Cool bike storage

Living in a city that's only seven miles by seven miles, space is pretty limited. I'm really glad to have some garage space where we can store our tandem and my bike, but if we didn't, I would definitely want to use this amazing bike shelf! Isn't that such a cool way to make bike storage look like part of the design of your home?

(P.S. Thanks Caitlyn for showing me this!)

Firenze e Siena

Finally, some more Italy! I was holding off on posting pictures of Florence and Siena until my sister sent me her pictures. To give her credit, she actually sent pictures when she returned from her world tour two weeks ago and I've just been slow about going through them. But here they are!

We met up with my sister in Florence, and we stayed in a hotel that I do not recommend. It was the Sheraton and we stayed for free with points, but points or no points, it's never fun to stay outside of the city you came to see. So just remember, if you're going to Florence, cross the Sheraton "Firenze" off your list of possible places to stay. 

We climbed up the Duomo (all 463 steps!), and we all agreed that that was our favorite part of the trip. 

We also went to the Boboli Gardens, which I remember from last time in Florence with Natalie as being one of my favorite places. 

I remembered this face from last time I was in the Boboli gardens, and I just think it's super cool. I was disappointed to find out this time that it's not that old - I think it's from the 80's or 90's (that's 20th century 80's or 90's!)

We spent a few days in Florence, then we went on to Siena. We were staying at a place called Siena House, so without doing my homework, I just assumed it would be in Siena. When we got to Siena by bus and then looked up our place, it turns out it was 40 kilometers outside of Siena! After spending a lot of time looking at maps, Jonny figured out we could take a train to the little town nearby our b&b, so we did that, thinking we could get a cab once we got there. Oh no, no no. This town was waaay too small to have a taxi service, and everyone laughed at us when we asked. We ended up getting a ride from two kind men at the train station, and during that five minute ride, I kept imagining the worst about these men. I was sure we were kidnapped, but they pulled us up right to the door and we saw the following view:

As it turns out, Italy has really strict regulations on how many people can stay in a room, so Laura Grace ended up staying across the street in this cool rustic farm. (She would say more rustic, less cool - there was a frog and a lizard in her room!)

Remember when I posted about Outstanding in the Field? Well, the place where Laura Grace was staying was having a festival and a dinner, and we got to attend a super authentic Italian version of one of these outdoor dinner parties.

Everyone around us spoke Italian, but we managed to get by with a few words and a lot of gesturing and facial expressions. 

The farm also had haybails, which Laura Grace explored. 

We did end up spending one day in Siena, where we thought we were going to be all along. It was a really charming little town - kind of a smaller version of Florence. 

So there you have it! That's the full Italy recap. Next will be our blessing and thanksgiving service for marriage, aka wedding round two in the UK! 

Happy happy weekend!

Oh hey there! It's been a little while... 

Life has been busy busy lately, and this blog is always the first thing to go off my priority list. Well, let's be serious, there's no actual list. But the blog is just hard to prioritize if I've got anything else going on. So here I am, at the start of the weekend after over a week of radio silence. 

This weekend Jonny is heading down to Santa Cruz for a bachelor party, and I'm staying in San Francisco for a fun little girls' weekend and a trip to Sonoma tomorrow. 

I'll have more catching up to do next week on various trips that we've taken and things that have been keeping us busy, but for now, have a very happy weekend!

Project Runway Jewelry

I'm not usually into anything matchy-matchy, but I like these earrings and this necklace by Gretchen Jones from Project Runway, which are available online at Piperlime. 

"Amazing"

Jonny was just messing around online waiting for me, and he typed the word "amazing" into Google. This video is what came up. It's long, but truly amazing.

San Francisco bikes

San Francisco is a really cool city for bikes. There are lots of bike lanes, lots of pretty sights to see, and the weather is generally never too hot and never too cold to bike. I've written about our tandem that my grandmother gave us for our wedding that we ride around the Mission and the Castro (as long as we don't leave our neighborhood, we can avoid the hills!). I loved seeing this graphic representation of San Francisco neighborhoods based on what bikes you'll see there. I think it's pretty true to life - my personal bike is a mix between Mission and Presidio, and our tandem is probably the only tandem you'll see in the Mission (I guess the rest are in the Marina?). 

