The Ultimate Girls Weekend - San Fran Edition

Lately, whenever I start a new post I always look at my blog and see when the last time I posted was, because I'm really trying to write more often lately. But it looks like I posted almost exactly 4 weeks ago. Ugh. When did blogging become so hard?? It used to be so easy to sit down and crank out a post.

Anyway, I've actually been meaning to sit down and get my blog on because I had the most fantastic girls weekend a couple weeks ago and I've been meaning to blog about it. Because it was pretty fantastic and really fun and really fantastic.

I left on a Friday night after work with two of my girlfriends, Charlene and Sarah, to meet another girlfriend, Katie, in San Francisco. I knew it was going to be a good trip when Charlene busted out some free drink coupons for Southwest, and we subsequently somehow managed to score an extra rum and coke on the flight. FYI: cocktails on airplanes are literally a shot of soda in a cup of alcohol. We unintentionally landed in San Francisco with a solid buzz. Oh well you win some, you lose win some

We drove about 30 minutes north of San Francisco to our place for the weekend. It was the coolest place but so hard to find. Even harder to find at midnight, in the hills, with no streetlights, and your Air B&B host's directions are different from Google's directions. But alas, we found it and all was well. It was almost as if we were tucked away in our own little vintage place at the top of the hill for the weekend, which just added to the awesome-ness of the trip.

Saturday morning we woke up and made our way down the hill to see what we were working with here. We made a coffee run, a grocery run, and actually figured out how to get Katie's car up the driveway so we didn't have to hike up and down the hill. It's amazing what some daylight can do for you.

We took our time getting ready, watching some college football, and taking pictures on the patio (obvi) before we made our way to Sonoma for some wine tasting.

I mean, that's a pretty spectacular view for a weekend right?? ...Like, the hills and the greenery and stuff, not our butts. Although our butts are pretty cute too, in my opinion.

I love going away with girlfriends because I don't have to be self-conscience about how much I pack, sprawling my stuff out everywhere, or taking too long to get ready. We're women - in a matter of hours there were bra's and hair dryer's, and tubes of lipstick, and outfit's laid out all over the place. There was, "Guys, what are you wearing?" and "Do you have a cute necklace I could wear with this?" and "Is this too dress-y? Should I be more casual?" ringing throughout our little cottage all morning long. Girlfriends are the best. Truly.

After we were wine-tasting ready, we called for an Uber and made our way to Sonoma for the good stuff.

First stop: R2 Wines:

I was sort of half expecting the tasting room to be like, a Star Wars theme because, "R2 Wines," that's kind of like R2D2. But it wasn't. Which makes more sense. A Star Wars themed wine tasting room would be weird because there's probably not wine in space. Or maybe there is, I dunno.

After some delicious wines we made a pit stop for lunch and then found stop #2 - Bump Wine Cellars.

We proceeded to taste all of their wines (or at least what's included when you pay the wine tasting fee), and make yet one more stop...

Our last tasting room of the day I think was my fav.

Passagio Wines was tucked away inside a mediterranian-esque breeze-way and I think it's safe to say they had the best wines.

Our fav of the day, Lake County Sauvignon Blanc. Although, I thought this was pretty cool too:

An 'Unmarked' wine as a tribute to law enforcement. Very cool, Passagio, very cool.

From there we called our last Uber of the day to take us home. It was 30 minutes away...so we drank more wine while we waited. Just what we needed after a day of wine tasting...more wine. 

Our Uber driver probably regretted accepting our trip as soon as he saw us come around the corner and start waving and running at his car like crazy people. "That's it! It's a Prius!! That's the Uber!!" "Uberrrrrrrr!"

It was kind of all downhill from there. Our driver was the best sport though. Poor guy was transporting four wine-drunk girls an hour away. There was lots of singing, and dancing, and asking questions. We get very inquisitive when we're wine-drunk. "Is this your Vitamin Water? Can I use it as a microphone? 

Are we the best passengers you've had all day? We're the funnest right? Are we the prettiest people you've driven around today? Are you having fun??" 

We had so much fun in our Uber that we tried taking a picture with him before we left however, we were wine drunk so this was as close as we got:

Good enough.

Saturday night we sat outside on our patio and ate cheese and crackers and drank all the wine we purchased during the day. We talked about important things and non-important things. We made fun of Donald Trump cause that's one of our favorite group activities, and eventually called it a night. Because Sunday we had important things to tend to. Like baseball, for example.

The Diamondbacks happened to be in town the same weekend we were which means duh, we have to go to the game. But first, we had other business matters to tend to.

1.) The Golden Gate Bridge.

When you've never been to San Fran, you sort of have to go to the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a requirement. So we did that. Not only did we go to it, we walked along it. The whole way. Like, almost two miles I think. 

2.) The Full House house. 

We went. And we selfie-d.

From there it was off to the game. 

It was my first time inside another major league ball park. With that said, I realize I don't have a large sample size to go off of here, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Chase Field is still the best. There's a roof. And air conditioning. Which we so desperately needed this weekend because while it was only in the low 90's, our seats for the game were directly facing the sun and the bleachers were so hot and we could barely sit on them and we're from Arizona so we're like OMG what is this what is happening why is it so hot and why am I so sweaty in San Francisco. Yes, I realize that was a run-on sentence in the worst way but that's how we felt - panicked and so confused.

The good news is we still had fun,

AND Steve Berthiume (color commentator for the Dbacks) tweeted our picture on the Twitter.

So basically we're famous. 

We left the ballpark, burned a few hours over pizza and beer so Sarah could watch the Packers play (and also so we could eat pizza and drink beer and be in the air conditioning), then headed to the airport. I was really sad to see the weekend go. I was sad to leave our little cottage at the top of the hill, and leave my friends, and leave being on vacation time, and also to not be able to drink so much wine and have it be socially acceptable. But I suppose all things must come to an end. ...until the next girls weekend is planned and on the books and then the good things will start all over again.

