Operation: Make Some Friends!

I am so happy to report that Greg and I met an awesome couple.  We spent the first Saturday in February with them - first meeting for lunch at this cute place in Noe Valley (pronounced No-EE) called Fresca.  They have an awesome brunch menu and you can get bottomless mimosas for $10!  Have to remember that for when friends come to visit.  So anyway, we met Maggie and Rado through a friend of mine from the Chamber - Roseann.  She used to work with Maggie and connected us through email before I left.  Maggie and I finally made plans and she was a refreshing reminder of home.  Rado is from Manhattan and they lived in Ardmore for a few years before deciding to move to San Francisco.  Maggie works for Pixar and Rado is a musician.  He and Greg share a love for music among other things.  Rado had a gig that night, so we decided we would check it out.  At about 10:30 we went back to the city and met them in the Mission District at a small venue where Rado was playing guitar with his 11(?) person band.  They had a latin dance music kind of sound and there was an interesting crowd - mostly hippies, that filled the place to the brim.  We found Maggie and a spot in the back and watched with a few beers.  I figured out when we were there who Maggie reminded me of every time she spoke.  It was bothering me the whole day because I couldn't put my finger on it.  Finally it came to me...Tina McKnight!!  Maggie is from Clifton Hights, which is close to Springfield.  You Delco girls all sound the same!  :)  She didn't know Tina, but I was just glad I figured it out.  The band was done playing around 11:30, so we followed them to another party around the corner.  A house party I would find out.  The house was on the corner and you walked into this room from the street (doors were wide open) and there was a DJ in the corner playing music from an macbook and white paper lanterns hanging from the high ceiling.  The floors and walls were all white and next to the DJ was an old organ. Everyone was just dancing and having a good time.  I had to use the facilities, so I walked to the back with Greg towards a hallway and opened the first door - oops, a bedroom.   Then we walked through the kitchen and found a short line for the restroom. I was a little grossed out and couldn't believe people lived here.  We danced a little more before deciding we were tired and headed home.  Definitely an interesting day - discovered a lot of culture and had a great time with Maggie and Rado.

We were very excited for Sunday since it was Super Bowl time!  The game started at 3:30 for us and we were heading down to Matt's in Redwood City.  I was making Rox's Buffalo Chicken Dip for the first time so I was excited to try it out and a little nervous it wouldn't come out as good as hers does.  We woke up kinda early as usual and since it was a nice day we decided to take a walk around the water.  Sausalito has a little boardwalk along the bay where all the boats are docked in the marina.  At the end of the boardwalk near the ferry is a park with some benches where you can sit and watch the sailboats floating by on the water.  There a a few awesome houseboats that we were admiring and imagining our life if we were always rocking on the water.  Here are pictures of some of our favorites:

The Wooden Shoe - beautiful stained glass windows on the sides and the faux wood deck.

Other side of the Wooden Shoe with the owner staining his railings.  Good move getting the deck re-done so no more of that!

The Taj Mahal houseboat at the end of the dock.  So ornate and cool from the outside!

We also walked to the Sausalito Farmer's market and got a fresh roll of French Bread and some fresh tangerines and oranges before walking home to get ready for the Super Bowl.

Here is a pic from our little party at Matt's house.  He is taking this pic with his phone.

From Left to Right: Lisa, Simon, Emron?, Me, Saiad? (Matt's Roommate), Greg, and Rich

The Buff Chicken Dip is in the center surrounded by Tostitos, Carrots, and Celery.  It was a hit!!  Thanks Rox! As you can see...no real fans here.  Where is the fanfare and all the gear?  HA.

I have been trying to find some ways to volunteer to meet people and network.  Maggie told me about this awesome website, onebrick.org that gives you a list of organizations that are looking for volunteers for a few hours.  The kinds of volunteering you can do ranges from serving and bussing tables at soup kitchens to helping organize wine festivals.  The first one available was to help a local community garden - Corwin Community Garden in the Castro district.  They said they would supply us with all the tools and gloves, etc and told us to bring some cash for socializing after.  It sounded like something we would enjoy so we signed up.  It was a bit of a cloudy drizzly morning, but thankfully the sun ended up coming out.  The garden was kept up by this couple who lived in the apartment complex next to it.  They had put so much love and effort into it over the past 15 years and this was the first time they had a group of people giving their time to help them and they were so thankful.  It was a fun day and we did meet many interesting people.  Greg and I got to weed and prune some trees.  We met a girl named Lily who is really cool and we hope to hang out with her again. Here are some photos from the day:

Garden had awesome views of city

Me working hard while Greg plays paparazzi

Pruning a tree - attempting to give it a pyramid shape.  Ha yea right.

When our time was up, Reggie gave us all incense and we said a blessing to the garden.  He insisted that the power of positive thoughts and everyone saying the same thing at the same time can make significant impacts.

We went with a group of 8 people from the volunteer group to the Sausage Factory  (fitting name for a restaurant in Castro district) a couple blocks away and got some lunch and a beer.  Greg and I were going to go find somewhere that was participating in San Fran's Beer Week, but we found out we were an hour early still for that.  We felt a wave of tiredness at the same time and decided to head back to Sausalito and take naps and try to make it out for the night.  The naps were great but we did not feel like heading back to city.  We still had the gift card Michelle gave us to Sushi Ran so we decided to take advantage of that.  We sat at the Sushi bar and Greg got the Chef's Sampler.  We got great treatment because every piece of Sushi Greg got was explained to him in detail.  He ate like a king - all of these crazy fish delicacies.  I stuck to my standard rolls which were delicious and I was happy too.  Thanks Michelle!  Greg was definitely loving you this night!!

The next day we got up and took a drive down to Santa Cruz.  Greg brought his surf gear and we planned on checking out this Mystery Spot since I had it on my bucket list ever since Shannon Harder went there and told me about it.  Check the website out for more information, but it is this 150m diameter area in the woods that can't be explained.  Things are not level even though they appear to be and trees that should grow straight grow in a corkscrew.  Greg is skeptical, but the feeling you get there is so weird.  I have a strong stomach and it made me queezy.  Here are some pics of what I am talking about:

I tried this and I almost threw up.  He is standing on a ledge that is level, but as you can see, he has to lean forward to keep from falling backward.  Weirdest feeling ever.

Volunteers lined up in height order starting from 5'3" and working up every 2 inches.  I am 5'7"  so I had to go in the middle.  The tour guide demonstrated that the board we are standing on is level by putting a level device on it for everyone to see.

And then we had to switch order (I got to stay in my same spot).  Look at what happened to our height!  We are now all the same!!

So after that experience we drove out to the beaches of Santa Cruz.  The waves were going off! as Greg would say.  Matt was on his way down to meet up with us so he was very excited.  There was a high school surf competition going on and there were girls and guys doing amazing things in the water.  It was very windy and cold so I stayed in the car while the two crazies got in the water.  Luckily we found a parking spot facing the water so I could watch them from the comfort of my vehicle.  I did get out a few times to take some pictures.

That's Greg right in the center.

That black dot is him taking a wave down to meet Matt

After they were done surfing we got a bite to eat at this placed called The Reef in the town of Santa Cruz. They had a huge movie screen playing surf videos and a live band.   Another fun weekend in the books.