Thanksgiving weekend

We spent Thanksgiving with friends in Oakland and spent the whole weekend at home in San Francisco. It was one of the first (maybe even the first!) times we had spent a full holiday in San Francisco, without going home to Nashville or London or away to Napa or Tahoe or Santa Cruz for the weekend. We definitely missed celebrating with family, but I can't even tell you what a lazy, relaxing weekend it was. 

I didn't take any good Thanksgiving pictures, unfortunately, but we had a great time with friends and had lots to be thankful for. We also spent a lot of time with people this weekend, which I didn't capture at all either. Here are a few pictures I did snap of the weekend: 

Pretty fall flowers, our Christmas tree that we just got and decorated today, Four Barrel coffee, and an unusual San Francisco view that I saw on my run to brunch on Saturday. 

Happy happy weekend!

Oh hey there! It's been a little while... 

Life has been busy busy lately, and this blog is always the first thing to go off my priority list. Well, let's be serious, there's no actual list. But the blog is just hard to prioritize if I've got anything else going on. So here I am, at the start of the weekend after over a week of radio silence. 

This weekend Jonny is heading down to Santa Cruz for a bachelor party, and I'm staying in San Francisco for a fun little girls' weekend and a trip to Sonoma tomorrow. 

I'll have more catching up to do next week on various trips that we've taken and things that have been keeping us busy, but for now, have a very happy weekend!

Houseboating

I mentioned that we went houseboating last weekend on Lake Shasta, and thanks to all of my friends and their photar skills, I can share a few pictures even though I didn't take a single one myself. We had a great time being half-wet, half-dry all weekend, eating great food, enjoying the 100 degree heat (something we can never dream of experiencing in San Francisco!), and just hanging out.

We spent tons of time on the roof of the boat and on the wisest purchase ever, the Relaxation Station.

Jonny and Pat skipping rocks from where we were docked for the night. 

Dennis assigned people to make one meal each, and all of the food was seriously incredible. We were all impressed by what people were able to pull off with Costco ingredients and a houseboat kitchen.

We were a little burned by the second day, but we were loving the scenery of the lake. 

We got a speedboat for Saturday, and we had so much fun tubing and trying to wakeboard. 

I seriously don't think I've ever made that hand motion in my entire life. Maybe I was just over-excited and surprised that I was able to stand up on the wakeboard!

Cait and Lyd hanging on the roof.

We stopped at some outlet malls on the way up to the lake so Caitlyn and I could look for a floppy hat, and while we were shopping, Jonny and Pat bought some party favors for everyone - pirate masks and squirt guns. They were unveiled one night, and we loved them!

In true houseboat style, our dining room table later turned into a bed.

I wanted to get a picture that featured our outstanding captains, and here are Dan and Skip steering the boat. Dennis, the true captain and mastermind behind the weekend, didn't make that picture, but here he is in his captain's hat on the right. Thanks so much for such an amazing weekend, Dennis!

Weekend: Grand Canyon + Vegas

We went to Vegas and the Grand Canyon this weekend. Talk about packing it in! It was beautiful, and I can't wait to share more pictures. Some of you might not believe me that I'm going to share more pictures since I still haven't shared from last weekend's houseboat, but those are coming tomorrow and these are coming soon. Happy Monday everyone!

On a Boat

I haven't posted on the b-l-o-g for over a week, but life has been busy busy. I spent the week limping around and recovering from running a lot of miles with only a little bit of training, hanging out with Jonny's friend who was in town, and then soaking up the sun on a houseboat this weekend. Now, I'm getting back to work and spending the week with Pete and Sarah, who are in town following a world tour they've been taking over the past couple of months. This week will be busy too, and I know I like to promise and not deliver on more pictures a lot, but I hope I can promise you more houseboating pictures in the future. We had a blast.

P.S. You get a prize if you can identify me in this crowd.

The Pelican Inn

I'll interrupt our regular Italy recap programming to bring you a little glimpse into our weekend. We decided to go for an excursion to Muir Woods on Saturday, but once we got close to the woods, we got hungry, so we stopped at the Pelican Inn. We got drawn in to this true English pub, had bangers and mash and fish and chips, and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the city. 

Even though we didn't make it to Muir Woods, and even though we ate lots of heavy English food instead of walking around in nature, I think we could unanimously agree that the Pelican Inn was completely worth the trip. 

Today it is Summer

I'm really sad that I didn't get to be with my dad to celebrate him today, but it was a beautiful happy summer day in San Francisco. Top down in the convertible, crepes at a table on the sidewalk, picnic and crazy crazy people watching in Dolores park, helping Pat and Caitlyn move in (3 blocks away from us!), and a run through the Mission made for an excellent Sunday. 

