Oh, Shucks: A Day at Tomales Bay

I've been hearing murmurings about "oysters" and "tamales" around the bay area for awhile now.  Turns out all the fuss isn't about seafood wrapped in masa, but rather Tomales Bay Oyster Company, up in Marin County.  We finally made it up this weekend, and we brought some parents along for good company and superior oyster shucking/picnic-ing skill.  

We were surprised at what a big deal this place is.  It's in the middle of nowhere (Marshall, CA?  Never heard of it.), there's no cell service, and no one really seems to live around it.  And yet, you come around the bend to find cars parked all over the place, dozens of picnic tables scattered around the shore, and a couple hundred local, friendly people huddled around BBQs, knocking back beers and oysters.

This wasn't Faith's first rodeo, so she posted up at our shucking station, offering up kumamoto oysters to us on a lovely bed of iced rock salt.

Faith even taught me how to shuck 'em.  It's strangely satisfying to pry that sucker open!

My mom brought shish kabobs, and we also had lots of cheese, fruit, wine, salad, cookies-I could go on.  It was quite the feast.

One of the highlights of the day was that my parents brought little Emma along.  She was so freaking excited the whole time, which just goes to show that we've got to get her out more!  

After the majority of the shucking and BBQing was done, we hunkered down and played some cards while we munched.  I will definitely go back to Tomales Bay-it gave us such a peaceful, relaxing day filled with good food and lots of people I love.

A Giant Birthday

For my dad's birthday this year, we were fortunate enough to be gifted Giants-Dodgers tickets from a friend of his.  And these weren't just any tickets-no, they were third base line, between home plate and the Giants Dugout, two rows behind Larry Baer, CEO of the Giants organization.  

It was one of those epic birthday celebrations, when all the stars and stripes align, and not only do you have your whole family there and great seats but they're playing the Dodgers, and you're eating delicious nachos with your favorite beer, and Larry Baer wishes you happy birthday, and the Giants have a blow-out win 9-0.  It was one of those kinds of birthdays.

I was walking up the aisle when Larry Baer was arriving at the game, so I put my hand up, exclaimed, "Hi, Larry!" (as my mom likes to say, "You're on a first-name basis, huh?"-I guess I was supposed to say Mr. Baer) and he gave me a high-five with his 5-lb. World Series ring.  That thing is seriously gigantic and ostentatious, taking up all the space between his knuckles-I don't know how he even lifts his hand up.  

Larry, ehm, Mr. Baer, was extremely friendly, happy to chat with anyone that walked up to him, and we even got a happy birthday photo with the boys.  The other boys, the ones actually playing a game on the field while we hob-nobbed and stuffed our faces, were on fire.  We snagged four runs in the first inning alone, Crawford and Ishikawa both got home runs, and MadBum kept the Dodgers from doing much of anything.

It was such a beautiful evening together.  Thanks again to Mr. Guggenhime for the opportunity!

On the Run: J + B

I've seen Jay.  I've seen Bey.  But this week a miraculous event happened: I got to see them together, live, at AT&T Park in San Francisco.  And they said it would never happen.

Are they getting a divorce?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Do they have 99 problems and then some?  Who doesn't.  Were they cold towards each other at the show?  Perhaps.  But...

Did seeing them come out singing '03 Bonnie & Clyde make me scream like a tween?

Did joining in Jay's arm bounce give me goosebumps?

Was Beyonce's butt a human marvel?

Yes, yes, and wow, yes.

Of course before all that, the show required a bit of prep work in the form of creating knock-off tees, all with quotes from Bey's Visual Album.

We also thought it would be wise to stretch it out, and really prepare for all the low-getting, booty-bouncing show-me-what-you're-workin'-with moves that were sure to break out.

Some of us Box girls (present and past) getting psyched up at 21st Amendment.

Once we get to our seats, we could't stop marveling at the view of the bay, the stage, and the bridge, plus the fact that we were in the front row of our section, meaning we could precariously lean forward in excitement, and there were no heads bouncing around to distract us.

"This is NOT real life"

'03 Bonnie and Clyde

[Jay] All I need in this life of sin, is me and my girlfriend
[Bey] Down to ride 'til the very end, it's me and my boyfriend

I'm starting to worry that Bey didn't mean it.

Jigga what?  Jigga who?

Hand prints and good grips

Drunk in Love

"This is real life"

They went non-stop for 2.5 hours, and so did we.  The whole "On the Run" story tied all the songs together amazingly well, the dancing and the costumes were crazy cool as expected, and they played a ton of crowd favorites.  For the finale, we even got to see shots of their top-secret wedding, plus unreleased footage of Blue Ivy and vacation fun.  Still, it was hard not to notice that Beyonce just didn't have the sparkle in her eyes that she usually does.  The show quality was amazing, the music my favorite, but Bey without her genuine sparkle is just hard to accept.  My sights are now set on the 2015 "How Beyonce Got Her Groove Back" Tour, dates TBA.

Lighthouse Party of Six

This weekend we fulfilled a bucket list item: staying at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse off of Highway 1 in Pescadero, CA.  The hostel is a steal, offering a secluded getaway with stunning ocean views, a relaxed ambiance, and a private hot tub on the cliff for pennies quarters on the dollar.  Since it's a hostel, everyone is extremely friendly (some people a little too much so! #lighthouseofpartyof8?) and our favorite new friend was Michael, the unhurried, all-smiles man at the front desk who gets to live there all the time.

Our group was made up of six girls, including Brittany, Melissa, Gio, and Gio's two roommates, Hannah and Marie, who are childhood friends from Wisconsin.  It was such a great group of girls, and we're already planning what our next five weekend getaways together could be.

As I said, the views were spectacular, and we got particularly lucky with the weather, as it was the clearest of weekends.  

