My Last Real Weekend in California (SAD FACE)

I just cannot believe that my last full weekend in California is drawing to a close. This summer flew by so quickly. It’s a bittersweet feeling… I’m excited to go to Jackson Hole and see my family, but I don’t feel even near ready to leave the Bay Area.

Friday night I went to a taco truck launch party in Soma (“South of Market Street,” San Francisco). Tickets were free, but limited, so thankfully I saw the offer on Twitter and acted swiftly. I had been looking forward to this event all week, because after all I am a huge food truck aficionado. I brought Monica, the Wellesley intern working for another County department, as my +1 (as in my guest, not the Google+ version of Facebook’s “Like”). We got there fashionably late, which was a huge mistake and got us stuck in a long line. When we got into the event it was worth it, though. It was held inside a big empty warehouse that was prettied up for parties like this, and the taco truck was parked prominently at one end and bars lined the other walls. The truck is sponsored by a tequila company, so there were plenty of complimentary tequila trucks.

The taco line was really long, so we had the brilliant idea to get drinks before getting into line to make the wait more tolerable. By the time we got to the front of the taco line, not only had we finished our tequila sunrise and margarita, but the tacos had run out!!! We were so sad, but consoled with some really delicious rice and beans. I’m still disappointed I didn’t get my taco, though! (However, Alisa and I had had carnitas tacos and fish tacos at lunch at a farmers’ market in downtown Oakland that were really good, so I guess it wasn’t the end of the world.)

Although the tacos ran out, the cupcakes with tequila-infused flavored frosting and tequila drinks did not, so the night wasn’t a total bust. Monica and I also took advantage of the photo booth.

Friday was fun, but Saturday was definitely the highlight of the weekend. I had a restful morning – did some laundry and other household activities – and then headed back into the city. I met Steven, a Googler who graduated from Brown that I met at a Pixar intern’s birthday party earlier this summer, to talk about what it’s like to recruit for and then subsequently work for Google. We met at Philz, a (VERY) hipster coffee joint in the Mission. (I was dressed for dinner at a yuppie restaurant, so I looked pretty out of place…)

It was really great to talk to him and I am really glad that I’ve been able to explore a variety of postgrad options this summer, through my internship and through talking to people and reading about things. I’m planning on casting a wide net and keeping my options open. We’ll see what happens.

After coffee, I met Evan, one of my friends from Harvard (who is coincidentally also a Google intern) that I’ve taken Chinese with for the past three years. We went to Dolores Park, which is also in the Mission. There were so many people there. It was like a huge party! One section of the park was hosting what looked like an outdoor rave (the people HAD to be on some kind of drugs), complete with huge speakers blasting trippy music and people dancing like maniacs. It was quite a sight to behold.

We didn’t stay at the park for long, as we both had to meet our respective friends for dinner. I headed to back to Soma again, this time to meet up with a few rising juniors I’m friends with from hapa. (One was Treasurer when I was President, and the other was my Little Sib.) We had dinner at Triptych, a really interesting restaurant that has a rotating gallery of local artists’ paintings decorating their walls. The ambiance was really nice and the food was good. We shared some sweet potato fries with chipotle sauce, and then I had risotto with scallops and a balsamic reduction. It was all so delicious, so we once again lamented our return to HUDS in the fall.

Once we finished our long and leisurely dinner, I met Liza and her high school friend at Bourbon and Branch for an après dinner drink. Bourbon and Branch is a speakeasy that Polly and Alex recommended. The door was totally unmarked on the outside – no windows, no name sign on the building. We were meeting in “the Library,” so the password to get in was books. It was dimly lit and old-looking books lined the walls. There were hidden doors on one wall that led to another section (which required reservations and another password, neither of which we had).

The bartenders were dressed in old 20s-style clothing, and the drinks were all old fashioned, too. I had the Citizen Kane, which was made with caçhaca (aka Brazilian rum), some kind of simple syrup and bitters, then garnished with a sprinkle of cinnamon. It was sweet and delicious! I think it’s really interesting how mixology has become such a huge thing in SF. I guess gourmet food is becoming blasé, so we’re moving on to gourmet cocktails.

