Hills & Games | SF 2016

Monday, 12 September 2016Monday, 12 September 2016 StarrLeave a comment

Last time on SF 2016, we arrived in San Francisco and discovered that San Francisco Comic Con was taking place at our hotel! And then we ate and caught up and tried to adjust to the different time zone so we could have more adventuring…

Despite heading back to our hotel room at about 1:30AM PST, all four of us were rudely awakened by the sound of bells clanging at 7:30. While we were able to get a little more sleep after that rude awakening, our bellies had us wanting food soon enough. (Remember: our stomachs were still running on East Coast time.) There weren’t any set plans for breakfast/brunch, and in fact the group was originally just going to mosey around and find whatever, but our room convinced the group to get dim sum.

We called around, trying to minimize our wait on a Saturday morning for dim sum, and were told there was zero wait at Canton Dim Sum & Seafood. It was close enough to the hotel, so we walked over and found not only no line but hardly any people? High alert. While we had a nice time here, it was mostly the company that made the meal good and I would not recommend visiting… Lesson learned, don’t get dim sum in Soma.

After eating, we started to walk. And walk and walk and walk and walk and walk. We walked up the infamous San Francisco hills as we passed through Chinatown and grabbed some bubble tea on the way.

Look at that steep incline… as you’ll soon see, it only got steeper

Onward and upward until we reached Nob Hill, where we had this really stellar view of Alcatraz and of how much higher we were than where we started.

Yes, my legs were burning and yes, I was huffing and puffing a bit at this point

Cali & Cosplay | SF 2016

Thursday, 8 September 2016Thursday, 8 September 2016 StarrLeave a comment

Surprise! I went to San Francisco over Labor Day weekend so that Ben could see his college friends and so that I could see Christine! Shout-out to my fave who stayed behind in the city when she heard that I was going to be in town, even with many attractive offers to travel out-of-state tempting her!

We flew out Friday evening after work and arrived about half an hour earlier than we had planned. (Thank you, tailwind!) Checking into the hotel, I had the most magical realization:

img_2045-01 — SPOTTED: Eric & Ariel (in the same corset I wear for Ariel!) while rolling up to the hotel

San Francisco Comic Con was happening at our hotel! We have never seen a hotel lobby as crowded as this one was, but most of all, I have never been in the throes of a convention like this before and I was pumped beyond belief. While Ben’s friends were staring in awe at these nerds whose costumes they didn’t recognize, I had a singular thought in my mind the entire weekend:

These are my people.
I need to be among them.

It was a nice treat to see so many cosplayers and nerds celebrating the things they love every time I walked in and out of the hotel.

img_2046-01 — How great are these hand-made costumes?

Long story short, I resolved to get my nerdy self to a convention next year! We’ll see how that resolution goes!

We had a quick catch-up meal at Delarosa behind the hotel, and had to go all the way around rather than through the back of the hotel because an intimidating security man said so. (My guess: Talent coming in/out of those doors? I saw a poster that indicated Jenna Coleman was there!)

Most things closed by 11PM, so we headed up to one of the hotel rooms and just caught up and chatted for a while. It was nice to have the group all together again and free to just chill. The last time I saw most of these folks was at a wedding, and naturally, the then-newlyweds weren’t as free to hang out with us. This time, all of us were there for Labor Day weekend, to relax and spend time with friends.

Pacific Standard Time really started taking a toll on us this evening, as we stayed up until 1:30AM talking… but that was really 4:30AM Eastern Time! The time difference was always a blessing in the morning and such a curse in the evening.

What are your favorite things to do in San Francisco?
Have you been to a convention before? I’ve gone to conferences, but not conventions, and I am just dying to go. Would you dress up if you went?

Summer 2016

Monday, 5 September 2016Friday, 2 September 2016 Starr2 Comments

Happy Labor Day! Can you believe it’s September already? August definitely flew by. I spent most of past 2 weeks still thinking we were in the single-digit days of August, and then before I knew it, I was writing the wrong month on forms. What the heck!

Summer started out so mild. It took a long time for us to reach 80°F days, and folks were lamenting it. I knew, though, that we would soon regret wishing for 80°F as we were slammed with heat wave after heat wave. So many consecutive days where the highs were 90°F and up, and where evening temperatures didn’t dip below 80°F at all. So much sweating was done. BUT, even with the threat of Zika looming over me, I managed to escape with relatively few mosquito bites! (Although I doubt I’ll ever have as many as I did last year, when I had so many that the itching just cancelled out and I felt nothing anymore.)

A lot happened this summer, as I was gainfully employed the whole time (scoooooore) and was able to afford to say yes to a lot of opportunities. Here are some highlights that will find themselves on my year-end recap in a few months! (Holy moly.) If we consider “summer” to be June 1-August 31, here are a few little adventures that I had:Read More »

Unlimited Possibilities (U.P.)

Friday, 2 September 2016Friday, 2 September 2016 Starr7 Comments

I wanted to treat Ben (and myself) to a little something special for our recent trip to New York, so I booked us seats at Dominique Ansel’s after-hours, 7-course, dessert-only, 8-seat tasting menu, Unlimited Possibilities (U.P.).

I first learned of U.P. from my friend Michelle, who wrote an amazing write-up for the “First Memories Last Forever” menu that was available last year. The thought and execution of a menu that was designed around memorable “firsts” really drew me in, and I loved seeing how they used dessert to evoke these experiences and tell a story.

(I’m going to tell you right now that I was not impressed with the desserts. They were a lot more fun to look at than they were to eat. We left starving and unsatisfied.)

This season’s menu theme is “American Dreams“. (The theme changes every 6 months.) Each course is meant to evoke a different era of American dreams, beginning with the gold rush and ending with viral video. There is an additional wine pairing option, although we didn’t opt for that because we don’t drink very much so it didn’t seem worth it. We were, however, given a champagne flute of sparkling apple cider (one of my favorites!) to kick off the evening as they lowered the table from the ceiling.

We were then served a savory amuse-bouche because it’s supposed to be an inverted tasting, so because all our courses were sweet, courses that would ordinarily be sweet were savory.

Beetroot cracker with mushroom and pickled radish, yogurt sauce underneath

Our first course, Eureka!, was meant to evoke the gold rush. This was an interactive course, where we had to sift for gold nuggets. The “dirt” was coffee grounds were brewed during our meal and given to us at the end of our meal as a cold brew to enjoy. I didn’t realize that one of the nuggets was a sourdough bread pudding…? This was pretty fun to sieve through and the cold dessert was refreshing considering how hot it was outside. (A little messy, though, with the coffee grounds and lack of utensils to eat this with… Not exactly finger food!)