i ate a lot {of bacon} this weekend

ah! the feeling of walking the streets of san francisco on a warm evening after a few weeks’ absence! there’s nothing like it to wriggle color into my veins and make me feel alive. i drove up to the city on friday night and met dear friends for dinner in the castro. the quirky electricity of sf lit me right up.

we ate bacon pizza (and grilled pear and goat cheese salad, and butternut squash dumplings) and caught up at a window table in a trendy little restaurant. then we walked up market street to get the goods to make bacon s’mores. yes, that’s right. they were marvelously delicious.

on saturday morning, kelsey and i went to the ferry building. it was raining, so the crowds were thin.  i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, and again – i love love love the ferry building. we wandered and sampled and soaked up all the pretty little things. it was such a dreamy morning – truly my idea of perfect.

we bought a fresh raspberry donut and started sighing over its perfection, eating it right there in the middle of the ferry building’s main promenade. all of a sudden, about 11 photographers were crowded around us snapping pictures like mad! it was so crazy. they said, “oh yes! this is so good! keep eating, keep enjoying! this is great!” turns out they were on a photography workshop in the city with an accomplished national geographic photographer, and apparently our matchy green raincoats and kelsey’s bright boots made for a stellar photo composition. the teacher ended up buying us a scone so they could get more pictures of us after we’d devoured the donut. it was hilarious! watch for us on the cover of national geographic, i guess! it was fun to talk to the photographers, who had come from all over the world for this workshop. we giggled about our paparazzi moment all morning.

early spring at the farmer’s market means load of blood oranges and bright new flowers!

and check out the rainbow chard and multi-colored carrots and beets! we stuffed ourselves with all kinds of samples (cowgirl creamery cheese, every kind of hummus, coated almonds, dried fruit, kale chips, flavored olive oil…)

i dashed through the rain to meet my book club for brunch in berkeley. the restaurant made me feel like i had walked right into france. i had strawberry steamed milk out of a bowl, half a flaky morning bun, lemon gingerbread pancakes, scrambled eggs, and, as if i hadn’t had enough in 24 hours, bacon.

i felt like such a cheater enjoying all the deliciousness and wonderful company but not having read (or even acquired) the book. whoopsie! i’ll be better in april!

you know you’ve had a great weekend when it completely revolved around really good food…and people you love. i’m so into the bay area. this super rainy weekend was fantastically imbued with the charm that oozes out of all the different little geographic niches around me.

and with all that bacon, life is good.