Arrivederci!

We're jetting out this morning. Taking a crazy flight from here to Toronto to Munich to Naples. Then renting a car and driving south to Sorrento. But even though we won't be hugging Jonny's family and settled in our hotel until tomorrow afternoon, I can't wait to get started on our travels.

If you have any tips for Italy, please let me know! We know the cities we're going to and the hotels we're staying in, but that's about it. We'd welcome recommendations. xx

I nostri hotel in Italia

Jonny and I are terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE, at planning and organizing. Whenever I've been in charge of planning travel, I've always taken a fly by the seat of your pants approach, and Jonny is the same if not worse. It makes for fun and adventurous trips, but it also means that we might be left scrambling at the last minute to find a place to stay. We took this pre-marital counseling class, and we were told that we were probably going to struggle caring for plants, animals, and children. We've got a few plants in our house that are still alive right now, so things are looking pretty good for us. 

Anyways, I say all that so that you'll be massively impressed that we've booked all of our hotels for our trip to Italy, and we have an itinerary of which cities we'll be going to. This is seriously unheard-of for us. And to top it all off, I've already started packing my suitcase (something I usually start to do the night before we leave or the morning we're supposed to go to the airport). As I've been packing, I've been thinking about how beautiful all of the places we're staying are going to be. 

Our hotel in Sorrento for Louise's wedding

The place we're staying in Roma for a few days

I couldn't find a great picture of our hotel in Firenze, but I hope this is the view from there

My sister is joining us for Firenze and Siena, and I'm really excited about our Siena b&b

Our gorgeous hotel in Venezia, which will probably be the nicest place I've ever stayed

I hated when Jonny was traveling back and forth to Toronto every week and living out of a hotel, and I would trade a million stays in fancy hotels to have had him here in San Francisco that whole time. But we're getting to stay in some fancy schmancy hotels on this trip for absolutely free, which is a truly amazing perk. 

I can't wait for our Italian adventures! We leave on Friday!

Eight.

Last night, Jonny and I rode our tandem through the Mission stopping at our favorite places to celebrate what we thought was our nine month anniversary. About midway through the night, we realized it had actually only been eight months since we got married. Luckily, that realization only encouraged our celebration, and we decided to make sure we hit eight different places for drinks and food and treats.

Here's where we went and what we had (clockwise from left): 

1. A cheese flight, macaroni, and beers at Mission Cheese

2. A savory pie at Mission Pie

3. A margarita to share at Latin American Club

4. A "Sexy Beast" cocktail at Foreign Cinema to share

-- chalkboard drawing done at Monk's Kettle --

5. Market shots at Frances

6. An ice cream sandwich at BiRite Creamery (we didn't want to wait in line!)

7. An Affligem split into two glasses at Monk's Kettle

8. Chicken Tikka at Pakwan

If this is just eight months, I can't wait for nine! 

Champions

 I'm proud to say that I married into co-captaining a soccer team, Atlantic Bridge, and our championship game was this past Monday night. Actually, the way the championship is structured in the league we play in actually required us to play and win in the semi finals an hour before the championship match. We were tied at the whistle of the semi final, and the game went into overtime, but just a minute into the overtime Seni scored our golden goal. 

Someone on our team said after the first game that it was the best moment of their adult sports career, and I actually think that's true (although my comparisons can only include indoor soccer and half marathons that I only ran three miles in training for). We went on to the championship super pumped, and we won!

 After the game, we went to Zeitgeist for dinner, beers, celebrations, and an awards show run by the amazing Blake Glidden. I'm hoping that Brian's award keeps its place on the Zeitgeist wall. All in all, it was just about the best way I can think of spending a Monday night. 

We're now reigning champions until the new season starts on Monday! 

All photo credits thanks to the lovely star player and team mom, Caroline Gilligan.

Really liking Cults

I don't really like cults (the people groups with bizarre ideas about when the world is going to end), but I do really like Cults (the East Village based duo featured above).

If anyone has any experience sneaking into shows, I'm thinking about sneaking into either their sold out show or their private show in San Francisco next month. We'll have to make our plans offline though so their security doesn't find out about us! :)

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. 

My sister is so cool

That's an ostrich you see her riding! Outside of Nairobi. She is so cool and I am so jealous and sad that I'm not there with her.