On a more serious note, the only distressing parts of the day was walking from the BART station to Bourbon and Branch, and then back again. Going to the bar, I felt pretty scared. I was by myself, and although it was only a few short blocks, there were lots of unsavory people on the sidewalk. A couple of boisterous men were walking down the sidewalk and as they passed me I felt uncomfortable when they walked aggressively close to me. Another man tried to talk to me, others just seemed to be looking me over. Needless to say, I was very relieved to have the other girls to walk back from the bar with when we decided to call it a night.

I’m not sure if it’s an East Coast/West Coast thing, or if I just haven’t spent much time in a city before, but I have never received so much unwanted male attention before this summer (or maybe I got a lot cuter this summer? Just kidding). I used to think that women who complained about getting catcalled/etc. were blowing things out of proportion, but now I realize that it’s all about intimidation, and it is wrong for these men to think that they have the right to act so aggressively towards another stranger. Some of these sketchy people can make the most innocuous things (i.e. “You have a good night”; “Hi”; “I like your dress”) sound really scary. After stewing about this on my BART ride home, I was so angry that if anyone had confronted me on my way back to my apartment instead of feeling anxious walking home, I felt like I would have not hesitated to just punch them as hard as I could. It is just so incredibly wrong that such people can exert power over others in this way and make them feel so uncomfortable. I guess that’s just the nature of sexist and gendered power these days – it’s so insidious that we often just brush it off and say that complainers are making mountains out of molehills.

Luckily, though, Sunday morning Lululemon hosted yoga in the park near my apartment, so I could channel some good Chi and get back my Zen SF feeling.

Here’s to one more great week!

The Fun Stuff

As much as I’ve been enjoying my internship, it can’t really hold a candle to all the fun stuff I’ve gotten to do in my free time. (Also, having just re-read this post, I noticed that the fun stuff is more often than not related to food stuff. Bear with me, and cross your fingers that this isn’t just morphing into another clichéd amateur food blog.)

On Wednesday, Steph came back to Berkeley after a brief trip to more archives in Sacramento. We met up with Liza (another Seneca member) and Ashley (one of my friends from HAPA) for dinner in Berkeley at Alborz, as per Polly and Alex’s recommendation. We had never had Persian food before, and while it was good, I wasn’t over the moon about it or anything. For an appetizer, we had crispy rice with a pomegranate-flavored stewy sauce over it. It was quite interesting. I think it’s called Tahdig. I like how there is such a huge variety of cuisines to sample out here – even more so than in Boston! The company was much better than the food. It was so great to be back in the company of a group of friends (whereas I usually have only gotten to see 1 or maybe 2 friends at a time out here).

Thursday was an excellent day, probably one of my favorite of the summer. A lot of that is owed to having such a great day at work (see previous post all about work), but the post-work festivities were also fabulous. I went home after work with Alisa to return the bike she had kindly lent me for the summer, and then met up with Liza and Steph (who had to fly out soon after) in the Mission at Mission Chinese Food (which I’ve seen on food blogs so many times that I was very eager to finally check it out). This restaurant is very cool: it started out as a popup restaurant, and gained such a cult following that it became a full-fledged dining institution. The façade of the building is very unassuming (I actually passed it a couple of times, because it looks like a cheap crappy Chinese takeout place from the outside). Inside it was very crowded (trying to squeeze back to our table, I actually came very close to knocking a bowl of soup off of another diner’s table… oops!) and they had Top 40 music playing, which was very unexpected in an authentic Chinese restaurant, and thus made it cool. My friends had already ordered and mostly finished eating, but I had some of what was left: nian gao (I prefer Grammy-style flavors, but the rice cakes themselves were cooked perfectly – not too gooey but not too hard), a spicy soup with shrimp wontons, Ma Po tofu (SO SPICY!!!!), and sea urchin and caviar egg custard. The food was Sichuan style, and thus needed to be washed down with hearty chopstick-fuls of rice, but it was definitely all very good and very authentic! I didn’t really care for the egg custard (I guess sea urchin is an acquired taste), but the rest was good.

Steph had to head to SFO after dinner, so after saying goodbye to her Liza and I walked around the mission some more. We passed Bi-Rite and poked our heads in. It was basically a free-spirit/non-corporate version of Whole Foods and clearly is a huge hit, because the line snaked all the way to the back of the store. Bi-Rite Creamery across the street is heralded as one of the best ice cream shops in SF and Alisa and Polly have sung its praises many times, so we had to stop by for a taste. I had a scoop of brown sugar with ginger caramel swirl and it was DELICIOUS! (Although I do wish that the ginger flavor had come through more.) I also sampled the honey lavender flavor, which was interesting but not my cup of tea (or should I say scoop of ice cream?). I was very pleased to notice that they use reusable spoons to give samples (see photos) to reduce waste. I LOVE that people and businesses here (generally) walk the walk in terms of sustainability. Sometimes in Massachusetts it seems like a bit of a publicity stunt, whereas here it seems like businesses don’t even think twice about it. It’s pretty cool that composting is a norm!

