Adventure // Golden Gate Park

A couple weeks ago, Dai and I ventured out to Golden Gate Park with a couple of friends. We had gotten together with them to shoot some portraits and to show them around the city a bit. As I believe I have mentioned, the weather hasn't been the greatest lately (except for today, Hallelujah!), so I figured that the backdrop of luscious greenery & a gloomy day would be perfect for some portraits!
Golden Gate Park is a really expansive and sprawling park comprised of smaller pockets of parks and  trails with roads that allow you to drive through it. Sometimes it can be confusing because there are just so many different parts to it! There are bison housed there that you can take a look at, baseball fields, paved paths to walk along, a large duck pond, a small "lake," playgrounds, and an area with some museums. You could really spend a whole day in this park and even I have yet to see it all.
One things that is kind of nice about this place is that you are in San Francisco, but feel so secluded and like you could really be in an entirely different place altogether. You could be in another state even and not even notice! I really like that you can find such a quiet and serene place in a big, bustling city! It is definitely something that should be appreciated.
Our friends were nice enough to snap a few photos of us with my camera, which we really don't have nearly enough of! Most photos of us are iPhone photos, which aren't the greatest quality for printing, so I'm happy to have a high quality photo of us that I can print out and frame :)

This dog was hilarious. He suddenly appeared out of the bushes and just had to rest right in the middle of the walking path while he waited for his humans. He was just too tired! He was probably the biggest Corgi I had ever seen, too haha.
This guy. Always nice enough to carry my bag for me so I can photograph things! Looks pretty good doing it too ;) What a good sport!
I love all of the different types and colors of greenery that grows here. It is like a little forest hideaway! One could surely get very lost here and I'd definitely like to spend a day doing the same.
This photo pretty much perfectly sums us and our relationship up. We are basically goofballs and we love it. Really though, I hope some of you have had the joy of hanging out with us haha.
Aside from visiting the museums, I think I have taken this park for granted all these years! This summer, I'd love to take advantage of living a short drive away and explore it more. It would be fun to pack a lunch, grab my pup, and have a picnic here! It would be a great new place to shoot outfit photos, and would even be a nice place to take a long morning walk with Marly at! I think it will be one of my goals to do all of those things this summer :)

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our little afternoon adventure and getting to see a new part of the city here on the blog!

Do you enjoy visiting parks? Do you have a similar place you like to visit?

Have an awesome weekend! Woohoo! Tonight we are having a bonfire with friends, which I am pretty pumped about :)

Adventures with Leah

You know what the best thing about blogging is? Getting to meet wonderful people in real life because one day they commented on your post or you theirs, and a friendship was born. Like, that is truly what makes me happiest about this crazy blogging thing! On Saturday, I had the pleasure of officially meeting Leah in person. When I learned that she was going to be moving to the Bay Area, I was thrilled! I didn't have a single blogging friend who lived here, which was a real bummer. But now, that has all changed and I am really happy about it! 
We met at a little breakfast place I had never been to in the Excelsior neighborhood, and spent the entire time catching up learning new things about each other. She is almost exactly how I pictured her! She is tall, well spoken, funny, and all around a really sweet person with a great sense of style. We were able to bond over having Japanese guys in our lives, growing up in CA, and blogging of course!

After breakfast, we headed to Noe Valley to get some fresh juice (you know, Whole30 "dessert") and walk around the neighborhood there. I had seen the Fresh Juicery shops around the city, but had never actually purchased anything before. I got a nice citrus juice, which was pretty refreshing. I used to think that I could do a juice cleanse/fast, but I knocked that crazy out of my head real fast. Plus, I'm more of a smoothie gal anyway!
I had never been to this part of the city before, so it was really nice to get to explore someplace new with Leah! It was a pretty bustling Saturday morning around these parts, with dogs and babies with their humans everywhere. The streets were cutely lined with unique shops and restaurants, and a pretty dress or two definitely caught my eye. Despite the awful parking situation, I will for sure be coming back here for a coffee date and a bit of shopping in the near future!
One thing that is also great about Leah is that we both have a love for photography. We don't bore each other by talking about cameras, lenses, and the like. Plus, we don't have to feel awkward whipping out our cameras at any time! It is also always nice when you have a friend that can take good photos for you, like the one above that Leah snapped for me.

