Weekend in Review: Outside!

It's officially hiking season here in northern California!  I swear, it was so gorgeous here this weekend.  And after falling asleep on my couch watching the DVR'd Royal Wedding Friday night, I was itching to be outside on Saturday.  And so . . . my friend Doro came over and we did an incredible hike in the Oakland Redwoods.  Those of you who are coming to visit, this scenery is what you have to look forward to:

taken with iPhone mid-hike

Amazing, right?  And then Sunday, I took my little pal Freeman straight to the beach:

me: "Let's play in the water!"

F: "I can't believe you just woke me up from my nap."

It was definitely warm enough to lay out, but not so much to swim.  F and I put our feet in the water but it was freeeeeezing (as usual in San Francisco).  We still had fun!

Here's hoping this kind of weather continues.  It's good for the soul.

And it *almost* helps me get over the fact that I couldn't be in southern California this weekend for Sammy Lazzaroni's first birthday.  His mama is one of my very best friends and their family is so dear to me!  If I could have one superpower, it would definitely be the Samantha-Stephens-nose-wiggle ability to transport myself anywhere, anytime.  Wouldn't that be amazing?

p.s. Check out Kristen's post today at While We're Waiting.  Made my heart swell.

The Day After Halloween is Not an Excuse to Buy Half Off Candy

Or so I'm trying to convince myself, having gorged on Tootsie pops and Kit Kats and mini Mr. Goodbars for the past two days.

Saturday, after a quick trip to the Alemany Farmers' Market with Doro to get some pumpkins, I spent the day at the household of my little boo, Freeman J. George.  While Freeman was napping and his daddy and I watched Game 3 of the World Series, I baked this:

quick way to get you in the Halloween spirit

And then as soon as my buddy woke up, we carved pumpkins!

well, I carved.  Freeman colored and covered his pumpkin in stickers.

Our results?

Boo Dat!

I had to combine my football spirit and Halloween spirit, cause my Saints played my bestie's Steelers Halloween night!  My amateur fleur de lis ain't bad, huh?  

I'm slightly ashamed to say that I didn't dress up this year, but it's only cause Halloween day was full of sports, and I couldn't justify the time and effort on a costume just to stay on my couch and watch the World Series and the NFL.  But keep your eye out for a Halloween babies post coming soon, where I'll share pics of my little friends in their get ups.  Goodness gracious they're cute.

And the other thing about California is that it was gorgeous here yesterday.  Anna and I walked to the farmers market where I bought some veggies and these:

before heading out on a beautiful afternoon hike.  We drove up to the Lafayette Reservoir, whose trail around the water offers a perfect combo of exercise and beauty.  It was such a nice start to the day!  Afterwards, we came home and made chili and watched sports (my teams did me proud), and then, thanks to a zillion recommendations on facebook, we watched

Have you seen it?  Ultimately, I'd give it around an 8 out of 10 on the scary scale (I was looking to be terrified).  Plus, it stars two of the hottest actors in Hollywood: Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman.  Zombies and dolls and aliens don't scare me one single bit; it has to be something that could feasibly happen to me to get me really spooked.  The Strangers is about a couple who, after breaking up at a wedding reception, come home to a country house, only to be tortured by three deranged killers in horrifying masks.  And what makes it even better?  It's based on a true story.  Yikes.

Tell me about your Halloween!!

Spring Break + My Mama = Hiking!

I've been totally MIA from all things internet and blog related during my mama's visit, but that's A-OK cause we had so much fun! We probably walked 20 miles while she was here, most of which occurred in gorgeous locations . . . here's the rundown:

Friday night: Picked her up from the airport and went to Burma Superstar (yum!). During the wait, we ran to Marc 49 and had a glass of wine (i.e. she had a 3 wine flight and I had San Pellegrino). We ate samosa soup and rainbow salad and greens and it was delicious!

Saturday: Woke up and went to the Berkeley farmers market, had some coffee, hiked at the Lafayette Reservoir, bought some books, came home and cooked some ridiculously good fresh hand-made pasta (Meyer Lemon and Chili linguini) from the farmers market with swiss chard, broccoli, red pepper, garlic, and onion (whoa), and then entertained several of my fabulous friends.

Sunday: Made a quick pit stop at Bakesale Betty's for some scones/cookies/banana bread and headed up to Casa de Milo & Family (where Jeannette & Freeman met us) so my mama could meet the babies I love so much (and their parents!). JJ (Milo's dad) made us a wonderful breakfast, which we ate on their back patio overlooking a lake and Mount Tamalpais, and my little baby friends were as cute as ever. I love how Freeman says "Miloooooo." After brunch, we went to Muir Woods and did a rigorous, beautiful redwood hike, stopped at Mollie Stone's to pick up some veggies for dinner, and then came home and ate while watching the Sex and the City movie. A pretty dang perfect day.

