balance

 Another walk to the Golden Gate Bridge to take in the view. Here are a few photos taken from Fort Point and then a cheers to SF with "bright green" Juice Shop juice followed up with an Americano pizza from Tony's Pizza Napoletana for balance.

summer lunch

after running downtown errands I met a friend at Super Duper for an organic Strauss soft serve vanilla chocolate swirl chocolate dip cone. I love that the cone reads "E A T - I T -A L L" not that we needed an extra incentive. 

Oui

 Catching up with Mikayla over a cafe au late bowl of spicy chai before her big two week road trip loop  up North to Canada and back to SF. I met the cutest little dog at the park before heading home. His name is Noodle and he's the cutest and sweetest furry friend I've met in a long time and it was a challenge to pry myself away. 

Sunday picnic

Perfect afternoon relaxing on the lawn and taking in the bay views with a picnic at OTG in the Presidio. This event had been on my list for a few weeks and trying Del Popolo even longer. Del Popolo is a mobile pizzeria, complete with a kitchen and Italian wood-fired oven, housed in a converted shipping container. They source ingredients from small generational producers and there seems to be great care in all they do. 

 Along with the impressive mobile pizzeria, there are other prepared food trucks, a metal red wagon with drink provisions for mixed to order bloody mary, mimosa, or a beer served in a bucket with ice. One of my favorite bits of this event would have to be seeing a few farms selling produce including Blue House Farm with their gorgeous produce below. 

another lovely day at the farmers market

One of my favorite Saturday rituals is a trip to the San Francisco Ferry Building to walk through the farmers market stalls and see the colors of the season and say hello to the heroes that grow our food with love. I was just looking at photos of edible bouquet arrangements (with blueberries on the vine) and really wanted to experiment with this and then the next day I was thrilled to see Cuesa with a long table of herbs ready to help people make their own small bouquet. After carefully tying up my small bouquet I was off to pick up a few treasures.... hello, padrone peppers. I couldn't resist a raspberry bombolini (Italian filled donut) from a vendor inside the market. Sunflowers seemed to be the flower of the week and shined like little rays of sun. 

Anchor Steam beer tour

 I love tours, especially when it involves learning a bit about a craft or a little eating or drinking. We made a reservation for an Anchor Steam Brewery Tour over a month ago as they fill up quickly. Anchor Steam is America's first craft brewery and a San Francisco original since 1896. How they managed to survive prohibition is a secret. Starting out as Anchor Brewery with an anchor logo as part of the thriving port business of San Francisco the "steam" was added to their name after people noticed steam rising from the Anchor Brewery rooftop in the evening as the fermenting beer was cooled by the foggy evening air, creating steam. While they don't cool the brew on the rooftop anymore it's still handmade in their traditional copper brewhouse. The tour was pretty brief with us covering all three levels in about 30 minutes and then spending over an hour in the tasting room trying all seven brews on tap and I was the only one taking notes on my favorites. My top favorites out of the seven tasted were Anchor Steam Beer, Anchor Porter, and Brekle's Brown. If you get a chance to take a tour here or anywhere, I highly recommend it. I'd love to take the tour again and bring some cheese and crackers along. Nostalgia brought memories of childhood school field trips to an apple orchard and a potato chip factory. Watching the beer bottles roll by reminded me of the beloved Mister Rogers' Neighborhood trip to the crayon factory.  

cool SF summer

warmed up at Off the Grid with laksa, a spicy Malaysian soup with hand pulled noodles, poached egg, and heaps of herbs, spices, and crunchy goodies from Azalina's. I found a new favorite sidewalk drawing of the Golden Gate Bridge nestled between the headlands and trees with a little sailboat cruising by.  

tiny traveler

I had to return for another afternoon of fried catfish with hot sauce and live jazz on Fillmore Street. Lavender and rosemary hedges are in bloom and they have to be one of my favorite things about living in San Francisco. Other flowers are in blooming and these small little flowers with their cheery yellow centers had me smiling. I like to think of the small one that's close to the sidewalk as a tiny traveler setting out on an adventure. These salmon pink tiles and the gentle curve are so sweet and encompassed a grand covered apt. building entryway. 

summer tote

knowing that there would be great music and loads of delicious fried food at the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival I decided to take a long walk there and back to justify the gluttony. Hello, turkey corn dog. Walking along a street I usually drive I was able to stop and take in these lovely Victorian homes and was sure that if I stayed long enough I might here secrets of the passed whispered. I stopped at the market to stock up on frozen raspberries for a tart I wanted to make and finally had an excuse to buy a thermal tote bag. Hooray! I think it's adorable and it worked like a champ to keep the berries frozen on the walk home and all for $1.49. 

compliments and eggplant

House of Nanking pulled me in for eggplant in chili garlic sauce and veggie chow mein. I quickly learned that a takeout order is tiny and barely fills a small traditional Chinese takeout container, but if you stay to eat you're given a substantial portion with enough leftover to fill a takeout container for the next meal. What can I say, it's good and they're close. My real favorite is Yum Yum Hunan and I highly recommend stopping in or getting the same giant portion delivered to your home. While eating the noodles above a patron that sat ate his dinner across from me, a table away, paused at the table before leaving and told me that it was a pleasure to dine across from me and that I look like Katharine Hepburn, especially with my hair up. I was flattered and confused like everyone else at the table. The only image that came to mind was of KH in On Golden Pond and I didn't want to bring my phone out during dinner to google an image so it was just left at that. The next day I spotted this LIFE magazine at the check out and while I don't really see a crazy resemblance I'm still flattered. 

