We're in California. Holy crap.

You know what's scarier than driving up a winding mountain road?
Driving down a winding mountain road.

You know what's scarier than driving down a winding mountain road?
Driving down a winding mountain road at night.

You know what's scarier than driving down a winding mountain road at night?

Driving down a winding mountain road at night with lowered visibility.

You know what's scarier than driving down a winding mountain road at night with lowered visibility?

Driving down a winding mountain road at night with lowered visibility from the forest fire that is raging away close to where you're driving.

You know what's scarier than driving down a winding mountain road at night with lowered visibility from the forest fire that is raging away close to where you're driving?

Driving down a winding mountain road at night with lowered visibility from the forest fire that is raging away close to where you're driving and trying to make sure that you make it out of the winding mountain road fast enough so that you beat the road closures that are caused by the OH MY GOD THE FOREST THAT I AM CURRENTLY IN IS ON FIRE AND I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING AND I'M IN CHARGE OF MAKING SURE THAT NO ONE DIES.

 ...but we made it. Mostly. And more later, I hope.

San Francisco recommendations

Colby's got a work trip in San Francisco coming up and Ramona and I decided to tag along.  I'm going to take advantage of the free admission to the conference and the fact that his company is situated next to the job fair.  Because in about a year and a half, I'll be looking for my first grown up job... at the age of 28.  Ugh.

I solicited some people about places to visit/eat/see/eat again in San Francisco and this is my synthesis of their responses.  Props to my friends for being awesome.  Now to decide how to proceed.  So basically, this post is for me.  :)

Restaurants

Bistro Boudin
160 Jefferson Street
415-928-1849
www.bistroboudin.com

The Original Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Manufactory
900 North Point Street (corner of Larkin Street)
415-474-3938
www.ghirardelli.com 

Ferry Building Market Place
One Ferry Building
San Francisco, California 94111
(415) 983-8030
http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/farmers_market.php

Trace
181 Third Street, San Francisco CA 94103
415-817-7836
http://www.trace-sf.com/

Greens (vegetarian)
300 Page St, San Francisco, CA
http://www.greensrestaurant.com/

Aziza (Morrocan)
5800 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA
http://www.aziza-sf.com/

Chez Panisse Cafe
1517 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA
(510) 548-5525 ‎
chezpanisse.com

Osha Thai

149 2nd St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 278-9991 ‎

or

696 Geary St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 673-2368 ‎

http://www.oshathai.com/

South Seafood Village (dim sum) ???

Brandy Ho's (chinese)

4068 18th Street

San Francisco, CA 94114

(415) 252-8000

brandyhos.com‎

Papalote (mole sauce)

1777 Fulton St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 776-0106 ‎

papalote-sf.com‎

Little Chihuahua (garlic shrimp or plantain burrito)

292 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 255-8225 ‎ 

thelittlechihuahua.com

Savor (brunch)

3913 24th St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 282-0344 ‎ 

savorrestaurant.com

Kate's Kitchen (brunch, cash only, biscuits)

471 Haight St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 626-3984 ‎ 

kates-kitchensf.com

Honey Honey (brunch)

564 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 255-6858 ‎ 

honeyryderboutique.com

Little Star Pizza (deep dish)

846 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 441-1118 ‎ 

littlestarpizza.com

American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

1 S Park St #103A, San Francisco, CA

(415) 243-0107 ‎ 

theamericansf.com

Pearl's Deluxe Burgers (Spicy Sly)

708 Post St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 409-6120 ‎ 

or

1001 Market St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 861-1605

pearlsdeluxe.com

Bossa Nova (mojitos)

139 8th St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 558-8004 ‎ 

bossahome.com

Stella Pastry & Cafe
446 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA
(415) 986-2914 ‎
stellapastry.com


XOX Truffles, INC
754 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA
(415) 421-4814 ‎
xoxtruffles.com

Places to go:

Golden Gate Park

Fulton & Stanyan Street
http://www.golden-gate-park.com/childrens-playground.html

San Francisco Zoo  

1 Zoo Rd, San Francisco, CA

(415) 213-4781 ‎ 

sfzoo.org

Japanese Tea Garden

75 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, San Francisco, CA

(415) 752-1171 ‎ 

japaneseteagardensf.com

Muir Woods National Monument

Mill Valley, CA 94941

(415) 388-2595

nps.gov‎

Ocean Beach

Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, CA 94122

http://www.parksconservancy.org/visit/park-sites/ocean-beach.html

Yerba Buena Gardens (carousel, bowling alley, ice rink, shops, tea lounge)

750 Harward St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 820-3550 ‎ 

yerbabuenagardens.com

The Presidio of San Francisco (Chrissy Field; Land's End Trail)

Pacific & Lyon

http://www.nps.gov/prsf/index.htm

Districts:

Chinatown 

Fisherman's Wharf - tourist trap

North Beach - little Italy?

The Marina - coffee shops and stores

The Pier 

The Richmond District - Eastern European/new Chinatown

Noe Valley

Castro

MSU Dairy Store

We returned from our great journey to the land of our youth a couple days ago, so the next several posts are probably going to be laden with pictures of food from Michigan.  We made a trip to the MSU Dairy Store in Anthony Hall when we were in East Lansing.  Anthony Hall is conveniently located next to the Biomedical and Physical Sciences building, which is where the physics and astronomy department is housed.  I used to frequent this location a lot while in undergrad and we wanted to let Ramona experience the, um, long lines since she's not on solids yet. ;)

Baby's first trip to the Dairy Store!

Something to look at while we wait

still waiting

green tea ice cream

Hoosier Strawberry milk shake (because it's really hard to eat ice cream with a spoon and not drop a baby)

I'm Back! Sort of...

December and January have been stupidly busy.  I spent a week in Boston writing my face off and then *immediately* turned around and drove from Austin to Michigan for ten days and then had friends over for New Year's Eve.  All the while, I was getting some sort of horrible head cold/sinus infection which started to become a real problem around New Years Day or so and I've been sick ever since.  Normally, I could just take a weekend and sleep it off, but I'm headed to Seattle to the American Astronomical Society conference tomorrow morning.  I'll be presenting on Tuesday, so you should stop by my poster, if you're in attendance.  I can tell you all about the wonders of the universe and stuff. ;)

I'll try to actually blog from Seattle.  I still have to tell the tale of the rest of the trip home, including our wonderful lunch at Zingerman's and a really fun dinner at Steve's Backroom.  Suffice it to say, I miss having good friends close by.