Adventures with Lisa & Kevin

On Sat. 5/22 Jessie and I were invited to brunch at our friends Carleigh & Scott's place. It was Lola's lucky day because she was invited along as well! She and Bailey spent no time getting reacquainted and ran through their apartment the entire time we were there! Thanks so much Carleigh for the amazing brunch!


The next day, Sun. 6/23, was a very sad day indeed...it was the series finale of the tv show LOST! Kevin and I have been watching the show religiously since season 2 (we used to watch it at my mom's house every week with my mom and our friend Kim and we even got two of my mom's exchange students hooked on it!) Since living in SF we've joined Jessie's LOST fan group and have really enjoyed our weekly get togethers. Last year we had a dress-up day where everyone came dressed up as their favorite LOST character. I would've loved to have come dressed as Desmond as he's my absolute favorite character, but I didn't have enough time/money to make it look good. So for that party I dressed up as Ana Lucia who I think I most resemble. So for the series finale Jessie wanted to host another themed dress-up party but didn't want to repeat the same character theme--so this time it was funeral-themed! Everyone came dressed in their best funeral get-up to mourn the loss of our favorite show. Jessie was extremely cute in her outfit (as always!) and since I didn't have any cute black clothes, I just wore a simple black top and smeared my mascara and eye liner to make it look like I had been crying!

A photo shoot with Jessie's cat Mars before the show...





With Kevin's new work/school schedule, we don't get to see each other too often :( He works 5 days a week, generally 6:30-3:30 (including every Saturday and Sunday). Then when he's in school, he has class from 4:30-10:30 each night Monday through Friday! For a few weeks he's got a break before his summer class begins, so it's been really nice having him home at night so we can actually enjoy dinner together. But even with that, it feels like we never have any actual daylight hours to hang out and go places like we used to basically every weekend. Last Mon. 5/24 I went to work in the afternoon so we had an entire morning together, so we took full advantage of it and had a little day trip! We drove out to Mount Davidson which is the highest point in the city of SF and it's a gorgeous hike.



On the top of Mt. Davidson there is a HUGE white cross which is on property not owned by the city. I had always figured it was just a religious group's doing, but the plaque next to it stated that it is there in memory of the 1.5 million people killed during the Armenian genocide.

Thought I'd try a video blog post this time!

The moment had finally come for Jessie's graduation from SF State! She graduated with a BA in Political Science and my mom & her boyfriend Steve, her roommate Jessie and her boss Deanna were all there to show our support and cheer her on (as she went on stage three times!) The ceremony was specific for the PS Department, so lucky for us we didn't have to sit through 7,000 names being called. ;)

I know it hasn't been easy for Jess to get to this moment but I know that she worked her rear off to make it a reality and I honestly could not be more proud of her. Tears were shed and her name was hollered as loud as I could and it was not only a big moment in Jessie's life, it was a big moment in mine too. I love you Jess and am so so so so very proud of you! YOU DID IT!!!!!






After her graduation we all went out to dinner at You See Sushi (one of Jessie's favorite sushi restaurants) and on the walk there we spotted a cute Vespa that we encouraged Jess to jump on for an impromptu photo shoot (with that cute outfit she was wearing we couldn't resist!)


At the restaurant we presented Jessie with some cards, one being from me and my mom. It was a card that you could record a message in so we recorded a really goofy message and I had to videotape Jessie's reaction while she opened it...enjoy!

The time had finally come for my niece's 5th grade Girl Scout Junior troop to come up and visit San Francisco! We have been looking forward to this trip for over a year when I was still their troop leader and we all had a fantastic time together!

Judith (my sis-in-law), Dorothy (my mama-in-law), Katelyn (my niece) and 8 other Girl Scouts and their moms arrived to San Francisco Airport on the morning of Friday 5/7. I met them at the airport and we then BARTed our way to their hostel (a super cute place if anyone's interested in staying in a hostel in the city) to drop off luggage.


We then rushed off to eat some lunch at Mel's Diner (a well-known diner in SF that had so-so food) and then made our way to Golden Gate Park



The group really wanted to go to the California Academy of Sciences so that's where we spent the afternoon.












I have to admit, I was a little worried about being their tour guide since Kevin's usually the tour guide when visitors come out and we generally don't take public transportation with visitors--so though I'm super confident when it comes to the route I take everyday for work (2 buses + BART) it was a little worrisome to make sure we got on the right bus (and made sure all 18 of us got on/off at the same time!) But the first day went super smoooooth and I was pretty proud of myself. :) Some funny moments riding the bus with the group--the girls absolutely LOVED riding the bus and were sad when we told them to sit down because the bus was getting full (they loved hanging onto the poles and swinging around); some young guys decided to sit down amongst the 9 girls and after they figured out who they were sitting next to (a bunch of giggling girls) it was funny to watch their facial expressions change.

They even enjoyed waiting for the buses at the bus stops...







For dinner we went to a real local treat...Chevy's Mexican restaurant (can you hear the sarcasm in my typing voice? ;) ) We called it an early night because we had a loooong day ahead of us!

On Saturday morning I made my way to the hostel to meet the group so we could make our way to the Golden Gate Bridge for the Girl Scouts' annual Bridging event! When girls in GS graduate from one level to the next they call it "bridging" so the Northern California GS organize a huge event so that girls from all over can "bridge" across the Golden Gate Bridge. Our girls graduated from GS Juniors to GS Cadettes (6th-8th grade). This event attracts over 4,000 girl members (that's just girls we're talking about!) and is put together really well. The GS hired shuttle buses to take troops across the bridge into Marin County and then we all hiked our way back across the bridge back into SF.







I made an announcement as we approached the end of the bridge, that once they crossed the line they would no longer be Girl Scout Juniors but instead become Girl Scout Cadettes, so I took a few photos of them as they crossed:





After our trek across the bridge we were greeted with a festival for the girls--tons of booths with activities for the girls to participate in.





After the event it seemed my luck with being the tour guide started to run down--I didn't know how the heck to get us back to the hostel! Our misadventure included--walking up a huge staircase and then finding out that we had to go back down the stairs (oops!), stalking a park ranger and waiting for him outside the restroom so that we could ask for directions (awkward!), then walking a mile and a half to get to the darn bus. My excuse was that I never come to this part of town! Oh well, at least we eventually made it back safe and sound.

That night we met up with Kevin and ate at the Cheesecake Factory on top of the Macy's building in Union Square. The group was so huge we had to get split up but it ended up being really nice spending time with Kevin and his mom Dorothy for an evening.



Sunday morning Dorothy and I made our way to the hostel to meet up with the group for their last day in the city. We went downtown to wait in a 20 minute line to take the famous trolley (I hadn't done that since living here so it was nice to do).






The trolley took us right to Ghirardelli Square where the group split up for a bit and our little group enjoyed some delicious Ghirardelli ice cream treats (yes even at 10 in the morning!)




We then walked to Fisherman's Wharf (have I told you how much I love that place? ;) ) and I am happy to announce that I finally saw the bushman!


The troop spent their last afternoon on a bay cruise and since I didn't see the point in forking over $25 for me to do something I could day any ol' time, I said my goodbyes at Fisherman's Wharf.

It was so so so so nice spending a weekend with my family and with those crazy 5th grade Girl Scouts...I really miss spending time with them every other week at our troop meetings. Those girls mean a lot to me after being their troop leader for two years and it was so great to feel connected to them with this trip.