Amy's Visit

Graham's sister came to visit us for five whole days!! We had so much fun (well, at least I did) and I think I learned from my parents visit not to overbook and I think I did a pretty good job. Wednesday night we were able to have dinner over at Bob and Ethel's with Matt and Nat and on Thursday Amy and I went hiking on Russian Ridge while Graham went with Matt to go skeet shooting. On our hike we spotted a coyote! I was not in the mood to get into a scuffle with a wild animal so I kept my distance and waited for it to go along on its merry way.

Coyote


Me and Amy with the Pacific Ocean behind us.

Us again but this time looking towards the bay.

The view was beautiful from up there and the pictures don't do it justice.

After that we had lunch at Alice's cafe (a favorite place of ours if you couldn't tell!) with the boys. After that we headed up to Tahoe for some snowboarding and family time. So many Newell's were in Truckee that weekend! Matt, Nat, Bob, Ethel, Me, Graham, Amy, Kat, Dave, and Teo. On Friday we skied Northstar. This was only Amy's second day (EVER) snowboarding and she did such a great job! Unfortunately the weather was crappy/awesome so I couldn't get any good outdoor shots. How can weather be crappy/awesome you might ask...well awesome because it was snowing!! Which of course is always a welcomed event when you are partaking in a snow sport. Crappy because visibility was very low, it was very cold, and it was coming down with a mix of freezing rain which was PAINFUL, and we all forgot our masks that day :(.

Graham, Amy, Daphe (Matt's friend from college), Matt, and Nat in the lodge for lunch.


Cheesy grins from Matt and Nat

On Saturday the group (Minus Ethel and Amy who watched Teo, and Nat who had to study) went to Squaw to ski. This was a rare opportunity and we felt so lucky to be able to do this with the family. I even went down some black diamonds! Ok, "went down" unfortunately must be taken literally--although I made it down on my feet most of the way, I wouldn't say I did it very technically skilled. Mostly slow and controlled, with a couple of face-plants as I ventured out to be more "technical". The upside is that they say black diamonds at squaw are really black diamonds, so now I feel like "hey, if I can go down black diamonds at squaw, I can do black diamonds anywhere!" which of course makes Graham happy :).

Me and Graham at Squaw


It happens to the best of us Uncle Bobby! (if you enlarge the photo, you can see he's still smiling! The powder was so soft!)

We drove back to the Peninsula Saturday night so that we could have a full day in the city! And what a day it was! We had lunch at Cha Cha Cha, which I can now highly recommend to anybody! The sangria was excellent and the food was excellent and priced well!

The three of us at Cha Cha Cha

Can you believe how much food is on our table?!?! We ordered all of this food, because Tapas are small plates. We've had tapas at other restaurants before and when they say small, they usually mean small (or tiny). Not Cha Cha Cha however, their small means small/medium.

After Cha Cha Cha we ventured over to the Ferry Building and Pier 39 to walk around and look for some souvenirs. After that we headed up to Coit Tower which is another thing we had never done before. The parking was slightly horrendous as you have to wait for someone to leave (which can take a really long time). The view, however, was spectacular. Even before going up in the tower you could see so much! The golden gate bridge, Alcatraz, Angel Island, the bay bridge..everything. And we were up their around sunset so it was just beautiful!

The three of us inside Coit Tower


Looking up out of the top of Coit Tower


Outside of Coit Tower

Pretty soon we're going to be seasoned pros for all our visitors. We'll have visiting CA down to a science :). Here for one day, three days, a week?? We'll have all the itineraries :)