San Francisco!

The traveling continues! My parents were on a vacation with some friends throughout northern California and Nevada, and ended their trip in San Francisco. Since we had a long weekend, we drove up to meet them for the last few days. Neither Matt or I had been to San Francisco before (well technically I was there when I was 6, but it doesn't count when you don't remember it!) so it was a really neat to get to sightsee together in another new place!

View of Alcatraz on the boat ride over to the island

The building where the inmates were housed!

An example of one of the cells

Ruins of the wardens house


On the boat ride back from the island

View of Lombard Street

The Hyde - Powell cable car...you have to ride a cable car when you come to San Francisco.

And of course I had to get a cheesy shot of hanging off the side!

The seals on Pier 39 - they were so loud!

Wow that ones big!

The BEST hot fudge sundae ever - from the Ghiradelli shop - it's made with Ghiradelli dark chocolate - YUM!

At the Japenese tea garden

My parents at the Golden Gate bridge

Matt goofin around

Us at the bridge

Hawaii

Matt and I had a blast last week in Hawaii. Matt had been there before about 6 years ago, but this was my first time there. We packed in a bunch of activities, I'm not the type that can just lay around on the beach all day, I get bored! I do enjoy it for a bit, but I also like to see and do things, and explore places that I've never been before. I don't have all my pictures uploaded to Shutterfly just yet, but when I do I'll post the link for all the pics. Here are just a few of the highlights!

Matt at the USS Arizona Memorial


USS Arizona Memorial



My first Mai Tai of the trip....YUM!



We took surfing lessons!

Look at me go! haha

I do have to say, we both did really well!

Isn't the ocean just a beautiful color?

I think we had shaved ice almost every day!

Haunama Bay


View of Honolulu from the top of Diamond Head


Us at the top of Diamond Head

I'm such a sucker for buying the professional pics that places take. This one was boarding a submarine that took us 120 feet under water.

Everyone getting on the sub

Inside the sub

My kind of snorkeling - glass between me and the fish! This was a neat plane wreck that acted as a reef for the fish.

Dolphins!

From Matt's underwater camera - he swam with a turtle when he went snorkeling in Turtle Town on Maui.

Again with the professional pics :-P At the "Feast at Lele" Luau on Maui

The dancers at the Luau

Our hotel in Lahaina - it was right at the harbor, a great location!

The catamaran that took us to Lanai - Maui's neighboring island

Hulopoe Bay on Lanai

At the top of Haleakala Crater - a dormant volcano

View of the crater

Horseback ride down into the crater - we went from being at 10,000 feet at the top, down to 7,000 feet at the crater floor.

Us at the bottom of the crater

Our deep sea fishing boat - we left the dock at 3am!

Huge Mahi Mahi that was caught on our boat.

O Canada!

I spent this past week in Toronto for work. Other than having to adjust to the time difference and having extremely long days, it wasn't so bad. I even got to spend a little time around the city on the last day. The CN Tower is in Toronto, and is one of the tallest free standing structures (might actually be the tallest - not sure).

View from below

There is a glass floor in the lookout that looks straight down to the ground below. Kinda creepy! My co-worker Chris was afraid of heights, and couldn't bring himself to stand on the glass!

The view straight down through the glass floor.

Chris hugging the wall :-P

me :)


AND....just for fun...I had actually been to Toronto back in 2003 with Matt and a few other friends from college. Here are a few pics of us from back then! (sorry for the poor quality - I have no idea what type of camera I was using then, but it was film, so these are all scanned)

Laying on the glass floor

Enjoying some Canadian lager