Bay Area Trip

Sorry for the radio silence the past couple of weeks but it's been a busy month. The first weekend of May, I drove up to the Bay Area (with my mom) to visit friends, then when I got home my laptop promptly gave me the black screen of death even though it had been fine during the trip. It's now fixed (for free!! thanks to the Apple Store for the lovely Mother's Day gift!) and ready for me to catch up on blogging, email, and, alas, bills.

Anyway, I totally forgot to bring my nice DSLR on my way out the door for the trip, but I have some iPhone shots of my very busy vacation.

We arrived in San Francisco on a Thursday afternoon, and a few hours later I was at the Castro in the same venue as the megastar band Journey. You know the songs "Open Arms," "Don't Stop Believing," and "Faithfully"? Yeah, that's them. The closing film of the San Francisco International Film Festival was the documentary, "Everyman's Journey," focusing on the band's search for and discovery of their new lead singer, who turned out to be Arnel Pineda, a Philippine national who has the most amazing voice. The guy is 44 and he sounds (and looks) like he's in his 20s. When I signed up to watch the film, I had no idea that the whole band would actually be there to watch with the rest of the audience and then give a Q&A afterward. It was an incredible treat! I even managed to catch some photos of Arnel and the band member who started Journey so long ago, Neal Schon. Plus, it was a fantastic film. Go see it when it comes out in theaters!

The next day I had lunch with a friend and former student at Patio Filipino, spent the afternoon with dear Joanne at the Fluevog store on Haight Street (she's one of my Fluevog "sisters" and we also call her our "pusher" ;-)), then had dinner with another old friend at Lime Tree, a hole-in-the-wall Singaporean restaurant, after which we caught an hour or so of the amazing Gaultier exhibit at the de Young Museum and then sang a few songs at a karaoke bar in Japantown. Whoa, I'm tired just writing that! I can't believe I did all that in one day. Anyhow, if you look closely, you'll catch Joanne in one of the pics below. And that's delicious garlic fried rice and chicken adobo in the food pic. (I wish I'd taken photos at the Lime Tree because it was also really delicious -- and very affordable!)

My Saturday was spent in Palo Alto and San Jose for a trip to the specialty spice store, Penzeys, and lunch with Joanne and another former student-turned-friend who goes to grad school in Santa Cruz. The Korean barbecue buffet was pretty delicious, and it was fun to cook the meats on our table. By the way, I really loved my outfit that day; I wore my new vintage-style ModCloth dress with my newest Fluevog boots, and they were a match made in heaven. Both prim and sassy, and boy did I feel tall in those shoes!

I capped off Saturday evening by going to see The Avengers with my mom and sister and HAD A BLAST. Even though we could only find seats on the side, with part of the stair banister blocking my view (thankfully it was an aisle seat so I was able to lean over to see the whole screen), I loved that film and have in fact seen it for a second time already. I was struck by how funny it was. The writing was really engrossing -- well, it is Joss Whedon after all -- but I was surprised at how deftly he directed all the amazing action scenes, many of which were funny. It was so exhilarating and JUST SO FUN. Whedon is a genius.

Sunday morning was time to get ready for the trip back home, but I managed to see Joanne and Dorothy in South San Francisco for a fun half hour before having brunch with my mom and sister for an early Mother's Day celebration. We went to La Mar, which had a wonderful view of the Bay. The food was very tasty, especially the appetizers we ordered (liver pâté and Japanese ceviche).

This was definitely one of the best trips I've ever had, but I have to admit that I was happy to be back home again with my guys.  :-)

xo, Gladys