New place/new perspective

Saturday we moved into our new apartment in the Alamo Square/NOPA neighborhood of San Francisco. It was actually a pretty leisurely move as we had already moved over a bunch of boxes last Saturday. We slept in, and didn't pick up the U-haul until 11:00am. Our friends Linnea and Brynda helped us out - yeah, we moved all the furniture with only one man, we're strong women. But I think Neil got more than his share of heavy boxes. We took two trips and were completely wrapped up by 5:00 and the truck wasn't even due back until 6:00. Of course, the apartment looks like a tornado hit. There was barely room to walk.

But we left it in that state and headed off to explore a new restaurant in our new hood. We treated Linnea and Brynda to dinner for their awesomeness in helping out and being in cheerful, chipper spirits all day long. They were the best. We went to a little pub and had delicious cold beer, and...um...cheeseburgers, emphasis on the cheese. It was so weird, it was like they had poured nacho cheese or cheez whiz on top of the burgers. It overpowered the entire burger and was leaking out all over the place. Plus, it acted like industrial strength glue! I think I still have little bits of napkin stuck to my fingers. Ah well, the beer was good and food is food. And the neighborhood is GREAT! Beautiful old victorian houses everywhere, good, cheap eateries on every corner and the PARK right across the street. Perfect.

Yesterday we had to go back to our old place and clean and I have to say, I'm not going to miss the Marina one iota. It's a fancy neighborhood that is pretty nice and quiet, with great views of the Bay and Golden Gate bridge, but the people. Oh geez, the people that populate that area are such total douchebags. I would try to describe them but you just have to experience it to understand. And there is no affordable places to eat at all. I did a yelp search once for restaurants in the Marina that were $ or $$ and all I got back were sandwich shops (not even open for dinner) or chinese restaurants. I did that same search in our new neighborhood and up popped 39 choices of indian food, chinese food, american pub food, mexican food - all shapes and sizes. YAY!

So cleaning sucks, of course. There's just no gratification at all. Atleast when you are moving, it's hard work but you know at the end of it you have a brand new place. Cleaning - what's the reward? I guess getting the security deposit back... I learned two very important things while cleaning our apartment -

#1: If you spill soy sauce down behind your vegetable bins in the fridge, don't wait until you move to clean it up.
#2: Never, ever, ever - even if you think it might be pretty- ever, ever install anything in your house that involves grout. Just don't do it. You will regret it later. Not that I had a choice here, but wow - what a pain in the ass.

So we unpacked some last night and then went out to Popeye's to bring home some yummy chicken dinner. On the way home, we found a wonderful coat rack out on the street waiting for us to take it home. It was like a welcome to the neighborhood present. :)

I have to say, moving to a new place now is definitely like a new, refreshing look at San Francisco - it's a whole new perspective. And I'm excited. We pick up the doggies this Saturday, and so thus begins year 2 in the City. I think it's off to a pretty good start.

I leave you with a picture of the view from the park that our apartment is across the street from:

Playing Catch-up

Wow - I keep meaning to blog about stuff, and then we take another trip, and I fall farther and farther behind, and now it's just too daunting a task to blog about everything. So I'm just going to do a quick catch-up blog, re-capping all of our summer travel fun. And there was a lot of summer travel fun. I don't think I'll schedule travel like that ever again, though - it was almost too much. From June 12th - August 4th, it was travel, one/two weeks down, travel, repeat. And I just feel kind of exhausted now. Don't get me wrong, I love travel and I love summer vacations, but I don't think I'll cram them all together like that again.

So, without further ado, is the catch-up/re-cap of the summer.

June 12-15th: Portland trip

We went home for a weekend and spent 2 nights out at the beach with the entire family, plus the doggies. Neil celebrated his 31st birthday while were there.

Ah, the Oregon Coast in the summertime. Looks like San Francisco.

After returning home from Portland, we held a beach-bonfire birthday party for Neil here in S.F., out at Ocean Beach. It was a really nice evening of roasting hot dogs on wooden skewers and testing our fire-building skills.


