Pink House

Bike Ride from San Francisco to LA

What? You think I'm doing this bike ride? Ha! No chance on that!

I just wanted to share that our oldest son, Sean, is riding from San Francisco to LA (over 545 miles) this week, Sunday, May 31 to Saturday, June 6. It's part of the Aids Life Cycle ride that raises money for the Aids Foundation of San Francisco. Sean's team is a group of 3 friends, but there are thousands of bikers on this ride and a ton of volunteers helping with food etc. along the way. All of these riders are taking a week of vacation to do this.

Sean started serious road biking when he moved to SF after graduating from college two years ago. He is a software engineer for Google and many of his co-workers were into biking. He bikes frequently now year-round (love that mild SF weather) and has done several organized bike rides, including the famous Marin Century. This week-long ride though is the most challenging of them all. You can see the route from the main Aids Lifecycle website, by clicking on About, and then Route. They will go on Highway 101 most of the time, stopping at night in large makeshift campgrounds in parks, sleeping in their own tents they carry on the bikes. We've driven this stretch of highway several times, and I can't imagine how difficult it will be to bike it!

Sean will be blogging along the ride with photos, reports, and talking about the ups and downs of the adventure. You can check out his blog and follow it this week at: Sean's week long bike adventure. He'll be adding content from his iPhone along the way. 

Five-Course Birthday Dinner for 8

I have the desktop back and it's working! All the files (documents and photos) were saved, but I lost all of my bookmarks on Firefox and my entire iTunes library! But that's better than losing the entire computer which I was in danger or doing with the "worst kind of virus, a root kit botnet" that had taken my computer hostage. I'm tightening sercurity by no longer allowing ANYONE else to use my computer - apparently it came from a download that someone else made on here. Too many hours of frustration trying to fix it and too costly to have someone else fix it!

Anyway....finally I'm able to get back to normal posting here and have access to my digital photos! So onward. A few friends have been asking, "When are you going to post about Kevin's birthday dinner?" And so here we go..........

Kevin's 5-Course Birthday Dinner with Wine Pairings

To celebrate K's bday which was April 18th, I decided to host a small dinner party with a few friends. Very last minute plan that I came up with only a few days before. I wanted to have 8 of us total, because that's the number that I thought I could handle cooking by myself, and since K thought it would be fun to pull out some of our special bottles to share, we wanted to be able to do small pourings for each person with each course. Plus that's the number that nicely fits around the dining room table! So I called to invite three other couples and it was a date!

I planned the menu and did all of the grocery shopping on a Friday. On Saturday morning, the Birthday Boy headed to the golf course to golf with his buddies for the day, and I set the table and started in on the cooking. As long as I have a clean house to start with, I love to cook a nice dinner. But I've figured out that when I host over 8 people it just gets chaotic and I can't even think or enjoy it. So this was a perfect arrangement. I didn't ask anyone to bring anything...I was going to do it all. Took me two entire days to pull it off, but that was my birthday gift to K. We had a really great time with a fun bunch of friends (That's you Kim, Dale, Sara, Dave, Cheryl, and yes, even John!)

When our guests arrived, I asked each of the gals if they would each help me with two of the courses (to put together and serve) and that way no one had to leave the table for too long. K, the bday boy, was in charge of the wine pourings and got to remain at the table.

I have a friend who used to have her own restaurant and catering company and she knows how to prepare food ahead of time for dinner parties. She and her husband host dinner parties for 12 and servce 8 courses and we've been luck to be their guests several times. So I learned from her that the secret is to put together most of the dishes ahead of time, so that at the time of the party, you're mostly just cooking and serving it. All the prep is already done. So that's what I spent all day doing and it worked out perfectly!

We started off with a glass of sparkling white wine and an appetizer of skewered grilled prawns with spicy miso sauce. I marinated and seasoned the prawns first and had them in the frig and ready to put on the grill. These were tasty and simple! (bought good quality, fresh prawns from Costco)

Our next course was mussels in an Italian broth served with parmesan crostini. I had made the crostini ahead of time and had cooked the broth (sauteed garlic and vegetables) and then let it sit covered on the cooktop. While we ate the first appetizer, I turned back on the heat and poured in the mussels and covered. K and I love mussels but it's really hard to serve them to a big crowd. This worked out nicely though. We served this with a pour of EOS Reserve Chardonnay.

