Unfiltered wine, Chinatown Bazaar, and long bike rides

I'm always trying to remember funny tidbits that happen to me in SF when I say to myself, "only here."  I've had a few of those moments this week and tried to capture through mobile photography some memories so that I could recall them for you, my loyal readers, on my (soon to be world famous) blog.

1. Wine at Barbacco

The wine bottle from Barbacco

On Thursday night, Leslie, Kali, and I ventured to dinner near work.  Kali takes copious and meticulous notes via text messages to herself about where to go eat in the city.  Although I'm often more of a creature of habit, Kali and Leslie tend to live more on the adventurous end of the eating-spectrum & they're also fantastically fun company for dinner.  We opted for one of Kali's suggestions, Barbacco, located in the Financial District which is near work.  When we sat down, the first thing I noticed is that each table was equipped with an iPad.  The inner nerd in me knew that regardless of what the food tasted like at this place, I was already sold on its ambience and fancy technology.

When we sat down, like any normal geek, I immediately grabbed the iPad and explored how it would be of use to us in enjoying our dinner.  Unfortunately, the iPad proved to be only as useful as reading the wine menu; however, it did include one section on it called "White?!" which both confused & intrigued us...as such, we sampled a "White?!" Sauvignon Blanc from the "White?!" list and quickly learned why it wasn't your typical glass of white wine.  Apparently, this wine is made each week in Russian River and then delivered to the restaurant in water bottles (see picture above).  The wine is unfiltered and looks like apple cider in the glass.  It smelled like it was going to taste like fresh grapes; but, it ended up really being more like grape-infused water.  Ah well, you drink, you learn! I included a picture of Kali & Leslie sampling their wine below.

Apple Cider or Sauvignon Blanc?

2. Chinatown!

Matt Yalowitz swept into the city on Friday evening and had a hankering for Chinese food.  I think it all started when I got us lost on our way home and we drove through all of Chinatown trying to get back onto a main street.  I agreed to eating Chinese food with Matthew and we made our way back to Chinatown via bus.  Per usual, we got off the bus and I had no idea where I was and how to get to dinner.  Thank goodness for my handy Android phone and Google Maps to guide us back on track.  Just as we were approaching our dinner destination, Matt noticed a sign for the China Bazaar.  Like any small child, Matt is easily distracted and especially lured into places by bright lights and appealing toys.  Even though we were both starving and it was close to 8:30p, Matt convinced me to venture into the China Bazaar with him.  Like typical ignorant and bumpkin-like Americans, Matt and I staged a photoshoot in the bazaar.  We dedicated the shoot to our friend Nakul Patel, who was in Beijing at the time, apparently eating Pizza and Won-Ton Soup.  Here were a few takeaways: 

    

3. My best bike ride yet

I spend a lot of time looking at Google Maps.  Often it's because I'm lost and trying to figure out where I am, but other times it's because I'm looking for new parts of town to explore.  Recently, I've had a craving to make my way (by bike) over to Golden Gate Park.  On Saturday, after eating the most delicious brunch at Bar Tartine in the Mission, I asked Matt, Annie, & Alec if they'd like to go biking.  We all decided that post-digestion, they would come to my hood rent bikes, and we'd ride to the park.  Besides some steep climbs and me unintentionally blowing out my gears a couple of times, the bike ride to Golden Gate Park was great and we got there in about an hour.  We rode through the whole park and made our way to see a Pakistani festival, the Bison, and then finally the ocean.  Like most trips around SF, the temperature went from being warm, to cold, to warm, to cold, to foggy, and then back to somewhere in between.  The whole bike ride (mapped somewhat true to form on Google maps below) took a little over 2 hours and was probably around 15 miles round trip.  

Our bike ride through the city to the ocean

Annie & Alec & Matt pondering into the distance

What the buck(y)?

An ode to the Bucky

Anyone who knows me, knows that I sleep like an absolute bear.  On top of sleeping extremely heavily, I also have been known to walk, talk, and successfully make the world peaceful all while sleeping through the night.  My closest friends from summer camp used to torment me in my sleep because I was always soundly asleep before the rest of my bunkmates.  Recently, since I moved to San Francisco, I've had a pretty much seamless transition...Except for the fact that I wasn't getting as much sleep as I needed each night (NB: I require at least 8-9 hours of sleep each night but can be 85% functional with 7).  

My bedroom in Ann Arbor was extremely dark.  In fact it had so little natural light that even my lamps barely gave the room adequate light.  As such, I slept like nobody's business in A2.  My room in SF, although fantastic with its views of the foggy city, is very light.  While home in Pittsburgh, I explained this issue to my mother, who knows better than most people that I require a good night's sleep in order to be a nice human being.  My mom, as many of you know, has a solution for most of the world's problems.  If Obama were as smart as we all think he is, he'd know to put Sandy Snyder in the White House and our nation's business would get taken care of -- most likely in 5-10 days.  Anyway, I told my mom that I needed a solution to sleep better in my room and she offered up an extra sleeping mask to me.  

I'm not one to shy away from gifts, but a sleeping mask, really?  I mean, I recently have had to start wearing orthotics, my eyesight continually requires a stronger prescription, I have 26 food "sensitivities" and now I need a sleeping mask?  My mom proceeded to tell me that this sleeping mask is not your ordinary sleeping mask; rather, it's a Bucky Sleeping Mask.  As the story goes, my parents have been hooked on their Bucky's for years now and it was now my turn to become addicted.  

I decided to experiment with my Bucky while on the plane ride back from Pittsburgh to San Francisco.  It was an early flight and I already was only running on a few hours of sleep, so I figured it couldn't hurt to Bucky myself up and see if the raving reviews were worthwhile.  As the story usually goes, my mother is almost never wrong and the Bucky was a real lifesaver on my early AM flight across the USA.  Even though I may have been contorted into strangely airplane-comfortable positions, I may as well have been back in A2 I was sleeping so soundly on this flight.  Since coming back to SF, my Bucky has shielded my eyes from the early rising California sun and I'm back to my normal sleeping regimen of 8-9 hours a night.  

Besides sleeping soundly through the night, other things that are exciting include but are not limited to:

• This weekend, on our way back from our day trip to Half Moon Bay, Jeven and I spotted Tracy Morgan coming out of a hotel in SF. I screamed at him, "Hey Tracy Morgan!"  He pretended like we didn't know each other.
• Matt Yalowitz participated in Google Ann Arbor's annual pie eating contest and is also coming to visit SF next week.  
• Kali spotted the Bachlorette right near where I live.  I'm convinced Ali and I will be BFF's (and that I've stooped to a new all-time low of horrible TV watching)
• I had a blast at home with my nieces and nephew (oh, and also the rest of my family).  The kiddies and I had great fun taking pictures after they had ice cream cake.  My father also immensely enjoyed his Pamela's hotcakes