Memorial Weekend in Tahoe

Jeff and I spent the weekend in Tahoe with friends. We were able to rent a gorgeous house with an amazing view of the lake. Here is a photo journal of the weekend:

Above is the back of the house that we stayed in. Not the greatest picture, but the sun was shining and it made it difficult to get a good shot. There were three levels to the house. It had 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. There were 2 decks - the lower one has a hot tub. It was great!

Soon after we got there on Saturday, Jeff and a few others decided to hike up gunbarrel - a ski run at Heavenly. The house was pretty close to Heavenly Ski Resort. (Yes, Heavenly is where we skiied earlier this year.) The picture above shows the part of the run they walked/hiked up - Lake Tahoe in the background. The picture below is of gunbarrel (on the left).

While some were hiking, I stayed back at the house to enjoy the view and get some sun and also to catch up with Toni and Outing. Well, stupid me didn't think I would get sun-burned, but I was wrong! It was disappointing because I couldn't enjoy the hot tub :-( However, my redness is slowly going away and I really wasn't in pain, so that was a good thing.

We were able to watch the sunset over the mountains and lake. It was beautiful!

On Suday, a few of us drove to Emerald Bay. I have talked about this in previous posts and posted pictures. We decided to hike down the the "beach" area. It was pretty cool to see. In the picture below, you can see where a rockslide took out part of the mountain. Road crews are currently working to build a retaining wall and more support for the road.

I learned something new about Tahoe this weekend - it has a waterfall! Eagle Falls is comprised of the upper and lower falls. It was a fun hike back to the base and was pretty neat to see. I love waterfalls! In the picture above, you can see my sunburn - especially in my face with the white sunglasses mark around my eyes :-) Below is a picture of Lower Eagle Falls.

We ended Sunday night with another amazing sunset. This time the whole sky turned pink and then slightly red. It was a great site to see as we were eating dinner!

Jeff and I left on Monday, but did some shopping in Tahoe before leaving. We had a great weekend!

End of the Year banquets...

I wanted to post a couple of pictures from our end of the year banquets. There were a few of them and I will post pictures from two.

This picture is from our Housing and Greek Life banqet that occurred last Thursday. It was a great dinner at a country club not far from campus.

Back row (l-r) Jason, Junior, AJ, Heidi, Kari, Amy; Front row (l-r) Tiffanee and Alicia

The next three pictures were taken Friday night at the Student Affairs appreciation dinner for the graduates of the MA program that I am in.
The picture above is of me and my supervise, Mylon. He is the Associate Director for Residential Living and Programming (or something along those lines!!) Jeff was able to attend this dinner, so below is a cute picture of us!

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2007 in the MA in Educational Administration and Leadership specializing in Student Affairs!! (This will hopefully be me next year!) From left to right: Shiraz, Jeremy, Kelly, Amy, Junior, AJ, Michelle, Tiffanee, and Ben!

In other news, I got my grades back and am keeping with my 4.0 theme for this year! I was pretty excited. How cool would it be to graduate with a masters with a 4.0!?!?! Next year will decide it all!!

Weekend Fun!!

As always, we had a great weekend. It technically started on Thursday for me with award ceremonies, dinners and graduation. I will post those pictures later. I will start with our fun times on Saturday. We went to Zinfest in Lodi with friends. It was so beautiful outside and the wine was delicious. We got to taste a few new places and some of our favorites. I got to be a part of a magic show and that was pretty fun. Below is a picture of Toni and I with a new intern at the G. One of the wineries gave away cotton candy and I was so excited!

After Zinfest we picked up Tim from the BART station and then headed up to Elk Grove to a bbq. The food was delicious and I won 3 straight games of Uno! Then Josh won and then Tim, but I still won 3 - ha ha ha boys! :-)

On Sunday, we headed into San Francisco for Jeff's birthday. We were going to go to Golden Gate Park, but it was crazy busy because of a race going on, so we decided to head to Chinatown. We ate at my favorite restaurant there and then walked up to Coit Tower. It was one of the clearest days in San Francisco and was a great day to go to the tower. It is over 200 feet tall and you get a great panoramic view of the city from the top. Here is a picture of Jeff, Christopher Columbus (don't know why there is a statue of him there), and Coit Tower.

The picture below was taken from the top of Coit Tower. You can see Pier 39 and Alcatraz. The view was amazing! We took so many pictures!!