Our next course was my semi-famous salad. It's my fallback salad for dinner parties and I can practically make it in my sleep. I put together the entire salad in a large bowl earlier in the day, covered with plastic and stored in the frig. I'd also made my Lemon Honey Dressing earlier too. So this course was easy to serve quickly too. (See the recipe for this salad and dressing over on the right side bar by clicking on "recipes".) We served this with a crisp, cold Sauvignon Blanc.

The next course was the main entree: Marinated Flat Iron Steak, Mashed Chive Potatoes, and Roasted Asparagus. I had the marinated flat iron steak waiting in bags in the frig and I grilled it quickly (8 minutes) on the gas grill while the others chatted around the table. When I take it off the grill I quickly slice in in strips crosswise, and serve them on a platter. My friend Cheryl has a great recipe for mashed potatoes that you make ahead and keep warm in a baking dish in the oven, and she kindly brought this. I had the asparagus on a pan ready for the oven. While I was getting this course together with the help of one of the gals, K poured a special bottle of Jada Jersey Girl (red blend), from one of our favorite Paso Robles wineries. Delicate flavor. When we were ready to eat the main course, he poured around a Justin Isosoles (Cabernet blend) which went well with the steak.

We took another interlude break and K opened some gifts while another gal and I put together the desserts. I had mini angel food cakes and quickly carmelized banana slices in butter and brown sugar. Topped the cake with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, the bananas, and drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauces. We also served coffee.

One of our friends had given K a special dessert wine with chocolate flavorings and some cigars which ended the evening on the patio. The benefits of a warm weather evening.

Other than a mountain of dishes, which a crew of friends helped clean up, we were left with some great memories. A perfect way to celebrate!

I apologize for the fuzzy photos! Apparently I had the camera on the wrong setting.

News for Memorial Day Weekend

Hi Good Peoples!

Here is what's happening and an explanation of why there are no photos in this post:

1. I am without a desktop computer now. A repair-tech guy came to take it away two days ago to the computer hospital. He thought it would be back to me, all repaired, by this afternoon. Still no computer. (I'm working from the laptop now.) Did I tell you that I tried fixing the computer myself and only spent about 1 1/2 weeks = 200 hours of my life on it with no success?
2. All of my photos are in the desktop computer where I can't get to them
3. I was going to post a blog about the 6-course dinner for 8 that I made for K's Birthday way back in April, but the photos are in the broken desktop.
4. You never fully appreciate your computers until they're not working right.
5. The weekend has begun. Lots of fun, golf, dinner/barbecues with friends, and one day trip on the agenda. I'll take the camera.
6. I'm supposed to take an appetizer to a party tomorrow night, and a salad to a barbecue on Sunday. Still deciding on the recipes..........
7. I love my new Kindle and can't leave home without it. It's kind of my new best friend.

Talk to you later when I can do the new post with photos! Enjoy your weekend......

Birthday in the City, Cityguide Tours, De Young Museum, Anchor & Hope

Our last day in the city was a full one. Friday was also my birthday and I can't think of a better way to enjoy it than walking around SF having a great time and being with my family. And that's what we did.

Unfortunately, we woke up to a cloudy drizzle on Friday which was disappointing. But nonetheless, we wrapped up in our rain jackets, grabbed our umbrellas, and headed out the door for the day's adventures.

First on the agenda was a guided walking tour by the Cityguides of San Francisco. I would highly recommend these historical-based free walking tours organized through the San Francisco Public Library. There are so many different themes offers, all focused on a particular neighborhood or part of history of the city, and they are solely run by a trained volunteer troop of guides so that anyone can enjoy them. They are also offered 7 days a week year-round - so if you're going to be in SA, check out their website and see which ones are offered on the days that you will be there. I plan to do more of these on our return visits.

This day I selected the particular tour called "Private Spaces in Public Places" which was basically a guided, narrated walking tour of the gardens and rooftop spaces in the financial district of San Francisco. I enjoyed the tour despite the rain and despite the fact that our tour guide was not very dynamic and it was a bit difficult to hear her with the size of our group (about 20 of us). However, we still got to see some spectacular green spaces downtown, hear some interesting history of how the city was built up after the earthquake, and peek into the private spaces of historical buildings.

The best spots were those rooftop gardens that you wouldn't even know existed and some of the beautiful courtyards that are within in the concrete walls of these downtown spaces. SF has a building code where for every so many feet of vertical space that a corporation builds, they have to supply so many feet of public "outdoor" space to correspond. Most of this space is for their own employee use, but the rules are that it is accessible for the public - and that's us! It was fun to see some of these hidden places.

