Rock and Roll and Run

Busy MLK weekend round here - had to take advantage of perhaps the last weekend before the grad school madness kicks in again for Joe. So take advantage of it, we did (I'm also practicing my Yoda speak as Joe and I spent our evenings watching the entire Star Wars trilogy - I had never seen them and boy now I know what I was missing out on (am I condemning myself to eternal dorkiness by admiting this?)- my fav. part of the movies, next to the sweet jedi action was Joe's total boy excitment throughout each one - haha - adorable! All weekend long everything we've been doing has included Star Wars references - we've been whipping out our light sabers and calling on the force quite a bit).

Where was I? Oh yes, taking advantage of a 3 day weekend -yipeeeee! We sure did pack some good adventuring in and thanks to good old Mother Nature - we got LOTS of outdoor time! Saturday we made our way down to Saratoga to Castle Rock State Park to do some rock climbing. We had about a mile and a half hike in to Goat Rock where we set up some anchors and repelled down so we could climb back up (and when I say we, I mostly mean Joe).

My heart was pounding about a mile a minute here.

I'm probably sweating a little bit here :)

Glad that boy knows how to tie a good anchor!

Sunday we made our way over to the city and did some rollerblading through Golden Gate Park - hallelujah for streets closed to cars and relatively flat terrain - my sister and I used to rolerblade down our steep driveway, but I was a a little out of practice to say the least - nevertheless, it was fun and I didn't break any bones - so I would say the experience was a success. Sunday night we drove to Indian Rock in Berk-town to catch the sunset, we arrived a little late but still had beautiful views of the bay and Mt. Tam. After a little sunset-watching we popped into town to a spanish restaurant called Cesar which I definitely recommend!! Fun Spanish tapas place in the Gourmet Ghetto. We ordered brussell sprouts, which were coated in a parsley, olive oil, lemon, garlic sauce- yumalicious and then we shared the paella and boy oh boy was this a treat - rice in a lobster broth with mussels, clams, shrimp, chicken, and chorizo - you've gotta try this if you find yourself at Cesar!! I was transported right to Spain! For dessert we had the bread pudding - I heart bread pudding and it was topped with an orange-caramel sauce, which was lovely!

Top of Indian Rock.

Mt. Tam in the distance.

mmmmm Paella as good as they make it in Spain!

Monday morning we drove up into the Oakland hills for our "first date run" and were treated to some pretty views of Mt. Diablo floating in fog and clouds :). That brings us to now, we're icing our aging bodies after a weekend full of fun activity and making some maple 'baked' beans in the crock pot for din din.

I'm so thankful to have an extra day off today but more than that I am so thankful for the people before me who gave their lives fighting for equality for all human beings - as I got out of my comfort zone this weekend and did some things that I am not particularly good at - there were definitely moments when I paused for a moment thinking about how cool it was to be able to participate in and enjoy all the different activities and places that the bay area has to offer. I know we don't live in a perfect world, but I am thankful for the work that has been done and hopeful that people will find it inside themselves to open their hearts to men and women from all different races and ethnicities.

Sunset on our way out of Castle Rock.

Wishing you a beautiful week!