Our Wedding Featured On HGTV

HGTV.com kindly featured our wedding this week. The entire gallery is here. Thanks HGTV for letting us take a walk down memory lane. :)  

Austin Bachelorette Party Weekend

My friend Laurie celebrated her bachelorette party in Austin, TX last weekend, and kindly invited me to join in the festivities. I flew out of SF bright and early on Thursday with my friend Paige, and after drinking a few Bloody Mary's on the plane and indulging ourselves with the latest magazines (Vogue, People, Vanity Fair, oh my!), we were there before we knew it. We met up with an old friend, Allison (posing above), and a new friend, Fran, and took a quick Lyft to the house.

We stayed in this cute craftsman style home in the Deep Eddy district, which is near Lake Austin. It has an amazing back yard, large family style dining table, and plenty of bedrooms, so it was perfect for a girls weekend.

The first night we blew through several bottles of rosé and champagne and through two boxes (!) of white wine. The wine festivities quickly escalated into a game of slap the bag, so needless to say the bachelorette party was off to a good start.

The Maid of Honor and artist extraordinaire, Madeline, made us dinner and even put homemade lavender sachets on our plates as party favors. I told you, she's crafty.

On Friday, we took a group trip to Barton Springs for the day. The lawns are sprawling and the water is chilly, so it's the perfect place to sunbathe and fight the 100 degree heat. After hanging out for a few hours, we grabbed tacos and margaritas and then went home to get ready for a night out.

"YAY BARTON SPRINGS WE LOVED YOU SO MUCH AND WE'RE SO HAPPY WE SNUCK OUR OWN MARGARITAS INSIDE TO ENJOY & NOW I'M JUMPING FOR JOY!" -The Bride

Friday night we ate dinner at Fabi + Rosi, which was a convenient two minute walk from our house. We found some friendly chickens hanging out back and dinner was so good. They had truffle fries, so enough said. They even brought out a sparkler surprise for the bride.

After that, it was time to get down to business -- the Dirty Sixth. Disclaimer: we're all super classy and what not, but this is a bachelorette party and we wanted free drinks and the opportunity to dance all night. We rode a mechanical bull. We took Jello shots. We danced to Trap Queen. It was the best.

On Saturday, we decided that we all needed a little hair of the dog and a lot of sun to sweat out the hangovers. We found a boat / driver on the cheap through Craigslist the morning of (bad idea?!) and set off in Ubers to the lake. It was so awesome (whew, GOOD idea!). We anchored our pontoon rental up to other pontoon rentals at Devil's Cove, drank Tecate, and floated on pool noodles to our hearts content.

Laurie, we love you. Austin, we love you. Can't wait to be reunited with these weirdos at the wedding. :)

Berkeley / Greek Theatre Day

A few weekends ago, we spent the day in Berkeley with our friends and then saw the Alabama Shakes in concert at the Greek Theatre that night.

We grabbed lunch at this Brazilian cafe, which has tri-tip sandwiches, pork rice bowls, and mango smoothies. The weather was on point, so we followed that up with some day drinking at Jupiter, which is a local restaurant with a big outdoor patio.

The theatre sits on Berkeley's campus and is a 15 minute walk from the downtown. You can actually bring food inside, which is awesome. We picked up hot dogs (!) from a downtown spot and then followed the crowds to the theatre. The venue itself is really cool. It's a general admission amphitheater with standing room at the bottom, concrete seats in the middle, and then a big grassy lawn at the top. Something for everyone! We arrived pretty late, so we grabbed seats on the lawn (luckily we brought blankets). The pros were that the views of SF, the bay, and the campus were gorgeous (check out that sunset above). The major con was that the hill was really steep and we kept sort of sliding down. I think next time we'll try to arrive a bit earlier and snag some seats, but we'll definitely be back to this gem of a venue. 

Tomales Bay Weekend

Lucas turned the big 27 last Wednesday, so we celebrated him all weekend long!

To kick things off, we grabbed drinks at Black Horse London Pub, which happens to be the smallest bar in San Francisco. It's just around the corner from our apartment. There are only 8 stools and 5 beer choices, and the owner, James, hangs out behind the bar and knows everyone by name. They don't have a fridge, so he just ices down the beers in a bathtub behind the bar...so awesome. We hung out with 2 other couples (and a baby!) for a few hours and it felt just like Cheers.

We followed up the beers with a much-needed dinner at our local pho spot. It was cold and dreary in SF on Friday, so it really hit the spot.

On Saturday we grabbed coffees at the Philz Truck, which is parked near Fort Mason on Saturdays and Sundays, and we had to get a bit creative on how to carry the drinks home on the scoot (didn't really think that one through...). We somehow managed to only spill a little bit.

After our coffee fix, we drove up to Tomales Bay. It's about a 1.5 hour drive north from San Francisco, but it is so scenic and feels like a total escape. Our first stop was The Marshall Store, our favorite spot for fresh oysters. 

The restaurant is right on the side of the road and the tables are set up against the water, so the convenience and views can't be beat. They have so many good food options: clam chowder, Cuban sandwiches, grilled fish, but their oysters are the best. We opted for chowder, BBQ oysters, and beers.

From there we drove up the US-1 a few minutes and stopped at Diekmann's General Store to pick up a few bottles of wine. We also couldn't resist hitting up the bakery across the street for some strawberry rhubarb pie (because, birthday obviously).

We stayed at the Inn on Tomales Bay, a very quaint and affordable bed and breakfast with sweeping view of the bay. Our room was very modest but had amazing bay windows and a cozy fireplace. Since there was no TV in the room and no cell phone or internet connection to be found, we played Scrabble (I won, of course) and listened to the extensive CD collection (Elvis, Bob Dylan, Nat King Cole - so great).

At the recommendation of the B&B owners, we went up the road to Nick's Cove for dinner. We snagged a table on the porch overlooking the water, and enjoyed the sun setting over the bay. We ate (more) BBQ oysters, lobster mac-n-cheese, clam chowder, and brussels sprouts (WE'RE SO HEALTHY RIGHT?).

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and drove over to Point Reyes, which is on the other side of Tomales Bay. We stopped at Perry's Deli to pick up sandwiches to go. We both agreed that if Perry's was in San Francisco, we'd eat there weekly. Our Reuben and Cuban sandwiches were to die for.

We drove over to the Bear Valley Visitor Center and then took a hike to the Point Reyes National Seashore. The hike was 4.5 miles each way and took us through meadows, forests, and along the shoreline.

Oh hi, Jurassic Park! 

Our favorite part of the hike had to be the cliffs and gorgeous coast line. Sadly there was a natural rock arch that collapsed about a month ago, so part of the trail was closed off, but we still managed to catch some pretty spectacular views.

 

The trip was so refreshing and revitalizing. Happy Birthday, Lucas!