After that we decided to grab some lunch at a thai place downtown. I like to get a reommendation on this but we were having trouble with the navigator on my phone and K was having trouble with getting the internet to work on his. So we decided to do it the old-fashioned way and just walk until we spotted a busy Thai lunch place and duck in. It worked - we ate a Bangkok's Best. Not spectacular, but tasty and adequate.

I then had this idea that I wanted to walk some more - UP Nob Hill - and so we did. It was so steep! I had to stop several times to rest but we made it to the top. We went into the Fairmont Hotel lobby and sat and rested for awhile and enjoyed the elegant historic interiors while we debated about what to do next.

Since the weather wasn't cooperating, we decided to take a cab to Golden Gate Park and go to the Conservatory of Flowers. Whoops! Except I miscommunicated with the cab driver and he dropped us off at the Botanical Gardens (outside) rather than the Conservatory of Flowers (indoors). It was raining too hard, so we walked next door and went into the newly re-opened De Young Museum (art) instead. A happy alternative and we spent a couple of hours exploring their American and Modern sections of their museum. Fun and interesting! I love art museums.

To celebrate my birthday, we had arranged to meet S for before-dinner drinks down in the SoMa (south of Market St.) area near our restaurant. We had trouble getting there but finally met up after some delays and we enjoyed a drink in the swanky St. Regis Hotel lounge. Every nice lounge is super-busy on a Friday after work and it took some time to get three seats together. But then is was fun....

S, K, and C all went together and surprised me with my birthday gift which I unwrapped at the St. Regis. A Kindle!! (electronic reading devise) Yippee! I had been thinking about getting one a few months before but had talked myself out of it. But S already has one and thought that I would enjoy it (and I am) and so they plotted to get me one for my Bday. A nice surprise and it kept me company on the long delays and flights home on Saturday. I'll blog about the Kindle at a later date.

Our restaurant reservation for my birthday was at Anchor & Hope - a newer seafood restaurant in an updated warehouse space in SoMa. We'd heard good reviews about it and S had been there before and thought I would like it. The food was very tasty - it's a really noisy atmosphere (that cement floor and tall ceilings don't help) and was really crowded. We got a table right by the kitchen and had to contend with restaurant staff zooming past our table the entire evening. But it was still a fun time - I started with a salad and had skate (fish) for my main course which happens to be one of my favorite dishes. It was wonderful and perfectly prepared, served on top of a creamy polenta and topped with a lobster relish. We were too full for dessert..... so no birthday cake for me.

When we left we decided to go to another nice lounge that we'd read about nearby called The Clift Hotel for a dessert drink to toast my birthday. We grabbed a cab and had one of the weirdest cab experiences ever (he turned on a tape of HIMSELF singing to which he sang along and trying to sell us his CD while strobe lights went off!). Luckily we were able to escape the craziness (or so we thought) when he dropped us off at the Clift Hotel. We headed to "The Redwood Room" that I'd read about....and uh oh! Discovered that it was a VERY young and hip hangout with deafening music playing and not at all the kind of place I thought we were headed to. So we walked single-file into and immediately out of the Redwood Room. No thank you. But then I spotted a much quieter and more subdued room on the other side of the lobby called The Living Room. Just then a sofa opened up there and we grabbed it. Okay, we enjoyed  a drink and a good laugh, and didn't feel too out of place here. (I need to be ore careful when I take recommendations from young people.)

We then said our goodbyes to S and headed back to our hotel and he took a cab home.

Goodbye S! Goodbye C!  Goodbye San Francisco! We'll miss you all. But it was a fun week.

Paso Robles Wineries, Back to SF, Little Star Pizza (Day 7 of Cali trip)

On Thursday we headed back up to San Francisco for the remaining days of our vacation. On the way north we planned to stop at two wineries in the Paso Robles area - one that we'd visited before and a new one.

The first stop was Jada, a new-comer to the Paso region and one that quickly became popular and well-regarded. The first time we stopped here with S last fall, we were surprised at how crowded their wine-tasting room was and how young their customers were. We soon discovered why - they make only 5 types of wine, all blends (4 reds and 1 white) and take great pride in making their small production top quality. They also serve a cheese-tasting with their wine tasting - a tiny cube of 5 different artisian cheese with each of the 5 samples. Paired to compliment each other. What a great idea and I wish that more wineries did this. They also sell small packets of the cheeses you sample - so that you can take a favorite or two with you on the road. Smart!

