Summer, Part II

Where was I? Oh yeah, that summer where I did stuff but totally neglected this blog. Onward.

There was a bridal shower.

There was a new band. Meet The Walcotts.

There was a traumatic amputation - my dad lost half of his left ring finger in a battle with a porch chair. Fortunately, he has quite a good sense of humor - my sister and I received this photo via text after the bandages came off.

 

There were trips to the beach and Neptune's Net.

There was a fourth anniversary followed by a trip to San Francisco to celebrate with a couple of my favorite people.

There was some exploring of downtown and the discovery of a new favorite bar.

{best drink ever}

There were also a couple of weddings, but those deserve their own post. Almost caught up...

San Francisco - Part II (Bike Across the Golden Gate - Check!)

Ok, back to our San Francisco adventures... In order to counteract all the eating, Tom and I decided that some exercise was in order on Sunday. Biking across the Golden Gate Bridge was on my life to-do list, so we had planned ahead and brought our bicycles.

We set out from Kelsey's and Chris', heading in what we assumed was the direction of the bridge. We go slightly off track and ended up at the Palace of Fine Arts. It was a happy accident though since neither of us had ever visited there before.

 After our detour, we followed some fellow bikers and found our way to Crissy Field.

We took our time making our way to the entrance to the bridge, partly to enjoy the view and partly because my quads were not pleased to make the acquaintance of San Francisco's famous hills.

At one point, we found a willing tourist to take a picture of us. He really knocked himself out, moving around, shooting us at different angles, even crouching on the ground at one point. By about that fifth shot, it had gotten awkward.

{Alright, buddy. Put the camera down and back away slowly.}

Eventually, we did make it to the actual biking across the bridge bit.

 Once over the bridge, we headed down the hill into Sausalito...at what felt like forty miles an hour.

Obviously, it was time to eat again, so we waited for a seat on the deck at Scoma's where we had champagne, crab legs, and a caprese salad - vacation dining at its finest.

After lunch, we walked around Sausalito for a bit and decided to sample the highly recommended (by the internet again) cones at Lappert's Ice Cream. I won again, my blueberry cheesecake ice cream besting whatever forgettable flavor Tom had the misfortune of selecting. I kid. I'm sure it was delicious, particularly with the addition of the rainbow sprinkles that my thirty year old husband always insists on.

Heavy with ice cream and champagne, we caught the ferry back to the city.

It was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend.

San Francisco Part One

Several weeks ago Tom and I made the drive to the Bay Area to attend a friend's wedding. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities, and as usual, it didn't disappoint. I have awesome friends who generously offered up their apartment since they were out of town that weekend, so that meant we had more money to spend indulging in San Francisco's many gastronomic delights (this is a fancy way of saying "stuffing our faces").

On Friday we headed to Fisherman's Wharf so that Tom could get his requisite dose of fried seafood.

{Alcatraz}

{seagull}

{fried seafood purveyor}

{lunatic}

Friday night we went to Jimmy and Kisha's reception, and my oh-so-chic clutch was barely large enough to hold a lipstick and keys, let alone my camera; so all I have are a couple of grainy cell phone pictures.

The reception was at McCormick and Kuleto's, a restaurant in Ghiradelli Square. There were lovely views of the bay, but more importantly, they made the best greyhound I have ever had - grapefruits sitting right there on the bar, ready to be squeezed, none of that canned garbage.

Saturday morning we braved the morning drizzle and headed to the farmer's market for breakfast. The chilaquiles were delicious, although the lack of a black bean cake means that the Park House version maintains its top spot in Tom's heart (belly?).

After eating away the effects of the previous night's celebration (Damn you, greyhounds!), we headed over the bridge to the Muir Woods.

That evening we went to the Mission to checkout Pizzeria Delfina, a restaurant that the internet told me was amazing. Once again, the internet did not lead me astray. Dinner was amazing. I took pictures of everything we ate, but as it turns out, asparagus with lemon brown butter and Parmesan curls tastes a lot better than it photographs. The same can be said of the Clam Pie with cherrystone clams, tomatoes, pecorino, and  hot peppers. Next level though, for reals.

After dinner, we decided to continue with the day's theme of eating things that are delicious and cruised across the street to another spot that the internet spoke very highly of - Bi-Rite Creamery, a magical place selling all sorts of homemade frozen treats. Oh and because this was San Francisco and San Francisco is awesome, both Pizzeria Delfina and Bi-Rite Creamery use local, organic products. Anyway, the line was halfway down the block despite the fact that it was almost ten o'clock and about fifty degrees, so we opted to grab ice cream sandwiches from the takeout line and head back to Hotel Smith. I picked balsamic strawberry ice cream between two shortbread cookies; Tom picked vanilla with chocolate chip cookies. I totally won. 

To be continued...rest assured, there is more eating.