SAN FRANCISCO RECAP

So this weekend we flew to San Francisco with Rob and Megan for a quick weekend get away to meet up with Dusty. Russ, Rob, and Dusty are all high school buddies (P-dale high). Our plane flew out at 7:30 am from LAX so we had to get up bright and early (well it was pretty dark at 3:30am), for our flight. You saw the picture below of Russ and his Egg McMuffin. We got there around 9am and we were off to ride the BART into town. We stayed at the Hilton Regency and thanks to Megan's hook ups we had a suite with the coolest views ever! We packed the day tight with shopping at the local outdoor market, ridding the trolley, walking around downtown, eating a clam chowder bowl at Fisherman's Warf, walking around the boats, visiting Hyde park and eating a Ghirardelli chocolate brownie sundae at their famous factory. We then went to a Giants baseball game--in which they lost--then went to little Italy and ate at the Mona Lisa. Sunday morning we got up, tried to eat breakfast at Mama's (but the line was way too long), but ate at a little cafe and watched people walk by. We walked around a park looking at an art exhibit, and then we walked a mile and half back to our hotel enjoying the downtown city life. It was the perfect quick trip! We had so much fun! Here are photos of the weekend.

San FRANCISCO

Here is our hotel view. We snapped this shot right before we headed back.



Check out Russ and his super cool backpack-- which Rob made fun of the whole time! :)




This really cool water statue was in the square right below where our balcony was. You could walk inside of it and there were tons of kids and families playing around it.

SAN FRANCISCO

Sunday morning we went out to breakfast. While we waited for a table we walked down the street to a art showcase in the park. This famous church (I can't remember it's name) is in the background.



Here is the bridge in the background. It was a beautiful evening!



Here is the foyer of the hotel. It had this huge giant ball thing in the middle that reminded us of the red ball in the TV show Alias. The hotel had a huge atrium and was so cool inside.

SAN FRANCISCO

The Giants game was a lot of fun...even though they lost big time. Most of the excitement came from buying scalped tickets. We originally thought we had box seats (courtesy of Dusty), however he wasn't able to get them... so we each pitched in $20 for him to find us some good seats. He bargained with a few ticket scaplers... and finally found some good seats. He haggled with the guy for about 20 minutes--going back and forth. Finally the guy sold us the tickets and we went in. Little did we know that the guy switched the tickets last minute and gave us seats on the VERY LAST ROW of the stadium! We literally were on the back row against the fence. Even though the view was amazing (you could see the bridge and the harbor right there) the seats were not. We wanted to go back out to the street to find the guy to beat him up, but by that time we were already in the 3rd inning so we decided to stay.



Here is a picture of us sad because of our seats (notice the fence in the background).



Then Dusty came through with a plan and after he moved a couple of people around...really he asked people to move so they could make room for us... we had seats just a few rows up from the field.



Here is a picture of us much happier in our seats!

SAN FRANCISCO

This is the view from our balcony at the hotel. We were on the 10th floor. Megan works at the Hilton so she was able to get $75 rooms which ROCKED!!!!!! She knew the room manager there so he hooked us up with this awesome suite!



Here is the group chilling on the balcony relaxing before the Giants game.



Here is the other side of our view--downtown San Francisco. From our view Megan and I watched some firemen try to get into a building that's fire alarm was going off. Luckily there was no fire, but it was fun to watch the excitement!

SAN FRANCISCO

Rob, Megan, and Dusty headed off to do some wine tasting and Russ and I went to induldge ourselves in a little Ghiradelli chocolate! The Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes put huge smiles on our faces and satisfaction in our tummies! We also learned how chocolate is made... and we felt a little like we were Augustus Glue in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

SAN FRANCISCO

Fisherman’s Warf. The clam chowder bowl was good—but not the best we ever had. The streets were crowded as expected for the Saturday “rush hour” and the husle and bussle of the warf and the smell of fish made it an exciting experience.




Here are Megan and Rob ordering their chowder bowls... Dusty got a corn dog— you ask why a corn dog? To this day we still don’t know why he chose it over fish or a clam chowder bowl— I mean really...




Debbie & Megan on the pier with the golden gate bridge in the background.




Russ with some old boats in the background.

SAN FRANCISCO

Walking over to the outdoor market.



"San Francisco... the Rice-A-Roni Treat!" Bridge view from the outdoor market.



Riding the trolley. So fun!!!! We bought $11 passes so we could ride it all day... but we ended up only going up a few blocks and then walking... oh well... at least we got some fun pictures!