Jada also has a beautiful deck overlooking the vineyard just outside the tasting room, so you can go sit in a comfortable deck chair and enjoy the view and visit with your companions while you sip. Another great idea! When K and I were here there was a large wedding party group that piled out of a long limo. They had a special table set up for them on the deck - for wine and cheese tasting. Apparently they were stopping at several places in the area that day and having lunch at one of the stops, all while driven safely by the limo. They looked like they were having a good time!

Next we stopped at L'Aventure. It also is a small production winery. The owner/winemaker is from France and came over here to have the freedom to make blends. His are really rich, quality wines. Mostly reds but they did have one rose. A small, simple tasting room in one end of the warehouse/barn for wine storage, they take a simple approach but produce a high-quality product. That's what they appear to care about. We once had a bottle of L'Aventure Optimus at a nice restaurant and thought it was wonderful. We had a nice conversation with a couple of staff members there about shipping to Montana (can't) and bought a couple of bottles to take home.

That was enough and we were back on the road north to San Francisco. The plan was to pick up S from Google at the end of the day and then have dinner with him in the city. The plan worked out to a T. We pulled into Mountain View and picked him up from work, drove into the city, and hit the designated restaurant.

Our plan this evening was to go to this "great deep-dish pizza place" that S had promised K we would try sometime during the week. It's called Little Star Pizza in the upper Mission area (turns out it's very close to S's new apartment)....dangerous!  No reservations like most of the Mission restaurants. We walked in and it was packed! But we only had to wait about 10 minutes to nab a table. They have an interesting list - about 6 kinds of deep-dish pizzas and 6 kinds of thin-crust pizzas, all homemade and baked in their brick oven. The only other items on their menu were some salads and appetizers. The place was full of young people (this time I KNEW K and I were the oldest there!) happily chatting and eating. Very noisy.

The pizza was great - we got one traditional one (K's request) and an "interesting" one (my request) with chicken, feta cheese, mushrooms, green olives, and spinach. Another unique ingredient on all their pizzas is that they use a cornmeal-based dough for the crust. Tasty! Another fun evening.

We checked into our hotel for the next two days...the Parc 55. Their remodel looks like an attempt to modernize a very 70's style building. Nice, but not as nice as the Westin had been. Also a bit sketchy area right near there. A bit too close to the Tenderloin.

More about our last day in the city, tomorrow!

Relaxing at Pismo Beach & San Luis Obispo (Day 6 of California Trip)

Wednesday of our trip was a beautiful sunny, warm day on the Central Coast and we were glad that we booked a hotel right on the beach rather than in town. Since C had classes until afternoon, we decided to just have a day to relax and enjoy the view and sunshine.

That view pretty much puts you in the "relaxing" mode, right? We got a great deal on a hotel (mid-week in April on the central coast is a bargain) and had a large suite. Even though we were up on a cliff on the north side of Pismo Beach area (near Shell Beach) there was a walkway that went along this edge in front of the line of hotels along the cliff. Most of the hotels had some kind of seating area out near the edge and there were quite a few people perched on chairs, with a book or newspaper and a cup of coffee, just enjoying this.

We took a long walk down the beach, clear past the Pismo Beach Pier and watched some surfers out in the water for a while. I have fond memories of this pier and beach because two years ago, during C's senior year in high school I took him here for the Cal Poly Admitted Students Open House. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach, walked around down the towns of Pismo and SLO, shopped in Pancho's Surf Shop (where the friendly staff encouraged him) and stood out on the end of the pier watching the surfers below. This is when C made his decision to attend Cal Poly over the other colleges he was admitted to. There are some moments in your kids' lives that you'll always remember, and this trip was a good memory that I have with C from his senior year. (I also remember that he just couldn't believe how good-looking the Cali girls were!)

In the afternoon K and I both took our books and sat on chaise lounge chairs by the pool, reading and soaking in some rays. That's a rare treat for us. Later we got dressed and went into SLO downtown to meet C after his classes. We walked around and he showed us some of the sites - the famous "gum wall", some of the bars and coffee shops that he plays regularly at, and the surf shops that sell his CDs. We spotted a few posters up at businesses, with HIS name on them, promoting upcoming concerts! We were going to treat him to a nice dinner out, but he decided that he'd rather just eat at Firestone Grill, which is the quintessential SLO dining experience, very popular and serving great smoked meats. We all had the tri-tip steak sandwhich which is their speciality. Very tasty!