Next Liza and I headed to a Seneca alumnae’s apartment in a nice (read: expensive) part of the Mission for “Seneca Summer Sync,” which is a series of cocktail parties held simultaneously in cities across the U.S. for Seneca alumnae and undergrads to get together.

The Seneca alumnae are all so amazing! I never fail to have a great time meeting them and spending more time with those I already know. It’s really awesome to see women who haven’t met be able to really click and just totally hit it off, even if separated by years in age. And it was also nice to talk to San Francisco alumnae and get a feel for what it would be like to live here postgrad. Verdict: AWESOME!

Me and the Grad Board President

the whole group

San Francisco: a Foodie Heaven

The Bay Area has been such a great place to eat and drink this summer. The food is of such high quality; it’s so satisfying and fresh! This post will be all about eating and drinking (I swear I do some other stuff, too…).

Last Thursday (7/14) I met one of my friends from Harvard at Bar Adagio in San Francisco for their monthly Cocktail College. A promoter from VeeV (a young company that makes the first acai berry spirits and is the only carbon neutral spirits company) presented their product, which is like vodka but smoother and slightly fruity. Then the mixologist from Bar Adagio demonstrated how to make three cocktails, and afterwards we all got to learn how to make them ourselves. I made the plum first by shaking up an egg white (which made the drink frothy) and then mixing it with VeeV, allspice (cloves) simple syrup and plums. It was sweet and delicious, although it was a little bit cloying to drink during a warm summer day. It would be a great springtime drink I think. My favorite drink of the day was “the Watering Hole.” I made it by muddling (i.e. lightly smushing to release the flavors) basil leaves and a small piece of jalepeno. Then I added fresh watermelon juice (which was so delicious, I wanted to just drink a glass of it alone) and VeeV. At first it was way too spicy, but more basil and watermelon juice fixed that and it ended up being a complex and flavorful cocktail that was perfectly refreshing. Yum!

With our Watering Hole concoctions

My friend also brought her friend (who goes to Columbia), and she is working in sustainability, too. It was really fun to get to talk to her.

On Saturday my friend Steph (who is VP of the Seneca) arrived. She stayed with me for a few days so she could gather some information from UC Berkeley’s archives for her senior thesis. We met in downtown Berkeley at the Saturday farmers’ market to pick up some produce to bring to Polly and Alex’s house for our big lobster roll celebration in honor of their birthdays. We met Polly in San Rafael and stopped at Whole Foods to get some last minute ingredients. We were famished, though, and got distracted by delicious samples rosemary ciabatta.

Polly and I put together a delicious menu, and everyone pitched in to get the food ready.

Menu:

Farmers’ Market Heirloom Tomatoes and Avocado

With Black Pepper and Olive Oil Drizzle

Mussels Steamed With Diced Tomatoes and Spices

Crostini With Artichoke Dip

Asian-Inspired Cabbage Slaw With Mint and Cilantro

Open Face Lobster Rolls

(Fresh Maine Lobster From the Sterns)

Mayonnaise Version; Butter Version

Chocolate Soufflé Cake From Tartine’s

Served With Farmers’ Market Strawberries

Drinks:

Beers, Wines

Alisa, Willem and Guus also joined us. Guus was adorable! He took a while to warm up to me, but Steph was the baby whisperer.

We ended up having way more food than we could possibly eat, but everything was so delicious! Good food and good company.

After dinner, we played Dixit (a game too complicated to describe, but is basically a pictoral version of Apples to Apples). The best part of the game was when Steph called the category “Pippa Middleton” and all of the men had NO IDEA what that meant. I’m not surprised they hadn’t watched the Royal Wedding, but I would have thought you would have had to been living under a rock not to hear that name over the past months.

Finally it was time to head home (it was, after all, WAY past Guus’s bedtime). Alisa and Willem dropped us off in the city, and we took the BART back to Berkeley. Of course we had to make a pit stop at Jupiter, the favored bar of the summer, on our way home, but we ended up being too tired (or more like too full!) to really consume anything else.

