24 Apr San Francisco, Take 2
I spent the last 3.5 days in San Francisco…and while it was an amazing time, I do admit I had some baking withdrawals! The size of my boyfriend’s kitchen is enough to give any baker nightmares. It’s probably about 10 square feet. NOT ideal working conditions for anybody who likes to do more than boil water.
But now I’m back home in Austin, with my large cushy kitchen in my parent’s house. Home is a nice place, isn’t it? Seeing as I’ve only been home for a matter of hours, I haven’t had much time for baking. That will come soon, but for now I want to share a little bit about my weekend on the West Coast!
Unbeknownst to my dad, I brought his fancy camera with me to SF (shh, don’t tell). It’s the same camera I have been using to take my food photos to the next level (like here and here). I hope you’ve been enjoying my attempt at “food porn”.
Golden Gate Park
On Saturday Nick and I tried to go to the SF de Young Fine Arts Museum to see Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. My mom and I were in a book club when I was a “tween” and we read the book and saw the movie with all of my best friends and their moms – super cute right? It would have been SO cool to get to see the REAL thing!
Unfortunately, we overlooked the fact that it was 4/20. In California. In a hippie town. Needless to say there was not a SINGLE parking spot in all of Golden Gate Park. The place was crawling with ermm…disciples of the “green goddess”..if you will. It took us about 45 minutes of inching through bumper to bumper traffic to figure out what was going on. We came across a clearing in the forested park and to our right…behold!
Notice the haze rising from the crowd…
Thus, no Girl With a Pearl Earring for me. Maybe I’ll make it back to SF before June 2 when it leaves.
Instead, we headed to the Marina area and walked around the Palace of Fine Arts, which is actually just a huge outdoor domed architecture with a nice little pond. The cherry blossom trees were blooming and there were ducklings waddling around!
Palace of Fine Arts
Cherry Blossom Tree (or is this a magnolia?)
Cute Ducklings
The highlight though, was definitely a swan couple who were tucked away in a corner, surrounded by caution tape to protect their nest form curious tourists (like me). The mama was fast asleep on her perch while Daddy Swan strutted around protecting her. Let me tell you, they may look pretty but those suckers are fierce! At one point the mama woke up and stood revealing her 4-5 eggs. She used her beak to rearrange them before plopping back down to keep her babies toasty warm. It was super cool to watch nature in action, especially just a few days before Earth Day!
Mama Swan
Papa Swan
Sausalito
Sausalito View
Katie + Nick
My mom was in SF for a conference and we convinced my workaholic boyfriend to play hooky for an afternoon and drive us over to Sausalito (fingers crossed his boss doesn’t read my blog). It was a really great, relaxing day. We strolled by the ocean, had some ice cream cones, shopped a little and spent most of our time lusting after the amazing homes that line the water and hills of Marin County. My mom had her Realtor.com app out the whole time, just in case somebody was interested in selling their 3,000 sq. foot mansion overlooking the Pacific for $200K. No such luck.
Overall it was a fantastic, relaxing little get away. Stay tuned for some delicious treats later this week!
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