Monday: Woke up early and met Gaela at Land's End, hiked down to Sutro Baths/Cliff House and back, then had lunch at Calzone's in North Beach (where Cathy's brother hooked us up with all kinds of scrumptious food from the kitchen). I had a swiss chard calzone, which in combination with the pasta from Saturday and Sunday nights, meant that I probably ate 3 heads full of chard over the weekend. After lunch, Mama and I went to the Marina and walked allllllll over, peeking in stores and enjoying what turned out to be a lovely, sunny, breezy day. Around 4:30 pm we drove to Golden Gate Park and walked to (and around) Stow Lake, which is always beautiful, and then were thoroughly exhausted when we got back to the car around 6. We stopped and picked up some burritos (to complete the Northern California experience) and headed home.

Today I drove her by Balboa on the way to the airport, which rounded out the trip . . . I'm sad to see her go, but it was such a fun time!

Here are some pics:

Mama on a rock on one of our beautiful hikes

Mama and me in Muir Woods

Sunday evening at Stinson Beach

in a giant, ancient redwood tree!

And now back to my normal, superbusy schedule.

Worth a Thousand Words

Some pictures from this San Francisco weekend:

Saturday started with this conversation:

me: "Freeman, love you!"

F: "Gaga."

He remains obsessed. His dad even let him watch the Telephone video . . . watch out!

After Freeman and I were rejected at the door of the California Academy of Sciences for arriving three minutes after they stopped letting people in, we went and picked up my friend Doro and some sandwiches from Bi Rite and headed to Dolores Park (where, incidentally, the rest of San Francisco was). Here they are chasing each other. :)

Me and my littlest bff, wearing his hipster stripes, in the park . . .

Delighted little F.

On Sunday morning, we took my dear student JH to brunch at the Beach Chalet for her 18th birthday! We did not partake in the $5 bottomless mimosas, but certainly intend to return post-Easter and sans-student.

Happiest birthday J!

After brunch, Gaela and I hiked Land's End (after gazing at Robin Williams's old house and the house Suri Cruise is reported to be moving into). I took this picture along our hike . . . seriously, I live in the most gorgeous place in the country. Note the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

I mean seriously, right? So beautiful.

And now, concluding this weekend of sunshine, I'm sitting with Gaela at Bazaar Cafe drinking a soy latte and "working" (we know how that goes). All this plus my little mama's impending visit and some sweet, late-night conversations with my far-off rugby player made this weekend pretty near perfect. Hope yours was the same!

California

Sure, our cost of living is among the highest in the country. And yes, I am essentially as far away from my family in Georgia as I could be (while still living in the U.S.). But damn, it's pretty here . . . ladies and gentlemen, this is where I exercised today:

Lafayette Reservoir

It's only 10 minutes from my house (and 2 from my friend Missy's house, so she often joins me!), and I hike there regularly on the weekends. It's a short jaunt (only about 3 miles) but is hilly enough to get my heart rate up and pump me with endorphins. Or is that the gorgeous view??

The weather was essentially perfect this weekend. Sunny, breezy, splendid! This is what I did all weekend:

Girlshop:

Friday night my grad school girlies and I got together for some dinner/wine/poetry (btw: only 3 more weeks till my wine-fast is up!). Geri made a delicious southern meal (soup with greens, potatoes, veggie sausage, and cornbread croutons; macaroni & cheese), and it was great to laugh and talk and read with the girls.

Babies:

Saturday I got up bright and early and went to visit the sweet Freitags and their two adorable baby sons. Here's Milo holding his 10 day old baby brother Jude:

when Milo was over holding Jude he said, "bye bye baby!"

baby Jude at 10 days old

Shopping:

I left the Freitags' at noon, but it was too gorgeous to go home, so I drove up to Sonoma County and sauntered around the Petaluma Outlets. I ordered the prettiest BCBG Runway dress for prom!!! (I am so incredibly excited about prom, btw. I LOVE high school!). While the dress is very predictably Claire, the next thing I purchased was not . . .

I bought some flats, y'all.

Figuring it was time to acknowledge my chronic back pain, I purchased some cute little black moccasins. But don't expect to see them often! They're my "my-back-is-killing-me" shoes . . . don't for a second think I'm saying goodbye to my heels. But at least I have some comfy flats now! I'll spare you a picture of them (since they really are just black moccasins, which you can easily picture), and instead post a pic of the GORGEOUS gold Kate Spade flats I encountered at Off Saks 5th Avenue. Despite their discount, they were still way outta my price range:

but aren't they pretty?

Outdoorsing:

Sunday being equally beautiful, I met Anna and Stephen for an outdoor brunch (I was a little jealous of Anna's grapefruit-and-sparkling-wine concoction, but everything else was delicious nonetheless) and then did the aforementioned pretty hike.

How was everyone else's weekend??