On Sunday I showed Steph around Berkeley and the campus. It was a hot day by Bay Area summer standards (not so much compared to the heat wave sweeping the East Coast, though) so we stopped at CREAM (STANDS FOR WHAT?) and shared a gourmet ice cream cookie sandwich. The cookies were so fresh they were still hot and gooey, and they made the ice cream soft and extra creamy as it melted. Definitely a worthwhile indulgence.

Later on we walked down to Whole Foods, which was fitting because I often talk to her on the phone when I’m grocery shopping there and get caught up on our respective summers. It’s been so nice to have her here in the flesh instead!

We got all the necessary ingredients to make some crostini from Bon Apetit’s crostini article. We made bruschetta using beautiful cherry tomatoes in every color: red, orange, yellow, and purple. We ate them while they were still warm, heaped over a piece of toast with goat cheese. It was so delicious!

The other ones we made were: (1) fig spread with goat cheese and prosciutto, and (2) goat cheese and fresh farmers’ market peaches.

To get more veggies, we roasted some zucchini and now Steph understands why I’m obsessed with Pensey’s Spices’ Sandwich Sprinkle.

When we were (finally) done eating, we sat around talking about how much we were dreading going back to eating college food. It’s been so great to cook for myself and eat whatever I want, whenever I am hungry for it. I am really really REALLY not looking forward to my return to HUDS (Harvard University Dining Services). Plus, I’ll really miss all the great produce and restaurants out here.

Working Girl (Saturday, July 23, 2011)

I’ve already written a little bit about my internship, but this post will be all about it. I’m really loving my work! Last week we filmed a documentary, called The Great Race, which involved employees ‘racing’ from one County office to another using different modes of transportation. The goal of the video clip is to promote public transit and alternative modes of transportation like biking. I was the producer of the video, which was much more complicated than I had anticipated, but also really fun! (Between producing this documentary, and talking to all the Pixar interns and Polly/Alex about ILM and special effects, I have a new appreciation for all of the work that goes into making movies.) We had help from my supervisor’s friends who are amateur filmmakers. I had been prepared to film guerilla-style using point and shoot cameras, but they brought all kinds of gear: a boom to capture sound, fancy cameras, and some big disc to bounce light onto people’s faces to illuminate them better. Leading up to the day of the shoot, I had to deal with all kinds of logistics and organizational details that I never would have anticipated! Day of, my biggest challenge was reigning in the artísts. They would get caught up on the minute details and want to perfect the shots, but since we were on a very tight schedule, I consistently found myself cajoling them into moving onto the next thing. The experience overall was very interesting and it was fun to channel my artsy/creative side (although to be honest, my role was more management-oriented than creative). Once the post-production is done, I’ll try to post a link.

Later in the week, my supervisor, Emily, praised me a lot for my work producing and directing, which was really nice to hear. I’m glad that I impressed her.

Working with one of the filmmakers.

This week passed by in a blur at work… I can’t believe I only have one week left! I’m trying to wrap up my projects and make the final push to get projects approved and implemented before leaving, so things have been really busy.

Tuesday I led a big meeting with employees from agencies across the county and presented on the purpose and goals of having a Sustainability site on the employee intranet, and then facilitate discussions to solicit their ideas.

Thursday was my favorite day at work so far. It was great! I went to a Green Team meeting, comprised of employees who don’t work in the Sustainability Department. At these monthly meetings, they discuss pet projects related to environmentalism that are not directly in the scope of the Sustainability Department’s work. One project they are working on was inspired by a project at Harvard. Because I work with Harvard’s Office for Sustainability, I knew a lot about the project and could share my expertise. It made me feel really good to see that people were really listening to what I had to say and even taking notes, indicating that my feedback was valuable.

Another project discussed at this meeting was Dig Deep Farms (http://digdeepfarms.weebly.com/), which is a cross-agency project that involves repossessing abandoned lands and turning them into viable farmland. The project employs young people from the County’s probation system to give them the resources to stay away from violence and crime. The food that is grown on these farms is then sold back into the communities using a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model. By doing this, Dig Deep Farms provides healthy food at affordable prices to food desert areas that lack such resources.