frozen sunset

another Friday night at the street food market with a mango and sticky rice popsicle in one hand and a pork belly bun with turmeric pickled daikon in the other. Came across this impressive white picket  fence on the walk home. 

opera at the park

Mikayla and I walked across the city for the Yerba Buena Garden Summer Festival series (all Summer) for a little live opera at the park. The opera singer and her pianist both flew in from Sweden to perform. I insisted we stop in at Blue Bottle Coffee for New Orleans iced coffee (with chicory) to sip on while sitting on the lawn and maybe a cookie to nibble on. We were happy campers on the lawn, with the sun shining and coffee at hand while listening to talented performers at a garden nestled in the middle of the bustling city center. After an inspiring afternoon at the opera/park I decided to keep the art streak going and pulled out my watercolor paints when I got home and painted by the window.  

double rainbow

the early mornind fog was thick and lingered through my walk to the farmers market making all the colors pop, even the subtle ones... except the seagulls who are apparently clad in SF fog camo. Bundles of lavender brought smiles to almost everyone that passed and my shoes proved to be a little dose of sunshine every time I gazed down. I finally gave in and bought a donut from an indoor vendor and almost blamed it on the fog. Of course the sun came out and shined bright by the afternoon and then a double rainbow appeared, via a neighbors clothesline. 

fancy candy

The Candy Store is a great neighborhood shop with a wall of shelves lined with clear glass jars filled with bulk candy from near and far. The glass counter holds some of my favorite fruit jelly candy and then chocolate bars have their own little area. This time Mikayla and I both bought French treats... I still haven't opened the pale purple "Fancy" violet marshmallow. Here are a few tiles and colors from my walk home and around from the candy run. 

new favorite ice cream in SF

It was cool and windy outside, but that didn't keep us from ordering ice cream. After tasting a few flavors I felt like the decision only became more difficult as I wanted all of them. I ended up with a scoop of earl grey and a scoop of lavender with a cherry on top... the perfect lunch. Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous is as charming as it is delicious. After poking our heads into a few small shops it was time to warm up with a cup of spicy housemade chai at Piccino before walking home along the bay.

We made a pitstop at the Jewish Contemporary Museum for the Allen Ginsberg exhibit. Ginsberg is an impressive and inspiring artist. I was able to see this print of Jack Kerouac that I admired when I was in high school and kept a postcard copy of it in a volume of On the Road while learning about the Beat Poets. Ginsberg's handwritten captions lent even more insight into the intimate portraits.  This portrait of his grandma, Buba, below was one of my favorite photos in the exhibit, here's the caption below.

Rebecca Ginsberg, Buba, wife of Pincus, laundry-man, later tobacco store owner, my paternal grandmother (b. Russia, near Kamenetz-Podolski, b.May 1869-d. July 19620, visiting her elder son's house, here 84 years old at the table for Seder preparations. She'd attended adult education English classes in Newark, 14 years earlier, and written a patriotic essay declaring "God Blast America!" Younger son, uncle Abe, & daughters Aunt Rose, Clara & H.S. teacher Hannah were her children. Dining roon 428 East 34th Street, Paterson, New Jersey, 1953. 

here, fishy fishy fishy

shrimp and snapper tostadas de ceviche with avocado, lime mayo, and tapatio salsa and on the right is a beer battered fish taco with a thick layer of avocado mayo, salsa and cabbage from Primavera at the Saturday Ferry Building Market. The foggy sky made the chamomile blossoms and dark figs pop

day(s) at the museum(s)

I woke up early and raced to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to absorb as much as I could before they closing their doors for the next 2.5 years as they expand. I was surprised to see a line had already formed for The Clock viewing with over one hundred people in line and it wasn't even 8 AM yet. I joined the line and after a long wait I was lucky enough to be one of the last few people allowed in the theater for the 24 hour viewing of the 24 hour long movie. I stayed until close to noon before leaving to recharge and keep my tummy from rumbling. I was given a clock stamp on my hand to allow me to take a 15 min break before waiting for another person to leave the theater so I could step back in. I opted to let everyone else experience the movie and explore the rest of the museum in the last 48 hours. I had a piece of Rothko toast at the rooftop sculpture garden, most of the sculptures have already been placed around the city, but the "Please do not touch the artwork"stencil remains. The figure by Jenny Saville was a commanding presence in the room and I kept coming back to this piece. While some visitors stayed all day and through the night with the museum open for 24hours as the countdown continued... I went home and then came back for one more visit before they turned off the lights. 

with my second day in a row at SF MOMA, this time with a friend, but still a little bit faster we raced around taking in favorites before I raced to the De Young Museum for the final day of the Dutch Paintings exhibit with the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer as the central piece where eager museum visitors where lined up to take a peak at through thick glass. The floral and food still life pieces are my favorite. Lucky for me the rest of the museum was pretty empty so I took advantage of the quiet space to reflect on the art, even Rothko was alone, which seems to never happen at MOMA. After so many hours between two museums I was seeing similarities/art everywhere. I strolled through the rose garden, and ambled through the Union Street Festival before walking past pretty tiles and sidewalk chalk notes for a garage sale that looked more like inspirational art on the steep SF hills before making my way home