All in all, like I said before, I'm happy to have a blogging friend who lives nearby and that I can do things with as often as we'd like! It is always nice to have another gal pal to spend time with. We also just discovered that we are both The Bachelor fans, so who knows what kind of craziness we will get into with that ;)

Here's to blogging friendships, the most beautiful thing to come out of this community!

Be sure to check out Leah's post about our morning together to see her lovely photos as well!

Adventures with Danica

Over Labor Day weekend (which was already a month ago, WOW), I had the pleasure of finally meeting the beautiful brunette to my right in person! Miss Danica of the blog Dust Particles (formerly Love, Danica) lives in southern CA and happens to visit the Bay Area every year around this time. I remember first coming into contact with Danica when she left a comment on one of my posts this past winter/spring and we have followed each other's blogs ever since! We talked for months about meeting during her annual trip up north and I was really happy that we were able to make it happen :)
After whisking her away from her sweet husband who drove her all the way into the city to meet me instead of having her take the train all alone, we started things off how every friend date should start in my opinion: with coffee. Dai told me about this cute little place called Front Cafe in Potrero Hill and Danica seemed like the perfect special person to share it with. I got a simple cold brew, while Danica got a drink that had a nice big scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. I definitely know what I'm getting next time! Also, the drinks came in mason jars, so obviously I was sold on the place.
After we finished up our coffee, we decided to head out near the Embarcadero and wander around the Ferry Building. We parked the car and walked along the water towards downtown, snapping photos and chatting as we went. It was sunny, warm, clear, and not too windy. We really couldn't have asked for nicer weather! We got a lunch of cheese toasties from Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building and sat outside by the water to enjoy it. 
When we were finished, we made our way up Market Street a bit before deciding to ride the cable cars! Danica had never had the pleasure of riding them, so we figured why not? It was a fun and rather crowded ride the first leg of our trip, and then on the return trip the cable car decided to break down right in the middle of an intersection! No joke. The driver ended up being able to move us out of the intersection, but we were stuck there for a good 30+ minutes. After a while, all but three riders decided to walk it instead of waiting for the cable car to start running again. Just as we were about to do the same, it thankfully started back up and we were able to finish our ride.

After that interesting adventure, it was time to start making our way to meet Danica's husband, Stephen. He kindly let us change the plans a bit to meet him in a city across the Golden Gate Bridge so that Danica and I could have the memory of driving across it together. I really wish I had photos of this because it was so beautiful! I have been over the bridge countless times, but it really never gets old to me, especially on a clear, sunny day when you can see the entire bay and the water is glittering blue.

We got caught in tons of traffic, of course, because it was a beautiful holiday weekend in the city and we were panicking just a little because we were super late to meet Stephen, but he was the most patient man I think I had ever met. Just so sweet! So very understanding and really just wanted Danica to have a great time, even if it meant he had to sit in a coffee shop and wait for her for an hour. Claps to him! He has really earned my respect by taking such good care of his lady :)

I guess to sum this all up: I love Danica and can't wait until we meet again! It has been quite a while since I have met another gal pal who I click with so much. I felt like she really understood me and that we could relate to each other in so many ways! I think I just may have found myself a new BFF!

It is really a bummer that she lives in southern CA, but luckily Dai and I will be down there at the end of this month and we are already planning to see each other :) We are also going to try to have our guys meet since it turns out that they are both baseball fanatics. Double date! Yay! And of course you know I'll be documenting all of our adventures together for the blog ;)

Here's to more blogging friends! How lucky am I to have gotten to meet two blogging friends within one month?!

P.S. I just can't get over how much I love that first photo of us! It's just perfect!