This project was on the agenda to discuss because it has been failing to really take off in terms of getting people to sign up for CSA deliveries and continue participating. I had never heard of this project, but as I learned about it throughout the meeting, I had all kinds of ideas and solutions for ways that operations could be improved and better ways to do outreach and get people to participate. Talking about how to improve this project (which I think is an AMAZING idea that incorporates so many issues that I am passionate about – social empowerment, health, and sustainability) made me feel so inspired and passionate. I would love to just stay here in the Bay Area and tackle this project as my own. I had to bite my tongue to keep from volunteering to help them remotely via phone and email during the coming months (between my thesis, running the Seneca, looking for a job, and enjoying senior year, I’m going to be so busy that I really need to avoid taking on anything else).

This meeting was so great for me, because it made me realize that my strengths and skills really are valuable. What I enjoy doing, and succeed in doing, is improving existing organizations and projects, which are often fledgling organizations, or are in need of rebranding. I’ve struggled at Harvard with feeling like I need to do something technical, like statistical analysis or engineering or some other math/science, in order to set myself apart. Unfortunately I don’t feel very inspired by those things, and am much more interested in the social world (which is why I was drawn to Sociology). After this meeting, I really saw that outreach skills, and analyzing why things fail from a social standpoint, really ARE strengths and ARE valuable, and not everyone can do them. This all makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and also makes me feel like my career prospects aren’t so bleak after all.

Can I pack 2 weeks into one post?

So I have been bad about blogging recently… Things are just so crazy here (in a good way)!

Let’s see… to start: a couple of weeks ago I got a “Severe Weather Warning” from weather.com. I started thinking forest fires and mud slides, but then I opened the warning and it said: “There’s a chance that the Bay Area will get up to 1 inch of rain.” WHAT?! That’s what they call “severe” weather?! Jeez.

In other crazy news, when I was jogging around Lake Merritt, I saw a lady who had to be crazy. I saw her pick up geese feathers off the sidewalk and then pin them in her hair (you can kind of see it in this photo). Later I saw her doing yoga out on a dock in the lake, surrounded by seagulls and other birds. There really are some interesting characters out here.

In foodie news: last Wednesday (7/6) Kevin and I checked out the Berkeley Off the Grid event (OTG events are weekly gathering of food trucks). The food was, of course, excellent! Grilled cheese with truffle oil… of course that’s good. Adding truffle oil to something is almost unfair, because it HAS to taste good once you do.

Thursday a bunch of us went to The Trappist, a specialty beer bar (http://www.thetrappist.com/about/). The venue was very chic and the ambiance was really nice and trendy. We got to try (free) samples of lots of different kinds of beers, so I tried to branch out a bit. This resulted in some hits (I ended up ordering a beer that had a really woody flavor that tasted pretty sophisticated), but also some misses (choking down the sour beer was not the highlight of the night). It’s fun, but also kind of weird, to go to bars and live such a post-college/adult life. The swanky bars like this one are a far cry from the college-y dive bars. However, I have to say I really don’t like the concept of meeting people at bars. While we were sampling beers, some men (who were definitely too old) were talking to us and I just don’t like the concept of strangers intruding. Yes, I do realize that this sounds very arrogant (“What?! This rando deigns to speak to me? Who does he think he is?), but I just don’t like meeting strangers. I like meeting new people that are friends of friends or something like that but not people with no credibility/references.

Friday night I hung out with Monica, who is from Wellesley College and interning for Social Services at the County. She’s living at a fraternity house that is the historical frat or something like that. The house itself was really cool! It looked kind of rustic/farm house-y. I met a boy named Michael Jordan when we were out, and it reminded me of the story of how I named Michael after Michael Jordan. Because frat parties here are fairly lame, we left and went to a bar called Kip’s, which is apparently the Berkeley bar. I was either too tired or just really do dislike when random men try to talk to me, so I didn’t last long there and headed back home. One thing I will definitely miss a LOT about Harvard/college, is how I know everyone (or most everyone). I much prefer to go to parties and spend time with people I’m friends with than go to bars with a few friends and socialize with random people.

