Sailing in San Francisco

Grandma Juul

Happy Grandparents Day!
A yellow butterfly always appears when my parents come in from sailing and are docking their boat. It is my Grandma Juul making sure they are home safe :). Funny and touching how she always appears. This morning I went on a run and she was there with me all 3.5 miles! I was exhausted but kept running because I wanted to spend time with her. As crazy as it sounds all my family agrees it is Grandma Juul. She left us too soon so she comes back to check on us :) Thanks for helping me run!

mother nature

My brother experienced an earthquake yesterday at 9pm in Oakland, California. Apparently they happen all the time and they are over in seconds. It would scare the crap out of me! Thankfully he is fine and only suffered a moment of surprise. I was at my parents house yesterday because I had an interview with Snow & Associates in Lightfoot. It would be a bit of a commute but I have my fingers crossed I get the job. I'd be a graphic designer (duh) and help the company market their product... helping people suffering from chronic health conditions like epilepsy. Right up my alley! We ended up spending the night at my parents and Hurricane Hanna rolled through this afternoon. There was a little bit of wind and rain so we decided to stay at my parents until the eye had passed to be safe. I'd hardly call that a hurricane! That is a good thing of course, but honestly if I hadn't watched the news and heard of the hurricane I would have never known! Hopefully the next one Ike will simmer down.

BridgeClimb Sydney

Fraser and I did the BridgeClimb over the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. The beautiful bridge is enormous and looks pretty scary to climb from the ground, but a piece of cake once you are on it. You can see absolutely everything being that high, and lots of cars driving fast below you. We could not wear any jewelry or anything that has the possibility of dropping. Even a penny dropping could cause a serious car accident and kill someone. Our jumpsuits were pretty attractive (sike) but they were comfortable and kept you attached to the bridge. Our guide was awesome, he was hysterical and we had a great time with him. We were fortunate to get into a good group too, there were 2 younger girls from England traveling on their own, 2 ladies from Ohio, and another couple who had climbed the bridge before. You can tell by the picture above we had a good time. Our guide made us kiss! If you go to Sydney, do this! I'm going to do it again.

Sailing in San Francisco Bay

My Dad is the Commodore of the Catalina sailboat. He speaks to others who own Catalinas all over the world and helps them take care, fix, and simply enjoy the sport of sailing. One of my father's sailing friends Stu, was nice enough to take us out on the bay on his beautiful boat. It was absolutely amazing, and we got such a different view of San Francisco from the water. I wish I was on the boat right now! Thank you Stu, we had the time of our life! Please check out the pictures on my husband's website: http://fbgd.shutterfly.com/5079

Black Belt test videos

Black Belt test

My parents, Fraser, and I flew to San Francisco for a short weekend trip so we could see my brother, Kory, perform in his black belt test. We arrived around noon on friday and enjoyed a relaxing calm day with Kory. We woke up at 415am so we were tired, and Kory was a ball of nerves and was on a restricted diet which sounded exhausting. Thankfully Kory could eat sushi so we enjoyed a delicious dinner in Alameda. I'm so jealous the sushi in California is sooooo much better than what we can get on the east coat.

We had until 3pm on Saturday to get to the dojo so we did some shopping and some cleaning, anything to distract Kory! He took a long nap beforehand to restore his energy. And we were off! Kory warmed up and we went next door and had a drink to celebrate. This was the first black belt open test so anyone could come watch. We got there early so we could grab seats. 4 people were testing: Kory (6 years training), a 14 year old, a 50+ year old (20 years training), and another gentleman in his 30s (14 years training). You could see how nervous/excited they were. Thankfully no one passed out or threw up, although there were moments we were concerned the 30 year old was not going to make it. They were absolutely drenched with sweat and after 2.5 hours finally finished! Although the 14 year old was the fastest, he did not have the passion and concentration that Kory had. Towards the end of the test Kory was the only one still standing up tall and not faultering. He definitely has endurance! All I can say is wow. We were all crying and cheering our hearts out (when we were allowed to cheer). Talk about commitment, dedication, and the love of the art. He will be a black belt forever and carry what he has learned with him everyday. I'm still blown away by how awesome he did and cannot believe it is over!