(Photo credit: Giovanna)

Downtown Pescadero, a 10-minute drive from the lighthouse, was a quaint whistle-stop filled with surprises.  At Duarte's Tavern, which was founded in 1894, we enjoyed their famous artichoke soup and ollallieberry pie.  At Pescadero Country Store, we relaxed in the sun as we scarfed down delicious sandwiches and played with dogs.  This little town had it all: cute shops amidst old barns and secret gardens; wine tastings with cute assistant vintners named Luke; groceries with warm artichoke garlic bread.  As Melissa said, we were pretty much eating or laughing or both the entire weekend, and it was great.

Nearby, we visited Harley Farms Goat Dairy, whose restored barn was originally built by Azorean men!  A surprise baby goat had been born two weeks earlier, and we got to ooh and ahh over him for awhile.  He seems to spend much of his day trying to climb into this trough (a trend we noticed among goats).

The lower level of the barn is their cheese shop, where they sell anything you can imagine related to goats, and then some.  Highlights were these artistic cheeses, especially the one second from the left entitled "Van Goat", and their spectacular habanero jelly that's not to be missed!

On the upper level, they were setting up for a lovely farm wedding reception that evening.  This wildflower bouquet was probably taller than me (I can't tell you the number of delightful wildflowers we saw over the weekend).  Harley would be a fantastic venue for a magical 20-person dinner party.

A little farther south from the lighthouse, we had Sunday brunch at Highway 1 Brewery (I finally ate chicken & waffles) and then we went to Pie Ranch for...more pie, and...more goats.  

Despite all these jaunts, the majority of our time was spent taking advantage of the hostel.  Late in the evenings, we were huddled in our tiny room, playing games, having our tarot cards ready by Melissa ("Hope on top of joy"; "Cups on cups on cups"), eating pie, and trying not to sweat.

The best meal we had the whole trip was one we assembled ourselves from the markets and farms in Pescadero, complete with local berries and tomatoes, goat chèvre and feta from the farm, freshly made guacamole, lemon-stuffed olives, salami, and that killer artichoke garlic bread I'm mentioning again because it's just that damn good.  Later that evening Marie built a fire and we made s'mores while Brittany told us a ghost story about the lighthouse ("Light!  Daaaaarkness.  Light!  Daaaaarkness."  "One week and seven days later...") that had some of us spooked, but more often than not we were in stitches of laughter.

And finally, the crowning glory of the hostel: the cliff-top hot tub.  We took a dip both evenings, but by the second we were seasoned professionals, being sure to reserve the time slot during sunset, which was jaw-dropping.  Drinking blackberry wine prosecco and listening to our special playlist, with feet in the tub and this view?  It was heaven.

(Photo credit: Brittany)

Brittany: "I don't want to say 'goodbye' to the lighthouse."

Melissa: "It's not 'goodbye', it's 'see you later!'"  

The level of corniness demonstrates just how attached we were to our special weekend at Pigeon Point.  We will definitely be returning customers!

Portland: Food, Flowers, and Folk

At the beginning of June, I got to go to Portland with work for a snack fair.  Yes, a snack fair!  The convention center was filled with stalls featuring different vendors' snacks and drinks, and we walked around sampling to explore new options for Box.  It was hard work.  Best stalls: anything with ice cream.  Worst stalls: anything with organic, natural, gluten-free, energizing bars (hint: this was all bars).

Our hosts even took us to Portland City Grill for a fancy dinner, complete with sushi, steaks, and fine wine.  They successfully wooed us.

On Friday, Brittany flew up to join me so we could spend the rest of the weekend exploring Portland.  We stayed at an Airbnb in the Northwest, and our whole weekend ended up revolving around three things: food, flowers, and folk.  

We started with the most obligatory tourist stop: Voodoo Doughnut.  Covered in kitchy, colorful decor, this place has every kind of wacky doughnut creation you could imagine.  Our two most interesting orders were the one with Cap'n Crunch toppings, and the chocolate voodoo doll, complete with a pretzel stabbed in his side.

We basically restaurant-hopped the whole trip, one night even getting a pasta app at Grassa before moving on to tapas at Tasty N Alder.  We joked that for a successful restaurant/bar/boutique in Portland it needed only be named "______ &/And/N _______".  Another restaurant we were eager to try was Pok Pok, an authentic-meets-inventive Thai place covered in twinkle lights and fish sauce.  The most interesting thing about the place was that they also own the bar across the street so that while you're waiting, you can have a drink and an app, and then your waitress at the bar will let you know when your table is ready at Pok Pok.  Amazing way to capitalize on wait times!

For Sunday brunch, we walked a couple blocks from our place to Besaw's, an adorable cafe I could've moved into, that had killer delicious food, plus views of dogs and babies.

After food, our visit was dominated by gardens and flowers.  We visited the Chinese Gardens, the Japanese Gardens, and the Rose Garden in Washington Park.  My favorite was surprisingly the Chinese Gardens, which was condensed into a single city block, provided a beautiful pamphlet describing all the elements of the gardens, and had a lovely little tea house for us to enjoy.

City of Roses indeed!  We saw them everywhere we went, and more than I could imagine at the Rose Gardens.  The flowers were incredibly fragrant, and the names of the roses were so unique, often sounding more like ice cream flavors.

One of our favorite nights was spent in the SE part of the city, and after dinner we headed to Landmark Saloon, which had a great folk/blues/Americana band playing, and lots of people swing dancing.  We enjoyed our sweet tea vodkas in between being asked to dance by the locals.  It was such fun, and we commented on the fact that in San Juan we salsa danced, in North Carolina we square danced, and in Portland we tried our foot at swing.  So many travels, so many kinds of dancing.  What's next?!

Finally, the quintessential "Keep Portland Weird" photo, with supplementary evidence.