Where is All Your Stuff?

You guys, I've been having a real complex lately. I cleaned my room and bathroom last weekend, like really cleaned it, and it took me all day. All day for one bedroom and one bathroom. I had to empty my vacuum canister about 4 times just for the tiny amount of floor space in my room. It really got me to thinking, am I the only one who has to work this hard at keeping my house clean?? Am I the only one whose house gets this dirty?? I have some friends whose houses are always perfect; not a hair ball to be found on the floor, not a dish in the sink...meanwhile, any time anyone says they're coming over, it's literally a mad scramble to get my house into decent shape. Presentable shape. Enough shape that friends or family won't leave being like dang, Rissa needs an intervention.

Guys, am I the only one with this problem?? Why is it a constant battle to keep my house in order? I like to blame it on the two labs that live with me that perpetually shed and drag in dirt and grass from the backyard into the house.

I sometimes (read: most of the time) blame it on the husband who lives with me who has so much stuff it spills into every single room of our house. I sometimes take the blame myself because I'm a procrastinator by nature so dishes sit in the sink because "I'll get to them later," or ten loads of clean laundry pile up because "I'll fold them later."

My favorite is to blame it on my small house and that I just don't have room for everything (cause it definitely couldn't be that we just have too much stuff).

I usually do most house cleaning on the weekends but, who really wants to house clean on the weekends?? I want to do fun things on the weekends! Kayaking! Fishing! Swimming in the lake! Drinking lots of wine!

Not dusting or vacuuming, that's for sure. I could spend more time spot cleaning during the week, but who wants to house clean after a long day at work and all you really want to do is take off your bra, sit on the couch and watch a baseball game??

I constantly find myself asking questions when I'm house cleaning like, "Whyyyy am I literally vacuuming my walls?? Am I the only one who has to vacuum my walls? Is this normal? Why are my walls so dusty??" "Can I just leave my dogs outside for like, 2 hours so I can enjoy a clean house for two hours?" "Where am I supposed to put all this stuff?" "Does it take anyone else this long to scrub their bathtub?"

Nate constantly reminds me, "Rissa, we don't live in a showroom." "We actually live here." We have stuff. We use our stuff." And it's true. And I forget that sometimes in my elusive quest for an organized, clean house free of clutter. Pretty, picture perfect kitchens and living rooms and bedrooms on Pinterest just aren't a reality for me and I think I've (reluctantly) come to grips with that. Some nights I'm brushing actual dirt off my sheets because the dogs tracked it in the house and up onto the bed. But you know what? I love snuggling with my dogs. I love having them on the bed and falling asleep with them resting their head on my stomach. So if that means there's dirt on my bed sometimes then hell, that's what it's going to be I suppose.

And if that means my house is going to be less than spotless because I want to have fun on the weekends and relax on the weeknights, then I think I'm ok with that.

...but ask me again after I've binge watched HGTV for an entire afternoon. I've never seen any of those people vacuum their walls...

Labor Day Weekend

I dunno about anyone else but I was looking forward to this three day weekend for a long long time. For some reason the work weeks just really drag lately and it's like pulling teeth in order to make myself be productive. So needless to say, Labor Day weekend has been circled on the calendar for a while now. And I made sure to make it a good one.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and I went bird hunting with Nate and my father-in-law.

Oh and Maycee. She's as much of a hunter as the rest of us. 

Better than me, actually. Way better. I use the term "hunter" loosely when I refer to myself - I'm less of an actual hunter and more of just like, a try-er. Me trying:

I'm not good and I rarely know what I'm doing but I try, dang it. In fact, I shot my first bird out of the air this weekend and I was so excited and so surprised that I actually hit it that Nate laughed at me when he saw my face and was like, "why do you look so surprised??" And I was like, "cause I didn't think I'd actually hit it!!"

RIP little birdies, you won the war but I won the battle. Or however you say that. Or maybe that's not applicable here I dunno. Anyway, it was a good morning and we all ended up doing pretty dang good.

Especially Maycee...

She's like, all you guys do is shoot the dang things out of the sky but I run and get them for you. Who's doing the real work here eh?? I mean she's right but...

Then I came home, took a shower, took a nap, and watched college football for the rest of my Saturday. If bird hunting, naps, and college football is wrong then I don't wanna be right.

Sunday (which always feels like a Saturday, version 2.0 on a three day weekend) we got up bright and early (again) to head up north for some fishing and kayaking. We knew it was going to be a zoo for the holiday weekend so we needed to leave early to get on the lake before everyone else...and also to get a good parking spot because really, who wants to park far and have to carry three kayaks down a hill with all the rest of your gear. Not me. We took my friend Sarah who got her first taste of fishing and 'yaking and although she was probs disapointed with the fishing (we caught NOTHING), we had fun 'yaking.

The cool thing about kayaks and being on the water is the ability to get away from everyone else. So while it was a madhouse near the dock and on the shore, it wasn't bad once we got further out. In fact, we paddled all the way until the lake ended and it was nice and quiet and peaceful.

It was nice and quiet and peaceful and pretty, but the truth is we just needed to find a spot without anyone around because it was time for a potty break. So we found the end of the lake, parked it, and used nature's restroom. Gotta do whatchya gotta do on a holiday weekend and there's people errrywhere. 

Monday was spent sleeping in (finally) and cleaning up around the house. And now it's way passed my bedtime and I'm probably gonna wake up tired to start the week out...but let's be honest, when do I not wake up tired for a new week?

Happy Monday Tuesday friends!