After we got done with that, we headed over north of the Golden Gate bridge so we could go sailing! We were originally on a 32 ft boat, but the boat was upgraded, so we were on a 42' beneteau sailboat, named Sijambo. The 3-hour ride was so much fun. It was just the three of us with the captain. Jeff and Tim got to do a lot of the work and I took a lot of pictures. Here are some pictures of the trip:

Above is a picture of Jeff and I on the boat. It was a little windy, but a great day to go! We were able to see a ton of harbor seals, went under the Golden Gate Bridge, sailed by Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, and Alcatraz, and saw great sites all around. Below is a picture of a sailboat and the Golden Gate Bridge. It is one of my favorite pictures. I took a few of them.

The next few pictures are of Jeff and Tim driving the boat and working the sails. The one directly below shows the underneath of the bridge. It was pretty neat to see the under side of it.

The wind was really blowing and the guys had to hang tight sometime and use their muscles at others. It was great. I pretty much sat in the same spot (held on at times) and snapped a ton of pictures. Jeff and Tim did a great job picking up on the sailing techniques. The captain was pretty impressed!

Towards the end of the day, when things were a lot calmer, I was able to take the wheel and drive the boat. I was pretty excited. The guys had to take down the sails during this time.

We had our captain take a picture of us at the end of the day. Here is a picture of Tim, Jeff, and I on the Sijamba after we docked.

We had so much fun! We headed out to Pier 39 for dinner when we were done. We saw some amazing street performers. They were using spray paint to create amazing pieces artwork in under 15 minutes. We watched them do a couple. It was unbelievable and one of the coolest things I have ever saw. Ok, that is all for now. This weekend we are heading to Tahoe! It should be an amazing time!

Yosemite 2007

Jeff and I had a great weekend! We went camping at Summerdale campground in Fish Camp about 2 miles south of Yosemite National Park. There were 10 of us all together. We got there on Friday evening and hung out around the fire. I didn't sleep well, as it got down to around 40 degrees or lower that night. It was a bit chilly! We left the campground Saturday morning to start our day at Yosemite. Our first stop was at a scenic overlook. We took a similar picture of this last year (and I believe we posted it on our blog). It was a little hazy that day, but the view is still amazing!!
We then drove to Bridalveil Fall. We only saw Bridalveil from the road last year, so it was great to walk up to the fall. It was a little chilly that morning and the mist from the fall didn't help much.

We then continued on to Yosemite Falls. It is the 5th tallest waterfall in the world and the tallest in the US! For more information on Yosemite Falls check out this page: http://www.yosemite.ca.us/yosemitefallsfacts.html

The hike was around 3.2 miles to the top of the falls. It was a tough hike for me and a couple others. I think it took around 2.5 hours to reach the top, but it was well worth it. Here are some pictures from the hike:

The trail was a little rough. It would be rocky at one point, sandy at another, and wet in other places. It was a pretty steady climb up with one section that flattened out for a while - I definitely needed that to catch my breath. This part of the trail was great for seeing the Upper Fall. The mist of the fall felt wonderful. The weather was great (probably no hotter than 80), but it was warm climbing up!

When we got to the top, we were pretty hungry, so we found a nice spot by the water to sit and eat our lunches. The water was very refreshing - a couple of us took our socks and shoes off to cool our feet! It was a great view for lunch.
After lunch we walked around to the scenic overlook. It was breath-taking; a little scarey, but beautiful!

Below is a picture of the group at the top: Catherine, Court, Jeff, Heidi, Toni, Outing, Josh, and Drew.

There was a "trail" that led down to an overlook from the top. It was a little nuts going down and up. Below is a picture of some people going up the "trail" and below is Jeff and I on the outlook.

The way down the trail was much easier, but a little rough on the knees. There were some great picture opportunities though. The one below is of a rainbow with the falls to the left. Half Dome is in the background. It is one of my favorite pictures!

After we made it to the bottom, we regrouped and decided to drive up to Glacier Point for some more great views. Below is a picture of the group: Jeff, Drew, Kara, Patrick, Outing, Josh, Toni, Heidi, and Catherine (not sure where Court was at this point).

The picture below is one I took after we got down from Yosemite Falls. I am amazed that I made it to the top!

We headed back to the camp after that. I was pretty dirty and sweaty and thought that it would be a good idea to bathe in the creek. It was super freezing, but it did feel amazing! We ended the night by eating our dinner and sitting by the fire. I was super exhausted and went to bed a little early and didn't wake up until 9am!! We packed all of our stuff and headed back to Yosemite for a smaller hike. We went to Mariposa Grove. There are tons of giant sequoias there and it was great to see. The picture below is of Grizzly Giant. It is gigantic! The picture under that one is of the group if front of the tree.

We had a great time and loved the sites. Our bodies our a little sore, but they will heal. I am sure we will sleep super well tonight!