Saturday, December 24, 2011

Branches and Berries

This was the best I could do in terms of getting our apartment into the holiday spirit, since I'm not spending Christmas in New York. Beautiful branches bedecked with bright berries, some evergreen accents, white mums, daisies, roses, and Queen Anne's lace. The green and white bits are from a Trader Joe's bouquet I deconstructed.






Also, an oak branch, some pears from the ever-diminishing farmer's market, and a Virgen de Guadalupe candle we got at Rite Aide to play cards by.

Friday, December 23, 2011

City by the Bay

Spending some time in the city definitely confirmed that I left my heart in San Francisco. My friend Pia (we've known each other since we were 9!) and I did some fun, faux touristy things today...ate some delicious seafood and pastries at the Ferry Building, drove around the Presidio, and took a stroll about Crissy Field to get close to the Golden Gate.

The San Francisco skyline from Crissy Field.

Pia and I, plus the best bridge!

City birds.
Hello, Pacific Ocean!




Crissy Field used to be a naval base, and a lot of the old officer's quarters are now part of a marine life sanctuary project!





The base's naval past.

On to delicious eats! We stopped by the Ferry Building at the pier, and could not resist the call of good seafood at the San Francisco Fish Co. outpost. Pia got the crab cake sandwich and a cup of New England clam chowder...

And I got the crab leg po boy and a cup of Manhattan clam chowder! Delicious. It warmed me right up.

Slaw + the red chowder.

The store across the way was devoted entirely to selling various kinds of fungus! A mushroom sampler.

A diagram of potentially poisonous varieties!

After the shellfish-fest we picked up some macarons from Miette and headed out to the bay.

This one is chocolate and orange. Great texture and chew!

And this one is geranium and rose. It was the best! Flavored with rosewater, it had the sweet, perfume-y flavor of Persian ice cream. And the cream filling was smooth, rich, and perfect. Pia and I agreed that we liked these natural colored cookies better than other food-color laden varieties.

Boot buddies! My trusty Beans are on the left, and Pia's cool lace-ups on the right!

In-N-Out Burger!

In-N-Out! First stop once I landed in CA, and a place we don't mind returning to. So good, and super inexpensive. Our favorite location is in Sunnyvale, my hometown. It's also right by an apricot orchard...one of the last remaining remnants of the old Silicon Valley, which used to be nothing but fruit trees and orchards, and was called Valley of the Heart's Delight.


My heart takes delight in cheeseburgers.


Never too many lemons in my Coke.




Waiting...

IT'S HERE! Mine: Cheeseburger with onion.

Devin's: Cheeseburger animal style with no tomato.

...and Devin's: Double-Double plain.

Hooray!

Content at last.

The nearby apricot orchard! Protected by the city, at least for now. Many of Sunnyvale's beautiful cherry orchards are now shopping complexes.



In early March, these little buds will be beautiful white blossoms, and then in late July, velvety apricots!


Devin hiding from the radar.


In a few months, the field will be knee-high in these mustard blossoms.



In-N-Out themed leaf!