Napa Valley & Santa Cruz

NAPA VALLEY

Law firms plan various activities for their summer associates to give them a chance to get to know the area and the other attorneys and to make sure they have an enjoyable summer.  One of the activities we did with Baker Botts in Palo Alto was a wine tour through the Napa Valley.  Even though we were not part of the main event (drinking the wines), we still enjoyed seeing the beautiful Napa Valley and learning about how the wine is made etc.  We preferred the small family-owned winery to the large corporate one we toured.  The family just makes wine as a hobby so they don't do a ton of it.  Here are some pictures of our wine tour adventure...

Below you'll see Reed and I at the family-owned and operated winery.  My favorite moment at this winery was when one of the owners went to offer me a drink (held out a bottle of wine saying "Do you want...") but then stopped and said "Oh there is no way you are old enough to drink."  Haha.  People always assume I'm not drinking cause I'm not old enough.  It used to bother me but now that I have been feeling really old lately I really like it.

Touring the large corporate winery:

I kind of look like I'm scowling here...I'm not...I think I was just embarrassed with how many pictures Reed was taking of me.

The water drinkers! We were happy to be in the company of other non-alcohol drinkers on this wine tour. We even tried to swish the water around in our mouths to taste it and rate the different waters :-).  We actually did get to try some non-alcoholic sparkling cider type drinks but I don't have pictures of those.

Reed was not happy that I wouldn't let him try the wines ;-).

Here is a group shot of all the summer associates that attended the wine tour. There were two who couldn't make it.

SANTA CRUZ 

Each weekend Reed and I tried to tour at least one of the surrounding cities. Sometimes we were just too busy but I think we got to see most of the places we wanted to see. One problem with the Bay Area is that the weather can vary dramatically from city to city even though everything is close together. This is especially true as you get closer to the ocean. Since we were going to Santa Cruz, we figured it would be a little chilly and didn't actually plan on sitting on the beach but when we got there it was really warm! We were so mad at ourselves for not bringing lighter clothes and some beach towels. But it was still a really neat place to visit.

Trying to cool down with some dippin' dots on the boardwalk:

Just some sea lion hanging out on the Wharf haha. And below you will see why it's important to bring beach towels to the beach.

And here is the shark I saw. Reed insists it's not a shark. I have zoomed in so you can be an informed jury :-).

San Francisco

So just a quick update before I blog about San Francisco... Reed and I are back from our summer adventures.  We spent half the summer in Palo Alto (Silicon Valley) and half the summer in Dallas.  We were just way too busy to blog so I will be catching up for quite awhile.  Just FYI, I got offers from both the law firm in Palo Alto and the firm in Dallas.  We LOVED both the firms but we have to make a decision so we will keep you all updated on the decisionmaking process.  Anyways...while Reed and I were in Palo Alto we were able to see a lot of cool places. One fun day trip was to San Francisco with my mom, dad and sister. Our first stop was to see the Painted Ladies (row of houses in San Fran that has shown up on various different shows like Full House).

Next up we have the Crookedest Street in the world (though it's not really...) and Reed's favorite attraction: Himself! :-)

We spent some time on Fisherman's Warf but it was a little chilly! While we were there I told Reed that he needed to get better at taking candid shots so that not all the pictures I am in are of me standing & smiling at the camera. He insisted, however, that he is way better at taking candid shots than I am. To prove it he made awful faces every time he thought I might be taking a picture of him haha. In the end he did get somewhat of a candid shot of me laughing because he was making the most awful faces every time I even looked at him.

We were bummed when we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge cause it was SUPER foggy. There was only one moment (very brief) when we caught a good glance of the bridge but other than that, we could hardly see anything. It was a little eerie.