Pink House

Scenes of San Francisco Part 2

We took another City Guides Walking Tour while we were in San Francisco. Love these history/art/architecture-based tours of different neighborhoods in San Francisco, organized by the SF Public Library and the Historical Society. This tour was of Architecture of SOMA district. Love the juxtaposition of sleek modern buildings against the aged historic ones.

So much public art in SF! Then we hopped in a cab and headed up to Filmore District to check out a newly opened Bahn Mi place that I had read about in Eater SF. On my bucket list was to have an authentic Bahn Mi sandwich (because we don't have any of the deletable Vietnamese goodies in our town) and so we headed to this tiny but BUSY place for lunch called "Bun Mee". It did not disappoint!

The Caramalized Chicken Bahn Mi sandwich and mango salad at "Bun Mee". Very yummy! Cross it off the list!

The tiny shop where you order at the counter and they bring the food to you if you're lucky enough to find a table to sit at. We counted only 18 seats in the restaurant but they were hopping busy the entire time and lots of the orders were take-out.

That's how tiny the storefront is. Maybe 12 feet across, tops. But they say good things come in small packages. And it was a good thing. Packed into a fun neighborhood with lots of locally-owned small businesses. Filmore District. Loved it.

That evening we met Sean and Steve for drinks after work at Prospect in SoMa and then went on to Town Hall for dinner. Loved both places and I finally got to have my fried oysters at Town Hall. Divine! Later that night we met up with friends from Billings at the Top of the Mark for live jazz and dancing. Celebrate good times, yes sir!

Saturday we tooled all around the city, met for brunch at Absinthe (loved it) then shopped around Hayes Valley again. Later that evening we went back to the Davies for a Buddy Guy concert with a group. We then met up for late-night dessert with a group of Sean's friends. I love how all the restaurants stay open so late in San Francisco. You can actually go out after a concert. The nice places don't lock their doors at nine.

One thing I love about visiting San Francisco is how much we pack into a single day. From morning until late-night we go, see, do, experience, and cover so much ground. It's really fun for me. Good-bye San Francisco - until next time!

Scenes from San Francisco - Part 1

We had such a fun, event-filled visit. It began with an open house where Sean works. Amazing view from this top floor office space. And..as the room filled up, I couldn't help but noticing that we were the oldest ones there.

It was fun to visit with the Olin West group and a bunch of their friends at the open house too.

The next morning we took a walking tour of Alamo Square (park) and the Victorian homes around that neighborhood. Very fun. I love to get out in the neighborhoods of San Francisco and away from downtown.

We even got to take an inside tour of this beautiful home below. So many great historic details.

After the tour, we took off walking all around the neighborhood and down into Hayes Valley. LOVE the Hayes Valley neighborhood.

We stopped for lunch at Bar Jules which has been written about in just about every major food magazine. A small french bistro with a new and fresh menu everyday. And there was the chef and her assistant right there working in the open kitchen.

Next we continued to walk down Hayes Street and stop at a number of little interesting shops and boutiques. Then we happened upon a wine shop that also had a patio out back for its patrons. A wine garden? Yes, please. The weather was warm and we sat for a while and enjoyed the venue.

We also came across a very cool optical shop in this neighborhood, names Through the Hayes. So clever and lots of trendy, cool eyeglass frames.

Next up, we saw some people working in an open, fenced city block and asked, "What's that?" It was a community garden - open to the public, funded by neighborhood association, and worked by volunteers. So cool! We talked to some volunteers who were shoveling some fertilizer (cow manure) into the planting ground and seemed quite happy to be doing it too! A cheerful place.

After heading on down Hayes Street sfurther, we caught a trolley on back to the hotel. This was one of those perfect kind of days and the highlight was still to come. We changed and headed out to Davies Symphony Hall downtown for the main purpose of our trip: The spring concert of the SFGMC.

A beautiful performing arts center filled with a sold out crowd. There were many dignitaries in the crowd who were asked to stand and be introduced to the audience at times during the concert. It was the inagural concert for the new director and an excited buzz in the air because of it.

Proud parents! See the city hall through the window behind us?

Part 2 coming soon!

 

 

Artist's Studio

We went up to Missoula a few weeks ago because Chase had a piece that won 2nd place in the annual juried student show. So we went to the gallery show and also got to see how he'd fixed up the apartment we'd rented for him as well. Very cool.

And then we checked out where he creates......

And where he creates his other kind of "art"....

And we checked out where he goes for R & R.....

The Kettlehouse Brewery, Missoula, Montana. Their Cold Smoke on tap is amazing!

