Boston

Oh Boston, how I love thee. Boston put its best foot forward for my visit and I didn't want to leave! First off, my Airbnb apartment was the best- great location (Beacon Hill) and friendly host (who also happened to be a two time olympic rower nbd). I arrived in from Vermont kind of late, so I got dinner at Tip Tap Room (chicken tips + good wine = yum), picked up some food from Whole Foods for breakfast and headed to bed.

DC Visit #2

After last year's tour of DC, I was really excited to head back for Gabby’s wedding. I ended up flying out a couple days early to get some sight seeing in and visit with my friend Tracy. I got into DC a few hours before Tracy and spent the time drinking good wine and eating delicious tapas from Barcelona - would definitely recommend that spot.  The next morning, neither one of us was up bright and early as we were both still on CA time so we enjoyed being on lazy vacation mode before heading first to the White House and then to the National Portrait Gallery. My favorite was the Bill Clinton because it was just so unusual- the artist grids all of his canvases and then uses random shapes within the grid to form the image. Within the same building is the American Art Museum and they had some cool stuff especially the neon map of the US. After getting caught in a downpour, we got a couple drinks at Penn Social before meeting up with Bonnie at Founding Farmers (chicken and waffles yasssss). 

NashVegas

What's better than Vegas?? NashVegas! That is how one fellow visitor described Nashville when we were there and he was pretty dead on. Nashville has all the awesome hospitality, history and charm of the south with the crazy partying of Vegas...plus there is an awesome music scene! Luckily, I am friends with awesome girls who love to have a little adventure so we converged in Nashville for Lys' bachelorette party back in July and explored everything the city had to offer. My flight landed a little later than everyone else's so I quickly dropped my stuff off and headed out to meet the girls along Broadway. We had a live music filled night starting at Tootsies, then at the Silver Dollar Saloon and finally wrapping things up at Honky Tonk Central- it was the perfect introduction to Nashville.

#10 Visit Washington DC

Ever since I became an American way back in 2011, I've been wanting to go to DC (it is on my list after all).  So many iconic American buildings and monuments are there- plus I had to see in person the city where Scandal and House of Cards take place. 

Visiting The City of Brotherly Love

Next stop on the East Coast trip? Philly! My hotel was in the historic area of town so I was able to jump right into American History mode first thing in the morning. I was only in Philadelphia for the day so I had to try and fit a bunch of stuff in. Per usual, I didn't make much of a plan for this stop of the trip but relied on my tried and true method of wandering around until I found stuff I liked. After a quick Starbucks stop, I found myself at wandering around things like Betsy Ross' house and Benjamin Franklin's grave... history like whoa! I kept up with the history lesson with a visit to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (and other crazy important historic buildings). I wasn't into doing the tour inside Independence Hall (there was a high number of obnoxious and loud people in line) so I headed over to Washington Park before stopping by Fat Salmon to get my sushi fix (yum!). 

#13 Visit New York

For my 30th birthday I decided that enough was enough and it was time for me to see the East Coast. Yup, up until the ripe old age of 30 (whaaa??!??), I had never been to the East Coast of the US until last month. Crazy town. I was trying to hit up as many places as possible in a week and the first one was New York. As soon as she heard the words 'New York' my mom was in! My aunt lives on the East Coast and was willing to be our tour guide as she does work in NY all the time. It was awesome! I loved NY- way more than I thought I would and now I totally want to go back since we just got a small taste of it. We stuck mainly to Manhattan and tried to fit in as much as humanly possible- in addition to cabs and the subway, I made my mom and aunt walk 26 miles all around the city. Basically if I ever start a walking tour group company, I can only accept marathoners. They kept up like champs, even my aunt who had recently fractured her hip- ouch!

Red Fest 2014

What is Red Fest you might be asking yourself? Well only the greatest redneck festival in the world!!! (That I know of). Basically my fav little Texan Nicole aka Bus, texted me with 'Red Fest in May. Look it up and book your ticket here now!'. Country music, BBQ and excessive amounts of 'Murica pride??? Um yea soooo down! I packed my best USA gear and got my spray tanned butt on a plane.

America's Cup

I've been an uber slacker about posting lately but thats because so many fun things are going on and sitting at my computer writing about them is taking a backseat. Anyways to catch up, waaaaay back in September my dad and I went down to Pier 27 to watch America's Cup races. I know literally nothing about sailing or sailing races but it was a gorgeous day so we couldn't pass it up - plus 'America' is in the name so I had to check it out. 

#42 Celebrate the 4th of July

It took awhile but I finally crossed another item off the list! Yup I got all dolled up in my 'Merican finest and celebrated Independence day at my parent's house. Please note the use of my USA beer mitt- best purchase ever! I love my parent's house and affectionately refer to it as my 'summer home'- anytime its foggy in SF its usually super hot and sunny where they're at so its worth the trip over every time (plus seeing my parents is cool too). It was over 100 degrees so I spent most of the day in the pool- mainly lounging with a beer...relaxation at its best.

Best License Plate EVER!

Seen by my coworker on her walk home from work. This person is my new hero.

Happy 4th of July!!

