the apple of his eye

i promise i am NOT pregnant (bad sweater placement)

 this is yet another san fran post. that is luke's ipad2, not mine, and it was amazingly helpful during the entire trip. luke wants me to get one, too. i am hesitant, for i still own an ancient little flip-phone that only does 2 things: sends texts and makes phone calls. no internet and no fancy apps. so going straight to an ipad might just be too much technology for me to get sucked into right now. (i'll probably be eating my own words in a few months) it's bad enough that i'm on the computer at work all day and then at home on the laptop.

are you up to speed on all the new gadgets and gizmos? they make me feel like an old person. bah!

(you could argue that my oversized granny sweater i'm wearing makes me look like one, too)

wanderlust defined

spotted in Mission, SF

gypsy bling

my new favorite piece of jewelry. handcrafted in lawrence, ks. picked it up when i was back home a few months ago. the perfect gypsy bracelet, no?

dynamo donut + coffee

a breakfast of indulgence on a saturday morning in mission, sf

meyer lemon huckleberry

four barrel coffee

i really love the mixer in the coffee mug logo

maple glazed bacon apple

this is the most popular choice and for good reason. oh man it's good. so much that we bought another one immediately! the bacon was perfection and they even had little chunks of fresh apple inside the batter

spiced chocolate

this one was my favorite. i love cake donuts and the texture of this was perfectly moist and cake-like, with spicy sugar on the outside

luke is not a big morning person, but was SO incredibly sweet to sacrifice sleeping in every day to explore with me. he is seriously a keeper!

it was so wondeful to find a hidden outdoor patio behind the donut shop. the sun was bright and cheery, palm trees were in the distance, flower blossoms and succulents thrived around us. a lovely scene to be a part of

hen and chicks

i love this weathered old house (with one side freshly painted) and those cascading orange flowers *sigh*

and i adore these little eggshell succulents

dahlias and poppies

there's a crusty piece of something on her arm. i really wanted to flick it off

where donuts are born

"Dynamo uses Clover Organic Milk for it's coffee and donuts. Each donut utilizes organic, sustainable, and local ingredients whenever possible. They are always handmade daily by Sara and her dedicated staff. We offer a rotating selection of 7 to 10 donuts per day so quality and freshness of ingredients can be guaranteed.
EVERYDAY is Bacon Donut Day!!!"

i love how they had a walk up/bike up window as well as indoor/outdoor seating. AND they had bins for trash, recycling, and composting. why can't all cities be like sf, portland and denver that do this so well?!

do you have a favorite donut shop? i have been to the infamous voodoo doughnut in portland, but have yet to eat some in nyc! i have heard that doughnut plant is the best?

to be continued...

epic dinner fail x2

so after our oyster happy hour, we decided on finding some sushi for dinner. we made our way from nob hill down to hayes valley via bus to sebo. luke had a hankering for some rolls, buuuuut it turns out that this place was much more refined with interesting delicacies and very expensive, even for sushi! unfortunately, it just wasn't the type of place we were used to. we had already been served a small bowl of complimentary edamame (which was cold and i've never had it served that way, only hot). just as i was getting the courage to tell our waitress that we were probably leaving to find a different place, the table right next to us did just that! they said they didn't want to offend her, but had decided to go elsewhere. dang! i couldn't do that to her twice in a row, i felt so bad. so we decided to just order an appetizer. we felt so awkward because the place only had like 7 tables and it was very quiet and small.

amazing asparagus salad, but SO small. just a few bites for each of us. (now we were starving!)

we love sushi (we even make it at home) and are not very picky eaters, but we didn't recognize ANYTHING on this menu! so we asked the waitress for just 2 pieces of nigiri that would taste similar to yellowtail tuna. these were very beautiful, but i just wasn't very impressed. especially having to pretty much swallow the whole thing because the red part was really tough. so sad! i really hope we did NOT offend the chef (who seemed to have an extremely talented and creative mind, moreso than i could ever appreciate!) needless to say, i tipped the waitress a lot and we got the heck out of there.

our measley (and very pricey) attempt at dinner. round 1.

definitely a nice place that we would go back to and try a bunch of things if we were super rich and more knowledgeable of fine fish!

round 2. we walked down the street and heard a lot of commotion, so we investigated and came upon hayes and kebab. the smells were mouthwatering and the place was hopping, so we thought "why not?!"

luke had never had falafel and i was so excited for him to try it. sadly, they were way over-fried and semi-burnt tasting. the food looked and smelled so good and was just not very flavorful! we really felt like food snobs, but it just wasn't tasty! maybe this is where you go after you've been drinking all night and need to stuff your face?

not a bitter beer face. just one of luke's infamous camera faces as he fills his belly with some more anchor steam

i had more fun playing with my food than i did eating it. rough start for our first night of eating. but the days following did not disappoint!

stay tuned for more of lovely SF, again. (and MUCH better dining experiences!)

