San Francisco

(I actually wrote this on Monday, but did not have internet until today!)

Well Helen's wedding was absolutely beautiful. We took the shuttle from our hotel to the location- and it was just perfect. Helen and Matt were married outside of a little white gazebo at the top of a hill. Beyond the gazebo was a drop-off which revealed a fantastic view of green and blue hills, only slightly obscured by the white San Francisco fog, and a perfectly blue stream winding through the valley below. This was the Crystal Springs Golf Club- an absolutely fantastic setting. Helen was a vision in a champagne gown with a long train. Eve and the other bridesmaids (Lizzy, Helen's sister was MOH, and Matt's sisters were the other bridesmaids) wore dresses the color of red wine. Helen had joked the night before that her colors were "wine and champagne" which was a testament to her and Matt's interests! :) (Well they do live above a wine bar!)

The ceremony was lovely, including a string quartet, playing both the March from Aida and the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin for the processionals. Oh and as a prelude, they played an arrangement of the Beach Boy's "California Girls", titled "Filles du Californie" :)

The reception was at the golf club, and was beautiful. And who can complain when you have an open bar! :) Eric and I were seated at the "Forbes Ave" table with a few other PIttsburgh-ians, as well as some Google-ites. We met a lot of new people and made connections with CMU people we hadn't known when we were in school. Eric, Eve and I definitely represented our class well! We pretty much owned the dance floor. 

On Sunday, Eve left early early to fly to Hawaii for vacation with her family! Lucky! Eric and I went to the brunch hosted by Matt and Helen at their apartment/the wine bar they live above. The food was deeelicious, and we got to see where they live. Their apt is super cute and Pal Alto is beautiful! Also, the owner of the wine bar offered eric a job, so if all else fails, he might come back!

After brunch, we went into San Francisco. The city is awesome. We struggled a bit to find parking- which is ridiculously expensive- but we got a spot right near Fisherman's Wharf. We walked around on the piers, and checked out all the crazy street performers. Pier 39 at the Wharf was completely covered with seals! They were so cool- barking and flopping around!

We saw how sourdough bread was made at Boudin's, and got a free sample of Ghirardelli chocolate! It was very crowded, but super cool walking around the Wharf. 

We then took a ferry across the bay to the town of Sausalito. The ferry boat was so fun! It was freezing on top where we sat, soo windy! We went right past Alcatraz (which I frequently confused with Azkaban...) and by the Golden Gate Bridge. Again, we were fortunate enough to be enjoying about the most beautiful day in the world. When we got to Sausalito, we had about and hour and a half to walk around and enjoy the cute little town. It didn't even feel like we were in America! The town is all built up on the hillside, right by the water, and really pretty. We had lunch in a great sandwich shop, and finalized our plans for the night via iphone. We decided our next destination would be Aspen, to stay with Rachael and Sarah. We decided to spend that night in Reno, randomly, in a hotel/casino called the Circus, which happened to have a great price for a room. 

We then took the return Ferry back to S.F. and walked around a bit more, shopping for souvenirs and hot new sunglasses. Then we got some sourdough bread bowls and clam chowder to go, and got back in the car. We drove around to find the Crookedest Street- which apparently everyone else wanted to do as well, so we sat in a traffic buildup for a while. This gave us the perfect opportunity to eat our soup and bread bowls- umm.... delicious. 

The crookedest street was really cool- it was really crooked. :) I had fun driving down it though, even if i was just a little bit scared. It was like Negly only in zigzag form and two times steeper! :)

Eventually we got out of the city, over the Bay Bridge which is LOOONNG. Then we tok 80 East- it's so weird to be going east now!

Three and half harry-potter filled hours later, we arrived in Reno. Which was like vegas except smaller and grosser. We went right to bed, ready to wake up at 7AM and resume the drive to Aspen.

xox

Laura and Eric