75 Years and I was here!!!

I'm so excited to be a part of the celebration of one of our countries national landmarks!!! Yup that's right today is the 75th year anniversary of the Golden Gate Bride, which is considered one of engineering's seven wonders of the world. Did you know that at the time the Golden Gate was built it was considered an unimaginable impossible task to build a bridge connecting Marin to San Francisco. The idea for the building of the bridge was posed in 19th century, but due to impossible conditions such as tidal rips, frequent dense fogs, 372-foot-deep channel and occasional winds past 70 mph the task was seen as impossible. Joseph Strauss however an innovative engineer tackled the many challenges in his design and the bridge was built. The bridge was estimated to cost $27 million dollars which at the time was an insane amount considering the US economy was just $59 billion at the time. The construction of the bridge began in 1933 and the bridge opened just 4 years later  to cars 75 years ago May 27, 1937.

So here are some interesting facts about the bridge!!!

1. The color the bridge is painted is called "International Orange" the choice of color was suggested by William Morrow for 3 reasons: to distinguish the bridge from the usual dull gray accorded such structures; to make it more visible in the bay’s famous fogs; and to help it blend harmoniously with its natural surroundings.

2. The bridge is painted all the time by a crew of 28 painters 5 helpers 13 ironworkers and 3 helpers and one chief bridge painter. Currently, the two main cables are being repainted.

3.The bridge’s name reflects its location, not its color. Famed explorer John C. Fremont is credited with naming this 1.5-mile passage that connects San Francisco Bay to the open ocean.

4. Over 2 billion cars have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge.

5. The current toll to cross the bridge southbound is $6.

6. Many superlatives rested in the bridge when it first opened. The suspended span of 4,200 feet was the longest in the world and remained so for 37 years, until New York’s Verrazano Narrows Bridge beat it by 60 feet in 1964. The two suspension towers, 746 feet above the water, were the tallest in the world.

7. The construction project cost 11 lives, a safety record by the standards of the times. (Though it’s worth noting the Empire State Building was built with six fatalities.)

8. A really sad and unfortunate statistic is that the bridge is a popular spot for suicides — more than 1,200. A suicide-prevention net is planned soon. (a moving documentary on the golden gate bridge suicides was made by Eric Steele to gain awareness on the serious problem, the documentary The Bridge takes a look at why this spot is one of the most popular suicide destinations in the world.)

9. It would also be accurate to call this the “people’s bridge” — it was bought and paid for entirely by the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area. Neither the federal nor state government contributed anything to building the bridge; in fact, it was declared folly by many to embark on such a project in the height of the Great Depression. The residents of San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Del Norte, Napa and Mendocino counties inside the new Golden Gate Bridge District voted more than 3-1 on Nov. 4, 1930, to issue bonds for the project.

10. It has been closed by winds only three times — the highest gusts reached 75 mph.

11. It's highest-traffic day was on Oct. 27, 1989, at 162,414 vehicles.

12. Despite its position almost directly atop the San Andreas Fault, it easily withstood the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, strongest in the Bay Area since the 1906 quake.

13. Below is my favorite picture of the bridge taken by my sister Elena Antichevich January, 2012 during her visit here!

For more information on the Golden Gate Bridge click here
For more images on the opening of the bridge click here 
Images of the golden gate at night click here

San Francisco Recommendation

So this is going to be an obvious one but I do recommend going to the vineyards just across the bridge. I have only been wine tasting twice up here, once in Napa and once in Sonoma, I actually just went this past weekend for a friends birthday party. I was the designated driver so I only had a small glass but I would love to go back and really make a day of it take a picnic basket and go with Tim and stroll along the hillsides covered in grape vines. Day dreaming that we are living in the movie "A Walk In The Clouds"! There is something so romantic about being outside and enjoying some vino and picnic with your love, you can almost imagine you are on some old french or italian vineyard thats outlived centuries. The closest thing we have to Europe I suppose.

Here is a little pic from my recent trip!

For some great coupons to the Sonoma Vineyards  CLICK HERE for a good map CLICK HERE 

For some more great coupons to Napa Vineyards CLICK HERE for a good map CLICK HERE

And to read up on the Southern California Vineyards CLICK HERE 

San Francisco Fun Thing To Do

Pacifica gives a taste of home!

