Becky's photoblog

Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in downtown San Jose, CA

We arrived in San Jose on Thursday night, checked in at the hotel and passed out. We only stayed one night at the Hyatt San Jose Downtown because we had actually meant to book a room at a different Hyatt in the area (long story). But waking up in downtown San Jose gave us the chance to wander around on Friday morning. Of course, we found a lovely park, a lovely museum and a lovely church. We popped in to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, which was absolutely gorgeous.

It was a real treat to spend some time with a dear old college friend and his wonderful new fiance. These two know how to have fun and eat right! Less than an hour after we landed, we were in their kitchen snacking on delicious home-made food. On Sunday, we brunched right by starting off at Psycho Donuts, a frightening and entertaining sugar fest. We continued our feast with a Cal-Mex brunch complete with adult-mimosas. We walked it off at Campbell’s farmers market, and wandered through a store full of gorgeous lanterns – we left with our heads full of ideas for crafts projects and redecorating!

No visit to Silicon Valley is complete without a lesson in the history of technology, so we went to the Tech Museum of Innovation. This is a great museum with a lot of hands-on exhibits. It’s great for kids, and kids at heart 🙂

When Louisa and I met in college, we would never have guessed that twelve years later, we would cross the country for each other’s weddings barely 18 months apart.

Lou was married at the Stinson Beach Community Center which one arrives at after driving through twenty miles of incredibly curvy windy terrifying yet stunningly gorgeous roads through the Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco. I was absolutely terrified, but I think Brian thought it was the best part of the entire weekend! Check out my post of photos from our drive.

Here’s a few photos from the wedding. I got a few decent shots, and I can’t wait to see the real photos!

You can’t go to a wedding near a gorgeous historic scenic beach without slipping away to see the actual beach! Here’s a few shots before a foggy sunset

We drove from our hotel in Santa Clara to Half Moon Bay for a brief but wonderful visit to this lovely little coastal town. We had an incredible lunch at Fish & Frites, then headed back to the 101. We drove straight through San Francisco and across the foggy Golden Gate Bridge to find clear skies and gorgeous views in Sausalito.

It was great to be back on familiar roads in Marin, where I spent the summer of 2003, and several visits since then! Pretty soon, we found ourselves driving through the gorgeous and terrifying roads in the Muir Woods heading towards the coast, and Stinson Beach. I drove that route with Lou ten years ago, and I had completely forgotten how terrifying those curvy windy roads were, but they are also incredibly gorgeous. All of a sudden, you turn a curve and there’s the most incredible view of the Pacific Ocean at Stinson Beach.

Then, after the wedding, we drove back to Santa Clara by way of a detour to explore San Francisco, and a late-night stop along the Bay for a much needed visit to In and Out Burger!

We spent a long weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area to celebrate my dear friend Louisa’s wedding. While we were in town, we got to spend some time with three dear old friends who all live in/near San Jose.

We landed mid-afternoon on Friday, and headed straight to Sean’s house to meet his brand new fiance and their puppy. They had prepared a delicious feast for us because we knew we would be hungry after crossing the country!

Then, we picked up some wine, picked up Becca, and headed over to Jen’s house – she and her husband hosted a lovely shabbat dinner so that we could get everyone together. It was wonderful to go from a lingering heat wave in Boston to a shady comfortable backyard feast, and it’s a rare treat to begin Shabbat with some of my oldest friends.

While visiting Lou in San Francisco for a most unhappy occasion, I finally got to meet her wonderful boyfriend!

Here’s my photos from their wedding in 2013