Loving on Jarrod Dickenson and the Secret Sisters

On Sunday night, after sleeping most of the day recovering from our adventures in Vegas and the Grand Canyon, we met up with Steve and Cecelia to go see a friend of theirs, Jarrod Dickenson, play at Cafe du Nord. He was awesome, and it turns out he was opening for the Secret Sisters, two actual sisters from Alabama who can really, really sing.

I grew up going to shows in Nashville all the time, but there wasn't that option in Winston-Salem, and I haven't really gone to nearly as many since I've been living in San Francisco. 

Houseboating

I mentioned that we went houseboating last weekend on Lake Shasta, and thanks to all of my friends and their photar skills, I can share a few pictures even though I didn't take a single one myself. We had a great time being half-wet, half-dry all weekend, eating great food, enjoying the 100 degree heat (something we can never dream of experiencing in San Francisco!), and just hanging out.

We spent tons of time on the roof of the boat and on the wisest purchase ever, the Relaxation Station.

Jonny and Pat skipping rocks from where we were docked for the night. 

Dennis assigned people to make one meal each, and all of the food was seriously incredible. We were all impressed by what people were able to pull off with Costco ingredients and a houseboat kitchen.

We were a little burned by the second day, but we were loving the scenery of the lake. 

We got a speedboat for Saturday, and we had so much fun tubing and trying to wakeboard. 

I seriously don't think I've ever made that hand motion in my entire life. Maybe I was just over-excited and surprised that I was able to stand up on the wakeboard!

Cait and Lyd hanging on the roof.

We stopped at some outlet malls on the way up to the lake so Caitlyn and I could look for a floppy hat, and while we were shopping, Jonny and Pat bought some party favors for everyone - pirate masks and squirt guns. They were unveiled one night, and we loved them!

In true houseboat style, our dining room table later turned into a bed.

I wanted to get a picture that featured our outstanding captains, and here are Dan and Skip steering the boat. Dennis, the true captain and mastermind behind the weekend, didn't make that picture, but here he is in his captain's hat on the right. Thanks so much for such an amazing weekend, Dennis!

Weekend: Grand Canyon + Vegas

We went to Vegas and the Grand Canyon this weekend. Talk about packing it in! It was beautiful, and I can't wait to share more pictures. Some of you might not believe me that I'm going to share more pictures since I still haven't shared from last weekend's houseboat, but those are coming tomorrow and these are coming soon. Happy Monday everyone!

A Poetic Lampshade

Sometime last year, I went to a craft night with a janky lampshade and some old books, hoping to figure out something cool to do with it. I ended up modge-podging the full lampshade with Robert Browning poetry, and it now sits beside our bed. All in all, the whole lamp cost a total of $12. You can imagine my surprise, then, when a few months later, Anthropologie popped out with a lamp and lampshade made of dictionary pages for $388. I was just reminded of it because I saw the lamp go on sale for a mere $199.95.

(That's my lamp on the left, and Anthro's lamp on the right!)

Where Children Sleep

A friend sent around this powerful photography project exploring where children sleep around the world. James Mollison's work was featured in the New York Times blog, and I've been fascinated by the glimpse he shows of each one of these kids' lives. I was just talking to a friend the other day about city kids sleeping in closets, and after looking at these pictures, I'm pretty convinced that city closets are luxurious places for kids to sleep.

On a Boat

I haven't posted on the b-l-o-g for over a week, but life has been busy busy. I spent the week limping around and recovering from running a lot of miles with only a little bit of training, hanging out with Jonny's friend who was in town, and then soaking up the sun on a houseboat this weekend. Now, I'm getting back to work and spending the week with Pete and Sarah, who are in town following a world tour they've been taking over the past couple of months. This week will be busy too, and I know I like to promise and not deliver on more pictures a lot, but I hope I can promise you more houseboating pictures in the future. We had a blast.

P.S. You get a prize if you can identify me in this crowd.

Too Sore

We ran 13.1 miles yesterday. 

And we finished.We didn't make any record breaking times, but we felt better and went faster than we thought we would.

We had big ambitions when we registered for the half marathon earlier this year to plan long runs around new brunch spots every weekend, but then the reality of travel and friends in town and other things going on got in the way, and we actually only did two runs together (just a few miles each) before the race. I think the most I had run leading up to race day was 3.5 miles. 

I have more pictures to share from the race, the weekend, and Italy, but right now I'm just trying to hold myself still enough so I don't feel every single muscle in my body aching.