OK, I finally have a chance to post about our trip!

First, AJ, Bo, and I met up in San Francisco.  It was a little weird that Bo and I were on vacation together without my parents.  I guess we’re really grown up now, huh?  LOL!

The first full day was our big sightseeing day.  We took a sightseeing tour bus that drove us all around town and showed us everything.  It took us to the top of a hill where we could see the whole city - it’s so big and hilly!

And then the bus took us to Golden Gate Bridge:

Then we traveled to Muir Woods, which was a beautiful state park.  The redwoods were so gorgeous!  So, of course, AJ had to act goofy in the middle of them

Then, that night, we went to see Al Capone’s old haunt - Alcatraz:

The next few days we spent exploring the city, including visiting the original Ghirardelli store.

We also spent an afternoon at Haight Ashbury, which is a place I’ve been wanting to visit for YEARS!  We also smoked a little hookah in a hookah bar at Haight Ashbury, which just seemed too appropriate.  This is a horrible angle for me, but look, I was there!

Then we met up with my parents and we all headed to Napa Valley!  We had the best time.  We probably went to 15-20 wineries.

AJ and I slowly collected a case’s worth of wine to bring home with us . . . until we went to the last winery.  We had tours at several of the wineries, and tastings at almost everyone, but the last winery we went to was a little different.  At Del Dotto, we did a barrel tasting - we tasted the wine straight from the barrels that were in the caves!  It was so cool!

This was some of the best wine that we have ever tasted, and since the vineyard is a smaller vineyard that only sells wine from the winery (not in stores or resteraunts), we bought another half case of wine there, LOL!  We’re going to let the wine age, so AJ and I used a Christmas gift certificate I had saved to by this AWESOME wine fridge.

So, I guess can check off #37 on my 101 in 1001 - I’ve been to California!  For all the pictures, see my Flickr.

Then, Mama, Daddy, and Bo all went home and AJ and I went to New York for a couple of days.  We saw August: Osage County (which was soooooo amazing) and American Ballet Theatre’s production of Sleeping Beauty (which meant a lot to me - Disney’s movie has been my favorite movie since I was 2, and I’ve always wanted to see the ballet).  We also got to spend some time with my best friend Stephanie.  She lives in NYC now, and she’s never had a chance to meet AJ.

So, we’re back now, and completely exhausted, but we had a truly great vacation!  I think I’ve decided to give wine tasting/journaling another shot now that I’ve been to Napa and have a bit more knowledge about the whole thing.

Oh, and while I’m posting, we can also scratch #69 off of my 101 in 1001 list - over the past year I’ve really switched a lot of my grocery purchasing to organic food, and I try to consciously pick the organic options, even if they do cost a little more!

My mom just made the reservations today!!! We’re going on a 12-day cruise this summer (and we’ll be in Spain for 4 days before the cruise)!!!!!! I went to London for 10 days my freshman year of college, and my brother went to the beach in France for a week his freshman year in high school, but other than that, none of the four of us has ever been to Europe! My parents have NEVER been to Europe! We’re so super excited!!!!!!!

Here’s the link!

And here’s where we’ll be:

1 Barcelona, Spain
2 Marseille (Provence), France
3 Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy
4 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
5 Naples/Capri, Italy
6 At Sea
7 Mykonos, Greece
8 Istanbul, Turkey
9 Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey
10 Athens (Piraeus), Greece
11 At Sea
12 Venice, Italy
13 Venice, Italy

This is a trip my mom and I have been wanting to take for at least 10 years. We’ve always wanted to go and see all the religious sites in Greece and Turkey, and now we’re finally going to get to go do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!