Another possible reason is that I finally got back on the running wagon. Last night Linnea (from work) and I went running together and I have to say, the ambiance was perfect. It was dark and foggy and when it's dark, all the neighborhood lights go on, and when it's foggy, it sort of disseminates the light and makes it very cozy - like you are surrounded by a gigantic blanket of fog. So the run was fantastic - we went for 40 minutes and I just felt like I got a chance to "breathe" again - get the fresh air into my lungs and into my soul. It was very refreshing. And I also felt very cozy and snuggly - even outdoors.
Another final reason that I'm feeling better was a visit to the Farmer's Market yesterday. It's hard to feel bad at a Farmer's market - all the friendly farmers and beautiful produce and other fun stuff. I went on my lunch break down to the Ferry Building Farmer's Market.
I had such a nice hour - I got some really nice produce from local farms. It's amazing how much stuff is still available in November. In most parts of the country, farmer's markets are already shut down for the season. I got lettuce, tomatoes, apples, oranges, garlic, onions, carrots, bell peppers, salad greens, potatoes and a few other things that I can't remember now. I got more than I usually get in my Spud delivery, and for the same amount of money. I decided to try the market after finishing "In defense of Food" by Michael Pollan last week. I couldn't put that book down! I would encourage everyone to read it. While being full of useful information, it's also a well-written good read. He starts the book by asking the question, "What should I eat?", which appears to be a very simple question. He then spends the book explaining why this is not as simple as it appears. His prescription for eating: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Again, not as easy as it sounds nowadays. He explores the idea of the "Western diet" and how the nutritional scientists have tried to break everything down into their various nutrients and vitamins, with the idea that if we isolate the perfect nutrients and vitamins, then we can add them to our processed foods to make us more healthy. Because, lets face it, Americans are generally not healthy. His argument is that why does it matter which nutrients in real, whole foods are making us more healthy - if we just eat those real foods more often than we do the processed foods that overwhelm the supermarket shelves, we will be getting whatever nutrients are in there that do a body good. Nowadays, though, the term processed food also applies to our meat and dairy products. Because the cows and chickens and pigs are all eating diets of processed foods and grains that they were never meant to eat in the first place, by the time they get to us on the grocery store shelves, they are also highly processed, even though they appear to be whole foods. So it's getting increasingly harder to even find "real" food. Well, there is just so much in this book and I can't condense it satisfactorily into a paragraph. Just read it. I'm starting another one of his books called "The omnivores dilemma." I think I may have mentioned that when I read one of the books, I get really gung ho about eating and buying locally - thus the trip to the Farmer's market. I loved it and think I will put my Spud deliveries on hold for now and keep giving the Farmer's market a shot. I also found a grocery store near us called "Real Food" that is mostly organic and local. I will give that a try for awhile as well, even though it is more expensive. This new "exploration" of food has really interested me. I made chicken pot pie for dinner the other night with all locally-grown veggies and a wheat crust and I swear, it was delicious. More delicious than usual - or just seemed so. I don't know, but I loved it!
So, again, for any one of these reasons, my disagreement with San Francisco is over for the time being. Feelings of general well-being are back.
Neil and I had a very nice weekend. I did get a little bit of shopping therapy in on Saturday morning. Crossroads was only interested in buying two items from me for a grand total of $10, even though I hauled a duffle-bag full of clothes into the store. However, I found two pairs of jeans, which with the stuff that I sold only ended up costing $23. I will repeat - TWO pairs of jeans for $23!!! Best deal ever. So that made me happy. With shopping success under my belt, I headed off to the Green Festival, which is a HUGE festival of vendors and speakers all about the saving the environment and being green. One point of their festival was to be green even while having a huge event - big events being very large generators of huge amounts of trash and waste. So they had recycling and composting bins available everywhere you turned. Linnea (from work) was volunteering and she took me "behind-the-scenes" or out back behind the exhibition hall, where they were sorting the compost and recycling down even further. It was pretty amazing. So, supposedly, the exhibition was supposed to have a really low impact on the environment, even though thousands of people were gathering there. I saw some really fascinating stuff - the most interesting being the environmentally friendly coffins! Yes, I did just say coffins! They were bio-degradable. And then the also had some urns that were made out of sustainable materials and bio-degradable ones as well - if you wanted to be cremated instead of buried. I circled the building a few times and checked out most of the vendors, but there were SO many people there, so I hit the road after a couple of hours.
Later that night, it was one of Neil's friends' birthdays, so we went to her party which ended up being very fun. Most of his art friends that we usually hang out with were there, plus a few others that I've met but haven't hung out with much. We had a really, really nice time just hanging out and talking with everyone. We didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning. It's been awhile since I've been out that late.
The next morning we got kind of a late start picking up the car, but eventually got going in our Chevy Cobalt. We decided to skip the hike and drive south along Highway 1 towards Santa Cruz and Monterey. What a GREAT decision!
About 20 minutes out of San Francisco, the houses were gone, the road got all windy and we hit the coast. It was a perfectly beautiful day - in the lower 80's. We had the windows down and the wind in our hair. As we wound along the coast, past beach after beach, we noticed a beautiful little cove, down a steep cliff. There was a parking lot up at the top, so we pulled over. When we crossed the highway and looked down into the little cove, we saw a little slice of paradise.
It was so fantastic that we decided to take a break in the drive, even though we had just started, and walk down to the beach. Wow!! When we got down there, I felt like I was in Hawaii. The sand was white, the water was gorgeous blue and there was a little bit of mist that was just hanging down in the cove, giving it almost a magical feel. It wasn't crowded and there were families and dogs running around. Wow. I love this beach.
Look at the color of that water! WOW!
I think we'll be back here sometime soon for a day at the beach.
Unfortunately, we couldn't stay all day - we had much more of the coast to see. So we got back on the road again. There really isn't much to narrate for this part of the trip - just fantastic coastline, beautiful, lush fields and gorgeous sunshine. So I'll just post some pics:
About halfway between San Francisco and Santa Cruz is Pigeon Point lighthouse - an old lighthouse that the California State Parks Foundation (where I work), is working to get restored. So we stopped in to look at it and take a few pics. It was kind of cool to know that the place where I work is helping to restore a little bit of history. There is also a hostel there.
Then we headed South again. The sun started going down and there was a beautiful sunset that just seemed to go on forever...
We pulled into Carmel - a really ritzy, art gallery-type town on the very end of Monterey Bay, just as the last few rays of light were disappearing. We walked out onto the beach there and stood and watched and soaked in the sound of the waves, and the warm November air (weird).
After we had soaked up enough ambiance, we hopped back in the car and zipped back to SF on Highway 101. It was just a very nice day and great to have the sense of freedom of getting out of the city when we want to. I'm sure we'll be doing it a lot more now.
I'm off to snuggle with the cookbook now!
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