san francisco here we come

and then we drove just a bit further and entered the complete opposite environment...the big city. wow. what a great city. my favorites would have to be the clam chowder by the pier...the sourdough bread....hanging out in union square where the sun shines and people just meet up to sit on the steps and talk or read or drink a cappucino.....the tiny little italian restaurant our friend ryan recommended on the north shore (yum.oh)...walking all over and ending up really high up near lombard street over looking everything and then wandering through russian and not hill admiring the lovely architechture....ed having to obsessively hook the stroller to his belt b/c of the crazy hills there where it wouldve been easier to crawl im sure sometimes....and best of all the street bums who sang to ruby ...and of course the breakdancers...gotta love some good pop and lock skills!

more lovely carmel pics

i just had to share some more!

stopping in monterey...carmel

staying here for a few days was simply lovely. so charming and gorgeous, but oh so freezing in the spring! so many wild flowers to gaze upon.
the old mission was the perfect sunday
treat.

she picks apart the bouquet i worked so hard on

keepin a hat on for once! yes it was that cold....mostly the wind from the ocean that did us in!

ahhhhhh...the views! we actually saw a deer walking

around near here.

driving up the coast

after balboa we rented a car and began driving up the coast highway heading north to gaze on the beauty of the hills...the ocean...the roaming cattle...aww the beauty....it was breathtaking.
and ruby did so well! we just stopped to have dance parties in the cold and let her pretend drive...one of her fav passtimes besides putting on glasses and hats and clapping for herself.

bathrooom break

i just loved these old mail boxes on

the side of the road...hanging out

all alone.

happy silly lady

another pee break in a lemon
orchard. i have a small bladder.

disneyland

on a hot hot march 18th (the real birthday) we headed to disneyland with emily and her friend hannah. it was a good day, but definitely takes the life out of you walking in the heat so long. and for some reason it was rediculously crowded...what???!?...in the middle of the week? doesnt anyone have school?

our first ride...mr.toad's wild ride...went well...which i thought would be a bit scary, but for some reason the dumbo's going up and down in the air were much scarier and she tried to escape! yikes.

teacups were uneventful and dizzying! anyhow, the major bummer was that we never saw characters and there were no parades...boo hooo! oh, i forgot to mention how funny it was that ruby was freaked out by 'its a small world'....who knows with little kids. she will find a scary owl statue funny and cute little people dancing and singing freaky. what an odd cookie. but we love your funny ways little rubes.

balboa....we start our vacation!!

so i guesss happy things can come out of sad, since we had to close the restaurant and completely turn our lives around we we then given some time off and therefor were able to take a long awaited real 2-week vacation. i definitely was extremely excited and that was just the sort of distraction needed to keep me from getting too depressed and missing the craziness of palatte.

so we started off in balboa and had the lovliest time...renting one of those fun carriage bikes to ride along the boardwalk down to mutt lynches for some green st.patty's day beer. ruby loved having her own front seat on the bike and was admired by many.
we bought a silly kite and had a blast running around the park pretending to be the kite runner.

went on lots of walks and had great morning coffee and our favorite, the twists at pain du monde.

oh, how i love balboa...the smells....the hippo cookies...the chicken tacos and guacamole...morning walks for coffee...the view of the ocean...and the luxurious couch at the house...and of coure cozy fires and lots of good conversation. i dream of going back this summer!

ruby turns one!

so the big day was quite a hit! our first 'first'
birthday party. we had planned on having some
thing small....just close family and friends but it
turned into qutie the extravaganza in our backyard.
since we had just closed the restaurant we had plenty
of new yard furnishings and plenty of company to
share in the festivities. i always say the more the
merrier. i do love entertaining and seeing that people
are enjoying themsleves. i guess that was the joy of
palatte for me.

So for sure the best part of the night was the big

birthday song and her clapping in excitement that

everyone was singing to her. lets just say she definitely

likes the attention and really is quite different that I

ever was as a kid.

the cake was a rediculous tiffany blue color and

filled with blackberries....her biggest food obsession.

just look at that happy lady!

YEAHHHH!!!

thank you to all who could come and

many many thanks for the lovely gifts!

we are loving all the new books to read!

just love this video, love this song

YouTube - Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie