WE ARE STARTING TO PACK....

Well, the time has come to start packing for our trip back home! (Yes, Josh Agee I AM going to practice packing...haha) We are banning ourselves from the grocery store, we are trying to get creative with what is left in the fridge.  I just got done making some Royal and Color Flow icing for my last cake decorating classes today and tomorrow :( Today was Seth's last Wednesday of work at Eden, so the count down is so on! My final expensive loads of laundry are developing and will soon be done! I am hoping to have a good grasp on our packing by Friday, because we are going to spend the weekend with Sue and Aunt Billie. Seth's last day is Monday and then we head out early Tuesday morning! See you all soon!

PLANET GRANITE

TELEGRAPH HILL / NORTH BEACH / GOLDEN GATE PARK

View of the gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge from a beach off of the Golden Gate Park. This is your postcard picture!                This is the view from the top of the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. It was a rainy day in the city, but we loved the view! It was a good way to get your sense of direction of the city!

This is the top of Coit Tower, it was built during the Great Depression from donated money.  You can see this tower from the Fisherman's Wharf. San Fran skylineWe made a special trip to Chinatown 

REDWOOD NATIONAL FOREST

SCHLAGER'S THIRD GRADE CLASS LOOK AT THIS VIDEO CLIP!!!!!

WE WILL BE BACK HOME IN MAY!!!!

We are going to be home on May 20th for a few weeks, as we are in between travel assignments!!!  We have quite a few weddings and Sarah (Seth's Sister) is due in June...so we are really hoping we can see our little niece Hope, before we head out again!  We have had so much fun out here, but we are ready to see our family and friends again!

CAKE DECORATING 103....ROSES!!!!

Well, I did it I made my first frosting rose!!!!  It wasn't as hard as I expected, but I still need a lot of work :)  We learned how to make two types of flowers, three different leaves, vines, and ribbon last night!  I really like my leaf boarder around the base of the cake, the leaf tip is very versatile!  I am going to sign up for some more classes for May....I am having a ball!

OUR BAKERY

This is right next to where we live and we like to stop here before we head out on an adventure to pick up a quick little breakfast!  Seth's loves bakeries...we spend forever in there just so he can choose what we wants....he is like a kid in a candy shop :)

SAN JOSE DRIVE-IN THEATERS

This was a random road trip to San Jose to check out this Drive-In theater...it was a little different from Sunset Drive in Aurora.  It had six screens going all at once with double features, so you had to listen from your car radio...they didn't have speakers going.  All screens were playing different double features, so I am sure if we memorized the radio stations we could mix and match our movies :)  It was a beautiful evening and we watched Losers and Clash of Titans...I couldn't get Seth to watch another chick flick...that is really all we have watched here in California :)

NAPA VALLEY IN A 13TH CENTURY CASTLE!!!!

We visited a 13th century Italian castle today in Napa Valley.  The man who made the castle is now a billionaire due to his two wineries in Napa. He loves Mid-evil architecture and building this castle was his life long dream, he also is very tight with his Italian heritage (he still has a home in Italy) that were excellent wine makers so he combined both his passions in one.  What is neat about this castle is the measures this man went to make everything authentic...he had all the ancient bricks shipped from Italy, they only used tools that would have been used back then, no concreted for the grout....mixture they would have used, transplanted 100 year old olive tress, the castles doors were handmade by Italians(Historians said they were about 300 years old....only 13 year old)...I could go on and on...it was amazing!!!!  This Castle had a torture chamber, which real tools that were used (Marcus you would have loved this place:)  It had a room called the "whispering room", made so that you could ease drop on everyones conversation in the room.  I was skeptical, but then Seth and I tried it and it was like his whisper was amplified 10 times in my ear....very weird!!!  They had sheep and chicken just wondering around everywhere, I got to pet the sheep :)  Oh and how they make their wine...I won't even try to explain it...basically they hand pick every grape...grow their own grapes, and do everything 10 times better...or so it seems.  They only sell their wine from the castle, you won't find it anywhere else in the world!   We had a wine tasting in the wine cellar under the castle, of course we liked the dessert wines and the sparkling grape juice :)  But we were both able to say that we could tell a huge difference in this wine compared to other whites or red...we could actually swirl and smell fruity or floral scents,  and I could see how some people could like their Merlot....haha!  We after that we walked down the main strip and found a chocolate shop and Life is Good store.  The chocolate was wonderful...just melted in your mouth, but 1.85 per piece...we only got two :)  On our way home we ate at our Americanized Italian restaurant....Olive Garden!!!