San Francisco

San Francisco. Was. Awesome.

I left on Thursday of last week for a trip out to visit my brother and his girlfriend. My friend Sara flew from Atlanta to meet me. We drove to Napa and Sonoma and stayed until Friday. We ate dinner at Bouchon. We went to the worst looking spa, but I had a great mud bath and massage. We visited a wonderful little winery at the top of a very, very, very steep curvy mountain - I took three sips of wine before chickening out of drinking any more because I knew I'd have to drive back down the mountain. We stopped at Dean & Deluca. (Why does there always seem to be a Dean & Deluca everywhere but where I live?!)

We headed back into the city in time to have dinner with Tom and Kristy on Friday night. We ate at a really great wine bar - and get this - our waiter (who was quite talented, actually) talked us into ordering bone marrow. Oh yes. You read that correctly. And you know, we really enjoyed it. We had a fabulous dinner, enjoyed several bottles of wine and possibly went a little too far with champagne. Saturday we met Tom's best friend, his wife, and their son Jameson. We ate at a bar called Sam's in Tiburon, from which we could see the entire city of San Francisco. It was cool. Except the seagulls, which were a little aggressive. We shopped till we dropped. Tom and Kristy talked me into a pair of jeans that are way, way, way too cool for me. We went out for sushi. We walked all over the city and Sara and I braved public transportation. We walked through Chinatown. We got to eat brunch at one of the top brunch spots in the city.

I've got to say, Tom and Kristy really know how to live. Except the fact that they can't figure out how their furnace works, but fortunately Sara and I managed to make it through the night. I worried that Sara might have to gut me and put her hands in my stomach to keep warm, but it never came to that. Thank heavens.

I needed a trip for me. This was a good one. I had a few revelations during my mud bath. I got to spend some quality time with one of my best girlfriends and my ultra-chic brother and his girlfriend. I went a little Single-White-Female on Kristy at one point, asking her to help me pick out an outfit, but she seemed cool with it.

While in California, I was a little sad for the life Jim and I left behind - buying expensive clothes, hitting cool bars and restaurants, and having very few real responsibilities. But when I got home, I realized that although that life was fun, there are two little people here that make my life worth living. They are little bits of Jim, and little bits of me, and little bits of themselves. I wouldn't trade that kind of responsibility for anything.