Hotel Adagio, San Francisco

When we decided to go to the Giants game with our friends Mikey and Tawny we all figured it would be a good idea if we got a hotel room for the night of the game in the City. That way we could all relax (enjoy a few drinks) and not have to worry about who was going to drive us back late at night. We went with Hotel Adagio on Geary Street just a few blocks up from Union Square. Hotel Adagio is owned by joie de vivre, a company that owns a number of hotels in the city. Seeing as we stay in SF quite often, I figured it wouldn't hurt to join their Joy of Life Club; basically a frequent stayer club. Also, they partner with Virgin America Airlines (who I love; more on them another time). Anyway, made the reservation for a room with two queen beds (we figured we'd save a few bucks and share the room with our friends). Good deal.


{Surprise! Hi, Mikey!}

 So. Upon check-in, I was greeted very warmly by the gentleman behind the desk and he informed me that they had upgraded our room since I am a member of their club. Score! We got our keys and headed to the elevator to check out our room.

We were on the top floor of the building (makes for an incredible view) in the penthouse suite. Double score! There was a master bedroom and a living room. Dean and I decided since it was Tawny's birthday (and seeing as she's on crutches and all) that she and Mikey should take the big bed. Dean and I took the fold out couch--which- I will add- was actually surprisingly ok, as far as fold out couches go.

{Living Room of our sweet penthouse room}

Waiting on the table when we arrived in the room were a welcome card and a bottle of wine! Granted, kinda cheap wine. But hey! Fun either way, right?? At any rate, I was impressed by the fact that they actually take the time to make you feel special for being a member of their club. I'm looking forward to future stays at their hotels now for sure. In fact, I did a little research and found that they also own Carmel Valley Ranch in Carmel and Dream Inn in Santa Cruz. Definitely going to be looking into both of those. If not for a get-away for me and my guy then for a possible destination for our study club!

I am a big fan of the style of the decor they've gone with at the Adagio. Kind of modern and contemorary and at the same time comfortable and elegant. I wish I had taken a picture of the shower. It was o-mazing. I love those shower heads that are like rain falling. What are they called?

As I mentioned before, we had a great view from the top floor of the building. And we were stoked to find that we had a big balcony! One catch. No door! What? Seriously? And, as is common with a lot of SF hotels the windows didn't open very far. Boooo. Never fear. Eventually we discovered that there was a tiny window that DID open and it was just big enough that all of us were able to squeeze through and enjoy the fresh air and that beautiful view. Even Tawny demonstrated some serious agility and got out there broken foot in a boot and all!

{Tawny and the Panda sneaking in through the window!}

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!

I can't even remember the last time I went to the zoo. While in the city (San Francisco) a couple weeks back (Giants' Game and stuff), we were trying to come up with something we could do that didn't involve a lot of walking. Well, in SF, that's kind of hard. Luckily, though, Mikey was thinking and brought up the point that some places have wheelchairs available. Oh, yeah, I guess I should mention here that the reason we were worried about all of this was because Tawny is on crutches. Broken foot. What did we come up with? The San Francisco Zoo! Yea!

{Oh, Hey. How you doin'}

{Pretty sure this dude wanted to EAT ME!}



{Totally looks like he's wearing a suit of armor}

 I was pretty impressed by the San Francisco Zoo. There were a lot of animals to see and their habitats looked pretty nice. I mean, it's sad because they ARE in captivity. But I guess if you're gonna be held captive, it helps if you're in a nice place!


{Don't worry, there's a thick glass wall between us!}



All in all, we had a great time. The lion in his cage inside the Lion House was pretty dang cool. A zookeeper was spraying goat's milk from a spray bottle through the bars of his cage and he was super into that. He never let out a full on roar but he did this low pitch kinda rumbly growl thing that definitely made the hair on the back of my neck stand to attention. Scary dude.

The gorillas put on quite a show while we there. There was one big ole silverback who was clearly in charge. He was just chillin on his rock watching everyone when all of a sudden, the urge struck and he showed everyone there just why he's the alpha. Let's just say there were some moms pulling their kids away from the gorilla exhibit at that moment! Hilarious!

The only exhibit that I wasn't totally cool with was the tarantula situation. I HATE spiders. I don't care if they're "good" spiders or what. If they have eight damn legs I am not a fan. And these suckers are HUGE. Ewwwww. Gives me the shivers just thinking about them. But hey, if you're into big ass spiders, go check it out!

Go Giants!!

