when we first got here. She is so cute!! We are heading to Mankato tomorrow morning to spend time with Jeff's family and then we are flying out tomorrow night.

Mom is doing OK. She just needs lots of love and positive thoughts sent her way. Thanks to everyone who has sent well wishes our way!! We greatly appreciate everything!