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). 

Big Sur Road Trip

Over Labor Day weekend, I decided to take a little solo road trip down the California coast. It was just me, Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance on audiobook (hilarious fyi) and Highway One.

#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!

Bridesmaid-y August

August was wedding month 2014 for me as I was a bridesmaid in two awesome weddings. First up was former roomie Lindsey's (aka Twin) wedding in beautiful wine country. I took Friday off to make it a long weekend and joined her and her mom at the SF Flower Mart- omg that place is amazing!! So many beautiful flowers. After picking out some gorgeous flowers, we headed up to Healdsburg for the rehearsal. Lindsey's mom had rented an awesome house actually ON a vineyard (off Dry Creek Road) which was incredible and so peaceful. We picked up the bridal bouquet Saturday morning at Dragonfly Floral and then made a quick stop for Lindsey's official 'Bride' Starbucks cup. We had some time to kill before needing to get ready so obviously we had a mini photoshoot in the vineyard of the rental house.

Summertime fun

So we've already covered where I went in May and in June so now it's onto July. Lucky for me that meant I had two awesome long weekends ahead of me.  First up was Ashley's bachelorette trip to Palm Springs. We got there a little early so I dragged some of the girls on a 105 degree excursion to check out some of the cool Palm Spring architecture. Then it was a weekend spent drinking (pint glass whiskey gingers like whaaaat), hanging out by the pool, dancing and just generally having an awesome time celebrating Ashley's upcoming wedding with all the girls. I've decided I'm NOT a Vegas girl however I love me some Palm Springs- you can convince me to head down there for a visit any time.

Yosemite vs Little Yosemite

It's been quiet on the blog for awhile as I've been off spending as much time outside as humanly possible this summer. Back in June I was lucky enough to head up to Yosemite for the weekend to celebrate Liz's birthday with a float down the river...so much fun!! Yosemite is one of my favorite places in California- I need to go there more often.

2 Canadians + 1 Americanadian + SF = Awesome

Continuing on my need to show all my Canadian friends how awesome SF is- aka part 2 of this craziness- I was SOOOO excited for Brit and Jac to come for a visit in March. I had a pretty intense itinerary planned out since I could only join them for 3 days before needing to go back to work so I tried to pack in some not-so-traditional tourist activities while we hung out. If you're planning a trip to the city or just looking to explore a little more here's what we were up to:

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. 

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!!).

#2 Learn how to BBQ

My favorite food? Hands down answer is BBQ. I love it all: the meat, the sides, the sauce...bring it! I especially love how it always feels like summer when you're eating a delicious BBQ meal. Anyways as part of my American list I decided I needed to learn how to BBQ and my friend Kelda (aka K-sista) makes a mean BBQ chicken. What makes her BBQ chicken the most American? That would be the Bud Light beer can up its butt...'Merica!

#8 Bet at a horse race

Sunday was race day! Golden Gate Fields has Dollar Days on Sundays in the summer which means for the low low price of $1 each you get: parking, entry, a program, beer and hot dogs! Horses, cheap beer and hot dogs?!?! Uh yea this event is right up my alley. They also theme each Sunday and it turns out we showed up for Hispanic Heritage Dollar Day- they also have live music playing so we saw mariachi players wandering around between races. We got up not so bright and early (my B but sleeping is just so fun) and got to the race track just in time to hit some serious traffic - the freeway exit is the worst intersection I've ever seen and at least three cars almost got hit while we were waiting to turn. Finally we parked (be sure to ask for the $1 parking-which they do not advertise- or you'll pay $8) and headed to the entrance just to see a giant line of people waiting to get in.

Exploring SF: Presidio Trails Part 3

If you aren't already sick of my Golden Gate photos from other hikes here and here then you're in luck because I took a bunch more! Every time I do a walk along the coast and the weather is right (think: less fog more sun) I tune into my inner tourist and take an unbelievable amount of photos. This past Saturday I timed it right and had gorgeous views of the bridge. I headed out pretty late in the day (around 4) and walked over to Baker beach and then walked along the sand trying to find the Batteries to Bluffs trail since I neglected to find the trail head online before I left the house. I walked all the way along the beach towards where I thought the hike might start and managed to walk into the nude beach section. There was plenty of what you expected at a nude beach: confused tourists, naked sunbathing, naked reading and a fairly competitive game of naked volleyball. The problem in not knowing where the trail started was that I needed to look around to try and find it meaning I was doing my best to look for a trail and NOT stare directly at naked old men.