So this past Monday Tim and I decided to enjoy the beautiful 74 degree weather that we are currently having up here in San Francisco. We decided to take a short drive to Pacifica this is a part of San Francisco that is just south of the city, but the atmosphere feels so far from the city probably why I loved it so much (feels like San Diego!!). Tim decided he was going to surf, and I being the wuss that I am decided to avoid the freezing cold great white infested waters and go for a little jog/hike (poor Tim thought he married a surfer girl than she moved to SF where she is a real fish out of water, oh well someday this bird will fly south se la vie). Anyways it was a real nice day in the great outdoors, Tim enjoyed the ok surf and the beautiful sunshine of the pacific while I explored the beautiful spring flowers growing on the sea cliff hillsides, and hopped gracefully along the jagged edged tide to find treasures among the tide pools overall I have to say it was a great date night (or semi date night since we were apart). 

Exploring the tide pools I found this little buddy, a big beautiful starfish!!

I also found this amazing collection of seashells just hiding under a rock, I picked out one of my favorites triple checked for hermit crabs living in it and placed it in my pocket, little did I know there was a crab hiding in it so I quickly returned the little fellow back to his sea shore home! 

 Love this birds eye view up here, and that little speck way down there in the water is Tim surfing the wild surf!

If I were a flower I think I would like to grow here too! Wouldn't you I mean the view is to die for!

 With my little twinkle toes I hopped from rock to rock exploring the various treasures along the sea!

The lush coastline! I just love it!

Girls Gone Hiking

              Today's Happy Feet post is about a new group  called "Girls Gone Hiking", a friend of mine decided to start this group recently and the group is about three girls who are finding all the best urban hikes to hike in San Francisco!! So how it all began, well  a few days ago my friend Emily and I were sitting at this beautiful seafood restaurant overlooking the lovely Sausalito harbor, and as we were sitting there eating our delicious side salads (that being all we could afford there since we are poor grad students) we decided its time to get out and enjoy the beauty around us, so we decided to plan a hike for the next day off!

             Well on our first hike Emily and I realized we were seriously out of shape (thats what grad school can do to ya) and Emily didn't even own any workout gear.  So we quickly realized that we wanted to make this a routine thing, because after our little hikes we felt so alive (we were really living now!!). We had another friend Melissa join up with us and well shortly into our first hike with Melissa we realized that she is definitely a trail blazer Emily and I could barely keep up with her! So she quickly joined our hiking ventures as the main motivator of our group!

       It was when we were hiking this 9 mile hike (don't worry we got Emily some real shoes) in Point Reyes National Park that Melissa came up with this hilarious and wonderful idea to start a group a hiking group where we could remain motivated by posting all of our best hikes while also giving recommendations. Each of us has a role in the group, Emily recommending a first time to working out view point (you know what equipment to buy for those who don't even own tennis shoes), Melissa the brain and motivator (how to push two very lazy and girls on the trail), and me the day dreamer, observer (what kind of things you can find if you stop and smell the roses, mostly consists of me taking pics of flowers and animals). So we came up with the name Girls Gone Hiking (instead of girls gone wild), and Melissa immediately made this facebook group! so check us out! And post any recommendations on our page.

October in a nutshell

Well October has been a fast and eventful month full of the grad school grind, practicum woah's, and the hoorah of the seasonal festivities. So here are a few of the highlights from this month.

Sunday was a baking day I forget how much I love to bake since I don't have a kitchen, but lucky for me the family we live with was away for the weekend so we had the house to ourselves! It was so relaxing hanging out in a living room and cooking away in a kitchen!

Last Saturday night, a dear friend of ours gave Tim and I two tickets to this Bridge School Benefit Concert, put on by Neil Young, artists such as Santana, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Mumford and Sons, Arcade Fire, and etc. played it was sooo fun such a great way to procrastinate the mountain of homework we had!!

Tim had a great 28th Birthday with co-workers and friends!

We made a trip to the Half Moon Bay pumpkin and Art festival where we saw giant pumpkins and beautiful art I fell in love with all the glass blown pumpkins!
We watched Farmer Mike Carve the Giant pumpkins!
Here is his handiwork those pumpkins are actually really huge I should a took a picture to scale it.
Here is the drive down to the festival such a pretty coastline.

Reduce Reuse Recycle!!!!

So I have been trying to use less and less to avoid leaving my carbon footprint on this earth but after this weekend I got a taste of what it can really do to the creatures around us. Tim and I took a little day trip across the bridge and visited that Marine Mammal Center, which is basically a hospital for Marine Mammal's that get washed ashore because of injuries. We learned that most injuries are caused by the trash that gets washed to sea. Our Trash! Here are a few photos of our day.