Russ, Debbie, Megan, Dusty, & Rob ridding the trolley. What a fun group!

The real slim shady (russ post)

So were at the airport and this homeboy is rocking a cross that was
almost life size. It was pretty hardcore. But not really. I managed to
get a spyshot without him or TSA noticing

Have it your way.

So russ can never order anything regular. It has to be special. At the
airport this morning he asked for two round eggs on his sandwich-
opposed to just one flat egg. What did he end up getting from the poor
confused cashier? All three eggs- two round, one flat, and then his
sausage and cheese. It ended up looking like a big mac!

Beat that speed typers....can you beat me?

84 words

Speed test

Can you beat my speed? Click above and try! Russ--I double dog dare you--

Let's roll (russ post)

Baxter got his new riding gear and now he's ready to roll. All this
cruising PCH and now Baxter wants in.

Finally!!! Carrie & Nick!

So for the last two months Carrie and I have been trying to get together.... and it finally happened last night! We met up for dessert with the hubbies and talked away! We caught up on everything that has been happening in our lives and the night was filled with stories about rouge employees, crazy Russians, insurance fraud, namable products, and my personal favorite--"the dagger." For those of you who know Carrie & Nick-- you'll have to ask how Nick became the "sword bearer" for a homeless guy, almost got cut into peices, and now is being supeoned in court about the whole situation.... quite crazy.

It was a fun night. I can't wait for next time! By the way, for those of you who haven't seen the giant cookie sandwich at Claim Jumper--you must try it next time--it's HUGE and delicious!!!!!

GRAND FINALE... BALBOA

We also checked out Balboa Island—where we walked around, hung out on the pier and saw some really weird hot pink and orange octopus thing, and ate a frozen banana. We then headed to the Spectrum where we ate at Javiers—Russ and I shared the burrito which was good, and then we had Pink Berry—which is good with chocolate chips! :) Then the Harmors headed to the airport. We had so much fun with them! They definitely have to come and visit again soon!!!!!!!!

WICKED....

On Sunday we went and saw Wicked at the Pantages Theater in LA. It was my second time seeing it, but the first for everyone else. The boys had gone to a car show during the day in Long Beach, so we decided that we would meet at the theater in LA. Desiree and I had gone to the beach during the day, so we were a little late getting showered and ready to drive up to LA. We had talked to the boys right before we left and told them that we were leaving and we would call them when we got there. As we were driving up to LA, I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone on the charger. Desiree started to dig in her purse and realized that she had forgotten her cell phone on the counter. We crossed our fingers that we would be able to find the boys when we got to LA. Does anyone know how much a payphone costs now a days? Luckily we didn’t have to use one—but it’s funny how helpless you feel without your “link” to everyone else. As fate would have it, the boys were genius and just stood outside the theater waiting for us. We missed the first 10 minutes of the play, but it was amazing! I haven’t been able to stop singing the songs in my head! We took a quick snapshot, and then the usher told us we couldn't take photos inside, so this is the only one we got.

Laguna Pride

In the afternoon we decided to check out Laguna Beach—we did the walk up the boardwalk to the gazebo and then we hit of the shops. Russ found these really funny “naked dolls” and I found some really cool glass robin eggs that we both wanted to get, but talked each other out of. Desiree got some really cool greeting cards. We then hit up BJ’s Pizza for dinner and met up with Ashley Simms (now Harmor--who I went to seminary growing up with) and her husband Travis (who is Tylers brother—small world huh?). We then went and hung out at their house in Irvine. It was a fun night!

Woody Frenzy

We all decided to take a trip up the PCH to see all of the unique beaches that the OC has to offer. While driving, we ran into a WOODY CAR CONVENTION. Check out some of the cool cars we saw! There were probably over 100 of them there!

Breakfast on the Pier

Tyler and Desiree came to visit this last weekend--on Saturday morning, after garage sale-ing in Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel, we had breakfast at Fishermans on the San Clemente Pier. It was delicious and the view was amazing. Watching the crashing waves in good company was so much fun! Their breakfast is fantastic--get their Blueberry pancakes if you have a chance!

Frustration

So back to frustration again... I just weighed myself and I only weigh like five pounds heaver than I did 6 months ago, but I look like I've gained like 20 pounds! It's so FREAKEN annoying! It just makes me wonder what the heck is happening with my body! My new rheumotologist--who I am so excited about--is having me reduce my "steroids" over the next month to a lower dosage. Today was the first day I got to take a 1/2 pill less... and I'm hoping that as we reduce it the next few weeks, I'll start looking better and my body will swell down. I'm really thankful that I'm feeling better and that the medication is working-- I just can't wait until this roller coaster is over!

