Kristen's weekend in California

I was so happy to have my sister come to visit me in California! It was nice to have her come and see where I live, meet my friends, and go on a bunch of mini adventures. It was definitely a jam packed weekend, from the moment she got off the plane till 6am on Tuesday morning bringing her back to the airport to go home.

On Thursday me, Stephen and Max went to the airport to go pick her up. We probably freaked her out a little bit because my roommates and I are pretty intense together! She seemed pretty tired, but she survived the long flight.

I had to work on Friday, so I let her use the van to travel around and see all the exciting sites of Folsom...haha. She ended up going shopping at the Folsom Outlets, and came out to lunch with a bunch of us at work to In 'n Out. Everyone who comes to California has to experience a Double Double!

Friday night, we went bowling (As seen in the previous post). It was pretty fun, and Kristen got to hang out and get to know all of my friends, while polishing up her bowling skills. After bowling, we went back to a party at my house, where she met more of my friends and got to socialize.

Saturday started off a little rough as we got ready to head down to San Francisco. We grabbed a quick breakfast and headed down a little later than we would have liked. The first thing we had to do was visit the Golden Gate Bridge.


After the bridge, we drove back into the city to check out Ghiradelli Sq and walk along the piers. It was a little cooler in the city than we expected, but we still enjoyed ourselves! We walked around the square and ended up buying some very delicious chocolate. We had dinner at a local pub.


Later in the night, we managed to find our way onto Lombard St. so Kristen could see the windy road and also how steep the street is. Most of the streets in San Francisco are very steep to drive on.


On Sunday Kristen and I headed up to Lake Tahoe for the day. It was both our first time up there so it was exciting! The drive was quite beautiful, and not too long. We stopped every once in a while to take in some scenery.

We ended up renting a jet ski and riding around on that for an hour! I had so much fun cruising around, but a lot of the time I was going just too fast for my sister.

After riding around on the lake, we enjoyed some time laying out on the beach, and then decided to drive around the lake and take some beautiful pictures of the scenery. I loved it up at Lake Tahoe.




Monday came around too quickly, and I was happy to have a day off from work. Our last trip was down to Napa Valley, and Max and his friend Pat came along. The drive down was a little longer than expected, but we had some great views. Napa Valley is beautiful; so many vineyards! We ended up at Castello Di Amorosa to do a wine tasting and see the sights. Unfortunately, Kristen is only 20, so she got some Capri Sun! The castle was beautiful, inside and out.





After some touring around the castle, we finally made it down to the cellar for some wine.


Our visit of Napa Valley didn't end there; we also saw the Old Faithful Geyser of California, and some fainting goats! Two things I did not imagine would be in the same place. We tried our hardest to make the goats faint, and only succeeded a few times.



We had a blast over the weekend, but man was I exhausted! I miss her so much!

Picking up a new hobby: Bowling

A whole group of interns (that group being: Me, Max, Stephen, Tori, Zach, Renata, Cesar, and David) went bowling one night after work. Now mind you, I haven't bowled in such a long time, I believe the last time was at Jillians, and I was pretty drunk to remember how to bowl, but I had so much fun bowling! I actually hit a strike on my first time up to the lane!

Zach going for the nice brown bowling ball.

Stephen, pro bowler, making his move

Probably pulling another strike off...Not!

Besides bowling, there's always room for goofing off, including sick dance moves, a couple of drinks here and there, and photo sessions.

A little moon walking



Oh lala? More like hahaha!

Night 1 of bowling ended up alright. I didn't pull through with the win; Max beat me on my lane. I thought I had it, but you can't win 'em all. The night was an overall success, and I got to pick my sister up from the airport! It was so wonderful seeing her!

On Friday, we had the same group come out bowling with us again, plus John, Steph, and Kristen. That night was even more fun! It was glow bowling night, which yeah, is really fun, but definitely does not enhance my bowling skills. I ended up kicking everyone's butts in the first game with a 167!

167! Never seen that before in my bowling career!

Kristen played some fantastic frames! Just look at her stepping up to bowl like a pro.


Obviously, more drinking occurred throughout the night, I mean, what fun is bowling without a few mugs of beer?

After we finished up the bowling, we all headed back to the house to celebrate the arrival of my little sister and give Zach, Renata, and eventually James a going away party. The night turned out to be quite a good night, and a great start to my sister's eventful weekend!

Floating down the American River

I was so happy to see Carrie this weekend! She came up to Folsom to hang out and meet all of my friends up here. I had so much fun with her around. We had a BBQ on Saturday night that was pretty fun, and Sunday we went rafting down the American River, which was Carrie's bright idea!

8 of us went out early Sunday morning to pick up some rafts and enjoy a lazy day down the river. We picked up two rafts, tied them together, and headed down the river for some fun. It was so hot out, but the water was nice and refreshing.


Along down the river, we were shot at with water guns (we will have to be more prepared next time!), bribed with beer (passed on that offer...), and jumped into the water with a sweet rope swing.



Floating down the river was definitely one of my most relaxing days ever. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful weekend seeing Carrie!

A round of mini golf

Yeah, we look good mini golfing...real good.
Played 36 holes of intense mini golf at Golfland-Sunsplash in Roseville.

Fern. Log. Valley. Log. NOT A BEAR.

Camping in the Redwood forests turned out a little differently than I had expected. I had a van packed full of 6 kids (Me, Stephen, Max, John, Tori, and James), for a 7 hour drive up to a campsite outside of Crescent City, CA. Of course everyone eventually fell asleep, leaving Stephen and me to drive the twisty roads through the mountains. It was a long drive.

We eventually made it to the Mill Creek Campground in the Del Norte Redwood Forests. It was about 11:30PM when we finally made it up. Enough time to grab a few drinks before bed. I got to hug a giant redwood that night!

I woke up at the crack of dawn for a delicious breakfast being made by Zach. He was scrambling some eggs and sausage together in a pan, and I put that on a bagel to make a yummy sandwich. After breakfast 20 of us got going to go hiking. We ended up along a beach, and pretty much went rock climbing along the beach.






The hiking along the rocks lasted a long while; Tori and I actually turned around at one point because we were tired of hiking rocks, and decided to go along a more woodsy walk.


Back to the campsite at about 3:30PM, a long day of hiking around. Of course, what do you do at a campsite other than make smores and cook hot dogs? Drink 40s!

Needless to say, the campers around us were not too happy with or actions of the night...and we were woken early in the morning, and given one hour to pack up and leave. It was a shorter trip than I had planned on it being, but it was still fun. I saw some redwoods, and camped.