If you're going to San Francisco... ~ Sutro Baths

As the plane hovered over San Francisco I felt a familiar heart tug that I always get whenever I go back to the island... the sheer joy of coming home.

First day back in San Francisco and the sun happily shone down on us. Drove down to the Sutro Baths where we enjoyed the breathtaking sight of the Pacific. We took a short hike through cliff-lodged cypress trees, got a view of the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge and spent time enviously watching surfers catching some fierce waves.

It's so good to be back!

Blue skies!

Cliff-lodged cypress trees

What a beauty

Lovely day to be out.

Sutro Baths

These sun worshipers found a cozy spot

Tales from the East Coast (part 3)

Florida, the last leg in our East Coast trail. Such joy when we arrived in Tampa, we were greeted with two of the best things in the world ~ family and sunny weather!

Being in Florida meant reuniting with one of my favorite cousins and best friends, meeting her son Riley (who we couldn't stop hugging and carrying), seeing my cousin Mikey and his Special Olympic swimming medals (who won a total of 8 golds and bronzes in Greece) and seeing my uncle and getting to spend time with everyone in their new home.

We fell in love with their house the minute we walked into the living room. Inside everything was spacious, the living room and kitchen on the 2nd floor plus the bedrooms on the upper level overlooked the ocean. Shortly after we arrived, we heard shouts from my aunt and uncle. We ran to the deck and saw 2 dolphins swimming and jumping out of the water! It was such a treat! Dolphins playing in the wild, in their own backyard.

Days were spent swimming in their saltwater pool, having barbecues, jumping off the dock, eating ice cream and taking walks on the beach. But mostly spending time with family we don't see very often.

And for the first time, I truly felt I was on vacation. I was not traveling nor reading maps, I wasn't running after trains or trying out new cuisine... I was waking up to the sunrise and sleeping in again. I was making my breakfast smoothies in the kitchen. I was cooking dinner with family and watching tv (!) and I was hanging out, just blissfully hanging out.
 
It was such a wonderful and love-filled stay for which I am deeply grateful ♥ Vacations have taken on a different meaning. I've always believed that traveling is good for the soul and now I see that vacations like these are good for the heart. Thank you Universe for letting me see.

Our blissful view, every single day.

Great to be with family ♥

The new man in the clan ~ Riley ♥

Living room

Love love love ♥

Poolside afternoons

Boys' day out

Play time!

Sunrise through our bedroom window ♥

If you're going to San Francisco... ~ Now And Zen Music Fest

A wonderful surprise for my birthday weekend was a music festival at the Golden Gate Park! Every year radio Alice 97.3 throws a big end-of-summer free concert in Golden Gate's Sharon Meadow. This year their line-up featured Hedley, Tristan Prettyman, Phil Philips (yes America's newest sweetheart), Ed Sheeran, Matt Nathanson and Alanis Morissette. Needless to say I was pretty stoked. I was looking forward to seeing Philips and newest favorite Ed Sheeran. They did not disappoint. It was clear to see what the hype was all about with Philips' powerful melodic voice, while Sheeran's smooth and dreamy vocals cradled the entire crowd, women especially. Nathanson, who's now a native of San Francisco, had the crowd going with his comic antics and of course, all too familiar tunes.

The sun made me wish I had my island clothes with me! Nevertheless we all had a great time laying on the grass, munching on our picnic food, lining up forever for a popsicle (watermelon and mint, it was worth it!), catching up with my dearest friend Chica (also my travel buddy, we've been together in 3 different continents the past 3 years, how cool is that), hanging out with hometown friends who've made SF their home and simply enjoying the entire scene. I truly couldn't ask for more. ♥

Golden Gate Park's Sharon Meadow

Hillside Picnic

Golden boy Phil Philips.

Chica and the popsicle

Eya

Watching from the tree top is cool too

Peace, love and good vibes!

