mike and i had decided that instead of buying each other presents for christmas last year, we would take a long weekend trip. we looked into a few options, but quickly decided that we wanted to go to california. san francisco to be exact. my uncle lives there, we thought we would have a great time visiting him and seeing all of the sites. i had gone on a similar trip with my mom and grandma a few years ago, but mike had never been and i knew he would love it.

we went a few weeks ago and had a fantastic time. i knew that we'd have fun, but i was impressed with how much we were able to do/see in only 3.5 days, and yet i still felt like we had a relaxing trip.

we flew in on friday afternoon, which was nice because we had some time on friday to enjoy dinner at my uncle's house and relax after our flight.

on saturday we walked around palo alto and stanford's campus before going into the city for dinner. there is something about the energy on a college campus that i just love.






on sunday we drove up to sonoma for a day/night and were able to take a tour at one of the wineries. i'd never been on a tour before and thought it was so interesting and made me appreciate the wine even more.


monday morning we had a quick drive around downtown sonoma before heading back to san francisco.



but of course we got distracted by a few more wineries along the way. the views were so beautiful, it was hard not to stop!


mike looks extra tall in this photo. or maybe i just look extra short.


once back in san fran, we stopped at the golden gate bridge.





and took a boat out to alcatraz to take a tour.



we did the audio walking tour of alcatraz and we were both super impressed with the tour.



i didn't get a picture, but we also made sure to drive past the full house house before leaving the city. we're such tourists :-)

our plane left on tuesday morning and we were sad to leave, we had such a great time. i can't wait to go back!