The view from our drive so crazy how such a big city can look so small from up here.

the following photos are animal art sculptures made from trash that was found in the ocean

many sea turtles die from ingesting trash that suffocates them to death

This sea star was made from glass bottles and pieces that were found in the water

A fish made from plastic and rope garbage found in the ocean

This Jelly Fish was made from plastic water bottles found in the ocean

A little seal made from trash

this is what it looks like to fish swimming through all the trash

the actual size of the Elephant seal it's even taller than Tim

How cute is this little seal sculpture looking out at the view.

Sailing around in the Bay!!!!

So a couple weeks ago a good friend of ours invited us to go sailing in the San Francisco Bay! We of course jumped at that chance! We were excited to see the bay and bundle up for a day on the water. What we didn't expect was to run into a fleet of pacific islander sailors who navigated their way to San Francisco using nothing but the stars and the method of ancient ship navigation. Hokulea visit the link to read about their voyage.

We were lucky enough to catch up with them right as they entered the Bay!
This was the only white Ship isn't the artwork on the sail cool!
Us sailors just posing for a pic!

Hōkūleʻa^[1] is a performance-accurate full-scale replica of a waʻa kaulua,^[2][3] a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe.^[4][5] Launched on 8 March 1975^[6] by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, she is best known for her 1976 Hawaiʻi to Tahiti voyage performed with Polynesian navigation techniques,^[7] without modern navigational instruments.^[8] The primary goal of the voyage was to further support the anthropological theory of the Asiatic origin of native Oceanic people (Oceania maps:detail, region), of Polynesians and Hawaiians in particular, as the result of purposeful trips through the Pacific, as opposed to passive drifting on currents, or sailing from theAmericas.^[9][10] (Scientific results of 2008, from DNA analysis, illuminate this theory of Polynesian settlement.)^[11] A secondary goal of the project was to have the canoe and voyage "serve as vehicles for the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians and other Polynesians." (Finney,Voyage of Rediscovery, p. 71)^[12]

Since the 1976 voyage to Tahiti and back, Hōkūle‘a has completed nine more voyages to destinations in Micronesia, Polynesia, Japan,Canada, and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation. Her last completed voyage began 19 January 2007, when Hōkūle‘a left Hawaiʻi with the voyaging canoe Alingano Maisu on a voyage through Micronesia (map) and ports in southern Japan.^[a] The voyage was expected to take five months. On 9 June 2007,^[13] Hōkūle‘a completed the "One Ocean, One People" voyage to Yokohama, Japan. On April 5, 2009,^[14] Hōkūle‘a returned to Honolulu following a roundtrip training sail to Palmyra Atoll,^[15][16]undertaken to develop skills of potential crewmembers for Hōkūle‘a's eventual circumnavigation, currently planned to commence in 2012.^[17]

San Francisco Fun Thing To Do

So it's been a while since i've done this but I went somewhere last weekend that I just have to blog about! Alright so from now on I'll call these posts reasons to visit me in San Francisco.

Reason #1

HOUSE OF AIR

sounds pretty awesome well it is! Here in the beautiful city of San Francisco an old airplane hanger has been converted to an amazing house of air. The building is filled with trampolines there are even trampolines on the wall! There is also a room called the colosseum that you can play trampoline dodgeball! so fun! If you go here be prepared to get the best workout ever and to leave drenched with sweat!

Check it out! link

San Francisco Recommendation

Little Star Pizza

I've been meaning to make some recommendations for SF places to eat and Tim and I tried this Pizza place we heard was rated #1 Pizza in SF. I thought it was amazing so delicious I usually don't eat deep dish but this deep dish Pizza was amazing mmmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it I definitely recommend this place to eat if you are in San Francisco. click the link for more info.

San Francisco and My Favorites

One of my favorite tourist destinations in San Francisco is Ghirardeli Square! I only get to go there when friends visit that want to hit up all the touristy spots but I wish I had an excuse to go there everyday. The chocolate shop has the most amazing desserts pretty pricey but big enough to share! It is definitely a favorite here in San Francisco.

In 1837, Domingo Ghirardelli left his homeland of Italy with dreams of selling confections and chocolate abroad. After spending ten years in South America, he immigrated to the United States during the California Gold Rush to see if he could strike it rich. He was immediately successful, and in just three years Domingo had created the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the early 1900's, Ghirardelli' Chocolate found a home in Ghirardelli Square, among San Francisco's historic piers. It's trademark lights began welcoming ships passing through the Golden Gate, as they still do today.