Street Art

I love when I randomly find fun street art like this!  That's the Transamerica Building on the left, the Golden Gate Bridge in the middle and the Coit Tower on the right! I LOVE THIS CITY!!!

The Winery

After exploring the Treasure Island flea market, Brad and I walked over to The Winery (yes, that is its name THE Winery).  It was set in an old airplane hangar and was really a beautiful site, as you can see below.

This would be a beautiful place to have a wedding reception, cool to be amidst the wine barrels and strands of hanging lights.

Um, why WOULDN'T you do the both series and add Glitter Sparkling Wine for only $21?!?!?!  Um... DUH that's what we did.  You get 9 tastings for $21...not a bad deal. 

We thought it was a great deal until we started tasting them.....MAN, I really wanted to LOVE this place but most just not my taste (or Brad's). There were plenty of people there enjoying their time and their wine.

But we still enjoyed spending time together gossiping and sipping on the wine.  I really liked how the space was laid out and the touches that it had connecting to the space, such as these fun explanations of local landmarks. You can see the Bay Bridge right outside of the building (not in this picture but in real life).

It really is truly a beautiful space! 

Treasure Island Flea Market

During the last full weekend of the month, Treasure Island hosts a flea market. Its been on my list forever, and despite it just being a quick 10 minute bus ride, it took me over a year to do! I went to a boot camp at Wheelhouse and then suggested to Brad that we should do it and he was game!  It is $3 to get in, but its actually pretty decent stuff inside. I don't really know how you'd bring back your goodies without driving your car.  It is free parking, but its a disaster trying to get there unless you get there early early early.

This was just one of the hundred of booths, and this one sold succulents!  So many succulents and not at a bad price. 

So many people, so many lines! There were probably 15 food trucks lined up inside the flea market and all of them had lines.

This lady had AMAZING cookies!!! I had a cookies and cream cookie and it was the most amazingly soft cookie I've ever had in my life!!

The real reason I wanted to go to Treasure Island was FOR THIS VIEW!!!

I just really, really love this city!

 

You can't really tell, but that is the Golden Gate Bridge

My CSA

Along with being cool enough to know about an underground supper club, I've also joined a CSA! A CSA is community supported agriculture. I know, I know, I'm getting a bit granola-y here, let's just say that San Francisco is rubbing off on me!

There are a few to choose from here, but I went with Farm Fresh to You.  Mostly because they were at the Ferry Building peddling their ware, but I really loved that you got the option to choose what was in your box!  Actually, I think you can just choose to leave things out and maybe you get more of something else. BUT you also got to purchase additional items from their market...SWEET!!

You get to choose the big size (small, medium or large) and how frequently you want it delivered. Since its just me most of the time, I chose the small box.  And it was a perfect size!!

This was the box, filled with goodies!

This is what was in my box, and I added strawberries, bananas, and garlic

This is how the box came and it included a newsletter about the seasonal fruit and some recipes. I can't wait to EAT.ALL.OF.THE.THINGS!!!!

Underground Supper Club

I feel like I've finally entered the SF elite of coolness, last weekend I was invited to an underground supper club. Say what?! No, actually, its called Hearsay.  You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen (ok, probably no men are reading this blog, but still!), if you want to be considered cool here you need to do something that no one else has done!

What is an underground supper club? Only the coolest thing since sliced bread. No, you don't believe me? Ok, fine. Basically it is this married couple (and as Brad asked...were they two gay men?!?! - Ha, no it was a husband and wife team) who invites 12ish or so people over to serve a six course meal.  Tickets go on sale and go quickly from what I understand, tickets are around $100-$120 a person (not cheap) and once you purchase, then you get an address and time to meet.  Even better, it wasn't too far from my house!  How did I hear about it?  A junior league girl invited me after she had heard about it from 7x7 as one of the 10 Fabulous Underground Supper Clubs in SF.

Well, we arrived promptly at 7pm and were ushered into their GORGEOUS GORGEOUS apartment/house. Wow, I mean WOW. I aspire to have a place as beautiful as their house. She said they had lived in the area for 8 years....probably the only way you can afford a space like that is if you were here before prices got to be an average of $3,200 for a 1 bedroom (yes, that is the AVERAGE 1 BEDROOM IN SF...and in my neighborhood its closer to $4K).  Anyways, back to their house....you walked into a dining area with a LARGE table, I mean all 12 of us fit at the table. And above the table were strung white lights (stunning!) and there were painted skateboards attached to the wall.  Oh and I can't forget the 3 maniquins she had surrounding the table clothed in her own collection (obviously).  Their living room was a perfect size and the kitchen was right off that.  And brilliantly she had all of her spices in little containers that were magnetized to her refrigerator...right there at their fingertips! And this was just their downstairs...I was mesmerized!

