July Wrap Up (Three Years in San Francisco)

from Pinterest

This month is my three-year anniversary of moving to San Francisco! Since I moved here during the summer, every year around this time I am reminded of that whole process, especially the housing search. I remember thinking, somewhat arrogantly, that if I could survive the NYC apartment search and even the DC market, then surely I could secure a place out in this "little" city. 5 days and 15 appointments/open houses later, I finally put an earnest deposit down on a spot, and it's become my home base for the past few years of West Coast adventures.

With that, here's the latest...

Summer Travels: NY-NJ-DC

ESB

I just spent about a week across the country back in New Jersey, New York City, and Washington, DC. Since I'm from/have lived in these places, I stayed with family and friends. My luggage mostly stayed in one spot, and I'd have a tote bag of everything I needed for the next 1-2 days (all hail the mighty tote bag). Even though I was out there for a whole week, it still felt like a whirlwind because there's always so much to do and so many people to see.

New Jersey to me is always family time, first with my family and now including my husband's. I don't have any pics from that time but I enjoyed seeing the relatives as well as catching up with old friends. Usually in the summers I get to go down the shore at some point, but this year I just didn't have the time, although the weather hadn't been that great for the beach so that's how I'm comforting myself. This trip did have a some mall shopping (NJ loves its malls and no sales tax on clothes), breakfast at a diner, and late night disco fries, so that it was good quality Jersey time. 

New York is always fun because even though I'm fairly certain I'll never live in the city again, I love going back to visit and walking around to see what's changed and what is still the same. Even though it was ridiculously humid on the days I visited, I walked about a cumulative seven or eight miles through the city. I was in Brooklyn (walked from downtown to Fort Greene), Chelsea, Midtown and Harlem. I finally got to go to The Grange which my friends had recommended for a while now... I am a little sad it didn't exist back when I lived up the street. 

Ft Greene

Yo is Brooklyn in the house...

street art

Then the reason for traveling this specific week was actually to end up in DC for a friend's wedding... actually two classmates of mine from when I went to grad school in DC ended up falling in love and getting married, and they decided to have their wedding near where they met. It was at a beautiful vineyard in Virginia, the weather was perfect, the music was this awesome 90s cover band whose concerts we loved back in school, and of course it was wonderful to have such a wonderful reason to hang out with good friends.

Bluemont Vineyard

Of course being a whirlwind trip, we ALSO saw a friend of mine from undergrad - a friend I had met when we studied in Spain, who moved to DC after I moved out of there. I hadn't seen her since my own wedding and it was good to spend a little time with her and her husband, see their new condo, and meet their adorable rescue dog. Again it was fun to see all the latest changes in a city I used to live in and see old friends make their home there.

And now I'm back home, back on the grind. It'll be another few months before I head back East but I am already looking forward to it.

homeward bound

Quick Links

Currently stuck in an airport and writing this while waiting for my delayed flight back home (& deciding what fast food meal to bring on the plane). I've gotten to read some good stuff while traveling over the past week, such as:

The first chapter of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, which is like catching up with an old friend:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/harper-lees-go-set-a-watchman-read-the-first-chapter-1436500861

I liked this piece because I am very anti-princess-wedding. 

http://intothegloss.com/2015/07/wedding-makeup-inspiration/

I finished reading The Martian, which was highly recommended by a friend and now I'm recommending it as well:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EMXBDMA/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&sr=&qid=

Another benefit for naps (as if we needed 

more convincing):

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2015/07/10/naps-may-improve-our-frustration-tolerance/?referrer=

(late) June Wrap Up

flower arrangements by Bloom That for Negroni Week

I like to have a recap of each month so that I don't just let it fly by without some reflection, or at least acknowledgment. Summer is flying by, though, and so much has been happening, and I can't believe it's July (wasn't it *just* MDW?).

June went by so fast because there was so much going on. It started off with Negroni Week, and a friend & I got to attend a special party thrown by Women & Whiskies. I hosted a couple events for my grad program (one bringing together alumni, and another for our incoming & current students interning in the Bay Area this summer). And I also attended batting practice with a couple friends before a Giants game, and we got to walk along the field before the game started!

pre-game!

For more nature-oriented activities, I went camping (for the first time!), up at Lassen. It was quickly followed by another camping trip at Marshall, part of the Point Reyes National Seashore. On the first trip we had a cabin that we drove up to, but for the second trip we kayaked to the beach and set up tents along the shore. Our tent was on a bed of clover and protected from the wind/mist under some pine trees. In the past couple months I've gotten a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and tent... basically I can go anywhere now.

camping @ Marshall, CA

Farewell to a fun June, and cheers to a great upcoming July!