Later we took C shopping - but he didn't want any clothing or groceries which we had planned to buy him, but he decided that our idea of a gas grill for their new houses' back yard patio might be a good deal. So we went shopping for that and found a good one at a good price, loaded it in the back of his pickup and took it back to his apartment where we met a few of his friends. Friendly, easy-going kids. From what we hear the gas grill has been getting quite a workout - they've already hosted several barbeques with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, and the other night when I talked to C on the phone he was grilling chicken breasts. Good deal!

C then decided to come out to our hotel with us to hot tub and watch the sunset. He hung out there with us til late and then we said our goodbyes and he drove back to his apartment. That's the last time we'll see C for the summer since he's staying down there to work and take summer classes this year. We'll miss him! 

Tomorrow - back up to "the city".

South to San Luis Obispo (Day 5 of California trip)

On Tuesday we planned to drive south on Hwy 101 to San Luis Obispo (aka SLO)to visit our other son, C, for a couple of days. He had scheduled conflict on both weekends, and so we planned to see him midweek even though he had classes during the day. We planned to arrive by Tuesday early evening to have dinner with him.

Before we left San Francisco though, we had to make another stop at Imigiknit because I was having trouble with the scarf pattern than I had bought there on Sunday. I had worked on it in the hotel room the evening before and thought there was a mistake. Sure enough, after the owner and I both tried the pattern - just a sequence of 4 rows - she realized that one of the rows in the printed pattern was written incorrectly. We both knit up a quick sample to check the revised version and it looked right. I was glad to get this figured out because I planned to knit in the car on the drive down to SLO. It's about a 3 hour drive.

K and I have a tradition that when we're in northern Cal we stop at an In-n-Out Burger. It's our once a year fix. So we did this day on the way down in some suburban area south of San Jose. If you haven't ever eaten at an In-n-Out Burger and you're traveling in Cali, you must give them a try. Nothing like the other usual suspects. Much better. They use real beef, and real potatoes that they cut and fry before serving. Their kitchen is open so you can see what they're doing - no microwaves or freezers.

We arrived in Paso Robles (just 30 minutes north of SLO) area in mid-afternoon, a bit ahead of schedule, and decided to check out a winery. Paso Robles has become our favorite area for touring vineyards and wine-tasting. There are over 200 wineries in this area, but it is much more rugged than Napa and less commercialized. This area has a unique terrior and enjoys both the year-round warm climate as well as the cool ocean breezes from the nearby coast. We love the PR wine region and have visited there a few times now. We plan to take a group of friends there next year for a winery-touring trip. This time we stopped at Denner Vineyards, one that we had driven past before but hadn't stopped at. Denner has a large, contemporary building sitting on top of a hill above Vineyard road (about 3 miles off the highway). To my surprise, they were building an additional building (going to be an upscale bed-and-breakfast for wine club members) that looked like it was going to be very nice. We went inside their impressive tasting room (vaulted ceilings, modern leather furniture) and the owner happened to be there and we chatted with him for 1/2 hour while sipping. Very interesting. We like hearing the stories of how the winemakers got started, how they selected the property and planted the vineyards, and built their pulic tasting rooms (often large beautiful buildings). This particular older gentlemen had ties to Cal Poly (which has a viticulture program) and we talked about that too.

C decided to drive up after class to meet us at a restaurant in Templeton, a small historic farming town just on the other side of 101, for dinner. McPhee's Grill is a restaurant we learned about on our first visit to PR area in 2007 when we first to Chase to college. We've returned several times. It is located on the main street in a historic building (used to be a saloon in the early 1900's I think) and serves farm-fresh gourmet food. It's kind of decorated like an old farm house inside. My favorite thing of their menu is the oak-grilled artichoke served with lemon aioli. C ordered the barbecue ribs. We had a nice visit with C, catching up on his music and school activities. Our big surprise when we first saw C is that he got a haircut! Very short! If you've seen his recent music video, you can see that it was quite long. So the short hair was a surprise.

After dinner we drove with him down to SLO and he showed us the house that he and his roommates were moving to later that week. They are moving out of the college-owned apartments next to the campus and into the a small rental house just down the street. This one has driveway (for their cars) and a smallish, fenced backyard where they can host gatherings with friends. They signed a one-year lease on this and are going to sublet out the apartment until the end of summer. Housing is very competitive and expensive in SLO since it is a college town.

