The British are Coming!

Isn't it funny how visitors visiting makes you fall in love with where you live all over again (that is, if you loved where you live in the first place). At the end of March, my dear friend Abbie came to visit from jolly old England, along with her colleague, Annik. Abbie and I met and were pals in Ithaca, where she was attending Cornell, and then she up and moved back to the UK and I up and moved to the Bay Area. I was delighted to find out that she was coming to California for a conference. I haven't even been a resident here for even a year yet, so when a buddy comes to see me, I get SO excited to explore with them/have someone to ooh and ahh over this beautiful place with! I get especially psyched when I have an excuse to do something new in San Francisco. I still marvel over the fact that I am a quick train ride across the bay from such an amazing city.

After the gals sat around waiting for me to finish a costume fitting for a film (with Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen!) I was an extra in, we started our adventure at the Golden Gate Bridge and a walk down Chrissy Field. It is incredibly beautiful there. The views of the bridge are breathtaking and there is a beach where people frolic and picnic. We had an especially good time checking out the crabs and star fish that were in the shallows of the water! The starfish were SO unbelievably cute! Don't you love the picture of the two sweeties holding hands? ;)

After a meal at a Thai restaurant we stumbled upon starving, we decided to head across the Bay Bridge to explore Berkeley. A long stroll in the hills dropped us off at the Berkeley Rose Garden, which is my favorite place to hang in our city, just in time for a classic Berkeley sunset.



And then off through the Gourmet Ghetto until we reached our final destination for the night for some wood fired pizza (which we ended up not being able to get-- boo!), a beer, and a lovely outdoor patio experience at Jupiter!


The next day we started our morning on a tour of Alcatraz. I would say that it is very interesting to see this place once. It is definitely an experience to see what life was like for prisoners out on this little island and to learn of the history, but I don't think it is something I would want to do again (Sorry future visitors! I will wait for you back in SF!).

A tiny prison cell.

The old warden's house, before a fire gutted it!

The rest of the day had us literally walking from one side of the city to the other. We started in the Mission, where we had ice cream at the fabulous Humphry Slocombe, (so ridiculously good by the way) where I had "secret breakfast" flavor-- a concoction of corn flakes and whiskey and deliciousness. Those calories lasted us for most of the day as we walked and walked and walked up through Lower Haight, up to Haight-Ashbury, and finally landing at Golden Gate Park where we napped in the grass in the sun as it started to go down. We walked all the way down to the Civic Center BART from there, passing quintessential San Francisco neighborhoods and Victorian row houses (much to my delight). We ended up at a vegetarian restaurant, Ananda Fuara, by pleasant accident for a REALLY nourishing bowl of lentil soup and some vegetables before saying our goodbyes...until next time, Abbie!! xoxo!