Summer Picnic Date

On Friday evening, Dai and I met at Dolores Park in San Francisco for a picnic date. Since Dai works in the city, he was able to just take the bus over when he was finished and I drove my car there with Marly and the picnic fixings. On a clear, sunny day, Dolores Park is just beautiful and filled with people relaxing on the green grass. We like to stop by here every once in a while, but have never planned ahead enough to have a picnic.
I spent all day Friday shopping and prepping for our dinner picnic, and was really excited to make things as perfect as I could. You should have seen me running around the house all day, putting things together and picking out the perfect outfit to go along with the occasion. When the time finally came, Dai arrived at the park before I did, and I was greeted with a glass of white wine. The perfect start to our evening!
I had packed us some fresh strawberries and a salad to start with, kind of like the salad recipe I shared here.
Marly was quite overjoyed to be included in such an outing and had the best time keeping a look out for all the other dogs that were roaming around the park.
As a main course, I made us these caprese sandwiches. They were so simple, but yet so delicious. I needed to make something that I knew would travel well and these turned out to be perfect.
Once we finished eating and had our fill of people watching, it got a little too chilly to be sitting outside, so we packed up our picnic and walked down the street to Bi-Rite Creamery for some dessert. I had actually made us some pudding in mason jars as a dessert, but we decided to save those for later since we were so close to Bi-Rite and how could we not pay them a visit? Dai got the coffee sundae (fabulous!) and I got a combo of salted caramel (of course), balsamic strawberry (summery & fresh), and honey lavender (light & perfect).

A picnic and dessert in the city was such an easy and relaxing way to start our weekend, one that I think we will continue to do this summer! I sense many, many picnic dates in our future. We had a great rest of the weekend as well, details of which I will share later this week :)

West Coast Love // Giants Game

So there's something y'all probably don't know about Dai: he is a baseball fanatic. Like, he just loves baseball anywhere, anytime. He has his few favorite teams, but ultimately he doesn't mind who is playing because he just likes to watch it no matter what. Plus, he knows something about every team in the MLB anyway. Following the Japanese baseball scene is definitely one of his favorite things as well.

Now, I do love baseball. Not as much as Dai, but I do love it. I remember going to games with my siblings and dad through the years, and it is one of my favorite memories of things we liked to do together. I also played softball in high school and really enjoyed it. So, my point is, when Dai proposes going to a game, I don't say no. This past weekend, we went to a San Francisco Giants game on Saturday with his friends visiting from out of town and then also went to a game just the two of us on Monday night! I'm not complaining.

I took the train up to the city to meet Dai when he got off of work and so we could head to the ballpark together. Since we had eaten dinner at the ballpark on Saturday night, we decided to wander around the Ferry Building and grab dinner at a new-to-us burger place. With our tummies full and ready for the game, we hopped on the local train that would take us to the park.
Funny story: When we went to the game on Saturday evening, Dai and I made a deal that if a particular player hit a home run, he would buy me a t-shirt. That player didn't hit a home run, but Dai still got me a shirt because he is just that sweet. Actually, we were walking to the parking lot and saw some people selling these Hello Kitty Giants shirts for pretty cheap. I know that these things sold outside the park, on the street, aren't really "genuine," but these shirts looked great and pretty legitimate looking. You know, not that weird knock-off look that some things have? Anyway, as we paid for the shirt, the guys were in a hurry as they gave us our change and were shoving the shirts back in a bag, apologizing by saying, "Sorry, the cops are coming so we have to hurry." LOL SO THAT HAPPENED. But hey, I got a super cute shirt out of it! And was able to put this "I'm cute and sporty" look together for the next game. Ta-da!
AT&T Park, where the Giants play, is such a beautiful stadium. It is just over 10-years-old and is pretty unique, with its wonderful views, fun details, and abundant food options. You see that old fashioned Coke bottle? It is actually a slide! I love that the park is right on the bay because of the stunning views, but it does make it quite chilly in the evenings. 
Now I don't know about your local MLB ballpark, but around these parts, garlic fries are the must-have, classic food choice. You just don't go to a Giants game without getting garlic fries. It all adds to the experience, you know? Also, Dai had seen this caramel corn around and wanted to finally track it, so we tracked it down to give it a try. It was actually super yummy! Definitely sugary, but so good. You are given a fork to eat it because the caramel is still gooey and wet, which is what makes it awesome in my opinion.
The Giants one when we came on Saturday, but no such luck on Monday night. We decided to leave a little early since we had two trains to take back home and they were losing 9-1 in the top of the 8th inning... As you can see, someone was a little distressed by this ;) Oh well, can't win them all!
Even though our team lost, we had a great time! I'm already looking forward to the next time we are going to in just a couple weeks :)

If you are ever in the Bay Area during baseball season, I definitely recommend fitting a game into your visit! Bonus points if you happen to see a game against the Oakland A's (our rivals just across the bay) or the LA Dodgers. Those ones tend to be pretty competitive and upbeat!

Do you like going to baseball games? Who do you root for?