road trip

there's more on my flickr. it was an epic journey.

happy weekend!

while i'm no longer by the bay. i'm still a "whimsical girl" so i will still be posting, atleast occasionally, on this blog.

it was a long trip home, i'm processing those pictures now, but it was a really great way to move. it eased us into the heat a bit and gave some time to process and talk and listen to tons of radiolab.

we've rested a bit fortunately and have a full weekend. we are going to a ranger's baseball game, have a big family reunion on my mom's side this weekend, and we're also taking a trip down to austin to hang out with one of my best friends, brit. it's been too long since we got to be together and i'm so glad she'll be close for a bit. even with the heat i'm really enjoying being back in texas.

good bye san francisco

to ensure that this isn't a weepy, melancholy post i've decided to celebrate my time here with a top ten list of places you should experience when you live or visit here, no particular order:

1. hayes valley, cutest spot in the heart of the city. delicious food of all types and blue bottle coffee
2. marin headlands, on the off chance my wedding didn't convince you its an incredible place to ramble and enjoy a break from the city
3. fillmore street, browser books, bun mee, taco bar and crossroads trading company, bam saturday fun is done
4. ferry building, i've shared it all, the farmer's market the food stalls, the secret blue bottle coffee cart out front but the secret i've never shared. 3 $ pork buns at out the door, satisfying, cheap, perfectly steamed.
5. berkeley, this has become a more recent haunt, indian rock, chez panisse, la note, angelina's, local 123 are my favorites, not to mention the best chipotle in the bay area
{atleast most convenient for us}
6. pescadero and pigeon point lighthouse
7. ocean beach, sutro heights park and lands end
8. sightglass cafe
9. chestnut street, i'm going to miss marina meats and grocery, delarosa, marina lounge, the movie theaters, plutos, marina deli, kara's cupcakes and all only a 10 minute walk from my house, can you tell i'm a bit spoiled?
10. crissy field and palace of fine arts- say hi to the swans.

i hate good byes so i'm just going to say see you later. thanks for all you've given me.

happy weekend!

packing, packing, packing is all we've been doing lately besides errands and saying goodbye so it hasn't been the best week. but we can't wait to start our road trip and get started in our new/old home of fort worth. i haven't really talked about the trip because its seemed so far away and not real. but here it is, starting next week we'll head north to portland and then southeast to home, hopefully hitting up the grand canyon on the way. we are so excited but also haven't researched much in the way of sightseeing as we've been overwhelmed about packing it all up, have i mentioned that yet? i hate packing, and getting there, seeing that we have a slightly unreliable volkswagen van.
but that's where you come in, i'd love to hear any ideas for great stops along the way, in portland as well as nevada, utah, new mexico, west texas. we have a long way to go but we don't want to miss anything so hook us up. we'd also love to hear your favorite road trip survival tips. in exchange i'm going to post a top ten list for san francisco next week!

ashram

we visited an ashram last week with a friend from jacob's work. it was in castro valley, which is an incredibly beautiful area with rolling hills and huge skies. i enjoyed the time to think and contemplate, especially as we walked the labyrinth. Amma was the holy lady who visited the area and brought followers from all over the state and beyond. we enjoyed the break from our normal lives and seeing a different facet of california life.

adventures in normalacy

i wanted to share these photos from our week here in the city by the bay. we hit up the farmer's market, hence my obsession with spring recipes, hung out on haight street and picked up some amazing records as well as puerto rican food, and enjoyed a delicious homemade (jacob made) brunch. i love enjoying where we are and spontaneous adventure.

snow

i loved our silent snowy walk by donner lake in tahoe this weekend. snow is one of the best atmospheres for thinking.

amy

it was so good to have amy with us over the holiday. we had a great time eating at dynamo donuts, they had both coconut and apple, maple, and bacon flavors. my two favorites. we checked out sightglass, an incredible cafe that was started by guys who worked at blue bottle, but they definitely took it up a few notches. the coffee was incredible, i'd never tried chemex made coffee before, it was very bold and flavorful. we stopped by the farmer's market to pick up some food for the week and found some of my favorite flowers ranuncules. it was wonderful. we made stuffed peppers from this recipe, which we loved and you should try. amy is such fun to be around from taking walks to reading harry potter and waiting for the turkey to cook, it was great to catch up and feel that a bit of our families was with us over the holiday. we can't wait to be home in a couple of weeks!

sparks

i've joined a group that encourages each other to take risks to make themselves a better person or the world a better place. i have felt strongly about the importance of where food comes from and how for awhile. it became most evident since reading animal, vegetable, miracle by barbara kingsolver in my contemporary biology class.