Anyways, on to the food - the real reason we were there!  We were greeted with champagne (naturally!).  And then ushered to the table that was set beautifully. The menu was printed up and included the following:

First course: Celeriac, coconut, curry (a soup) - paired with a house made gin & tonic

Second course: Morels, green garlic (mushrooms) - paired with Rein Schrader Ranch Pinot Blanc, 2014

Third course: Beet, chevre, almond (a salad) - paired with Forlorn Hope Que Saudade, 2013

Fourth course: Carrot (pasta) - paired with Edmunds St. John Bone-Jolly Gamay Noir Rose, 2014

Fifth course: Seeds and Grains, Maitake (grainy meal) - paired with La Clarine Farm Josephine + Mariposa, 2013

Sixth course: Summer fruit, cake, cream (dessert) - paired with Run, ginger, curaco, lime

OVERALL = A++  It was all vegetarian this dinner, but each dinner varies

I really wanted to take pictures of all the food and of their house, but I didn't want to be "that creeper"....so I only took 3

Who knew I liked beets?!?!

YUMMY DESSERT!

Kansas City Recap Part 3

A new day, a new adventure!  I woke up bright and early, ready to take the day on...then I realized it was STILL RAINING. Ugh, so tired of the rain!!  This is a statue as tall as me made out of legos!!!  I started off in Crown Center, a commercial complex with lots of stores. None that I'd really want to shop in, but still. Its anchored by Hallmark and even has a department store-like called Halls (owned by Hallmark).

This is the global HQ of Hallmark, so I obviously had to check out the visitor's center.  

It was pretty tiny, but was kind of neat to see all of the cards across the decades and to see how they corresponded to what was going on in the world at the time. 

The presidential cards that sitting presidents and VPs sent people.

Apparently JC Hall loved Christmas so much, every year his employees would craft a christmas tree decked to the halls in a certain theme. Who doesn't love a good theme party?!?!?

I went outside and saw the Crown Center fountains, every hour these fountains go off and music blares while "49 water jets and 48 water shooters spout up to 60 feet in the air, before coming back to a 37,500 -gallon underground reservoir. Water is recycled into the fountain at a rate of 2,200 gallons per minute." Kanas City is know as the "City of Fountains"

From here, I walked to Washington Square Park, a beautiful little park across from the Westin.  I saw this statue of Valley Forge.

This little park is SO ADORABLE!!! I could have been here all day long.

I found the Korean War Veterans memorial in the middle of the park...

Then I walked back over to the Union Station and I saw this strange contraption.  You have to pay to park there and apparently this is how you collect the money. You literally shove your money into the slot that corresponds with your parking space. The slots looked like you'd have to fold up the dollars by 1/4 and push it in there. Can get it in? They offer this little stick to push you money in. So strange!

The station was celebrating its 100th birthday

A daytime shot of the station, so beautiful!

AND THEN I FOUND A SECRET TOY TRAIN STATION!!!

I geeked out for a minute watching all of the trains in the various little "towns"

This place was massive!

I'm not sure why there was this art deco piano in Union Station, but I went with it.  

I guess there's a huge NFL expo going on in the station, but I just loved the look of this clock.

From here, I capped off the night when I went to Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange and had THE BEST COCKTAILS EVER!!!

Kansas City Recap Part 2

I was actually surprise with the weather while I was there. I'm not sure why, but I thought it would be sunny & warm in KC. Well, I was TOTALLY wrong.  It was chilly and rainy pretty much the whole time we were there. But I wouldn't let that ruin my fun.  You can't scare me away Kansas City, I'm on to you!

This was the view of the pool at the Westin.  I was saddened that I brought my bathing suit for no reason. BOOOO.

This is the Union Station in Kansas City. Its beautiful inside!  I had the most amazing experience.  I was holding the door open for this adorable old man with a cane and he started talking to me about how old the building was, and went "This is a very old building, when I left for the war in 1942, I came here to get my train. It looks just the same." He was SO FREAKING ADORABLE!!!

This is the World War II memorial. I didn't get a chance to go in, but I hear its pretty amazing.

My boss is pretty good at staking out really great places to eat.  I guess she watched "Diners, drive-ins and Dives" and always has a great recommendation. This time, we went to Pot Pie and it was AMAZING!!!  It was so warm and the crust was so fluffy!!! We also had a Brie & Spinach taste...holy cow, amazing!

And then from here, I pretty much went on an eating & drinking tour of Kansas City. Not a bad way to see a city! Nothing wrong with that, RIGHT? RIGHT? I thought so.

Went to Small Cakes and had the Cookies & Cream cupcake. OMG YUM! I didn't love the frosting, I think it was cream cheese based and it was just too heavy for me. But WOW was the cake super moist (I know a lot of you hate that word, but still).

And then I HAD to try out this thing called "concrete", which is frozen custard thing.  I found a Sheridans and had a mint concrete. SO GOOD. Needless to say, I needed to walk off all of this sugar!