Hope everyone is enjoying their day off to celebrate the good ol' US of A. I will be drinking by the pool all day. Hope you're doing the same and if you're at a loss as to what to drink, then we are no longer friends- come on yo! Its not hard! Crack open a brewski and get to celebrating 'Murica's day. Ok fine if you're really struggling I recommend these 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon beers- refreshing, summery and super patriotic with Lady Liberty on the cans = triple win. And now some 'Murican links to distract you for a little while:

-An American flag onesie exists and I don't own one?!?! What is this world coming to??
-Bacon flag print- dress up your apartment plus mmmm bacon
-the weather in SF has been pretty awesome lately so you might need these aviators
-24 proud patriots (omg I'm so sorry but #3 is totes NSFW or for your eyes in general-#7, 13, 19 and 20 also NSFW)
-Totally bizarre pieces of Americana- some are super creepy
-20 things America has done right
-17 epic pieces of presidential fan art
-21 red white and blue desserts- yuuummmm

The most beautiful wall art there ever was

OMGeeeeeeee! How perfect is this?!?! Now just have to justify the purchase when I'm supposed to be putting money away to save up for a super expensive partial crown- I hate the dentist. Ruining all my fun!

#40 Serve on a jury

For the first time, when I got my most recent jury summons I wasn't able to check the 'not a citizen' box since I'm full on 'Murican now. So I sucked it up and headed to the court house to do my civic duty. Unlike everyone else, I was hoping I'd get picked so I could check something off my list. Scenes from Law & Order, Legally Blond and A Few Good Men were playing in my head- I was ready for some drama and excitement!

Happy President's Day

Hope everyone had a good vacation- I love a good three day weekend. Grace at Design Sponge put together a list of 10 Great Presidential-Inspired Designs. I love this print- lots of good info there.

Super Bowl 2013

Last year I checked off an item on my list by hosting a Super Bowl party but this year was a little different. The biggest difference being that I was suuuuper hungover..I kid I kid...the biggest difference is that the SF 49ers were in the Super Bowl. So exciting! Rebecca and I rallied and headed to a local bar to watch the first half of the game. I rallied from a fun night of drinking but Rebecca was rallying from running a half marathon (and setting new PR) in the AM! Despite said half marathon running there was no talk of soreness, instead Rebecca got to hear about how bad my head hurt and how hard it was to get out of bed at 12:30 (yup cry me a river right?) all the way to the bar- luckily for her its a short walk.

Beer Glove USA = music to my ears

When starting this blog my goal was to feature all things American (aka 'Murican) but it turns out I have developed a second focus- all things beer related. I even have a 'beer' label which I have added to many a post. I've cornered the college beer market with keg stands and shot gunning beer (and my general willingness to drink cheap beer when necessary- since its practically water, I'm essentially hydrating). I've learned how its made when I visited the Budweiser factory. And most importantly I've done extensive research on beer related fashion in the form of headgear and fancy holders. Well, I thought I was done and then- to my surprise- one morning I got an email from Beer Glove USA (no, I'm not kidding) informing me that I could get a discounted Suzy Kuzy American Beer Mitt. Now I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that 'Beer Glove USA' is emailing me but I think that its because the famous Skuuzi (of which I have purchased four mitts from) has become Suzy Kuzy (winter mitt still available) <--this would be a legitimate reason as to why they would have my email from a previous purchase. However, if this Skuuzi to Suzy Kuzy merger never happened then I might have to question some life choices/purchases but I'm choosing to focus on the positive as Beer Glove USA was correct in assuming I wanted one. Purchased within minutes of getting the email and I've never been happier.

Life as an AmeriCanadian in 2012

2012 was a good year for this AmeriCanadian...

...took trips to Tahoe, Park City, Indio, Kauai, Vegas, LA, Austin and Vancouver

American Mid-Century Modern: Alexander Girard

*Warning I am a huge furniture nerd so this may be extremely boring if you're not*

Last night Herman Miller hosted a presentation on Alexander Girard in their SF showroom. It was the last presentation in a series that traveled to each of their US showrooms and it was awesome! I love me some mid-century modern design so this was right up my alley (I responded in 0.2 seconds when they asked for volunteers to help run the event). HM had set up some of their classics from the relaunched collection (including a pretty awful plaid- totally not my thing but I guess people like it??). Lisa Eames (granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames) showed up for the lecture and brought a bunch of items from the Eames archives- super cool to see the old textiles, sketches and posters.

Election Night 2012

I had a little election day party on Tuesday night and it was a ton of fun. As a first time voter (holla!), I was super excited to get home, turn on the news and see how things were going. After all the prep work I did getting ready to vote, I wanted to see how it all turned out...major fingers crossed for Obama (half Canadian, young, female, living in SF <-- of course I wanted Obama to win). The red white and blue decorations I picked up from Papersource turned out awesome- very festive for the night. I ordered some pizza to feed us (with lots of leftovers...mmm cold pizza) from Extreme Pizza: Pandora's box, Mr. Pestato Head and Adrenalin Rush (my personal favorite except this time they forgot the 'tangy slaw' which is the best part). Alyse and Rebekah brought over some delish wine from the local wine store (which is awesome and I need to go there more often- good prices and great selection) so we kicked the night off well. 

#35 Vote in a Presidential Election

Check that one off the list! Just like for the primary, Lindsey and I were up bright and early to get our vote on before work. Finally being able to vote for a president is a pretty awesome feeling - be sure to get out there and vote!