China Town and Golden Gate

Our next day in The City started nice and early.  We headed to China town to do a little antique and gift shopping.  The street was all decked out for some reason, it was fun and festive and I loved it all.

Then we saw a few of the famous sights.  We stopped by the Painted Ladies and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge.

When we used to travel to San Fransisco when I was little we always ate at this fun Moroccan restaurant, but unfortunately it went out of business so the last few times we have visited we haven't been able to eat there.  On this trip, we had the idea to look and see if we could find another Moroccan restaurant near by and we found this amazing place, it had a lot the same things we loved about our old Moroccan place!

We began by washing our hands with water scented with the orange blossom water and lavender.

Pouring traditional Moroccan herbal mint tea

They had a belly dancer come and perform a couple of numbers during our meal!

The food was all so amazing!  And they were so wonderful about dealing with my gluten allergy.  They even made me a special gluten free dessert!

And that was our last day in the big city.  The next day we got up nice and early and drove to the one and only beautiful Yosemite National Park.

San Fransisco Wharf

This past September I had the opportunity to take the most amazing trip to California.  We started in San Fransisco and worked our way down the coast and eventually ended in L.A.  It.  Was.  Fabulous!  It encompassed any type of vacation destination I could have ever dreamed of, we hit a couple of big cities, spent a few nights in a National Park, and enjoyed a couple beautiful beach side towns.  Our hotel in San Fransisco made their own French macaroons daily, so we enjoyed some delicious sweets everyday, they are pictured above in front of the view I had from my hotel window.

Our first day in The City was spent riding the trolley to the wharf, and enjoying the sea salted air and sea side shops.  We made sure we got the best seats on the trolley, hanging out the side.

We spent quite a while hanging out with the sea lions on Pier 39, they are hilarious.

After our strenuous day of strolling the pier and enjoying the shops, we had to stop by Ghirardelli's to get a couple of their famous ice cream sundaes.  I got a decadent chocolate peanut butter sundae while my dad got a refreshing chocolate covered strawberry sundae.  Both were absolutely delicious.

After our healthy lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a little nap before dinner.  Tonight we walked to this adorable, little ally full of restaurants to find a place to eat for dinner.  After browsing through our options we decided on this wonderful french restaurant.  We sat outside and enjoyed the festive atmosphere and the warm city air. Everything we all ordered was so delicious! 

For dessert I ordered their sample dish of french macaroons, they are my favorite cookie and I can never get enough of them!

One of the macaroons was peach flavored and it was THE BEST MACAROON IN THE WORLD.  I couldn't even handle how delicious that little cookie was, I doubt I will ever find another macaroon that is as delectable as that little guy was.

The Edge of the Universe

In September, the Northern Lights were low enough that it was reported we might be able to see them  in Utah.  Seeing the Northern Lights is on my life bucket list, so I was excited to maybe get the chance to see them!  Beth and Reece invited to me to go out to the Spiral Jetty with them to try and see if we could catch a glimpse of the lights, since we would be far away from any city lights.

Seeing the Sprial Jetty has been a long standing item on my life bucket list so I was excited to finally place a big check mark next to it.  I can't believe I have lived in Utah my whole life and had never seen the Spiral Jetty until this year!

We got to the Jetty right as the sun was setting, so we only had just a few minutes of seeing it in daylight.  After snapping a few pictures we gathered up our gear and started heading closer to the waters edge of the Great Salt Lake.  Walking on the salt flats is such a unique experience, it really is something everyone should do in their lifetime, especially if you live in utah.

We set up camp and then started experimenting with long exposures.  We played around with different times, locations, camera angles, everything!  It was so much fun to capture such a breathtaking sight.

We were enveloped in complete darkness and silence with the most perfect view of the Milky Way It was like nothing I have ever experienced.  I truly felt like I was on another planet.  These pictures come no where close to giving our view justice.

We stayed until the moon began to rise.  Since the moon casts so much light, our star pictures wouldn't turn out nearly as well as they had been so we decided to pack up and head home.  We never did see the Northern Lights, but we obviously didn't mind.  This is one of my most favorite life experiences.  It was one of the most magical things I have ever done.  Many thanks to the ever creative and adventurous Madisons for making it happen!