Later we said our goodbye's (so he could study for a test the next day) and we drove over to our hotel at Pismo Beach. Pismo Beach is just a 10 minute drive from SLO. We had planned to stay in Pismo rather than the crowds of SLO. Our hotel - Lighthouse Suites at Pismo Beach - was right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. An awesome view! We loved it! More on that tomorrow.

Sausalito Ferry, Clock Bar, and Firefly (Day 4 of California trip)

Monday:

We rode the Sausalito ferry from SF across the bay to Sausalito. Sausalito is a picturesque and charming community that lies in Marin County right across the Golden Gate Bridge north of San Francisco. We've been wanting to check out the town for some time, and had a good restaurant recommend from a friend but a bonus was that we got to visit K's cousin who has a beautiful home in Sausalito overlooking the marina where the ferry comes in. I really enjoyed riding the small ferry - being out on the water is so refreshing to me.

I cannot think of a more picturesque place than this - you have the gorgeous water views, the city of Sf in the background, and warm sunshine year round. What more could you ask? It's like a tiny gem right outside the big city atmosphere. So beautiful.

K's cousin came to meet us and pick us up from the ferry and we had lunch with him at Fish, a cool, casual waterside restaurant in Sausalito. It was wonderful! We had a great time catching up with him. My favorite thing they was the Portuguese Red Chowder which was very tasty! Yum. Thinking about it makes me want to try to cook it.

He was nice enough to take us to see his home. His wife recently passed away and the house was full of her artful touches. It was such a wonderful, art and book-filled home. But most amazing were the gorgeous views from every window in the home. I was so taken with the views. There was a large patio, and three smaller decks - each with a different view of the Bay. So serene! Each window seemed to perfectly frame the view in another direction. We had a nice visit and it was such a treat to see that home - I can't think of a nicer setting for an artist to live.  K's cousin also took us on a short tour of the town - so quaint and lovely. Just picture-perfect.

We rode the ferry back to the city and took a long walk back to our hotel rather than take a cab. My feet were hurting by the time we got back. We first stopped in the ferry building to buy this delightful little cupcake from a french bakery there. It actually tasted as good as it looks. An early birthday cake for me!

That evening, S met us for drinks at the famous Clock Bar in the Westin St. Francis. That hotel has the most beautiful lobby, actually more than one, and there are several lovely sitting areas with different furniture in each one. Everything is very elegant. S wanted us to check out the Clock Bar (lots of historical events took place in this hotel) which has been remodeled into a very modern space. He once took a girlfriend here on a date after ice-skating on Union Square rink. Sounds like a great idea for a date to me! This bar was really swank and it was a special treat. I tried a ginger and citrus gin drink.

We went to a small neighborhood restaurant for dinner called "Firefly". Cool name, right? It was such a tiny space with people packed in and the food (New American) was really creative, fresh ingredients, and interesting menu. I loved it. Lots of young people. I think K and I were the oldest people in there. We had a great time though and another good talk with S. Below is the dessert we shared (I had more desserts on this trip than I have in a year at home!) Too irresistible though - a goat cheese cheesecake with strawberry rhubarb sauce with pistachios. It was tasty but not too sweet.

Firefly is in the Noe Valley neighborhood which I am in LOVE with. If I could live in a city for a year and ditch my car, this would be the place. There are so many cool historic homes lining the sidewalks - all tidy and well-maintained. On each intersection there seem to be cute shops, cafes, and small businesses on each of the four corners. You could really live here and walk everywhere you need to go (but I also saw a LOT of scooters parked here which would be fun also).

 

Another fun day in the city.

Day five tomorrow (if my computer cooperates)!

A Sunday Walk around the Neighborhood (Day 3 in San Fransisco)

Sunday was such a full day on our trip - we covered a lot of ground and I took a lot of photos.

K was still in class on Sunday, so I arranged to ride the BART over to the city to meet S for brunch and spend the day walking through the neighborhood where he was looking for a new apartment with him.

This cool 3-layer stencil was on the wall beside us at Beretta

S and I were meeting for brunch at Beretta which is the neighborhood spot near his house which we couldn't get into Friday night. Sunday at noon is a bit quieter in this neighborhood and I easily got a table. The restaurant space is so cool - on a corner so lots of windows, high-ceiling, wood floors, and some sleek furnishings. Running along one side was a full wood bar where you can watch the bartenders work their magic (they're known here for their fresh fruit cocktails). Surprisingly, people were ordering drinks even though it was barely noon.

