i've been meaning to blog.

i really have.
i even have two posts in my drafts section.
but i wanted to do a post about san francisco with pictures first.
so i'm sitting down in my cold, dark bedroom on my trusty desktop that has a pretty empty hard drive because i rarely use it for more than watching satc or friends to fall asleep.
so. how about a post that lives up to the name [photos + words + stories] of this blog. :]

in case you haven't noticed, i sort of have a thing about taking photos from the airplane. i happen to enjoy them quite a bit. it goes without saying that i was pleased to capture this one on our morning flight into oakland:
most of the first day was spent shopping, although one might argue that we were primarily window shopping. the only real purchase of the day was at lush. i picked up a couple of little lovelies. they sure made my suitcase smell good. :]

i may have mentioned that one of my vivid childhood memories is riding on the spiral escalators in the mall containing nordstom. now they almost make me nauseous, but i still ride on them for the sake of memory lane. i loved seeing the holiday decor all over the city.

that night, we had a large group dinner at north beach restaurant. i won't go back there, but it was fun sitting at a huge table in the wine cellar with about 25 ladies who were enjoying the vino quite a bit. :]
the best part of the dinner [obviously not the food] was getting to see the prusciutto rooms. at the beginning of the meal, one of the silly italian servers boasted about how they make their own prusciutto on site. after our meal, the owner of the restaurant showed those of us who were interested and talked a bit about the process. it was pretty interesting. he said there was $300,000 worth of prusciutto in the two rooms. yikes. after dinner, mom and i walked over and got some cheesecake to eat in the room and called it a night. some of the ladies headed to lefty's, a bar in union square right outside the hotel. i think i heard them walking back to their rooms around one. seriously. when i'm older, i hope i can still stay out late like that. :]

the next day, mom and i did a little more shopping. the anthropologie on market st. is my most favorite anthro store. the decor at every anthro is always fascinating, but especially at this store. so many unique ideas.

after a little shopping, we headed to north beach to wander around. we had tickets to beach blanket babylon that night, so we stopped by the venue early to make sure of the location and pick up the tickets. since i have no other photos from the show, i'll just mention now that it was fabulous. better than i expected. if you're unfamiliar, it's famous for the crazy hats worn by the performers. they really are impressive. they basically make jokes about current events and pop culture throughout the show. the political part was my favorite. they seemed to make fun of everyone equally. :] oh and since it's december [i'm assuming that's the reason. ha.] they ended with a whole christmas themed segment, including a huge christmas hat. :]

before the show, mom and i wandered around washington square.we visited some of the boutiques in the area and then headed down columbus st. to visit a few more shops. i finally got to see vesuvio during the day.ha. usually i just visit there with andrew at night, but the murals on the wall outside were so fun to see during daylight. i was trying to convince my mom that this is sort of a famous spot, and just after i took this photo, a tour bus stopped and all the people unloaded and started taking photos too. sort of funny.

we decided to have dinner here:
i've eaten here before, and it's always good. i wanted a good meal after the yuck meal from the night before. [ok. to be fair, i should say that my mom enjoyed her meal the night before. i think i was the only one who didn't like mine. but with all the choices in the area, i don't feel the need to ever go back.] we had this cute, isolated little table by the window at the stinking rose with a christmas tree right behind my chair and a fun view of columbus st. after dinner, we headed off to the show were we eventually met up with everyone else from our group.

on the way back to the hotel from the show, the limo driver that had been driving us around for the whole trip got pulled over. it was a huge ordeal, where all the ladies in our limo freaked out at the cops and told him they were inconveniencing us. the cops said that the limo driver hadn't filled out the paperwork properly, so we would have to get out and take taxis. this lead to further freaking out, where the ladies told the cops that taxis were unsafe. the cops said they've been having problems with limos acting as taxis and then kidnapping the people they pick up. this caused the ladies to get even more angry because they've been using this limo service for years and told the cops they were ridiculous. i thought the whole thing was a little bit funny. some of the ladies who were in the limo are rather prominent people in reno. if the cops had only known who they were dealing with! ha. i looked it up on google maps and realized that we were less than a mile from the hotel, so mom and i just walked back. they rest of them reluctantly took taxis, and the limo got towed. the driver apparently showed up at lefty's, the bar where he knew the ladies would be that night to apologize. ha.

anyway. i really don't mind the walk from north beach to union square. james and i usually just walk. and tonight was especially cool because mom and i got to see this big christmas tree at the ritz.sadly, i failed to take photos of all the other cool trees we saw. ah well.

the next day, our flight wasn't until the evening, so after a yummy breakfast, we decided to head to golden gate park to explore. we stopped at the conservatory of flowers first.the coolest part was in one of the rooms, they had set up "the golden gate expressway", which is a little model of san francisco using all kinds of "junk" to create the buildings. oh. there was a train too, but that wasn't the impressive part. ha.notice the cheese grater? and the forks and spoons?
and here's coit tower made out of tape measures and mini blinds.
it was fun to look at each little building and try to figure out what they used. they had a little booklet that you could look at to read what each building was made from. things like light switch plates, keyboard keys, cds, computer guts, old mail cartons... i wish i could remember more!

after that, we headed to the de young museum. i'm pretty sure we took a wrong turn somewhere because it too us a while to find it. we first stumbled on the academy of sciences, which i will definitely head back to check out another time. then we went over to the museum. they are having a big ysl special exhibit right now, which was definitely the highlight of what the museum had to offer. i seriously loved seeing all of those clothes. and i seriously wished i could take a few pieces home. :]

we went up in the tower, as suggested by the guest services lady. it offered one of the best 360 degree views of the city i've come across.
the other interesting part of the museum was the dale chihuly glass. mom and i talked about how the bellagio has sort of "ruined" us. when you can see a whole ceiling made of chihuly glass, four pieces aren't all that impressive. likewise, when you see buildings modeled out of flowers in the bellagio conservatory, the golden gate park conservatory isn't quite as impressive. :] we still loved wandering through the park. it's something i've been meaning to do for a long time now.

after our short adventure, we were getting hungry, so we walked over to the haight for some lunch. naturally, i suggested we eat as askew. my mom loved it too! then i proceeded to make my poor mom walk for miles and miles and miles because despite however savvy i might think i am, i still haven't figured out the public transportation system very well. but we got to see buena vista park and plenty of cool houses like these: and we finally came upon the paper source in the fillmore where i made a quick stop. and then we continued walking and walking and walking back to union square. i got to show my mom japantown too. ha.

i didn't have a chance to visit with andrew because he was in the middle of finals. i guess that means i'll need to make another trip soon. :]

briefly, in other news:
we finally saw quantum of the solace sunday night. it was good. i need to see it again so i can figure out some more parts. i always feel like i need to see those types of movies at least twice to really understand everything.

it's been snowing. james is ecstatic about that.

this was taken from my front porch monday morning. the road is under there somewhere. :]

i've been knitting. i think i'm going to look for some wooden knitting needles in case the don't allow metal ones on the plane. i mean really, what better way to pass time while flying in the winter than to knit?

i'm craving tapioca express. so i might trek out there today.

james keeps asking me what i want for christmas. i still can't decide on anything.
i got my one big christmas wish over the weekend from my parents. now i just need to set it up. :]
i've not finished my shopping. but i'm sure you probably guessed that, huh?

i actually started this post last night, but had to take a break and didn't end up finishing it until now. kudos to you if you read it without taking a break. ha.