Thanksgiving Weekend

There is so much to be thankful for! For example, this past week I made 3 sales! That is so exciting! Some people were taking advantage of my Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal, but others didn’t even know about it, so they were pleasantly surprised by it! It feels so good!!!

Another reason to be thankful for is the wonderful holiday weekend I just had! We had so much fun this weekend hiking, sunning, exploring, and relaxing.

This year we didn’t travel anywhere for the holidays. Instead, we took advantage of the long weekend to get out there to enjoy the mountains, the beach and the city.

On Thursday we went hiking around Muir Woods, on Cataract Trail, which is a dog friendly 7-mile hike. When we arrived to the trailhead early in the morning, around 9 a.m., there were only 2 other cars on the parking lot, a sign that we were going to have the trail to ourselves!

Because the sun was not up yet, we started up a bit cold but warmed up soon after when the first rays of sun started to peak from between the trees.

 

As the sun rose from behind the trees, everything became greener, more alive. It was around this time that we arrived to Cataract Falls. The falls were bigger than we’ve ever seen them, probably because we got some rain over the past two weeks. In fact, they were so big that we had a hard time listening to each other over the sound of the falling water.

It was such a treat to be there and, as if the simple fact of being in such a special place weren’t enough, the sun started rising from behind the falls, slowly lighting up everything around us.

We left the falls and continued our loop. On the way, we saw cool mushrooms, trees of all sizes, and great views! 

About 3 hours later, we were back at the parking lot and, not surprisingly, it was completely full. As we drove back towards the city, we pulled over to take in the gorgeous views of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean, the mountains of the North Bay, and even the hills of the East Bay, all of which could be seen from where we were!

On that same day we also made to Treasure Island, a small island in the Bay that is linked to the East Bay and SF by the Bay Bridge.

The first time we visited the island was about a month ago, with my mom at night. Our second time was during this early afternoon on Thursday, when we realized we had some hours left on our Zip Car.

Because it was early, we drove around the island and then parked by the water to look at the city, the bridges, Alcatraz and the ocean. The views of the city from the island are quite fabulous!

On Friday we did the drive south once again. Our plan was to drive to Half Moon Bay, park there, and walk the Coastal Trail for as long as we wanted. It was a gorgeous day! We walked for a long time and, when we found a way down to the beach, we started our way back on the sandy shores of Half Moon Bay Beach towards the parking lot.

After some hours of walking, we drove farther south to find a good place to have a picnic lunch. We ended up at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, where we parked our Zip Car CRV, opened the back of the car, and had lunch with a great view of the lighthouse. Bomber sat at our feet, soaking up the rays too!

On our way back to the city we tried to find Purissima Ghost Town without much luck. By the time we arrived back to SF, the sun was already setting. The sunset looked amazing and we decided to detour to Treasure Island, once again.

The detour was very worth it. We drove straight to the overlook and saw the different shades of orange, yellow, blue, pink and purple light up the downtown buildings and everything around it. It was gorgeous!

We absorbed the moment and then headed back home!

The actual weekend was more low-key, and we spent it around the city. I also took great photos of some of the Christmas decoration that is already up in some of the downtown buildings.  Christmas is here, apparently! But I’ll wait to share those photos later.

I am incredibly thankful for living in such a beautiful place, with such great access to so many natural beauties like mountains and the ocean! And, I’m thankful for the gorgeous weather that allows me to enjoy all of this year-round!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s photos. Every week that goes by, I like photography even more! For more fun photos, visit my Etsy store at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WorldPhotosByPaola

In case you didn’t know, I’m having a Holiday Sale through this Monday! Buy Any 5x7 or Any 8x10 and Get 1 FREE!!!