Sweeney Ridge Graffiti

At the top of Sweeney Ridge there are a number of abandoned buildings which used to be the site of the SF-51C Nike missile control facility.  Project Nike was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system (thank you, wikipedia!).  Now that you've had your history lesson for the day, I will share with you the graffiti that now covers these old buildings...

Sweeney Ridge

WOAH it's been a long time since I've blogged.  Sorry, folks! But I'm back with the photos I promised over two weeks ago from our hike through Sweeney Ridge.  Enjoy!

Arty BART

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes

Last night, Shane and I saw Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes in concert.

In one word, it was magic.

Shane introduced me to the band when he shared this YouTube video with me (If you don't have the time or patience to watch all 15 minutes of it, I recommend you at least listen to Home -- 5 minutes in):

 I fell in love instantly.

This was, without a doubt, the best concert I have ever been to.  Alex (lead singer) was so charismatic and interacted with the crowd the entire time.  He even sang one song while sitting down in the middle of the pit!

Shane's favorite song from the concert was Up from Below because they kept it going forever with at least 2 interludes. It was beautiful.

My favorite was Om Nashi Me because the entire crowd chanted along and you could feel everyone connecting with the band. It was almost spiritual.

Alex, crowd-surfing

Want more Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes? Go buy their album: Up From Below! They've also got a new album, Here, coming out at the end of the month.  We heard several of these new songs at the concert and they were all AMAZING!

Playing Tourist, Part II

Our second set of visitors, James and Jessica, arrived last week and we were so thrilled to have them! 

We met James and Jessica when we were all working for a previous employer.  James and Shane (both software engineers) became good friends and even stayed close after James & Jessica moved away to NYC!  They came to experience all that the bay area has to offer, so they spent a few days in Napa, a few days with us exploring the South Bay area, and are doing their last few days even further south near Big Sur. 

Here's a few photos from their stay with us...

We went hiking at Sweeney Ridge in San Bruno (additional blogpost with A TON of photos coming soon!)

After the hike, we came home EXHAUSTED and watched the sunset on our roof!

Then the menfolk made us dinner!

Thanks to James & Jessica for providing the lobster! LOVED it!!

Archie loved making new friends, but he sure was exhausted by the time they left!

Volunteering

Last Friday, Shane and his team at work volunteered at a soup kitchen!

That's Shane in the top right

I don't really have any details other than Shane had fun with his friends. I just wanted to share his good deed :-)

Weekend, in Review

This weekend we ate at a great little restaurant called Dottie's True Blue Cafe.  This restaurant has been on our radar ever since September when we came to SF to visit.  Someone told us it was a San Francisco must-eat and we were going to eat there for breakfast one day, but the line was crazy long and somebody (me!) got impatient and hungry and cranky and made us leave.  So we finally ate there on Saturday and OMG it was delicious! I got my traditional over-easy eggs with ham, home fries and buttermilk dill toast and Shane got some sort of gruyere and pepper scramble with chili cheddar cornbread and jalapeno jelly.  HEAVEN.

 

Then we did a bit of shopping.  First I made Shane stop and look with me at all of the street vendors (i LOVE street vendors) and he bought me the coolest/cutest ring for $8!

I like the other ring he bought me more though ;-)

Next we headed to Niketown for new running shoes. Since Shane and I have been killing it at the gym (upcoming post about our fitness and diet regime coming soon), we decided we were ready to invest in some shoes with better support and voilà...

Please note Shane's insane-o calf muscles

I also saw this super cool shirt that made me miss old Millsaps friends badddd...

So we finally walked back to the BART and it was surprisingly dead! We had a whole BART car to ourselves, and craziness ensued (inspired by this clip from Tosh.0 - our new fave show)....

Again, please note the ridiculously large calf muscles. They look like tumors or something (in a good way lol)!

Hope everyone has a great week!!