oyster fix

our lovely SF hosts were kind enough to tell us about a nice oyster bar down the street

since moving to NYC 9 months ago, we haven't had the pleasure of enjoying these gems on the east coast yet (sad!). soooo, we finally ate some in an entirely different city, all the way across the US! luke took me to have my first raw oyster experience in denver and i loved them, (naturally) smothered in cocktail sauce. growing up, i always snacked on canned oysters (in oil) on crackers with my mom. man oh man do they SMELL when you open the can, but i LOVE them still, canned or raw :) luke was SO happy and excited to indulge in them once again!

we ordered a trio of different kinds

happy hour oysters are not complete without some local anchor steam to wash them down with. yum!

next up: where we had dinner after the happy hour. we ended up going to 2 different places to eat! semi-embarrassing story to follow

balls

this is so inspiring after our recent trip to sf. my favorite part is when the frog leaps out of the gutter :)
thanks to honestly...wtf for introducing me to this

royals spank the yanks

i'm briefly interrupting my west coast posts here so i can get up to speed with my blogging. so many things happening, it's hard to keep up! pardon the interruption. more from san fran soon. promise.

my concert/baseball chucks. these are well loved.

want to hear a chuck taylor story? ok then. back in 6th grade, i vacationed in orange county with my relatives for an annual visit. my cool, california cousins were all wearing chucks (they were growing up around skaters and surfers, mind you. west coast flow. LA fashion forward trend setters). i wanted to be awesome, too, so i came back to kansas with a pair of black high tops. WOW. the immature kansas farm boys i grew up with were not prepared for the coolness of chuck taylors. i was the laughing stock of what was an already humiliating prepubescent year. fast forward 2 years later to 8th grade, and chucks were all the rage (finally). all of a sudden, everyone had them. plaid, navy, low tops, high tops. ugh. so much for trying to start a trend in the midwest. anyhoo, on to baseball.

my shirt is from alyssa milano's sports clothing line, touch. who knew?

i got this foam finger during my last summer in kansas city, right before i moved to denver. for some reason i've been toting it around from city to city. am i a baseball enthusiast? far from it! however, as pitiful as the last years have been for the royals, i am a loyal fan to my kansas teams (royals, chiefs, jayhawks, eh maybe the wildcats from time to time)  anyway, here it is in new york city. i had to meet up with luke halfway at the 125th st harlem stop to catch the 4 train up to yankee stadium. you can imagine the looks i got while walking up and down the subway in harlem with my giant blue finger.

nice vintage jacket

good to know

luke LOVES to snack on peanuts but unfortunately, yankee stadium only sells saltless ones! poor guy :(

he didn't realize until he had already opened them

 so he opted for this brat instead

mike aviles' family was there cheering him on, wearing yankees hats and royals shirts

he was so proud! and...the royals WON!

waiting for the train home. as usual. you do a LOT of waiting for transportation in new york. these are the times when i really miss my jeep back home in kansas.

on the way home, luke spotted a heads up penny at the stop in harlem

when i took this picture, people on the subway immediately snapped their heads around to see who i was photographing. they seemed pretty disappointed when they saw my subject!

the sunny mod room of nob hill

check out this sweet pad (aka 'sunny mod room') we got to stay in for 3 nights while in san fran. have you ever tried air bnb when traveling? it's an upgrade from couchsurfing (which i fully support) and i think it's more fun to save money and make friends with some locals (hotels are absurdly expensive!). i also don't mind staying in hostels, like this one in san diego. especially when i'm only sleeping in the room and dumping my belongings there. i'm even fine sleeping on park benches, as i did in paris years ago. call me crazy.

paper crane chain

a hint of tim burton

our hostess, alyssa, is a huge beatles fanatic like luke, so they got along great! alyssa and her boyfriend, nicholas, are huge design enthusiasts and had such fun style. 

an eames rocker in my favorite color, pistachio, and an outstanding vinyl collection that luke was thrilled about. do you see their rhino collection?

remote caddy made from knitting needles (or chopsticks?)

this awesome collection was in the bathroom and a lovely old cassette player accompanied them

(homer in a donut clock was a bonus!)

purified charcoal water to drink. definitely better tasting than NYC tapwater

i love this use of jars. i do the same with pasta and oats and rice.

so simple and uncomplicated. the chemex coffee maker

we were staying on the 3rd floor, where the second balcony on the right is

poor luke had to go to the doctor the morning before we flew out to CA with a terrible ear infection. they loaded him up with drugs and even told us to be prepared for his ear drum to burst from the pressure on the plane! :o he was SUCH a trooper and we had a blast despite his discomfort

we had a terrific experience staying in the sunny mod room of nob hill. perfect location and wonderful, interesting hosts with great suggestions on where to eat and explore. i highly recommend air bnb for your next travel adventure. do it!

we jam packed as much exploring as we could our few days in SF, so i'll be posting more of our adventures asap to wrap up our lovely west coast excursion.