Jamie and Karl

New blog location: http://www.jamieandkarl.blogspot.com/

The sun never came out and it was chilly as we walked around Half Moon Bay’s Pumpkin Fest this year with some friends, but we bundled up and had fun. The pumpkin winner this year weighed in at 1384 lbs! Since they guard this veggie dearly and block all views from photographers (hoping you’ll pay the $12 to pose in the tent with it) we weren’t able to take a picture but I did get a picture of the 2nd place winner and an artist carved a huge face on it which was cool! We are still having nice and sunny weather in SF so this weekend we tried to enjoy while we can. Saturday morning Karl & I ran from our apt. to the Embarcadero, past the Ferry Building, to right underneath the Bay Bridge- 3 1/2 miles! Then, ran back to the Ferry Building for some lunch along the water @ Mijita taco stand. While the tacos definitely aren’t Las Palapas they are good & cheap!

We had a blast in SA for our 10 yr reunion….fun times!

We went to Julie’s wedding this weekend in Santa Rose, wine country north of Napa. It was soo pretty outside on a golf course at the Country Club. They couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Congrats Melissa & Ben! Black tie wedding at Walt Disney Concert Hall. We had a blast partying with all the AXAs…

Weddings! Weddings! It’s our hobby! La Jolla was gorgeous and the Culyba wedding was set overlooking La Jolla Cove- beautiful!

I miss Costa Rica! Riane & I had soo much fun with our tour group…10 days of adventure!!

**Pictures Here!**

We had a very relaxing time in Cabo. We stayed on one of the nicest swimming beaches there- Medano Beach, which is on the Sea of Cortez side. From our hotel we could look out to the famous El Arco and rock formations which mark the very tip of Baja. This is where the Pacific side meets the Sea of Cortez. During our sunset cruise we went around the tip into the Pacific side and the air temperature was instantly cooler and the waves were way rougher crashing into the rocks and beach. It was crazy how you could just feel how much colder it was! You can’t get in the water on the Pacific side because it’s way too rough. Alot of celebrities have homes perched on the cliffs on the Pacific side. Even on our nice beach the surf was pretty strong and the undertoe was pretty significant but it was definitely swimmable once we swam past the waves. The water was chilly but felt great after laying out and getting hot. We went on a Sunset Cruise to the famous El Arco (See Pictures) and one day we decided to try diving. I was really nervous that it was going to be too cold for me but the dive master said we’d be fine in long wetsuits, which they rented us. Karl originally thought the water temp was about 75 or so and the dive master quickly assured us that is was mid to low 60s!!! I suited up and got all ready, dropped into the water and instantly froze! The water was so cold my face and hands hurt! I just couldn’t do it and there was no way I was up 45 minutes of it getting even colder once we reached 50 or so feet during the dive. Karl continued on and did two dives. I stayed on the boat and the driver let me snorkel around a little but I was pretty cold doing that! There were a ton of fish but no coral. They dove near El Arco and the rock formations and underwater it got pretty deep pretty quick. They saw an eel, Amberjack fish, and a Rock Fish which they warned us about. It definitely wasn’t Bora Bora diving but Karl was glad he checked it out. By the end of the second dive he was wiped out and admitted he was pretty cold. I’ve decided to stick to the warmer water for diving. We ate dinner at little restaurants on the beach and the surf was so high one night the waves were rolling under our chairs and table! We saw an awesome moon rise one night too which was pretty cool. We ate lots of yummy seafood and found an awesome sushi restaurant serving all the local fish they catch. We loved laying out on the beach and reading and relaxing!

We set out for a bike ride with my friend from work and her friends. There were about 8 of us and the plan was to bike from SF, over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, and then to Tiburon. It’s a pretty popular ride over to Sausalito but we wanted to make it Tiburon because one of our favorite cafes on the water is there. We planned to take the ferry back to SF. We were told the ride was pretty flat by the people at the bike shop and that there was only one short steep climb but we’d be fine. Turns out we were in for a much harder, longer ride than expected! We biked over the bridge and then climbed into Sausalito. The road into Sausalito was pretty hairy because the road didn’t have a shoulder or bike lane coming into town. Then after going through Sausalito on our way to Tiburon and just as we were leaving town I realized I had a flat tire..ug! I am at this point using Karl’s 8th grade Mountain Bike because my good road bike is in storage.

This was about 8 miles into the ride and luckily we brought our pump with us. We then had to pump up the tire every 2 miles the rest of the ride. Ug. We encountered much harder climbs and more of them than we expected and it turned out to be a pretty long ride. The constant stopping made it a little longer too. Overall, it was a very pretty ride all along the bay. At the end, we looked at my bike computer and it said 20 miles! Yow! And, it took us 3 hours! We were very relieved when we finally got to the restaurant and sat down and had a beer! Luckily, we didn’t have to bike the whole way back! The ferry was PACKED with other bikers and we barely made it on. The weather this weekend was awesome and everyone else had the same idea as us! It was cool to us that just a short ferry ride across the bay and we were sitting at a restaurant patio on the water and it was HOT! The second the ferry pulled up to SF we felt the cooler breeze. We had a great time and we proud of ourselves being able to do that long of a ride without having ridden in so long. Sausalito and Tiburon are really cute little beach towns right on the water with awesome views, especially looking across the bay to the SF city skyline.