Whale Watching in Maui

My last Hawaii post.....couldn't finish without mentioning the GREAT whale-watching cruise we took during our visit.

We selected Triology Tours for our whale-watching adventure and got on the boat right off of the beach in Kaanapali. It was perfect weather for the 2-hour cruise and we saw LOTS of whale activity.

The water was so choppy that it was tricky to take photos that weren't totally blurry, but I managed to get a few.

We came upon a "mating pod" where several male whales are basically chasing one female, and there was a LOT of activity. The male whales were repeatedly jumping up out of the water, sparring with each other to win over the female. Apparently this can go on for hours before one of the males "win". :) The captain of the ship estimated there were about 15 males in this pod. We watched for about 1/2 hour before moving on to another area.

In the photo above you can see several whale backs just on the water ahead of us. One is blowing from his blow hole, the others are swimming behind. I think that I just missed catching one in midair in this shot.

There were also great views of the shoreline from the boat. I loved the shots of Maui itself.

And to close, this beautiful shot below of a double rainbow that we spotted over Maui. Perfect ending!

Maui Dining at Mala Ocean Tavern

Finally going to finish up the Hawaii trip photos and move onto the rest of life. I've been working on lots of projects at home...lots of things going on, so have slowed down a bit on the posts, but hoping to catch up very soon with the arrival (or hope of, anyway) SPRING and some creative projects that go with that. Winter tends to slow me down........

One of our favorite restaurants in Maui was Mala Ocean Tavern on the north end of Lahaina. A friend recommended it, and so we made our way there one evening with another couple. It didn't look like much from the outside, and looked very small (it is!). But in the evening the place is hopping and you can't get in without reservations. There is a tiny dining room, a tinier bar area, and then a small deck overlooking the ocean out back. Probably only seats less than 60 total.

On our first visit we were lucky to get a table out on the deck. Even though it was dark and we couldn't really SEE the ocean at least we could HEAR it and it was fun to sit on the dark deck under small patio lights. A bit difficult to read the menu and really see your food too, and my photos turned out quite dark too.

Baby Green Salad with Goat Cheese

We liked it so much that we returned our last night on Maui for one more visit. The first time there, the other couple had ordered the whole fried fish and Kev and I were pretty jealous watching them devour it and proclain how wonderful it was. So on our last visit, we too ordered the whole fried fish (served on a platter for two people to share), served on top of rice and vegetables with a ginger soy sauce. SO SO good! Yummers!

Our favorite appetizer, Fresh Beretta (cheese) with toasts and Heirloom Tomatoes

As we walked back to our car, along the dark coastline, I tried to savor every second, the smells, the sounds, the warm night air, knowing that the next morning we would be flying early back to cold Montana.

 

Honua Kai - A bit of paradise on Maui

The couples stayed at a new resort on the north end of Kaanapali, called Honua Kai. There are two main buildings,with 1 to 3 bedrooms in each building. Probably about 200 condo units in all. They sit right on the beach - away from the crowds of Kaanapali area. Beautiful.

The resort has their own ocean-front restaurant, called Duke's, right in the middle of the resort. It's so convenient and the food is pretty good too. We ended up eating most of our lunches here - just walked over from the poolside for a little fresh mahi mahi sandwich and iced tea, then headed back to the pool. Rough schedule.

There are three pools in the development. We steered away from the kiddie pool with the water slide, and sandy "beach", and instead opted for the quietest pool area we could find. Heavenly.

We shared an ocean view 2-bedroom condo with one other couple. We spent a lot of time out on the deck, watching the ocean, the passing cruise ships, the whales,the sunrise, the sunset, and just sitting and enjoying the view. We had a fifth-floor room at the front of the building, toward the ocean. So great views all around.

Above is the view from the lobby of Honua Kai, looking out to the courtyard patio and toward the ocean. Not too shabby at all.

That's our condo up there. On the left, second from the top. The gardens and grounds were kept so nice at Honua Kai. Every other morning when I took my coffee out to the terrace, I would see a crew of gardeners working on the landscaping. It was perfectly tidy!

The ocean-front beach walk (like a boardwalk between the condos and the sandy beach) went from our condo development to the north way past Kaanapali and ended on the south end. Three miles long. We began each morning (after coffee and view-watching) with this walk...it was so lovely and heavenly. Perfect temps. Perfect views. Everyone was happy. No grumps anywhere. Just like paradise. We found it. There on Maui.

The best vacation EVER!

Mama's Fish House on Maui

Of course, all foodies everywhere know that if you take a trip to Maui, you MUST go to Mama's Fish House. There's a lot of hype around the Paia-area restaurant-on-the-beach and it's way too pricey, but this really is a special-occasion type of place that lives up to the hype.