Sunday Brunch

Ashley and Josh had us over this weekend for an amazing Sunday brunch! As per usual, my iPhone pictures don't do justice to the real deal. They had a beautiful spread of prosciutto, scrambled eggs with siracha, grilled asparagus, and tomatoes. Ashley also made a strawberry cake from Smitten Kitchen (the food blog that never ever disappoints!)

I wish I had more pictures from the weekend. We celebrated Caitlin's birthday at Locanda on Friday (which I actually do have pictures from - coming soon!), we went to Elixer to celebrate after dinner, then Lydia hosted another amazing brunch on Saturday, followed by Nick's birthday sloshball celebration in Golden Gate park.

Sunday was my half birthday, and I like to make a very big deal about half birthdays. Maybe it stems from having a December birthday that couldn't be celebrated with a pool party, but I love love love half birthdays. After brunch, we went to a Spanish wine and tapas festival, then Jonny surprised me by organizing dinner Sunday night with friends at a restaurant right around the corner from us (which actually meant more tapas plus sangria!) It made for such a fun Sunday night, and I'm so thankful that I have friends who would celebrate such a holiday with me. 

Santa Cruisin

I mentioned last week that I was really getting into Airbnb. Well, we decided to try it out this weekend and spend a night in Santa Cruz. We were hardly gone more than 24 hours, but it sure felt like a mini vacation. We wogged (walk/jog combo) on Sunday morning to the beach, had an amazing brunch, and spent the afternoon at the beach and the Santa Cruz boardwalk, where we enjoyed both dippin dots AND fried oreos.

On our drive home, we took our time going up hwy 1, and we stopped at a strawberry farm that was all picked out of strawberries sadly! We then saw a sign that said "Slow down for pie" and stopped at a place called Pie Ranch, which was also out of pie. Even though we didn't get to pick berries or eat pie, it was a beautiful drive and a beautiful day! 

Our weekend in the kitchen

From the looks of the pictures taken on my iPhone, you would think that we spent our entire weekend in the kitchen. I have no pictures of anything else we did. We did actually spend a decent amount of time in the kitchen, but we also did a whole lot outside of the kitchen and outside of the house. Some highlights include... 

Muir, my grandmother, was in town for an elder hostel tour of San Francisco. We got to spend Sunday with her and her friend Mary Pat, and we took them down highway 1 to Sam's Chowder House at Half Moon Bay. After our huge lunch, we had a nap and then got together again for appetizers and dessert. (Sidenote: I made this Molten Chocolate Magic - it was so easy and cheap to make, and it turned out so great.)

Brunch bunch! My friends persuaded me to sign up for the San Francisco half marathon in July with the promise of training and trying new brunch spots together after every run. We did our first run together along the bay to ATT park and tried out Plow in Potrero Hill. Highly recommended!

Mr. Pollo is a teeny tiny Venezuelan restaurant in the Mission that seats maybe 10 people, and one chef cooks a four course meal for $15. Josh and Ashley took us, and it was so so good. I thought it was the perfect amount of food, too, but Jonny and Josh needed a little something more so they had some El Farolito afterwards.

Seems like most of my updates, even exercise updates, revolve around food! Oops. I do have one more non-food related highlight. I have gotten really into Airbnb. I know it's been around for a few years, and I'm never on the cutting edge of this kind of thing, but I'm so fascinated by taking peeks into other people's homes around San Francisco and the world. I also put up some pictures of our apartment thinking that it would be great to rent it out when we're gone for two weeks this summer, and we've already gotten a bunch of interest and one reservation! Check out our listing and like it on Facebook if you want to help us out!

That's all I've got. Hope y'all had great weekends too. 

A weekend of Dwell

I spent all day both Saturday and Sunday in Marin volunteering with Dwell home tours. I've been busy organizing volunteers for the event for the past few weeks, and I was thrilled to have the tours go so smoothly. 

These houses were amazing, and unfortunately I didn't bring a nice camera with me to do the homes any justice. Even worse, I actually only took iPhone pictures at one house, but it did happen to be the coolest house on the tour - the Bridge house! The Bridge house was designed to sit, and almost float, over hilly acres in San Anselmo. The design of the home was so outstanding that even my iPhone photos turned out looking cool. 

Oh Happy Day

Oh happy weekend, really. It's been so so good to have Jonny back and relaxed and home for good. Per usual, I didn't go around with a camera so the few pictures I have were taken with my iPhone, and they only give a limited picture of how beautiful and fun our weekend was. We spent lots of time outside, lots of time with the top down in the convertible, and lots of time toasting with friends. 

{1} Our first champagne of the weekend to celebrate the end of Jonny's case.