Birthday Cake

Karma Comedan

Beach Bums (Russ Post)

Look at these two with their California dreaming....We found a really nice beach in Laguna Beach-- Shaw's Cove.  It was fun and Baxter " went for a swim"  unreluctantly of course (you know how much he loves the water).

The $64.00 Hat

So yesterday we got up at 6:30 am ready for another garage sale adventure. I grabbed $80, a couple of water bottles, our "quarter bag," and the Penny-Saver and off we went in search of new treasures and ebay items. I had planned our map of attack and the first place on our list was a community garage sale in Lake Forest that promised 75 homes. We started to drive around and visit the different sales. It was about 20 minutes into it when Russ found our first item for the day.... a brand new FOX hat (with tags still on) for $5.00. He asked the guy to sell it for $3.00 and they bargained it to $4.00. Since I had all of the cash in my pocket, I pulled out a $20 bill and handed it to Russ. I walked away to the next garage sale as Russ paid for the hat. It wasn't until another five minutes later when I realized that I had accidently dropped the other $60.00 when I had pulled the twenty out of my pocket for the hat. I couldn't believe that I had lost it! Russ went back to the garage sale where he had bought the hat to ask the people if they had seen the cash. Of corse no one had. I'm sure as soon as I dropped it, it was gone. I just hope that whoever found it, needed it and got some really rad deals with it. Russ teased me that the hat he got was now worth $64.00--the most expensive hat he's ever bought!

To make things better, Russ said he still had $16.00 in his pocket and he wasn't going to let losing our cash for the day get us down. So we kept going. Two garage sales later, I found a "golden ticket"--the perfect garage sale find-- the find of the day.

This lady had the Cashflow (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) board game for $1.00. Yes--$1.00. I couldn't believe it. Here was a brand new (NBI) in it's packaging board game worth $100.00 for $1.00! To not give away my excitement, I called Russ over, and said "Hey Russ, you've been waiting this game, let's get it!" Russ who also knew how much the game was, gave me the look like "No way--only $1.00!). I gave the woman the one dollar bill as quick as I could and we headed out! I was so happy because not only did I make my $60.00 back, but I made even more! I had Russ look it up on ebay right away and found that the game sellls between $80-140.00. Not too shabby!

So I've decided that it's true what they say about karma. We "donated" $60 to a fellow garage saler, who hopefully needed it... and then in return we found a golden ticket and made even more money! How can you go wrong with that? Needless to say--I LOVE GARAGE SALES!

Here is a picture of Russ as we were returning home with his two finds--his two hats on his head (the new one, and the one he was wearing--and our board game!

Blast from the Past

This last week I had the pleasure of running into a few old faces from the past. Can you believe it has been eight years since I graduated the class of 2000 from Mission Viejo High School? Go Diablos!

Anyway, on Thursday Russ was working at the Spectrum and I decided that on my way home for work I would stop and eat dinner with him while he worked. I grabbed some Chipolte (yum...) and headed over to his cart. As I was stuffing my face, Casey Larrinaga and her husband Rob walked by and I heard "No way--Debbie Barlow?" Any how, we go to catch up and reminisce on old times. It was fantastic! Casey also lives in Lake Forest! Yeah! Hopefully we'll be able to meet up at Fudruckers for a Tuesday night car show soon!

Also, Rachel Roll-Trotter had a baby shower on Saturday and Lauren Andrews whom I also haven't seen in forever, was there! She lives in Temecula, so hopefully I'll see her more often too. Amy Erwin was also at the shower. So crazy! It was great to see everyone... and now I know of more pals who are around town to hang out with! Yeah!

Oh... and here's another weird one... guess who works at the same company as me? Jeff Luna... remember him? It's cool to see him everyday... I get to tell him about who I run into! :) Anyways, I can't believe our high school reunion is going to be 2 years! Doesn't it seem like high school was just yesterday? Now I'm really feeling old!

Russ' Baywatch Run

Welcome to the Bahamas... I know it's exactly what you wanted to see... Russ doing his Baywatch run into the ocean... well whether you want to see it or not, here it is....

I've added several posts below of our favorite pictures and videos of our trip. I hope you enjoy!

Atlantis Resort & Casino II