all tuckered out

My best friend Krista and her husband James came to visit this week. They arrived on Sunday and we had 5 whirlwind days together exploring the city and then they departed on Friday. We had an extraordinary time together, full of good sightseeing, good eating, and good friendship, but I have to admit that I'm completely worn out. The weekend was spent recuperating from more excercise than I've had in a long time and I still feel a bit zombie-like today. We toured the Marina, Chinatown, the MOMA, Golden Gate Park, the Castro, our neighborhood, and wine country all in 5 days. I think we covered most of the city by foot. But we all seemed to enjoy ourselves and I think it's always refreshing to see your humble abode through other people's eyes. I discovered, while they were here oohing and aahing over everything, that I do actually live in a pretty cool city. It helped that we had sunshine and 70's all week long, as well. It's summer here in the City.
On Thursday we headed up to Sonoma County for a day in the wine country which, as always, was perfectly fabulous. We hit three wineries, Jacuzzi, Martinelli and some German-sounding one that I can't pronounce. Hold on, I'll look it up....
Gundlach Bundschu Winery. Say that three times fast, I dare you.

All the tastings were really interesting and informational. I find sometimes, that if you appear to be 30 or under and enter a winery for a tasting, you can get the cold shoulder. All the pourers who served us were full of answers and very engaging. My favorite tasting was at the Martinelli winery, which we've been to before. They grow the same grapes, but in different vineyards, so when you taste, let's say two pinot noirs, you really get a sense of the whole "terroir" thing. We tasted two Chardonnay's from different vineyards first and it was striking how completely different they were. I found it absolutely fascinating. Usually, you taste 5 different wines and so you don't get a chance to compare on that level. We repeated the process with pinot noirs and zinfandels. It really was fun. And they usually have very expensive wines, but their Zinfandel was affordable and so I got to come home with a bottle! 

After the full day of tasting and touring (we started in Sonoma and ended up in Healdsburg, so we really covered a lot of distance) we were famished and headed to Sunflower in Potrero Hill. If you ever visit San Francisco, be sure to check this place out. It's a Vietnamese restaurant and they have the location in Potrero and then two other little storefronts in the Mission. It's is delicious, light, fresh food that is really affordable. I'll admit that I've never had Pho before, but had it here for the first time a couple weeks ago and was blown off my feet. What flavor!! On Thursday I had the vermicelli with chicken and imperial rolls and savored every bite. Fantastic. I have nothing but praise for this place and we've been to both locations and the food was equally delicious at both. And the ambiance at the Potrero location is really quite nice. The Mission locations are more hole-in-the walls but that's fine.

On Saturday, after we slept in until 11:30, I made it my garden to finally plant it. The garden did a bulk dirt order a couple of weeks ago, and my dirt level was kind of low in my plot and needed an infusion of good dirt, so I participated. For $28 I got beautiful, luscious composted manure to top off my plot. And, guess what? When I spread it all on, it acted as a weed-killer. So I don't have to dig it all up and lay down cardboard or newspaper for the weedless gardening. I just need to be careful not to disturb the soil too much. I put the dirt on almost three weeks ago and I visited the plot yesterday to plant and not a weed in sight. YAY! It probably ended up being about 4-5 inches of dirt. So yesterday I put in peas, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, radishes, carrots, broccoli and onions. I know - all that in an 8x4 foot bed? Crazy, right? It's amazing what you can squeeze into such a small space. And then I watered everything and wow - the new soil just soaked up all the water like a sponge. With my old dirt, the water would just sit on top in a big puddle for 5-10 minutes before soaking in. It would take a while to water, because I didn't want to completely flood the plot. Yesterday was like a dream, I just continually watered in a circle around the plot and when I had arrived back at the beginning of the circle, the ground already looked parched again. Perfect.

To accrue the 12 community hours I have to do every year, we are allowed to attend some classes at another local community garden and get credit for that. So I'm taking three classes in April which I think will be really interesting, all relating to organic gardening. It will be an easy, entertaining way to get the hours taken care of.

Here's hoping that something grows!