I Love You, California!

If there's one thing Bay Area residents love, it's food trucks. Now, we're not talking fried stuff on a stick food truck, more like tofu taco, vegan chicken slider, roasted "hippie" turkey sandwich food trucks. And if there's one thing San Franciscans love, it's picnics. So, combine the two and you get food trucks at the park for a make your own gourmet picnic. Every Sunday from the middle of April through October Off the Grid (the local food truck gathering that occurs throughout SF and Oakland multiple times a week) is hosting Picnic at the Presidio in the Presidio of SF! The weather has been phenomenal lately and today was no different. We had an old friend from high school in town (staying with a different friend this time, not us!) so we met up with them for a delightful afternoon in the park with great views of the Bay and the Golden Gate! Have I ever mentioned how much we love living here?! We are having, probably, too much fun and a...

This last week I was listening to a program about site-seeing and traveling around Northern California on our local NPR channel. One of the locations they spoke of was Pt. Reyes, and they mentioned that even at the end of April grey whales can be seen from shore. It seemed to be a pretty nice day here in the East Bay, so we were hoping that would hold true for the shoreline as well. However, we were not so lucky this time around! We enjoyed a lovely, picturesque drive through the North Bay area and arrived at the Pt. Reyes National Seashore about an hour and a half after leaving our home. We drove out as far as we could to the parking area to walk up to the lighthouse, which is supposed to provide some of the best whale watching in the area. By the time we got to this area, the fog and built up, the winds were gusting so hard I could hardly stand up straight, and there was some sort of precipitation, or perhaps it was the ocean water being blown out of the ocean and onto the shore. We ...

Today was our last full day together, so we wanted to end it Jim and Hawley's visit on a great note! We started our day with one of the best brunches I've had since moving here. As per a recommendation I found on one of my favorite websites, we set up reservations for four at Osteria Divino . Osteria did not disappoint! How can you go wrong with locally roasted coffee, fresh, local, grilled focaccia bread, and a free mimosa with a brunch entree?! We also enjoyed dishes such as omelettes, six grain waffle with raw coconut sugar, apples, and ricotta, and a mushroom panini! Delicious! After brunch we walked along the waterfront and walked through the Sunday Farmers' Market. We walked near some of the iconic floating homes and house boats, and even dipped our feet in the water. Our plan was to then hop in the car to go for a drive through the Marin Headlands and along the Pacific Coast, but we got sidetracked by open house signs for a few of the floating homes! We decided t...

It's always a fun change of pace to get out on to the water rather than looking at it from land, so that's just what we did! We took Jim and Hawley into the city via BART and walked through town to get to Pier 43 1/2. We got a jump start on the day and were able to make the noon boat, so as to avoid a huge entourage of tourists! We couldn't have asked for a better day for the boat ride. Sunny, warm, and not terribly windy. Sailing race! SF love! Getting a history lesson about the Bay! After our boat ride we were starving!!! Jim wanted a sandwich, so we went away from tourist central to North Beach for the world's biggest sandwich at Freddie's Sandwiches. Seriously, these things were as big as your head! So yummy. We walked back in the direction of the Embarcadero with the intention of getting to the BART station to head home. However, while we were meandering, we walked past La Mar, which has the best pisco sours around!...

We have been up to quite a lot this week! Sunday, April 14 We went into the city to have Dim Sum at a Chinese restaurant with Hawley's friends and family. It was nice to spend more time with her California contingency! Monday, April 15 Hawley made us enchiladas! It was lovely to have a homemade meal in my kitchen that is a little different than what Will and I typically make! And the best part is that with the leftovers she made us tortilla soup to put in the freezer for a ready-made dinner later on. Tuesday, April 16 - Wednesday, April 17 Jim and H awley took some time to do things on their own, and allow Will and I to keep to a somewhat regular schedule since we both still had to work. Hawley made us spaghetti dinner on Wednesday, and during the week we've played a lot of boardgames like Sequence and Clue! Thursday, Ap ril 18 Remember when I raved about the dinner that Will, Margaretta, and I had at Burma Superstar during her visit here? Well, of...

On February 10th, the San Francisco Zoo welcomed a new Sumatran tiger cub born to the zoo's resident mother, Leanne. I read about the new baby tiger here and knew I just had to go see her ASAP! It just so happened that her first days on view to the public coincided with Jim and Hawley's visit, and when I told Hawley about it, she was just as excited as I was about seeing her! So today we ventured to the SF Zoo to see the baby tiger cub, and of course the other cute zoo animals as well! Rafiki! One of the many peacocks in the zoo. This one was flying and walking all over the place! I love otters! Family picture in front of the penguin house. Momma and baby! Soooo cute!!! Proud momma! Baby daddy lives at the zoo! Eagle Island. These two eagles were injured and can't fly anymore, so they get to live here! After a fun day at the zoo, we headed toward Little Italy for dinner at one of our favorite places, The Stinking Rose. T...

As you can see we've been busy hosting lots of guests lately! Our next visitors are Will's parents, Hawley and Jim! We are SO excited to show them around the city we now call home and share our new life with them. Hawley is originally from Orange County (near L.A.) and has two sisters who live in California; one about two hours south of Oakland, and one in San Rafael which is just north of San Francisco. Will's parents will be here for about a week and a half and we have a lot in store for them! Jim and Hawley arrived into town around 4pm. Will met up with them, brought them home, and they settled in a bit after being on the road for the last three days! We had a nice dinner together at Khana Peena, a great Indian food restaurant down the street from our apartment. It was a nice relaxing evening and it was nice to have the time to just catch up and enjoy each others' company. We also got to talk a bit about what we wanted to see and do during their visit.

We were so excited to have our friend Nate from Madison come to visit, even if only for a quick weekend. It was my Spring Break and Will was able to get the day off, so we had all day Friday and Saturday to spend together. (I would like to mention that many of the pictures within this post were taken by Nate. He is becoming quite the photographer!) Thursday, April 4 Nate got in to town Thursday night. After his arrival we walked up the street to have some sushi. The guys enjoyed 99 cent saki! We then introduced Nate to some local establishments like The Trappist beer room and McNally's, which I've mentioned here before. We called it a night early because we had big plans for Friday! Friday, April 5 On our must-do list that is about a million miles long was visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Much to our delight, Nate mentioned that he wanted to go during his stay. So we woke up at the crack of dawn and hopped in the car by 8am. Monterey is about a two hour drive fr...