Okay… FINALLY… the weekend! I hope you’re still reading this long epic post. But now you know how I feel during the week… it can really drag until we hit the weekend. So here goes:

Saturday was great! I woke up feeling refreshed and well-rested (so I guess it was a good thing that Friday night’s destinations were so lame). I went for a nice run, and stopped by a farmers’ market in downtown Berkeley. I was only planning to pick up some produce to cook with, but my stomach was grumbling, so I also got some brunch from Raw Daddy’s Fun Cone Food (http://www.rawdaddyfoods.com/). I had the Forest and Earth Mushroom Polenta cone (Filled with layers of our freshly made corn polenta and a rich composition of portabella, oyster, and brown mushrooms, raw-simmered in our white truffle oil and smoked sea salt marinade. Drizzled with a counterpoint of our zesty mustard vinaigrette.) It was all I could do not to gobble it down in one bite… it was so good! The man, Raw Daddy himself, was quite a riot. He looks just like the cartoon drawing on his logo: he had neon green nail polish, long and unruly blonde hair, and a black hat with neon green ribbon.

After a nice relaxing morning (that was quintessential SF: local food and exercise…), I met Kevin in SF to go to Coit Tower. Coit Tower is kind of near Embarcadero and to get there you can be a lazy tourist and take a bus, or you can be rugged and hike up 800 stairs. We went with the latter, and while the stairs were rough (especially after just having run…), the gardens that the stairs wound through were worth it. I can’t believe it, but people actually live on this steep steep hill! There were houses right beside the stairs (I wish I’d taken some photos!). From the top, we could see Lombard Street in the distance. It looks so much cooler from far away. I remember driving down it when I visited SF with my family, and it was NOT fun to sit in traffic on Lombard Street for eternity. Walking back down, I was disappointed that we hadn’t glimpsed any of the wild parrots that supposedly live on the here. I was dawdling going back down the stairs hoping that they would miraculously appear. Then they did! All of the sudden, a little flock of 8-10 parrots flew overhead squawking. Before I could get over the excitement of seeing the parrots, I saw a hummingbird a few yards away from me. So cool!

For dinner, I had pupusas at El Zocalo in the Mission, as per my friend Anthony’s recommendation.

After dinner we met Pixar interns at Smugglers’ Cove, which is a pirate-themed bar that Polly recommended. The décor was cool, and the drinks (all with rum) were delicious. We had a scorpion bowl… but it was a far cry from the ones they serve at the Kong in Harvard Square!

Smugglers' Cove's version of a "scorpion bowl" -- complete with fire!

The highlight of the night, though, was definitely getting a drink. While waiting to be served, I told my friend Rigo that I wanted to get the male bartender so that I could try to see if I could get a free drink. As fate would have it, I ended up being served by the female bartender. I ordered the “House Special,” which was a complex and involved drink that involved three types of rum and lots of other ingredients. I was so impressed with the bartender’s mixology skills and how deftly she could mix multiple drinks at once. Being a little tipsy, I told her how impressed I was and how it was amazing she was making the drinks so fast (which I threw in because I read on Yelp that lots of patrons criticize this place for being slow to make drinks, so I figured she would appreciate it). She was very appreciative, and handed me my House Special with an orchid for garnish (NOTE: the man who recommended this drink to me did NOT have such a flower in his drink!). Then… she never charged me. So I went back to my friends with my free drink in hand feeling very very pleased with myself. Who knows what it was… maybe she just really appreciated the compliments, or maybe she thought I was hitting on her (I don’t have reason to believe she was gay, but it IS San Francisco, after all. Haha), but I wooed my first free drink from a bartender.

Sunday was another fun-filled day, but it was quite exhausting. I borrowed a bike from Alisa and haven’t really ridden it much, but one thing I wanted to be sure to do this summer was bike to the ocean through Golden Gate National Park. So that’s what Kevin and I did Sunday (I’m so glad to have a close friend out here to hang out with, or else I’d get lonely!). We biked from the Civic Center through the Panhandle and into Golden Gate Park and all the way down to Ocean Beach. We stopped to get some food at Shanghai Dumpling King. The xiaolongbao were delicious (or maybe I was just starving).

I really wish I had had more time to spend exploring the park, but it was just so huge! I’ll definitely have to come back – to SF and specifically to the park. I feel like I’ve been trying to do a little of everything, but there are lots of places I want to go back to and spend more time at.

The ocean was beautiful, but sadly totally freezing! Once again I find myself wishing I had taken more photos, but c’est la vie. Biking back from the ocean was pretty painful. All in all we probably biked for six hours. My butt was so sore! I haven’t ridden a bike in so long! Yikes… I don’t know how those Tour de France guys survive.

So it looks like I was only able to pack one week into this post, but I get an A for effort. I will try to pack another week into another week soon! And I will try to take more photos. I can’t believe how fast things are flying by!