We also took a Sunday drive out to Mt. Tamalpais, up the coast, and back inland along the Russian River. The weather was beautiful and the views were amazing!

June 26th-June 29th: Ottawa Trip

After a brief rest from our trip home, we packed our bags again and headed to Ottawa to visit our good friends, Krista and James. I met Krista on a mission trip when I was 16 and we have been best friends ever since. However, in the 14 years that we have known each other, we've only seen each other 6 times. This was the 7th. And it was lovely.

July 15th - July 19th: Chelsea's Wedding

We got a little bit of a breather between Ottawa and heading home again to Portland for Chelsea's wedding, but not much. We left foggy skies behind and landed in beautiful 80-90 degree weather. We spent two days relaxing down at the lake, which I haven't gotten to do in years, I had my first manicure and pedicure, wedding was a wonderful, joyful gathering of friends and family. Not to mention beautiful weather and delicious food!

After such a wonderful time and such lovely warm summer weather, we came home to thick fog and chilly winds in San Francisco. Needless to say, I was missing Portland as much as when we first moved. The fog has persisted, and we're just starting to come out of it now.

After returning from Portland, we took one more Sunday drive out to Lake Tahoe for the day. It was a last minute, unplanned decision - just a need to get out the city - but ended up being a really nice drive, covering all different types of terrain. The Sierra Nevada's are really gorgeous. We arrived at Lake Tahoe with just enough time to snap a couple of pictures, drive along the western side up to Truckee, and then head back home. It sounds like a lot of driving for not much sight-seeing, but Neil and I are all about the journey. We both like to get out on the open road. No pics from this little side-trip.

July 30th - August 4th: New York City

Our main trip of the summer, this was supposed to be our anniversary trip, but then my sister scheduled her wedding two days before our anniversary, and we had to re-schedule. It was still our anniversary celebration, just not actually on our anniversary. :)

I could write volumes and volumes about this trip because we had SO much fun and absolutely LOVED NYC, but this is where I get bogged down and then neglect the blog. So I'm just going to put up some pictures and add a few little blurbs.

Museum of Natural History - meh, not so great...


Subways - we figured them out pretty quick and they are air-conditioned! Who knew? Unfortunately, the waiting platforms are not.

Chelsea Art Galleries - pretty cool, but very non-descript. Can you even tell there is multi-million dollar art housed in these structures?

Greenwich Village - our favorite. I could live here.

As a Pacific Northwesterner, I've always prided myself on being able to "handle" rain. But NYC rain - it beat us. We were forced to buy umbrellas after obstaining for over 7 years.

The Cloisters (part of the Met) - really peaceful and beautiful.

The Met - fantastic and overwhelmingly large!! It also beat me - by the end of our time here, I was completely crippled and couldn't put full weight on my left foot. Yikes!

Central Park - such a great green space full of nooks and crannies. Loved it!

Times Square - meh. But you kind of have to do it, right?

Grand Central Station - can you believe they were going to tear this down?!

View from the hotel room - Anniversary splurge totally worth the price! (But I did get a discount!)

Anniversary dinner was eaten here in NOLITA. I had lamb, Neil had salmon, both were DELICIOUS!

SOHO walk - all the old cast-iron buildings and the cobblestones were pretty cool.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge - it was so hot out, we didn't get very far.

Last look at NYC before heading to the airport - this is right outside our hotel, on the Lower East Side.

The trip was really fantastic, we saw just enough but not too much that we were completely overwhelmed. We spent the first 4 nights at my cousins apartment up in WA Heights, which was fantastic. It almost felt like we lived there, and we had such a nice time getting to visit with him.

And finally, when we got home from NYC, it was time to pack up and MOVE! Here is our new place:

Look at that kitchen - I am SO excited!!!

So, that's the catch-up. Whew - got through it. Hopefully now I can keep up on a more regular basis! Hope everyone out there is having a great summer as well!!