Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend was so much fun! Spent lots of time with friends, tried new things and even got in some relaxing...can we please have three day weekends all the time? How do I make that happen? Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Anyways, first up was bookclub on Friday night- got my inner Martha Stewart on and decorated the mason jars and baked a cake (this cake to be exact). However I did not extend the Martha skills to the actual dinner and just ended up ordering pizza...mainly so I could spend all my time holding the tiniest member of the group (she's so cute!!).

On Saturday, Rebecca and I busted out a 6.6 mile walk all over the city. First we headed to Cole Valley to eat at The Ice Cream Bar- my first time there and it was soooo good! We both ended up getting the hazelnut brownie and banana pudding flavors in a cone (cone was amazing) and it was an awesome combo! I think they should do a peanut butter ice cream with bananas and brownies in it- I will eat all of that. The entire store is made to look like a 1930s style soda fountain and lunch counter with all the drink mixing going on in the back. It almost looks like a lab with all the different bottles back there- very cool.

After our ice cream stop we kept walking and wandered our way around passing by the Magic Bus tour (old people were having a real good time), the SF botanical gardens and some cool old houses. Also we made a stop to pick up some Haribo Juicy gummi bears and omg they are awesome! Sooooo juicy and delicious. We taste tested this with multiple people and it was unanimous that these were way better than orig.

On a whim we decided to stop by The Corner Store for a drink- considering it was only 2:55 they were not actually open. Luckily they were open at 3 so they let us come in early and sit at the bar. There are a lot of great places to eat and drink at in the city so its hard to stand out- having happy hours that extend into the weekend is a great place to start! I started off with the Timm's Cup (super refreshing for summer) and Rebecca went with the Bitter Pill (very vodka-y but good). We sat at that bar for about 3 hours chatting, drinking (I also tried the Pickled Paloma- pretty good but Timm's Cup is my fav), eating and making friends with the bartender. The bartender (who we called Ian but who's actual name is Scott- Rebecca thought he looked like an Ian so we went with it) made us these amazing boozy milkshakes that were Girl Scout Thin Mint flavored (mmmm so good).

After The Corner Store we headed over to Fat Angel for some wine and more food (the sliders are amazing). A couple more stops later (including a Walgreens run where we sampled some nail polish options and ended up with randomly painted nails) and we called it a night at 10pm- I love day drinking! You get to have a great time AND still go to bed at a decent time to get some good quality sleep- what's not to love?!?! Anyways we needed to rest up as we had a big morning (aka early afternoon) ahead of us. On Sunday, Rebecca and I headed down to House of Air to get our jump on. FYI jumping around in a room full of trampolines with a slight hangover headache is not the greatest idea but it was a ton of fun. Only problem was that I kind of forgot that I'm: 1) horribly accident prone and 2) not a nimble young child. So instead of landing on the side trampoline walls like Spiderman and leaping off gracefully, I 'attacked' the wall with straight legs and turned my body into a torpedo that ended with my head connecting with the non-bouncy, fairly hard, 'safety' padding. Ouch. The headache is finally going away after 48 hours though so no lasting damage...only some weird neck crackling sounds.

 After jumping for an hour we headed back home to shower up (holy hell do you sweat a ton at House of Air- I was exhausted afterwards) and head on over to Straw. Their theme is 'carnival food' and pretty much everything was deep fried. Lindsey, Rebecca, Tom and I took the group approach and ordered stuff to share. For appetizers we ended up going with: the contortionist (pretzel), great expectations (mini corn dogs- hands down favorite) and sweet tots (sweet potato tots). For the main course we got what I've been dreaming about for years: The Ringmaster. It was a donut cheeseburger- how American is that?!?! The verdict? Do NOT get this...so nasty and disappointing especially since the donuts were not good. Tom got the fried chicken-n-waffle monte christo (waffle, chicken strips, cheese, maple syrup and jam) and it was much better but the salty/sweet ratio still wasn't my fav. My favorite part were the drinks- Lindsey's was cotton candy with sparkling wine poured over top and Tom and Rebecca's drinks had fun dip rims!

Uh yea we were all totally feeling the fried food (gag) and I nauseously made my way over to Bart where I tried my best to work up some sort of appetite because my mom made a beautiful BBQ dinner. I was not successful in working up an appetite and ended up taking a bunch of food home - which made for some fantastic leftovers. Way to go Mom- mad cooking skillz, and props too for my Dad working the BBQ. On Monday, we had a potluck and beer pong party to hang out with Rebecca, Tom, Bonnie and Pete one last time as a group in the city before they move to Oakland. After hanging out, some pong, lots of wine and great food, I had officially maxed out on fun (and was deep into my fourth food coma of the weekend) and turned into the laziest person ever after everyone headed out...the pounding trampoline torpedo headache did not help however the 6 Advil finally kicked in. FYI, if anyone wants to play beer pong any time soon we have plenty of supplies- just check out the fridge.

It was a wonderful weekend spent with great friends- what a way to celebrate labor day!