but i've been a coward about acting on the conviction. i don't want to spend too much, i don't want to go out of my way and i definitely don't want to be a problem or make other people uncomfortable. but i can no longer push away the inevitability of taking action. i have to act on the knowledge i have and not live in ignorance of the system in place. its daunting sure, but i want to make known that i don't like how animals are treated in our factory farming system, nor do i deserve to pay only pennies for the food that fuels my body. its a luxury to have access to ethically raised, organic food yes, but its also a luxury to shop around and buy the cheapest food possible. i don't want to be apart of this system of food anymore and i want to make other options more available by talking about it here, not too much i hope, don't worry, and asking for it in stores. this is definitely outside of my comfort zone and already at a store today my wallet gasped in horror at the prices of well tended food but i'm beginning to think that that's my false assumptions about food not the overpriced butcher's fault and talking about it is a step in the right direction. we'll see where this risk takes me.

lake tahoe

our vacation wiped me out apparently, i've been very busy since coming back and haven't gotten to sit down and write anything yet. we had a lovely time. it was breathtaking to be up in the mountains, in the crisp, cold air. we so appreciated getting to run an errand for the family i work for. we hiked around and marveled at the lake. its truly amazing, none of my photos captured it so i'm leaving you with a photo we took on a hike by their house. it was so nice to just absorb some of the quiet and the colors of fall.

saturday bliss

saturday was a full day of exploring. bekah and i caught up over coffee and books at the book sale. it was so nice to chat with her.

jacob and i enjoyed the sunny weather by exploring sutro heights and hiking from sutro baths to legion of honor. i've never been there before so it was our first time to explore a place as newbies together. sutro heights is rolling and manicured until it drops off into the ocean. its a very interesting contrast and was originally built in the late 1800s.




we sat in a tree obviously smoothed from other climbers and enjoyed the view. its right next to the cliff house a restaurant and an interesting oddity the camera obscura, it uses the technology of the first camera ever invented by da vinci and gives a 360 view of the cliff house and beach surrounding the camera. we wandered around sutro baths, which was covered in tourists, but i would so have loved to come down there when it was in full swing and bathed and enjoyed the rides and the musee mecanique games. its a very different time and its interesting to see how a place evolves especially when its destroyed by fire and earthquake and rebuilt every few years. we left the crowds behind and walked along the cliff taking in the views. our lighthouse stood out across the golden gate and we saw dolphins swimming and diving for food. there were a couple close calls with renegade bicycle tourists but we made it along the path unscathed.



as the sun set we decided to try bill's burgers on clement st. it was very quaint with chandeliers and a plate collection on the wall. they served our burgers straight off the grill and the carmelized red onions were perfection but the best part was their fountain coke, they didn't short us on syrup and you could tell. A-mazing. i love exploring the city together.

beach

the beach has been calling to us for about a week now and with our weird schedules, tuesday was the day. i'd checked the weather it was supposed to be sunny all this week but when i checked again the day of it was partially cloudy and 58. but it said it would get sunny and in the 70s. with that promise we set out, i even wore my swimsuit. jacob had not been to stinson beach before and we are both busy till the next tuesday. we puttered along highway 1 with volksy and as we climbed mt tam the sun peeked out, we were ecstatic, until we pulled back into the fog. that remained as we drove into stinson beach. i tried not to be sad. we walked out to the beach with the wind blowing, but not enough to drive the clouds away, apparently, and sat. then i remembered the book store, jacob said we could go wander around and the sun would come out. so we walked over, it is open every day EXCEPT tuesday, typical. we would not give up though, this was our day at the beach and we were going to have fun. i had never been to bolinas, but had heard of the elusive town that tears down the sign pointing out their location, mainly so they can smoke pot and be undisturbed by tourists. so we asked for directions and headed out. it was picturesque. there was a farm, and a little town square and a remembrance shrine, and galleries. and this awesome sign.


we found a lot of sea glass as we meandered down the beach.

it was lovely even if there was no sun. we went back to stinson and jacob bouldered on the rocks. we had to head back to work but we grabbed a couple of ice cream sandwiches on our way out.

big sur II

the wedding was beautiful, and the bride and groom who we met on craig's list could not have been more welcoming or gracious

big sur bakery, amazing



these last two did us in time wise but we made it home and we're wiser road warriors now.

big sur I

jacob played guitar at a wedding in big sur this weekend.

so we made a few pit stops along highway 1
verve in santa cruz



historic bridges


the river


and he totally rocked it

pescadero

we set out on an adventure last night. jacob's new job, more on that later, will have him very busy this next week so we decided we needed to use our freedom wisely. we set out for highway 1 after i got off work and hit the foggy coast right as the sun was down and the fog scuttled across the road.






i had been to pescadero before a couple of years ago and remembered a lighthouse and a delicious breakfast. after many twists and turns along the way, we came upon the lighthouse, explored the beach and prepared to sleep in volksy for the night.
we could see the rotating light through the front window and enjoyed the sound of the waves.
in the morning we went to duartes, a small town restaurant/ bar that has been in pescadero and the family since the late 1800s. it was delicious. we finished breakfast off with a piece of apple pie.
it was the perfect way to start the day. we can't wait for more adventures to come with volksy.