One evening eight of us had a reservation and drove up to the North Shore, past the surfers crowds and the flip-flopped youngsters crowding the sidewalks and bars of Paia, just north of that to the tucked-away beach house of Mama's Fish House. The last time we went here was 12 years ago, and the place had expanded considerably. The place was packed full. Our group was seated at a cool round table near the front open-air window.This was our view (below).

The dinner began with an amuse-bouche of asparagus soup in tiny cups.

Many of us ordered the house signature dish for our entree: Crab and Shrimp-Stuffed Coconut-Crusted Ono. It was OUTSTANDING! The kind of dish that just makes you want to savor each bite! Presentation was nice too.

Followed by a banana rum crisp topped with coconut ice cream! Yummy!

We had wanted to arrive before dark to enjoy the ocean view and beach-front location. But as we left after dark, it was also fun to see the warm night lighting that is set up around the property. The place was still buzzing at 9:30 p.m. when we headed back to our condos.

As the valets run to fetch our cars (Where do they put all of those? there's literally no room to park for the hundreds of diners here on any given night!), we look around to take in one last look at this lovely one-of-a-kind place.

Maui Reception

Now that we're back in the frozen tundra of Montana, I've finally uploaded my photos and am reminded of just how beautiful Maui was last week. The resort we stayed at was picture-perfect and the weather was glorious too. It really felt like paradise!

Here are some photos from the welcome reception we attended the first evening, hosted by the Maui Eyes conference at the Sheraton:

There were several food tables set up around the veranda, including this one with a whole roasted pig! I steered away from this one and instead visited the tables serving sushi, salads and tropical fruit, teryiaki chicken skewers, and cheeses. It was a very lovely reception.

We also attended a private party at the penthouse of the Sheraton Kaanapali villas. This is the view from the terrace of the penthouse! How's that?

And this was the view from that same terrace, looking down the Kaanapali beach at sunset. Gorgeous!

Later when we were on the beach, I looked up at saw the penthouse terrace that the party was at. Its on the right side of the photo above, on the top floor of that white scalloped-shaped terrace up against the Black Rock. Nice, huh?

Diavola - best restaurant in Sonoma Coast area

Our favorite restaurant of our visit to Sonoma area was a casual Italian restaurant in Geyserville: Diavola. We went for lunch in the middle of a day of winery touring and were so surprised by how much we liked it. Apparently a lot of other people do too - the place was packed at lunch time. But diners seemed happy to wait for a table.

We were seated in the middle of the long dining room, across from the bar. Exposed brick walls, wooden plank floors, open kitchen. In a historic storefront building in the tiny town of Geyserville just a few miles north of Healdsburg. Definitely worth the drive if you're in the Russian River and Sonoma area.

We started with a small minestrone soup and it was absolutely fantastic. The best I'd ever had! Seriously good.

The guys had sandwiches featuring the house specialties: salumis and cured meats. We all wanted to try one of the pizzas from their brick oven pizza..which came from Italy, but this time we opted for something else on the menu.

I had the chicken and butternut squash raviolies in browned butter sauce, and ...oh yum. I so LOVED this dish! It was so tasty and well-prepared. I savored every bite.

If I could go back, I'd order one of their pizzas for sure. All around us people were enjoying the plates of thin-crusted pizzas coming from the ovens and they looked great!

Much love for Diavola - best Italian food I've had anywhere including the north end of Boston!

Winery Touring & Tasting in Sonoma Coast

The Russian River Valley is so picturesque. And we managed to see the vineyards just before the frost turned these vines brown.

Rodney Strong has impressive buildings and grounds. We got to take a special tour here arranged by a friend in the industry.

We got to see how they measure the bricks in each of these little grapes to determine when they should be harvested. We got to use a little instrument to measure the bricks (sugar content) of one of these to check.

At another winery we got to go on a behind-the-scenes tour. They have an amazing building. Lots of money went into this place. It reminded me of a fancy-schmancy resort.

Where we had tours arranged we stayed a couple of hours, while other places we just popped in to sample and left after 20 minutes or so.

Quivira up in Dry Creek Valley ended up being our favorite place...really good wines. Friendly people. Lovely but simple building and patio. I'd recommend it if you're in the area.

Some places you go because of the building (like this one which had a cool tasting room in a barn behind these hop kilns), while others are for the tour, and others still just for the wine itself. My favorite aspect of wine touring and tasting is the adventure of it - just discovering what you might like or not like, checking out the cool architecture of the winery building or history of the winery,and meeting the winemaker. There's always some disappoinments as well as some serendipitous delights. A fun way to spend a weekend.