The beach

As I mentioned before, we packed up the car and headed to the beach on Josh's birthday. The water is far too cold for swimming but we figured Paul should at least dip his toes in the Pacific Ocean. We picked a pretty obscure beach so that it wouldn't be crowded and we could let the dogs off leash for some fun.

My brother developed a bit of an addiction to Chipotle burritos while he was here so he asked me what he had to do to get a free burrito out of me. I told him he had to fully submerge in the freezing water. He quickly agreed and then we told him the coast off San Francisco is a Great White shark breeding ground so he shouldn't go very deep, just in case. If it was me I would have declined the bargain after hearing about the sharks but apparently the lure of the burrito was too much for Paul!


Zeke was not happy that Paul was heading in without him and he got especially upset when Paul went under water. Zoey didnt seem to be concerned at all.


"Get me outta here!"


Here's Paul being dragged into the water by Zeke. It was so funny because he'd run in and then as soon as the waves broke in his face he'd turn around and bolt out with this scared look on his face. Then he'd go back and repeat the cycle. It was hilarious!




Exploring on the rocks.









Zoey didnt like the water quite as much as Zeke. This was her first time at the beach and when we let them off leash she bolted in after Zeke, accidentally went underwater and resurfaced with a horrified look on her face, and then didn't want to go in after that. Poor little thing :-(


Josh found this stinky crab skeleton and of course the dogs wanted to eat it. Dogs are pretty disgusting.













The dogs had the best time and we had so much fun watching them. I probably posted way too many dog photos but I couldn't help myself - I just love those 2 so much!

It was a fun couple of hours at the beach - we should really go more often!

Water dog

On Josh's birthday (the 13th) we packed up the car and took a trip to the beach. I'll share the rest of the photos later in the week but for now here's Zeke bolting in for a swim. He loves the water!

Guest Room bed

I had big plans to finish the guest room in time for my brother's visit. Instead I got distracted and did a mini-makeover on the guest bathroom (which I will share as soon as I take some pictures), which didn't leave much time to work on the bedroom.

The main project I wanted to complete was the bed. I bought the bed when I moved to California in 2003. Its completely not-my-style and I wonder now why I ever bought it in the first place. I think it was $120 - that's probably why.





Here's how I gave it a whole new look for a little over $43!

1. Cut off the end pieces on the headboard.



2. Attach thin MDF to the headboard. (Cost = $10.34) Note: the MDF doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the headboard because I decided to use the 24 inch wide boards to keep the cost down. The larger MDF boards were quite a bit more expensive and I knew the mattress would cover that part of the headboard so I didn't mind it not being perfectly covered.



3. Prime the pine with supplies we already had.

4. Paint using supplies we already had.

5. Glue foam to MDF. (Cost = $20.96) This was the most expensive part of the project - I had no idea foam was so pricey. Luckily I had a 40% off coupon! The foam was 24 inches wide which worked perfectly with the MDF boards.


(The knife in Josh's hand is for cutting the foam ... just in case you were wondering!)

6. Wrap heavy batting around foam and staple to the back. (Cost = $7.86)





7. Wrap fabric around batting and staple to the back. I already had this burlap fabric which I thought would work well - the color is a bit too similar to the wall color but I'm too lazy to redo it. Plus I don't want to buy more fabric. (Cost = $4)





Much better don't you think?

Alcatraz

My brother Paul was just here visiting for 10 days so I will be doing a few posts to share the photos I took while he was here. Its always fun when people come visit because I get to be a tourist in my own town!

Our first outing was to Alcatraz. This was actually my 4th time going, but I hadn't been in 5 years so I didn't mind going again. Its a pretty fun trip: you take a ferry out to the island, walk up a steep hill to the to the cell house (not so fun), follow an audio tour around the prison, and then get the ferry back to San Francisco.



View of San Francisco as we headed out on the ferry.



The Golden Gate bridge gets all the fame but this bridge (the Bay Bridge) is my favorite. Its super long - this is only half of it! - and its a double decker so you use the top deck to drive into the city and the bottom deck to leave. At night it looks so pretty all lit up.



That red and yellow boat was doing speed boat tours around the bay. I guess if you're into speed it would be fun but it looked like a recipe for sea sickness to me.



Approaching Alcatraz. It looks like a boat!



Buildings at the dock.



I loved this old building that we passed on our walk up to the cellhouse.



Another old building we passed.



You enter the cellhouse through the shower room. The thought of showering in front of so many people is so unappealing!



The cells are so small - imagine spending most of your day in that tiny space!







Prisoners!



The view of San Francisco out of a small cloudy window.



Inside the library.



The last menu.



The eerie dining hall!



Another view of San Francisco - its just close enough to be tempting!



View of the cellhouse from the recreation yard. I know it doesn't look like it but you wouldn't believe how windy and cold it was out there. We joked that people were probably intentionally bad so that they didn't earn time out there because it was miserable!





On our way back to San Francisco!