A Trip to The San Francisco Zoo

Cody loves animals and has been dying to take a trip to a zoo for a while now, so we decided it was time to go. We chose the San Francisco Zoo. We went on a Sunday, arrived around 11:00am and the zoo parking lot was already full and closed. Pro: we didn't have to pay for parking. Con: we had to park four blocks away and walk. And of course, I had forgotten to grab my tennis shoes out of my car when we switched to Cody's so I had to walk around the whole day in thin flip flops. We made it to the zoo though and that is what matters. Once we got inside we perused the gift shop, grabbed a map, and headed off on our adventure.

We followed the map and signs and walked through each area, taking our time and enjoying the stroll. Cody was especially excited about the baby gorilla that we saw. (I'm not much of a gorilla fan, but for a few minutes the little guy was actually kind of cute.) Following our true cliche habit, we saw a cart and bought a pretzel to share. And oh hey, I had no idea, but they sell beer at the zoo!

The zoo itself is pretty big, so we did a lot of walking. We went around the entire park, and by the time we were done we were tired and hungry so we stopped at the Leaping Lemur Café for a late lunch. The food wasn't too bad, I ended up getting chicken strips, Cody got a chicken sandwich, and we felt like being kids so we both got chocolate milk. After that we headed home. But not before buying a couple of souvenir shot glasses for our collection. It was such a nice outing and we were able to spend some wonderful quality time together.

Healthy Side Note: Activities like this are a great way to sneak in some physical activity. Sure, you're just walking, but covering that large of an area has got to burn a few calories right?

Here are a few tips we have for a trip to the zoo:

1. Check the zoo's hours, admission prices, and parking fees before you go.
2. Make sure you know how to get there. (Or use your GPS like I always do.)
3. Wear comfortable shoes. Seems like common sense, but I had mine ready to bring with me and forgot them when we left.
4. Put on sunscreen. Especially on your face. You're walking around outdoors a lot and even with clouds overhead, it's an easy way to get too much sun exposure and possibly a sunburn. Gotta protect that skin!
5. Make sure you have cash for parking in case you do decide to use the zoo's lot. Many parking lots only accept cash.
6. Grab a map as you enter. This way you'll know where you're going, where you can get food, and where the restrooms are located. I can't tell you how many times Cody and I needed to refer to our map during our trip.
7. Bring a camera or make sure your phone has room on it to take some pictures.
8. Take your time and enjoy it. Leave enough time to be able to take it all in and enjoy your trip. You may need to stop and rest, or stop and eat, and you should allow time for that so you won't feel rushed.

So…we found a mirror at the SF Zoo…photo op! Lol

Giraffe!

Mama and Baby Gorillas!

Polar Bear!

Penguins!

Tigers are such pretty animals.

We were able to see two young tigers resting right up against the glass!

Young tigers cuddling.

Recreate Your First Date

Last week, completely out of the blue, Cody told me that he wanted to recreate our first official date on Friday night. Now of course, my reaction was “Awww, of course!”. That was SO cute. I couldn’t wait. Our first official date was simple: mini golf and ice cream afterwards.

For our night he added in dinner and made the first meal he ever cooked for me (another first that happened on a different occasion). When I got to his house after work, he had breaded chicken, potatoes, and veggies waiting with Champagne and flowers. It was my favorite champagne (Coeur de Bulle), and a bouquet with a couple of gerbera daisies in it because he knows those are my favorite. We ate and cuddled and relaxed a little, then headed out. We went mini golfing at Golfland around sunset so that part of the way through our game the lights came on as it became dark (which in my pinon makes everything more magical and fun). I was in the lead for a while but I completely lost it at one of those volcano holes . (Those things are ridiculously tricky!) Cody took the lead and we made a couple of fun wagers but by the end we had stopped keeping score and were too busy laughing to know who had actually one. (Though my guess is that it was probably Cody since he’s so good at anything and everything sports related.) We kept our balls (just like we did the first time) as cute souvenirs. (Shh, don’t tell anyone!)

Afterwards, we went to Cold Stone and we both ended up getting milkshakes. They were delicious. We then headed back to his house to watch some TV, but we both ended up passing out cold and sleeping until 2am when I had to go home for my curfew.

It was such a cute little evening and he put a lot of work into getting my favorite things and making sure dinner was ready when I got home (he had to work on it in between work and coaching the local high school football team and then some more after football practice.) It was such a sweet idea, and he went all out. I couldn’t be luckier. He truly is the best man I know.

You can easily recreate your first date with your other half, and you can always add in new things or other old traditions like Cody did to make it longer date or fill the needs of the day (ours was that we obviously needed to eat dinner lol). This is such a simple idea that really goes a long way in the cuteness department.

At Golfland!

My pretty flowers!

Night lights!

San Jose Giants Game

So Cody scored some free merchant tickets from his work for the last night’s San Jose Giants game at Municipal Stadium. Free tickets? Of course we went! Why not?! Yes, it may only have been a minor league game, but its still good to get out and enjoy the atmosphere and a nice game of baseball. It was a perfect date for a summer evening.

We got there about 25 minutes early, leaving at 6:00pm for 7:00pm game. That left us enough time to get a feel for the place (neither one of us had been there since we were little), grab a couple drinks, and get some food. The weather was nice, about 75 degrees at the start, and cooled off just enough for me to put on a light jacket by the end of the first inning. We both got burgers to start, and some beer. We later gave into our cravings and bought some garlic fries (I couldn’t stand just smelling them all night), some nachos (just the cheese, with jalapeños on the side for Cody), churros, and another beer.

Here is a quick review of the food that we had at Municipal Stadium:

• Burgers - Not good, but not terrible. Not much taste, not much to review. They had tri-tip sandwiches for sale and I think we should’ve opted for those.
• Garlic Fries - Pretty good, smelled amazing, good amount of garlic, but really greasy.
• Nachos - Really good. They weren’t anything special, just the usual ballpark cheese sauce from what I could tell, but for some reason they just hit the spot. Probably my favorite thing that we got.
• Churros - I’m not a huge churro fan, I usually just take a couple bites for the heck of it, but Cody scarfed them down and was pretty happy.

By the end of the night we had eaten way more than we should have, and both ended up feeling a bit sick. Lesson learned…maybe. Lol.

The staff was very friendly, the woman selling the churros even called us back to give us a free one because it was the end of the night and she saw Cody give me a bite of his. The seats were clean from what I saw and the bleacher seating was pretty dang packed. Lots of families, good kid-friendly atmosphere for sure. There were a lot of games and contests between innings, and they had family fun activities as you enter the stadium such as bouncy houses, frisbee tosses, a batting cage, etc.  Parking cost us $10. We left at the 7th inning stretch because we had work the next morning and wanted to have time to wind down together before I had to go home for the night. (Yes, we sound like an old couple, but we don’t mind.) It was a lot of fun and a great little outing.

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to my blog! My name is Amberlee and my boyfriend’s name is Cody. We are both currently in our early 20’s, pretty down to earth, very goal oriented and can’t wait to someday settle down, buy a house, and have a family. But while we’re working toward our future and before we can settle down, we need to live. Recently, we have been getting in the habit of living life to the fullest. This means that we are doing our very best to have as many adventures as possible – big or small. This is a blog cataloging our adventures, giving opinions, reviewing restaurants and activities, and sharing our experiences. We hope you enjoy our stories!