San Francisco: The Good Hotel

We stayed at a hotel in the SoMa district called The Good Hotel.

They had this cool bench (which wasn't very soft though) and this fun Louise Nevelson inspired table in the lobby.

They have bikes for their guests to use for free! We didn't think there would be any available, so we brought our own, but there were always a few in the lobby. Maybe next time we don't need to bring our bikes.

Fun rooms made with rescued materials.

A special toilet where you can wash your hands as the toilet tank refills, then the graywater goes into the tank to be used for the next flush. How cool is that?

It was a pretty normal hotel that has a lot of cool environmentally friendly features. We thought it was a good find!

San Francisco: the food post

Admittedly, we did spend a large percentage of our San Francisco time finding and eating at yummy places. We kind of thought we deserved it since we spent the next greatest percentage of time biking.
I highly recommend the farmers market behind the Ferry Building. There were looong lines of people waiting for the food booths here, so we didn't eat here, but we did take advantage of the samples!

We bought a (compostable) bag of this purple spinach. It was amazing. It's salty. So salty it could almost sub for potato chips! I want to find this and grow it. Sooo good.

Our big find of the trip was Brenda's French Soul Food. I looked up a few places on yelp and gave Colin the choices. He chose Brendas because "French soul food" sounded intriguing.

We got the specials on Saturday morning: eggs benedict on Brenda's amazing biscuits with cheese grits, and sweet potato pancakes. It was nothing short of perfect, especially with chicory coffee!

Bi Rite creamery was recommended by a few friends (I solicited help on Facebook), so we made the trek there Saturday night after dinner at The Slanted Door, which was also recommended. Yay for both of these places.

Sunday morning I chose to eat at Farm:Table, which was very good. A fun, simple little San Francisco experience.

But we had to end our trip the way we started it. We ate lunch on Sunday at Brenda's again. Colin was craving the grits. This time I got a goat cheese, shrimp, and caramelized onion omelette with tomato relish on top that was pretty much perfect. Oh, and watermelon iced tea. (I really want to have one of those biscuits every Saturday for the rest of my life and also learn how to make that tomato relish and iced tea.)

San Francisco!

To celebrate our first anniversary, we went to San Francisco. It was a longer drive than either of us anticipated, but we enjoyed a full day Saturday and half a day on Sunday - mostly riding our bikes up and down hills, eating at YUMMY restaurants, and seeing a few sights. It was my first time to visit the bay area, and I now see what all the hype is about. We are going to have to find another weekend to visit to see more!

One Year!

Sunday was our one year anniversary! Pretty hard to believe. I was away for the weekend. When I came back on Sunday afternoon, I noticed Colin's gift to me right away:


He sanded down my desk and repainted it! I couldn't believe it. He painted the chair to match, too! I had this project on my long list of projects ever since he found the desk (for free) almost a year ago. I didn't think I was ever going to get around to doing it, since my list of projects just gets longer and longer.

I love it and I'm super excited to get to make some fun stuff at it soon!

We got dressed up and went to dinner and a Flamenco show in LA, which was fun. We took our letters that were written to us at our wedding and reception a year ago and read them over dinner. It was a great way to remember our wedding and think back a little on the year. We also found two surprise wedding gifts in the envelopes!

It was dark, which doesn't make for good pics, especially since my good camera is broken, but we got a blurry shot to remember our one year mark. We're going to San Francisco this weekend for a little more celebration. Yay!

Not Built For Mediocrity

From this article that Colin's brother Jeremy shared:

It would be folly to suggest that anyone can literally do or become anything. But the new science tells us that it's equally foolish to think that mediocrity is built into most of us, or that any of us can know our true limits before we've applied enormous resources and invested vast amounts of time.

Our abilities are not set in genetic stone. They are soft and sculptable, far into adulthood. With humility, with hope, and with extraordinary determination, greatness is something to which any kid - of any age - can aspire.

David Shenk is the author of The Genius in All of Us.

Link Love

I wish I had an attic so I could make it into something amazing like this.

The things this person makes are amazing.

Cardboard faux logs? Awesome! Now I need a fireplace and an attic!

Time to try a new stew. Especially since it has sweet potatoes in it. I once made a really yummy stew with sweet potatoes and green apples. I should find that recipe, too.

Am I late to the infnity scarf thing? I like this one a lot.

"Whale" Watching

We went on a whale watching cruise (is it still a cruise if it's only 2 hours long?) on Saturday off of Balboa Island. We saw no whales, but we did see two amazing kinds of dolphins who swam playfully so close to our boat I was afraid they'd get plowed over. We also saw some pretty amazing sea lions who played king of buoy. Highly entertaining! Of course, we would have loved to see a whale, but we were happy to watch all these playful sea mammals instead.