{2} Anemonies on my desk at Kiva - I couldn't resist them when we were walking back from lunch in the park. There's just something about sunny days and pretty flowers.

{3} Coconut water that I drank in hopes of recovering from all of the celebrating we did this weekend. No dice.

{4} Just chillin on Sunday night and watching Harry Potter. No rushing to pack, no rushing to the airport. So nice.

{5} Our street in the sunshine.

{6} Loving our relaxing Sunday night.

Glimpses from our Weekend

This weekend flew by, and I didn't take many pictures. These pictures don't tell the full story of our action-packed weekend, but here are a few glimpses:

{1} Natalie was in town for one night after a vet conference in Davis, and she insisted that we get a stranger to take our picture while I was driving her down Lombard Street. Pretty sure we could be anywhere in this photo, though. {2} I wanted to go to Birite Creamery all weekend, but when we finally went on Sunday afternoon there was way too long a line. Jonny and I ended up getting a Sunday Sundae from Birite soft-serve instead, which was a-w-e-s-o-m-e salted caramel and chocolate with pistachios and hot fudge. {3} I made a seriously great olive oil orange cake off of Smitten Kitchen. No surprise - everything I've made from there has been amazing. I also made the lemon, sausage, and chard lasagna that Joanna recommended, and it was a hit too. {4} Zack and Laura sang "Let's Give Them Something to Talk About" at Zack's birthday at the Mint. It was Laura's first ever time to sing karaoke, and they put on a great show.

Hope you had a lovely weekend. Countdown to Jonny being done with Toronto: 5 days!

Weekend Snapshot

This weekend was really nice. Sometimes I feel like weekends are packed out or that we're pressed for time or that we need to fill the days with everything that we weren't able to do or talk about while Jonny was gone during the week, but this weekend was just great. We got a lot done, had tons of time with friends, and ate really well. Here's a little snapshot, going clockwise from the top left:

{1} An impromptu dinner for ten on Friday night at Thirsty Bear.

{2} Alec showed up late for Sunday brunch at Tartine, and we had all already waited in line and ordered so we just shared everything with him. Here he is surrounded by the multitude of plates he finished off.

{3} Lydia and Elizabeth, who was in town from Dallas for the weekend.

{4} Elizabeth loving life at the corner of Dolores Park overlooking the rest of San Francisco.

{5} There was a BIRD in Tartine! I think it had waddled in by accident, but it was flying around and swooping past heads and croissants for a little while trying to figure out how to get out.

{6} The boys hanging out in Dolores Park.

Jonny left this morning for Toronto. Only TWO more weeks of this travel! Woohoo!

Weekend Update

...on a Thursday. I know. This past weekend, we took Jonny's birthday present up to Napa and spent Friday night there. It was perfect convertible weather and we took full advantage. We also took full advantage of a vegetarian restaurant slash yoga studio in Napa. We were both skeptical of the shots of turnip soup we were served, but it was surprisingly delicious. We also watched sheep graze at Robert Sinskey and enjoyed mimosas and breakfast on our roof. 

And it's nice that I'm just posting this now, because I can get excited that there are only two more days until our next extra-long weekend! 

Happy happy weekend!

It's the weekend!! (Meant to put this up yesterday, but things were too busy before the weekend actually started). 

What are you up to this weekend? I'm planning on celebrating Jonathon Stalls' last day of his walk across the country for Kiva, going to our awesome friend Lauren's housewarming party tonight, and taking a tour with Lydia and Caroline, my design friends slash home decor gurus, through the Elle Decor Designer Showcase home on Sunday.

I'm also hoping for lots of hang time with my boy before he boards a plane back to Toronto on Sunday night.

Have a happy weekend!

Happy Weekend!

One of my favorite things that has come from working at Kiva is my new and improved love for donuts.

Not that I never loved donuts. We used to get them on the way to church on Sundays when we were little (my parents' brilliant way of getting us out of bed happily on Sunday mornings!). When I was in 8th grade running for President of the middle school, I promised my first act as Middle School President would be to bring donuts to the every person the next morning. (I won, and I came through with donuts from Donut Den!).

But until recently, I haven't been that into donuts in my adult life. I lived in Winston-Salem (home of Krispy Kreme), and for the five years I lived there, I never once at a donut. Now that I work at Kiva, though, I have at least one donut a week. And not even the fancy San Francisco kind of donuts like Dynamo. I go for the cheap kind sold on Mission Street, and my very favorite is a cake donut with icing and sprinkles. 

This weekend, my amazing friend Caitlyn organized a PARTY BUS to take us on a wine tour of Napa and Sonoma. I can't wait! Maybe I'll bring some donuts for the road...

Happy weekend everyone!