San Francisco: A Photo Essay

For my 34th birthday last month, Nate and I flew south to my all-time favorite city, San Francisco, for a long weekend. We've taken quite a few short trips to the Bay Area over the years. Now there's less pressure to see all the sights. Instead, we can relax... Hence sleeping in past official breakfast time and dining on soup for breakfast at farm:table.

Broccoli soup & apricot preserves pie for brekkie at farm:table. The lemon oil drizzle woke me up!

Tangy apricot preserves pie and coffee - this girl's best friend

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On our walk back to Union Square, we stumbled upon lots of green. Like this ivy-covered building...

The big tree in Union Square. So festive!...

This charmingly retro green streetcar...

Old meets new - I love the retro scene of this traincar with the modern lady in front.

And, lots of other "green" wafting through the air. My my, those San Franciscans sure like to puff tough on their "herbal cigarettes."

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One can't take a trip to SF without visiting the Mission for (yes, more) eats. The district swims in taqueries, like the postage-stamp-sized Papalote. The entrees were mediocre. But the specialty salsa - a cream, tangy, spicy concoction - made the BART journey worthwhile. Papalote sells the salsa in glass jars, and had the TSA not banned liquids above 3 oz., I would have stashed several in my carry-on bag to take home.

Papalote's salsa - creamy & spicy. Nate frowns when he realizes we can't bring it home to Seattle.

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We'd already planned a visit to the Ferry Building along the water (I'd been so inspired to visit this indoor market since drooling over Lorna Yee's post and pictures). The weekly farmer's market, held on Saturday mornings, was icing. Here are some scenes:

San Francisco = fog. View from the pier.

Oysters in the a.m.? Not so much. But the display sure is lovely.

Streaming sunshine.

Chicken little.

Inside the Ferry Building.

Moving on to dairy.

Queso, queso, queso!

The wheels of the cheese go round and round.

Beta carrot-ene.

Oh, honeyman. Lots of varietals of fresh honey from this farm stand.

Rainbow of peppers.

Blue Bottle coffee!

Heavenly eucalyptus wreaths. Again, I wanted to tote one home but it wouldn't fit in my backpack. Alas, I found a similar version at Trader Joe's upon return to Seattle.

Intoxicating lavender

Welcome to the Port of San Francisco

That's a lot of meat.

From Rose Pistola - a mahi mahi sammie + tangy lentil salad. Perfect to share on a bench outside with the seagulls and sea air and my love.

All in all, it was a lovely trip. And as the song goes, I left my heart...