I ordered a pot of french press coffee all to myself. S ordered an omelet and I ordered one of their small thin crust pizzas with prosciutto di parma, tomato, arugula & mozzarella. For dessert S suggested we share one of their homemade sorbets - blood orange and it came with a little butter cookie. Yum!

 

We had a nice brunch - catching up, hearing about his job, and talked about his search for a new apartment. He's lived in the same house with 3 college buddies for 2 years and they plan to all move in June, so he's hunting every weekend. Today I got to go apartment-shopping with him which was an adventure! He was also going to take me neighborhood-exploring around the new area he and his friends wanted to move to. Yay! I love checking out city neighborhoods - one of my favorite things to do.

I learned that the there is a fine line and literally a few blocks between a desirable neighborhood and a sketchy neighborhood in the city. S and his friends have been in the sketchy part and even though their house is very nice, they want to move into a better area (with higher rents). S showed me that if you cross one particular street going west - Valencia - the shops, sidewalks, cafes, all start looking up. Cleaner, more upscale, and a different clientele. Just a few blocks away was much nicer. He had some apartments lined up to look at, but as we walked he got a phone call and one place was rented already by an earlier appointment. Bummer! That's how fast apartments go in the desirable neighborhoods. We decided to keep walking and see the sites, and look for possible "For Rent" signs in windows.

See that sign in the second-floor window in the photo below? I spotted this one. S literally stopped, looked at the sign from across the street, called the phone # from his cell phone and inquired about it. It was a 1000 sq.ft. 2-bedroom apartment for $2500 a month and no parking. And the apartment is just ONE of those windows, not all six that you see there. Onward.

We walked and S asked, "Have you heard of Bi-Rite Grocery?" "Yes!" I answered, "I've always wanted to go there!" (Famous - you can read about it in national food magazines and newspapers). And he pointed across the street and said, "Well, there it is!" And so we went inside.

The place was PACKED on a Sunday afternoon. The isles were so tight you can barely inch your way through and the checkout line snakes its way through the isles. But the produce, the fresh pastas and cheeses, the locally-baked artisan breads. The take-out counter (gourmet!) and meat window are incredible too. Oh, these lucky people!

 

What's especially cool about these kind of neighborhoods is that the streets are lined with LOCALLY OWNED SMALL BUSINESSES. I love that and that's what makes it fun to explore. It's not just like the malls across America now that are full of the same stores and the big box stores that are so common everywhere. Each place in these type of city neighborhoods are owned and usually operated by the small business person - they each have their own unique flavor of products and services. And in a city like SF they are in the neighborhoods - the cafes, coffee shops, boutiques, groceries, specialty shops, upscale restaurants, gift shops...they are all unique and supported by the people who live there. THIS is main street America, folks.

We also stopped at a cool neighborhood yarn shop called "Imagiknit" owned by Allison Isaacs. The yarn shelves were stacked from floor to ceiling. So much inventory in such small spaces! I ended up buying a scarf pattern and some Malabrigo Chunky hand-dyed yarn that S liked to knit him a scarf. (more on that at a later post). A nice shop.

K called and was driving across the Bay Bridge to meet us. He checked us into our hotel for the next two nights, and then called to meet us down by Delores Park. S told him to look for the line of people waiting outside an ice cream shop and we'd be there: at Bi-Rite Creamery. This was the best ice cream I've ever had! Locally owned and made with all natural ingredients. No wonder there was a line snaking down the sidewalk and around the corner! I had once scoop of Coffee Toffee Chip and one scoop of Toasted Coconut. Both were fantastic.

We parted ways to get checked into our hotel and rest our feet a bit. We were staying at the Westin St. Francis right by Union Square (got a steal of a price on Hotwire!) and the lobbies were gorgeous! I'm mad at myself for not taking some photos of it - just beautifully elegant historic hotel that has been kept up really well. We really enjoyed our stay there. And we saw some famous people in the lobby bar as well....

That evening S treated us to a wonderful dinner out at Bar Bambino for K's belated Bday gift. It was a very nice restaurant in an unlikely area, but really nice and we had a great time. We started out with artisan cheese, cured meats, and a glass of wine at the marble-topped bar in the front area, and then had dinner in the back covered courtyard. A very nice treat and another amazing dinner in the city!

More San Francisco adventures tomorrow!