Tourist Club Hike

Living in the city is awesome but occasionally I like to escape for the day- this weekend I checked out an awesome hike with my dad and brother in Muir Woods. I've been dying to check out the Tourist Club so I found a hike online (here it is) that took us on a nice loop to get to it. 

Tomales Point Trail

The other weekend I was looking to experience some good ol' American wholesome outdoor fun so I headed up to Point Reyes and hike the Tomales point trail- it was awesome!!! Seriously if you're ever in the Bay Area and looking for a fairly easy hike then check this one out- I mean you get to see tons of elk (photo above is my fav of the day) PLUS you get amazing views like this:

Keeping busy...

Its been an usually hot SF summer (so far) so I've spent less time on my computer and more time outside- which is never a bad thing but means I've been way behind on posting. I haven't been overly American lately (although I technically did jury duty- even got paid my whopping $15). Instead fun things like a visit from Dog have been happening- just check out his adorable face! He even let me put slippers on him before a bedtime cuddle sesh (he may or may not look unhappy about the situation).

Exploring SF: The Mission

Lindsey and I decided that instead of getting each other Christmas presents we would do a roomie SF day. We each wrote down ideas of things we've always wanted to see/do/eat in the city and put them in the pimp cup to be pulled the day of. Since I have no self control I voted we look at all the ideas and pick the ones we thought we could do in a day then go from there.

Weekend Recap

We were told it was going to be a rainy weekend but it turned out to be pretty nice- minus the epic rainstorm that happened Sunday morning. The storm was so intense that it knocked out two windows in my apartment building super early in the morning...also I thought the ceiling would cave in and the worst neighbors ever would fall on me. Anyways, yes two windows shattered because of the weather...crazy town. At least no one was walking around at 5am when shards of glass fell from 4 stories up. And the worst part? My brand new Hunter boots hadn't even arrived yet! JK but seriously, I ran (possibly squealing 'thats for meeeeeeeeeeeee') when the FedEx guy arrived with my Piperlime box yesterday (after repeatedly checking both the FedEx tracking website and weather.com to see when it would rain)...they are so pretty! Definitely a good purchase. And I totally wore them to work today even though there was only a 30% chance of rain...they have yet to be tested splashing through puddles. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Weekend Recap

How is it almost Thanksgiving?!? Seriously this year is going by so fast. This weekend was a busy but fun one- dinner and drinks on Friday night, intense workout Saturday morning (our trainer just kept saying 'this is for Thanksgiving' when we would moan or complain- it was actually very motivating since I plan on eating a ton), party at my friend's house Saturday night and a full day of Thanksgiving prep on Sunday. All the food has been purchased and all the decorations have been brought out- now I just have to make the food (I'm doing appetizers and this veggie dish) and get to decorating (my fav part). FYI if you're wondering the best way to make a turkey, Serious Eats asked chefs for their tips/tricks- they also have a page dedicated to all things Thanksgiving related.  Speaking of making food, I am obsessed with my Smitten Kitchen cookbook specifically the Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta scones...I've already make them twice with more frozen in the freezer. Seriously wishing they weren't frozen so I could eat one as I write this.

Exploring SF: Hayes Valley

Despite living in SF for four years, theres a lot of the city I haven't seen yet so Lindsey, Alicia and I decided to fix that this weekend with a trip to Hayes Valley. Its pretty sad that it took me this long to get over there since it is so freaking close...like an '8 minute bus ride' close. Oh well lesson learned, onto our Hayes Valley adventure! We were quickly drawn into the brightly colored window display of Room Service. Really cute (and bright!) accessories and the prices weren't too bad. Loved all the vases and obsessed with the giant horse head(s)- I have no place for it but I reeeeeally want one.

LA Wedding: Elisabeth and Alex

It was a crazy busy weekend but so much fun! My fam and I all met up in LA (where my brother lives) to celebrate the wedding of Liz and Alex! Since we don't have any family here in the US, we've been going over to Elisabeth's family's house every year for the holidays...that means twelve years of Thanksgivings, Christmases and Easters. Basically I think of them as my fake family- or how my mom prefers it, my California family (she thinks 'fake family' doesn't sound too good).