I have never been a fan of baseball...until now. My baby sister dates a boy who played ball in college and at that time, I developed a little bit of curiosity because I was getting to know Hayden and his world. Still, though, I never watched it on t.v. Once in a while Dean and I would go to games in San Francisco, but I pretty much had no idea what was going on...Fast forward to 2010. The Giants make the playoffs. Suddenly, baseball has gotten kinda exciting in these parts. Dean starts watching a lot more games at home, and I end up paying more and more attention. Next thing I know these guys are heading to the World Series and I've really gotten into them. I love the Giants. They are a group of odd, quirky boys and I think they are so loveable. I was so impressed by them during the World Series and how they conducted themselves in interviews, etc. Naturally, I realize I am super biased, but whatever...



{Hey, Crawford!}

 So, this year we're hopefully on the quest for another series. We'll see. I still am not knowledgeable enough about all of this to tell you if we have a good chance or not. Dean says things are looking good- I'll go with that. Anyway, one Thursday Brewer/Dunn Night (more on those later), the four of us decided it would be a kick to go to a game for Tawny's birthday. Suddenly, the laptop is out and tickets have been bought! I like it....which brings us to just a few weeks ago. July 18 we were lucky enough to be at a game and watched our boys beat the crap out of LA (sorry, Bri). So much fun.  

{My two faves: Brian Wilson & Brandon Crawford}



We cheered enthusiastically (Mikey was hoarse for daaayys afterwards). We ate food that is terrible for us (um, hello, hotdog). We drank a few beers. Tawny bought a Panda Hat. Generally, we had an absolute blast. Since Tawny was on crutches we decided to hang out for a bit after the game was over rather than trying to fight the crowds. Kinda cool to see the field when it's all quiet and empty. The seagulls swoop in and start helping the clean up crew!




{Can you see the seagulls in the background??}



{Tawny's crazy cool Panda hat}

 



{Checking out the dugout. Too bad the boys were already gone!}



{Happy Birthday, Tawny!}



I Heart SF

I've said this a million times and I'll say it again: I heart SF. It's one of my very favorite places and luckily we only live about an hour and a half away! This makes for lots of fun trips to the "the City", as it's referred to around here. Some of these trips are planned in advance and others and completely spur of the moment. Because of this we've also developed a love of Priceline. This past weekend we had already planned on hanging out in the city on Saturday and staying the night after a concert. But, when our friend Brian called and said he and his lovely wife would be in SF Friday night, Dean and I were down for another night. So fun.

Before meeting up with our friends, Dean took me out for a reaaallly nice dinner. He even suited up for me! :) I rarely get the chance to dress up so when hubby suggested we get decked out I was totally excited. And it doesn't hurt that he looks damn hot (excuse me, but it's true!) in a suit. He found a restaurant called Benu for us to try out. What an experience! We decided to splurge and went with the- get this-- 18 course tasting menu. Talk about a time I was sad I didn't have my "big camera" with me! I tried to capture a few of my favorite bites with my point and shoot, but eh. Not even worth it. At any rate, I definitely tried some foods that I'd never had before that night. Heck, I had never even heard of some of them before! Although, I have to admit my obsession with Top Chef did come in handy.

 

After dinner we met up with everyone at Harry Denton's Starlight Room which is on the top floor of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, right in Union Square. It's a jazz club with tasty drinks. And, while the band is taking a break, they play "the other stuff" and the dance floor gets crowded. We had a great time, not that I expected anything different considering the company we were in! After drinks and a bit of dancing, it was decided that karaoke should be included in the night's activities. Bri's brother knew of a good spot...Bow Bow in China Town. Oh, geez. The boys sang their hearts out and a fabulous time was had by all. Totally can't wait til the next time Bri and Ches head up our way! 

Sweet, Sweet Summer Indeed!

I hate getting the mail. Seriously. I hate it. So much so that it usually ends up that when we actually DO get the mail, it's a humongous pile of crap with a few interesting things mixed in. Or bills. Lots of bills....So. When my magazines come in it's a happy trip to the mail box. My magazines being Food and Wine Magazine and Bon Appetit. I also came across this lovely issue of Martha Stewart's Living while in line at the grocery store. The pasta recipe pictured on the front had me at "tomato". Yummmm. Once these babies come in, I take my time going through them and inspecting all the new recipes and stuff. This ususally takes me a few evenings and then once I'm satisfied, I rip out the pages of all the yummiest looking ones and save them. More on what I do with all (and there are a lot) of these later...enter my ocd/type A tendencies.

