WICKED WEEKEND

What a fantastic girl weekend. I love these girls; I feel so lucky to be friends with each one of them! Michelle had the fabulous idea to go to Hollywood and watch WICKED. I mostly went to hang out with all these fabulous ladies but I got a little extra treat - WICKED was amazing!!! I am not one of those people that are really into musicals, but WOW... it is really as good as people say. And the music is absolutely amazing... it gave me chills more than once!

Our little trip started on Friday evening. We stopped at In & Out for some dinner and then continued on the trek to Hollywood. We finally arrived at the hotel around one in the morning. This is where the drama only began. I think it took like two hours to to finally get the right rooms. First, they didn't have two rooms together. Then, they gave us one room with only one bed. Finally, we ended up getting a really nice suite with two king beds and another room with two doubles. I was lucky enough to be in the room with the king beds... that was until the fire alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning. And of course it was only on our floor and one other. So our fellow compadres slept through the whole thing. We had to take the stairs and somehow got lost on the way. Finally, we made it outside only to be told some stupid kids thought it would be funny to to set the fire alarms off. By the time we got back to our room, we were all fired up and we couldn't get back to sleep until five thirty. We got up the next day and got ready for WICKED... only to find a special little note outside our door (note attached). We think it is from the only guy we ran into during the fire drill. The best way to describe him is no shirt, hairy chest, beer belly and gold chain. I am sure that gives you a perfect image of what he looked like. What is so funny about it, is that two of the girls with us were obviously pregnant. What a creepy guy! After a quick bite to eat we headed over to the show. And as I said before, it is a must see! After the show we went to Hollywood Blvd. to look at the stars and hand prints/footprints. Believe it or not I have never been to Hollywood before; Even though I have been to Southern California more times than I can recall. After our fun filled day it was back in the car for the ride home. It was a very quick trip but filled with so many classic memories. Thanks girls for such an amazing time!

Finally Visiting Alcatraz!

We finally made it to one of San Francisco's most popular tourist spots. I had been once in high school, but that was a long, long time ago. Eric's parents were in town so we got tickets for the night tour. It was a really foggy night, but that kind of added to the experience. It was just as neat as I remembered it to be. We only wished we could have spent more time there!

Eric's White Coat Ceremony

Yipee... we are finally second years! And with this exciting accomplishment, Eric received his white coat. He is now officially Dr. Eric Wood, although he has been calling himself this for awhile. Eric's parents came into town for the big event. And it gave me a great excuse to get a new dress. I am so proud of him!

ARUBA

We went to Aruba with my family the last week of Eric's break. It was so much fun. The first day we got there we checked into our hotels and dealt with my parents luggage saga. Unfortunately, there baggage got lost and they did not have it for the first 24 hours. Luckily, they could borrow some stuff from us. That night we went to Smokey Joe's for dinner. The second day we just hung out by the pool and beach and went shopping for food. That night we went to "Lets Go Latin." It was fun, but definetley only a one time thing. Tuesday we went on "Mi Dushi." We took a pirates ship out to sea and enjoyed snorkeling at three famous Aruba sites. We had an excellent lunch with an open bar. I would say this is a must when visiting Aruba. On Wednesday, we rented ATV's to explore the island. About half the island can only be visited on jeep or ATV's. My favorite stop was the Natural Pool. It was a little hard to get to, but totally worth it. I also enjoyed stopping at Baby Bridge and the caves. Being my Dad's birthday and the fourth of July, we went to Moomba's Beach Restaurant that night for dinner. The food was really good and the atmosphere (eating right on the beach) was really cool but the service pretty much stunk. Thursday we took on kayaking in the ocean. Since there was an odd number of us, and Eric had the most experience with kayaking, he rode in a single kayak. But this meant my sister and I had to share a kayak. We were the only two girls riding a double kayak. It was all dandy in the beginning, that is until we had to go against the wind. We flipped over - this was actually kind of fun. But we took twice as long to get back. I was laughing/crying the whole way back. I am sure we were quite a sight to see. It was the worst 45 minutes of the trip. We stopped at DePalm Island for two hours during the tour and this was pretty fun, but I wouldn't recommend going for all day. We snorkeled at the Island which was really neat. They have these huge blue parrot fish there that swim all around you. Friday we sailed on the yacht "Tranquilo." This was really awesome. There was only about 15 of us on the boat. We sailed two hours to the other side of the island, snorkeled for two hours, and then sailed back for another two hours. We floated down this reef snorkeling for about twenty minutes and saw huge pools of fish. We also snorkeled in the shallow parts and it started raining so hard while we were in the water - it was so cool. On Saturday, we decided to rent a car and head over to baby beach, which was rumored to be a great snorkeling site. We rented equipment and bought some fish food and headed out. It was actually really good and we got there right before it got really busy. On our last night we went to Madam Jeanette's - a recommended restaurant to us by a local. This was seriously the most fabulous place I have ever been to. It was a really cute restaurant, great service, and awesome food. The plates were beautifully presented, were massive in quantity, and they tasted amazing. I don't think I have ever had such good food. Sunday we headed over to the flea market before we had to go to the airport. We all said our farewells - we were so sad to leave! So, would I recommend Aruba as a vacation spot? The island itself was pretty ugly, the water was beautiful! We pretty much did everything there was to do in a week. So, it is definitely a place to go, but maybe not a place to go again.

Aruba Pictures

At "Baby Bridge"

At the Bird Sanctuary

Our Last Night at Madam Jeanette's

At the "Lets Go Latin" Show

On our ATV Excursion

SUMMER BREAK

Eric and I first went to Utah for a week to visit his family. We mostly went boating/wakeboarding since we don't have that opportunity living in San Francisco. We also took his parents ATV's out one night. Most importantly I ate at Cafe Rio four times! Yummy!

Introduction

Well, I thought it was about time that I enter the world of blogging. I currently live in San Francisco, CA with my cute husband Eric. Eric and I were married on August 13th, 2004; we are coming up on our third anniversary, crazziness! I work here in the city in the neonatal ICU at Kaiser. I have now been a nurse for four and a half years. Eric attends dental school at UOP in San Francisco as well. We love living it the city and enjoying all it has to offer, especially the food and shopping!