I Love You, California!

Margaretta was still in town on Easter, but we all had our own plans going on for the day. Margaretta went to have lunch with an old family friend of theirs who lives in the area. Will and I spent the afternoon in SF at the apartment of two of our friends, along with two other couples. We enjoyed a potluck style lunch with great food, drinks, and friends!

The weather forcast for today was a little spotty, so we decided to keep things indoors and explore a museum. Will and I have been so busy exploring all the outdoor sights the Bay Area has to offer that we hadn't visited a museum yet! The Terracotta Warriors exhibit is on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco through May, so this was our main attraction for the trip. However, the rest of the museum was also amazing and Will and I only made it through one floor, so we'll definitely be back to explore the rest! Before we left for the museum we were hanging out at home, when our neighbor called us and told us about the turkey that was in our pool area! We had heard from other residents that they had seen turkeys around the area, but we had never seen them ourselves. Here are some pictures from the Terracotta Warriors exhibit. This was one of my favorite pieces from what I saw in the rest of the museum.

Today both Will and I took the day off so that we could spend a little extra time with Margaretta. It also happened to be the day with the best weather, so it was perfect! I have to take back a bit of what I said, because Will actually had to go into the office for about an hour to take part in a conference call. Beforehand we all took the bus into downtown. Margaretta and I got off a few stops earlier and walked around the farmer's market in Old Oakland and stopped by World Market to get some reusable bags to toss in our purses for later. Shortly thereafter we stopped by Will's office to show Margaretta around. Our next stop was a new bar/restaurant Olde Depot Public House, which is a spinoff of one of our fave places, Beer Revolution. They carry a similar line up of ever changing beers, but also have a kitchen (which Beer Revolution does not). While stopping here a few weeks ago, we discovered that they have an all Vegan menu including delicious "brats"! (Don't ...

Thursday morning brought more fun! Margaretta and I hung around the apartment and had a relaxing morning while Will went in to the office. In a search for fun restaurants to visit, Margaretta came across a Middle Eastern restaurant called Holy Land. Now, back in Minneapolis there is this AMAZING restaurant/company called Holy Land which serves/produces AMAZING falafel,  hummus, tabouli, etc. So, considering this place carried the same name, our expectations were set very high. Needless to say, we were not disappointed! I hadn't eaten falafel since moving to California, and I had a total hankering for it, so it really hit the spot. I might actually have to say that this was THE BEST falafel pita sandwich I have ever had (and that's saying a lot considering Holy Land Mpls and Will make amazing falafels). Here we are at lunch. Yummy!!!! It looks like it's saying "I'm gonna eat you," but really, I'm the one saying it : ) I left Margaretta to wal...

Will's sister, Margaretta came to visit for about a week. She traveled all the way from Madeline Island in Northern Wisconsin to stay with us here in Oakland! We have had several friends come to visit, but Margaretta is the first from our family, so we were soooo excited to have her here and show her our new home. I wish she would stay forever because it's so fun and comforting to have her here! Will had to work most of the week, but fortunately I only work in the afternoons, so I was able to spend time with Margaretta in the mornings. Margaretta arrived on the eve of Tuesday the 26th, so we just spent the night around the kitchen table chatting and catching up. Wednesday we got manicures and ate lunch together at our apartment. Margaretta spent the afternoon walking up and down College Ave, the main drag in our neighborhood, and explored what our neighborhood had to offer. Wednesday night I took them to try out a restaurant/new type of food that I had visited with my co-work...

There is a restaurant in Minneapolis called The Loring Pasta Bar that is very dear to Will and me. It is a grandiose Italian restaurant in the heart of Dinkytown, the unique off-campus neighborhood that Will and I both lived in for many years. The Loring is where Will took me for our first date, and ever since then it has held a special place in our lives, acting as a locale for impromptu lunches, dinners, meet-ups with friends and family, birthday dinners, anniversary dinners, and the last occasion, Will's graduation from his doctoral program. Needless to say, since we left Minneapolis, I have had an empty place in my heart from missing The Loring. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when Will mentioned to me that he noticed a place that had recently opened along his bike ride home called Loring, (he had only seen the large name placard above the restaurant which reads Loring ) and that we ought to go sometime since, after all, it's called Loring, and it could be our "n...

You all know of my Irish ancestry, and my love for celebrating St. Patrick's Day, so it will come to no surprise to you the excitement I had for celebrating our first St. Patty's Day in San Francisco! We weren't able to make it to the parade and festivities on Saturday, but we got out to some of the block parties on Sunday. We started at The Irish Bank (an Irish pub, not actually a bank!) in the financial district of SF. We had delicious fish and chips and some Irish beverages while listening to live Irish music. After we went through about all the sunshine we were going to get out of this ally location, we walked over to our next destination. On our way, we passed by Chinatown. We enjoyed the rest of our afternoon listening to more live Irish music at O'Reilly's Irish Pub in North Beach. House party at the apartment above O'Reilly's! A gorgeous day in SF! Apologies to our Midwestern friends and family for the cold, snowy weat...

Will was very excited to get out his tools today to trim the tree! Now we have more sunlight on our patio and a lot fewer pine needles I have to sweep up all the time. Earlier today we walked down the street to a beautiful nursery to pick out a few new flowers and tomato plants. The patio is almost all finished now, we are just waiting for our flowers and plants to get big and lush!

Today the JT tickets came in the mail! I am soooo excited for this I can't even explain it!