Browse Day: September 17, 2012

Free Sunday

Yesterday the California Academy of Sciences had one of their free admission days.  We left the house by 9:30 and then waited in a REALLY long line for about an hour.

We came prepared with something to read and a bottle for the baby so it wasn’t so bad.  Once the doors opened at 11, we got in right away.

Once we got in, we headed downstairs for the aquarium and Amazon rainforest.  Kumquat loved all the fish and it was fun to watch her follow the fish back and forth.

Here’s a photo of the three of us.

I especially enjoyed their newest exhibit, which featured baby ostriches.  There was a whole flock of them running around on the grass and they were so cute!  Here’s a video clip of them.

They’re only about a foot tall!  How do they grow into those really tall adult ostriches?!

Of course we also had to get a photo with the T-Rex too!

Overall, it was worth the wait in line.  We saved ourselves $60 that day!  We’ll wait for Kumquat to be a little older before we renew our annual membership.

Wine Tasting in Livermore

On Saturday we took BART to Livermore to do some wine tasting.  It was a belated birthday celebration for Steph and Nicole, whose bdays were in August.

Michelle and Matt met up with us at Steph’s house and we went to two different wineries just on the other side of the freeway.  The first one was called Boa Ventura de Caires, which had 7 different reds to try. Kumquat wanted to try the wine but we only let her sniff it.  😉  They also had a bocce ball court so we played boys vs. girls and the girls ended up winning in the end.

Here’s a family photo that Stephanie had taken.  Thanks, Steph!

The second winery was called Bent Creek Winery and they gave us a free tasting.  Yes!  We sat out on the patio and enjoyed another 7 different wines.

Afterward we stopped at BevMo for their 5-cent wine sale.  Jes and I didn’t buy any wine but picked up some smoked mozzarella.

For dinner, we headed back to Steph’s house and we all hung out in their backyard.  It was so nice and warm out and I felt like we were back in Orange County.

Steph cooked us a big dinner and we spent the rest of the evening making fun of each other and playing Imaginiff.

It was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon and evening.  We should go to Livermore more often.  The wineries are small and casual and tastings are only $0-10/person.  What fun!