Green Bean & Tomato Salad

I love summer and all the yummy fresh veggies that are available in our area. I "borrowed" this salad from a spot here in town called Camp 4 Wine Bar. D and I stopped in there a few weeks ago to enjoy some tasty paninis and salads for lunch and the owner, Damon Robbins, brought out samples of the latest salad he's been working on. I, of course, paid very close attention when he told us what was in it! I tried recreating it at home and I have to say it turned out pretty good! Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

About a pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-3 inch pieces

2 large tomatoes

Feta cheese

3 fresh basil leaves

Dry sherry

Olive Oil

Red wine vinegar

Salt

Pepper

To start, I placed the beans in a steamer basket in a pot and steamed them until they were just barely cooked. Still nice and crunchy. Once they were done, I immediately placed them in an ice bath to "shock" them, or stop the cooking process. While those were cooling, I got the tomato yumminess going. Cored, seeded and chopped the tomatoes. Minced the basil. Mixed this all in a bowl with a cap full of Dry Sherry (Damon actually said he used Sherry vinegar. I didn't have any of that so I improvised...), about a tbs of olive oil, a couple shakes of the vinegar and some salt and pepper. To serve, I made little piles of the beans on each plate and then settled a hefty scoop of the tomatoes on top. Finished off with a little crumbled feta and voila! Delicious....on a side note, I picked up the tomatoes and the beans at my favorite fruitstand. You cannot beat the freshness and flavor of veggies fresh from the farm rather than sitting in the grocery store. I've gotten to where I just don't eat tomatoes when they're not available at the stand because they're just not worth it. No taste. Mushy. Yuck. Oh, and I got the basil from my own lil backyard herb garden! Yumm!

Rancho Pescadero

In March of this year we were lucky enough to go to some dear friends' wedding in Cabo! D & I and some other friends decided to be adventurous and venture out past the resort where the wedding was to be held. We discovered Rancho Pescadero in Todos Santos, Mexico. This is a little town a little over an hour from San Jose Del Cabo (where the airport is). Love. Instant love.

The resort only has something like 15 rooms. Pretty quaint. The rooms were so incredible. Luxury all the way, and they thought of everything. From the bathrobes hanging in the closet to the fresh fruit and coffee delivered to our room each morning to the straw hats and magazines for use at the pool, what's not to love?? I'm a detail girl so they had me right away!



{Our amazing room}



I am a big fan of relaxing by the pool (preferably under

an umbrella for the majority of the time!) with a good book and a tasty beverage. The pool at Rancho Pescadero does not disappoint. We really enjoyed the "water bed", chaise lounge type chairs for two that were actually IN the water. My favorite drink on their menu was the Jamaica Margarita, or Hibiscus Margarita. Yumm. Refreshing, not too sweet  and herbal. Right up my alley! I'm now on a mission to recreate this at home. Hopefully, more on that later! Anyone know how to make Hibiscus-infused vodka?? (I plan on making it a martini....tequila is usually reserved for vacation only!)

 

{The "waterbeds". Love it.}



One of the features of the resort that originally piqued our interest was the fact that they grow all of their own produce there on the ranch. We tried the restaurant for dinner, but the real star was the poolside lunch service. I had a Nicoise salad made up of fresh cut rainbow chard, seared yellow tail caught just that morning and pickled veggies made in house. Yummm. Another dish I want to try my hand at recreating here at home....

Finally, I love the fact that they have all kinds of things for guests to use that are free of charge. They don't nickel and dime you for every little thing. We did yoga each morning in the pavillion. There were fishing poles, surf boards and beach cruisers available. Very cool.

A Fresh Start

My profile "blurb" states that I am a girl who married my best friend and that I love the life we've created together. So, I think I've decided the direction in which I want to take this blog. Since getting married and setting up a real home with my hubby I've discovered that I love to cook. Seriously. I LOVE dinking around in my kitchen and experimenting with new recipes. Luckily, the hub is a very willing guinea pig, which just makes it all the more fun for me!

{Yummy flat bread pizzas: Margherita & Sweet Potato/Walnut/Red Onion...More on these later!}

Also, the boy and I absolutely adore getting out of town and seeing new places, visiting old friends and trying new restaurants. Sometimes we go way far away and do exotic things. Other times, we simply head out and enjoy one of the many fun destinations that are within just an hour or two from home. 

{Great times with great friends~ Ledson Winery, Sonoma, CA}



{My parents' place on the Au Sable River in Grayling MI.}



{Brooklyn Bridge!!}

So yeah, I think this is going to be fun. A little travel, a little food, a little fun with some of my type-A/OCD tendencies sprinkled in. Meaning I'll share some of my secrets to staying sane and things I've found that I feel make life easier. Well, at least my life!