de Young Museum | Perishable Item

View from Buena Vista Park

I had the pleasure of returning to San Francisco in July this year for the third time to celebrate a wedding. One of my very first New York friends, Iris, invited me to her wonderful whimsical wedding. I was able to catch up with some of my other “original” New York friends and hang out in beautiful city for the weekend. Here’s a quick recap.
The majority of our time was spent on Haight Street, or close by in Golden Gate Park. Since I have done the majority of touristy activities, I was happy to just explore one area and spend some time in museums that I had been wanting to visit. Haight Street is an interesting area with all kinds of characters and shops. We found some amazing coffee, enjoyed some great jazz, got our nails done, laughed as a man lying on the sidewalk told police, “I don’t know who I am!” and did some thrift shopping all within blocks of our hotel.

I wanted these so much.

I met my friend Michele at our hotel/hostel/B & B, the Red Victoria. It’s a quirky little place. They have a full kitchen guests can use and a large event/lounge space that people rent out. The rooms are adorable and clean. We were in the Redwood room with a private bath. We had looked into and AirBnb but they were all a bit expensive or not in the area we wanted. I’m glad we went with our friends advice and tried the Red Victoria instead. I loved it.
Our adorable room

Just down the street that evening was the welcoming party at Club Deluxe. This is one of the couple’s favorite spots. There was a great group of old men playing Jazz music the whole night. It was so fun. I don’t think the couple expected so many people to already be in town. We filled the small place. We met people from all over the world that Iris and Booth had befriended.
The band Club Deluxe

The club had some amazing Italian style pizza. Let’s take a moment to talk about all the amazing food. I forgot how good food is in places like San Francisco. Bozeman’s good, but damn its got nothing on a big city. I completely forgot that I was going to get to eat such good food again and I think my excitement may have scared Michele a bit after the first bite of pizza. I think I tried three different pizzas and had fried okra. From that point on, I was on a mission to make sure we went to places that I couldn’t get close to at home. The next morning we went to Bacon Bacon.

Yes, I drug my vegetarian friend to a cafe dedicated to bacon and her meatless sandwich was still delicious. I had to restrain myself from ordering a bouquet of bacon and stick to a breakfast sandwich. We had lunch at the de Young Museum Cafe. Pricey? Sure. Amazing? Yes. You can sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather while nibbling on your macaroons. We ventured over to Oakland to meet a friend of mine for dinner that evening at Burma Superstar. I miss great Asian food. I admit it. It’s hard to come back to limited variety, but I guess that’s the trade off for amazing mountains in a small town.

Okay. back at it. The day before the wedding Michele and I explored the de Young Museum and the Academy of Sciences. I had been to the tower and outdoor sculpture garden at the de Young before but not in the actual space. It is a pretty awesome space. Unfortunately, I wasn’t overly excited by any of the exhibits. I know they get some great ones though.

After a day of education we went to an Athletics game against the Twins.

The poor A’s tried, but failed to take the Twins. While I don’t care much for baseball, I do enjoying going to the games from time to time.
Especially now that I can’t go to the them unless I get on a plane to do it. It’s always entertaining to watch the fans and to see whatever “entertainment” happens between innings.

Bobble head race between innings…

The next day was perfect for a wedding. That morning Michele and I participated in a tradition ceremony with other girl friends of the bride where the groom had to bribe us for his bride. We hid her and her shoes in the apartment for him to find after he answered our questions a paid us all an agreeable sum of money. We made him sing and moved Iris around as he was looking for her. We had a good time before being sent off to get wedding ready.

The wedding was held in Golden Gate Park. It was so lovely. After the ceremony the band lead us to the conservatory steps for a huge group photo.
Everyone sunbathing also took our picture before we headed back to the reception. The food was delicious, the photo booth was a mini Polaroid and there were dogs jumping after the bubbles people were blowing. Whimsical attire was encourage.

I wasn’t entirely sure how crazy to go, plus I didn’t want to drag my derby hat on the plane, so my outfit was tame compared to some peoples. It was so fun to see the outfits that people came up with and had the balls to wear. I’m just not that cool.

Hanging in the tree