Berkeley & Anniversary (Day 2 in California)

To continue our California adventures:

Saturday, April 25th was our 28th anniversary! K was attending a continuing ed. conference all day Saturday and Sunday, and so for two nights we stayed at the Doubletree Berkeley Marina since that's where the conference was.

I planned to tour UC Berkeley campus on Saturday morning, which is for my job/business. Whenever I travel to a new area, I try to check out one or two colleges in the area to add to my list of colleges that I've toured (up to 57 now!). So UC Berkeley was definitely on my list. The Doubletree was out on the marina across the bay from SF and they offered a free shuttle ride to the campus which was about 5 miles away. So I rode that and showed up a bit early for the 10 am tour. There were about 40 or so people for the tour so they divided us up into two groups. The tours lasted about 2 hours and we walked all around the hilly campus. At the end of the tour, I went in the campus book store and browsed a bit and bought a small pennant to add to my collection. Then I called for the shuttle to pick me up but they had just made their round and told me it would be another hour before they returned to the pick-up spot, so I walked down Telegraph Ave and found a cute little college burger place to have lunch and read some of their college literature. (The hardest UC to get into - did you know that you almost have to have a 3.9 GPA and 1500 SAT scores to get into that public university? They take the cream of the crop of California h.s. students. Excellent programs in sciences, engineering, and architecture). And can I just add that it is NOT like it was in the 60's. People like to still believe that its full of hippies, free love, and protesters, but it's not - well, I guess not anymore than any other college campus today. It just looked like an urban campus full of lots of diverse kinds of students. Enough about that.

When the shuttle was driving me back to the hotel, we got stopped for traffic for a long while. A policeman came by and told the driver that the Dalai Lama was speaking at Berkeley auditorium and his motorcade was coming through - so they blocked off the main street. Pretty soon there came about 8 big black Suburbans and limos with darkened windows in a row up the street. After they passed, they took down the barricades and we could continue driving. When K was done with his classes, we walked out along the marina and watched a sailing club area where members were bringing back in the boats to the marina. I was kind of fascinated by the membership only sailing club concept - something I'd never heard of before, but K reminded me that it runs a lot like a membership golf club which we belong to. One of the things on my Bucket List is to learn to sail (and own a boat).

That evening, K & I had our anniversary dinner at a nice restaurant in North Berkeley called Rivoli (not like the Italian pasta). I had wanted to go to Chez Pannise, but when I tried to make a reservation a couple weeks before, it was already booked. So this restaurant is owned by one of the chefs I've read about in Food & Wine magazine, Wendy Brucker. It's also been listed in the Top 100 Restaurants of the Bay area by San Francisco Chronicle since 1996. It's New American cuisine and they change the menu every week (similar to Chez Pannise). So we arrived early and had a drink in their TINY bar in the front (streetside) of the restaurant. It was such a tiny space - three round 2-person tables and a little copper-topped bar with only 4 bar stools. I had a Kir Royale in celebration and I have to say it was excellent - they used a french creme de cassis liqueur, a good quality champagne, and a generous lemon peel which the female bartender was smart enough to press it around the top of the flute before dropping it in. Perfect!

Rivoli's building is set up strangely, but we discovered that a lot of restaurants in the Bay area have to deal with small spaces, and so they become masters of working with the cramped spaces they have and learn how to maximize the area. In this case, the front (near the sidewalk) of the restaurant was this teensy-size upscale bar. Then when they took you to your table, they literally walked you in a single file hallway past the kitchen (actually almost through the kitchen) and into a large size dining room in back. The back dining room is packed with tables - you almost feel like you're eating with the people you're literally rubbing elbows with and you're conscious that they can hear your conversation which is a little awkward. But this is what they have to do with restaurants there. But the cool thing about this space is that the entire back wall was one big giant window that looked out onto a beautiful garden space that was lit up at night. So that made the dining room seem much larger than it really was. Very unique. The crowd here was definitely older, affluent couples dressed more formally than any of the other restaurants we went to the rest of the week.

The only thing that I distinctly remember ordering is the appetizer which they are well known for: Portabella Mushroom Fritters with aioli, Parmesan, arugula, and caper vinaigrette. It was very tasty! I didn't take any photos, partly because of the proximity of the other diners. But we had a lovely dinner.....and I didn't get a copy of their menu either. Anyway - a nice day and lovely way to celebrate our anniversary.

Day 3 report will be more interesting!