A Coffee Date + JORD

It is no secret that I love coffee dates. I love them so much it has become my mission to make Dai love them too. Whenever I can, I get him to come along with me to a coffee shop where we can find a cozy spot to sip our yummy drinks and talk or work on blog things. When I got back from my two-week-long trip, I made a date for us to do just that. We had a lot to catch up on since we hadn't seen each other in so long (the longest time apart in 3 years!), so we headed to the city to visit a new-to-us coffee shop called Pinhole Coffee. We loved the vibe and camera themed decor, but that's another story that deserves a post of its own!

While I was away, Dai and I each received beautiful new wood watches from JORD! I have been eyeing JORD's watches for quite sometime, so I was definitely thrilled to finally have one of my own. I had also shown Dai this company a while back and ever since then he has been telling me that he wanted one, so as you can imagine, he was pretty happy too!

When we opened our watch boxes, we were both so impressed with how nicely our watches were packaged. I almost didn't want to take mine out! I love that I now have a nice wooden box to use for something else, or better yet, a safe place to store my watch when I am not wearing it.

On our coffee date, we both excitedly decided to wear our watches for the first time and I must say, we are in love! With our watches and each other ;) After going back and forth between our options for watches, Dai finally settled on the Delmar series in Red Sandalwood & White Carbon and I settled on the Frankie series in Purpleheart & Plum. It was a tough decision because we liked so many of them, but we are very happy with our choices!
So far I have gotten a lot of compliments on my pretty purple watch! It is very unlike anything I have seen before and the color makes it so unique. It feels really nice on my wrist, especially since JORD sent it to me already sized with my wrist measurements, which is such a great service that they offer with your order! I always hate when I get a watch and have to wait to wear it until I get it sized, so it made me very happy to be able to wear my watch immediately after opening it.
One great thing that we have discovered is that these wood watches fit in so well with our casual style (but can also be easily dressed up when need be!). Whether we are wearing them to work at the office, run around with kiddos as a nanny, out on the town on a Friday night, or on a coffee date, they just look so good! We are quite pleased with how these unique watches fit right in to our busy and casual lifestyle.
Dai was really drawn to the eye-catching design of his watch, as the big face of it compliments his style and the redwood and white carbon contrast each other so nicely. So far he has loved wearing it to work and showing it off to his coworkers haha.
All in all, our coffee date was a success and we enjoyed our latte & iced coffee! I think I just may have even convinced Dai that we should schedule some more of these in the future :) There is something so nice about relaxing and catching up over a cup of goodness!

Big thanks to JORD for sending us these lovely watches to enjoy and wear on coffee dates for many years to come!

xoxo

Jess

Disclosure: This was a sponsored post. While I may have been compensated in some way, all views and opinions are my own.

Womens Wooden Watches

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 :)

Britt + A Coffee Date

Oh holy moly, I am so happy to be writing this post! Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting the beautiful Britt of Britt & Hive in person. Like, a real breathing, smiling person right in front of me and not just a voice in my head as I'm reading her posts online! Amazing! Britt is the very first of my blogging friends that I have gotten to meet in person and I couldn't have asked for a better time with her.

A few things about Britt:
- She is adorable. The sweetest personality like I imagined her having, so funny and lively, and also the cutest little baby bump.
- Her voice and the way she talks is more animated than I had thought, in a good way.
- She is very observant of the things around her. I like that.
- She is easy to talk to! I didn't think she would be difficult to talk to, but I liked how our conversations naturally flowed as we walked down the street or in and out of shops.
- Being with her was like being with a friend I've known for years. It just felt right.

Britt scouted for meeting spots online and we settled on Hollow, a coffee shop in the Inner Sunset District of the city. After reading about the quiet, quaintness of this place (and the mocha with a big homemade marshmallow cube plopped in it) were were sold. It was an overcast summer day on this side of the city, which made it the perfect day for two friends to meet for a coffee date and pretend it is winter.
The decor and vibe of this place couldn't be more calming or eclectic. There is just an easiness about it that makes you feel so welcome, which in my books is something to be celebrated, especially since some artisan coffee shops have a way of making people feel like a fish out of water.
There are only two small tables and one bench in this little shop, so we had to take our coffee outside. No complaints here though since the cloudy weather was perfect for hot coffee drinking and chatting.
I loved all the unique gifts and treasures that were displayed for sale in every nook & cranny of this place. All of the little baked goods looked amazing too, but I restrained myself (barely).
After a bit of internal debate, I settled on a butterscotch latte. I wouldn't say that the butterscotch was very strong, but the drink was frothy and lovely all the same. Plus, there's just something nice about going to a coffee shop and getting to drink from a real mug, am I right?
Behold, The Titanic II. That would be Britt's super rich mocha on steroids with an "iceberg" of a marshmallow in it. Really though, how could we come here without one of us ordering this monstrosity?
After our coffee date, we spent some time wandering up and down the streets around the coffee shop before making our way to our lunch spot, my beloved Nopalito. We had a matching lunch of chicken mole enchiladas (highly recommended!) and almond horchata before exploring the boutiques in the area and eventually making our way deeper into the city to the sunny Mission District. There, we visited more unique shops and thrift stores, daydreaming of all the fancy home decor we cannot afford, as well as having a panic attack when we thought Britt's car had been towed/stolen for about 10 minutes. City life, isn't it grand?

I don't really know how to end this because how do you really end talking about a lovely day with a friend? I'm not sure. I will say this though: I absolutely loved being able to spill my guts about all things blogging related to someone that actually understands what I mean or what I'm going through. I could talk about other bloggers like they were just our mutual friends (because in some strange way they actually are) and she would just get it. Let's face it, who do/can I (or really any of us bloggers) talk to about blogging besides other bloggers? No one! Because no one else really cares about or necessarily understands these online friendships and communities. You know what I mean?

It makes me sad that Britt and I live so far away from each other, but I am hopeful that we will meet again one day (soonish)! This wonderful day with her also makes me excited to meet some of my other great blogging friends in the future :)

Have you ever met any of your blogging friends in person? What was it like? Also, who do you talk about blogging with?

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?