We're heading to the East Coast and the SF series will be back in a couple of weeks. In the meantime watch out for other travel logs! ♥

If you're going to San Francisco... ~ Farmer's Market

The mere fact that the Ferry Building gets blogged twice in this series shows how fantastic it is. Saturdays, like I previously mentioned, is the weekend farmer's market where local farmers sell their amazing organic produce (I tasted the sweetest tomatoes, scored Padron peppers) and some of the city's best food trucks show up (yummy Mexican fish tacos and tamales + sweet lavender lemonade). And it just so happened that this particular Saturday was also my birthday :) what a treat!

The Ferry Building

Jewels in the sun ~ yellow, red & PURPLE bell peppers!

Organic Broccoli

The cutest pumpkins ever!

Curried Mango salt, anyone?

The perfect day

The perfect date(s) (with my girlfriend Chica partially hidden in the background)

The perfect birthday! :)

If you're going to San Francisco... ~ Hayes Valley

Scenes from a happy Friday.

A lovely gentle Anusara class with Darcy Lyon which my travel weary body sorely needed.

The perfect french toast for brunch at La Boulange.

A walk around Hayes Valley's picturesque neighbourhood, checked some of their lovely shops.

And finally an "exciting" drive along Dolores St., a beautiful palm tree lined that goes up and down the hills of San Francisco.

Yoga Tree studio on Hayes St.

Lovely Hayes Valley

The perfect french toast at La Boulange
(check out the creamy egg custard at the bottom of the toast!) 

La Boulange

Just one of the many pretty Victorian houses on Dolores St.

If you're going to San Francisco... ~ Ferry Building

I don't think it was the remnants of a jet lag that woke me up at 4:00 in the morning. I couldn't go back to sleep, in fact I was completely wide awake. It was Thursday after all, and Thursday meant the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building! 

I thought daylight couldn't come fast enough but finally around 10:00 am, the sun came out full blast as we drove to Embarcadero. It was nearly impossible to wipe the silly smile off my happy face (seriously) but we came hungry so after scanning all the food stalls & vendors, we decided to go for some rustic tomato soup and a grilled cheese stuffed flatbread from Cowgirl Creamery; and this pesca-vegetarian is not sorry to say that lunch also included The Mess Piggy ~ a pulled pork sandwich (their bestseller) at Boccalone. Let me just say this, it was the best pork sandwich I've had!

After a heavenly lunch we took a closer look at the vendors inside the building and got a few goodies for myself ~ a beautiful soup ladle made out of olive wood, a salted dark chocolate truffle tart from Miette , a small basket of fresh strawberries and a box of chocolate covered Fleur de Sel Caramels from Recchiuti! ♥ 

Next farmer's market is on Saturday where some of the city's top chefs come & set up food stalls. Me and my belly are looking forward!

Food stalls outside the Ferry Building

Fresh organic produce from local farms

Boccalone. It says " Tasty Salted Pig Parts"

The Cowgirl Creamery for all cheese lovers!

Recchiutti Artisan Chocolates

Yummy looking organic ice cream

Lavender Shortbread cookies from Miette

This post is the 2nd in a series of our San Francisco travels.

If you're going to San Francisco...

It's been over 3 years since my first visit to San Francisco. Back then it was the peak of winter, which meant clear blue skies and cold crisp air, road trips to Lake Tahoe, cable car rides along the city's winding roads and then some.

Coming back I'm armed with a totally different intention and that is to enjoy the city in my most relaxed and languid pace. To explore the different neighborhoods without an end point in mind. To drop by the flea markets and indie shops that San Francisco is quite known for. Have long weekend brunches. Go to a yoga class and BE the yoga student. Show up at the Ferry Building for the much-loved Farmer's Market and stuff myself silly. Go back to all the places that my husband and I have come to love from that first visit.

Which is why on our first day here, we went straight to Trader Joe's. This is my happy place, as all good food places are. I almost danced my way around the aisles while I stocked up on some great organic produce. The rest of the day was spent cooking lunch for two (yum!), napping (cold weather makes it so easy) and heading out to grab a hot bowl of Pho for dinner.

That's as relaxed and languid as it can get. And most importantly, it's just the two of us. ♥ 

Artisan bread at Trader Joe's baked fresh daily.

Cheese, cheese and more cheese!

Goodnight SF ♥ 

 

 

This post is the first in the (If you're going to San Francisco) series.