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  • Tag: San Francisco

    • land’s end

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on June 28, 2017

      There are so many pictures from this day, I couldn’t really narrow them down any more than I already did. Over the Christmas break we had the opportunity to really spend some time in Northern California, which hasn’t happened since we lived there over three years ago. Usually we are flying in for a wedding or other event, so it’s a very rushed trip with no time to do anything but the thing we are there to do.

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      I was just thinking about this the other day, how when you first move somewhere you are so excited to go everywhere and check things out, and see all of the sights, but eventually you get settled in, and have your few places you go back to, and get busy with everyday life, and it’s easy to stop doing those things. I think that’s one of the reasons I like moving around so much, I don’t like to take places for granted or get complacent with how I’m spending my time.

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      I worked in S.F. for three years, I was in the city every single day, so going into the city wasn’t usually high on my list of things to do on my days off. So we really took advantage of having some free time on this trip, and spent a full day playing tourist in San Francisco. I’ve been wanting to go to the “labyrinth” at Land’s End for years, and I’ve also heard about Twin Peaks from many of my photographer friends, so I was excited to check it out. Luckily we chose a beautiful, sunny day since we spent almost the whole time outside.

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      On our way to Land’s End we stopped at Ocean Beach to watch the surfers for a while, then parked near the Cliff House and walked along the water to Land’s End. It was about a mile “hike” (on a groomed dirt path with stairs). It was a little bit muddy, and kind of windy since it was on the water, but the view was amazing.

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      After Land’s End, we went to a local brewery for lunch, and then stopped off to check out the 16th Ave stairs and wandered around Golden Gate park for awhile. Finally, we drove up to Twin Peaks and walked up to the top to enjoy the view just before sunset, before heading back to Tony’s for the best pizza ever.

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      It was a lot more memorable than what we would have done otherwise that day, which if I remember correctly, would have been finishing our binge watch of the first season of The Man in the High Castle.

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      Posted in California, San Francisco, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged California, labyrinth, land's end, San Francisco, travel, twin peaks
    • eighteen hours

      Posted at 9:04 am by jasminedesirees, on June 1, 2016

      coeur d'alene lake

      I just realized it’s been almost exactly a month since my last post.

      Things that have happened since then:

      • I got accepted into Grad School at ASU starting in August
      • I worked for two weeks out of the San Francisco office and ate robot food
      • I spent the weekend in Santa Cruz for my brother-in-law’s wedding
      • At said wedding, I drank too much and danced too much and I’m pretty sure I broke my toe
      • I visited my best friend in Bend, Oregon. We almost went to see Eve 6 in concert, but ended up playing beer darts all afternoon instead.
      • I drove 18 hours from San Francisco to Lakeside, MT, where I can be found lounging on the dock and learning how to Flyboard, if anybody needs me.
      Posted in California, Oregon, other things, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged life, Montana, oregon, San Francisco, travel
    • angel island

      Posted at 7:00 am by jasminedesirees, on September 21, 2015

      It’s funny how you move to a new place, and for awhile every day is an exciting discovery, but then eventually, that new place becomes just the place where you live. When we first moved to California, we were exploring new places all the time, but after awhile we settled down to regular life, and most of our travels were to SoCal, or out of state.

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      angel island

      Angel Island has been on my list since I first found out we were moving and started creeping for fun things to do, but somehow it never happened. The nice thing is that we still have friends and family in the area and we go back to the Bay pretty often, so just because we haven’t done something yet (I’m looking at you Alcatraz) doesn’t mean we won’t.

      We ended up going to Angel Island this summer, finally, with Derek’s brother, his girlfriend, and their daughter. We left from Sausalito (one of my favourite places) and took the ferry across on a beautiful sunny Sunday in July.

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      The ferry ride was $15/person, plus $1 per bike. If you are thinking of visiting and you have a bike, definitely bring it. Rentals are pretty expensive, so $1 to bring your own bike on the ferry is a steal.

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      When you land at Angel Island there is a little pier area with a couple little restaurants (some of them look really good, and the prices weren’t terrible either) and a place to rent bikes. They also sell wine, which is a useful tip for after the bike ride is over.

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      When you first start riding up you are on a narrow little dirt path that is very steep, and you last about 15 seconds before you get off and start pushing your bike, and wondering when the next ferry back leaves.

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      But once you get to the top of that little area, the path widens out, and is paved, and is generally not very steep. There were lots of families doing the bike ride together, so it’s not super difficult but there were definitely a couple of times when I was exhausted but had to peddle really hard to beat a little girl up a hill. Not today, Pigtails.

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      The only part of the ride that is really hard is when you are around the opposite side, with the best view of San Francisco. In order to get to the magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge, you have to ride up the side of a hill that recently made a cameo in Everest. It feels impossible, but the view once you make it to the top is worth it.

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      After the hill, it’s mostly flat or downhill. It’s really the last place where you need to put in any effort, so keep telling yourself that as you struggle for breath and turn the colour of a cherry tomato.

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      Angel Island used to be an old military base, so there are some really neat old buildings to look at as you pedal, and we had a rare hot day in San Francisco, so we stopped and hung out on one of the beaches while we ate lunch.

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      If you are planning on checking out Angel Island, especially in the summer, make sure you bring sunscreen, there isn’t a lot of shade, and lots of water. Once you leave the pier area, there isn’t anywhere to get more water, although there are some picnic tables at the top of the aforementioned mammoth hill.

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      The BEST thing about our Angel Island trip is that my brother-in-law proposed to his girlfriend while we were there! So not only was it a beautiful fun day, but now I get a new sister, and I get to wear this dress to a wedding in the Spring. Wins all around.

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      And speaking of things I haven’t gotten to do in California yet, we are still deciding whether or not to spend Christmas there (I’m 28 and I’ve never not been with my family. Yes, I’m a baby.) but if we do, I am slightly cheered at the prospect of spending a few days camping in Big Sur between Christmas and New Years. We may die of exposure in our tents, but live dangerously or not at all.

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      Posted in California, exploring, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged angel island, bay area, California, San Francisco, travel
    • san francisco

      Posted at 8:55 am by jasminedesirees, on September 1, 2015

      I recently spent a couple of weeks back in the Bay area, working out of our San Francisco office, and I was reminded of how much I love that city, especially because the weather was amazing, and all I wanted to do was be outside.

      That got me thinking about other times I’ve been there, and things that have happened, so here, in no particular order, are the most memorable things that have happened to me in SF.

      -The time I walked around a corner to see a chubby, bearded man standing in front of me wearing nothing but a fuzzy purple vest (it was Bay to Breakers.)

      -The time I was walking down market and a random man tried to spit on my sister and I, and then a big group of large scary looking men standing nearby offered to kill him for us.

      -The time I was walking down a busy street and a man was standing off to the side, masturbating.

      -When I first started working in the city and I was lonely and friendless and would walk from 2nd street all the way to Haight because there was this little store that had the best Gingersnap cookies. I would get one and wander through the thrift stores looking at old jewellery.

      -The time I was walking down the street on a cold, rainy day, and a random man stopped and gave me his umbrella.

      -That time we did a Halloween bar crawl in North Beach dressed as a peacock, a parrot, a hippy, a pirate, a banana and Psy from Gangnam Style.

      -That time I was walking to AsiaSF and came around a corner to find the coolest building ever, covered in graffiti with furniture hanging out the windows.

      – The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer I did with my mom and sisters. The route took us all over the city and across the Golden Gate up into Marin county. Definitely the best way to see the Bay.

      Apparently I spend all my time walking around when I’m in the city, and I’m OK with that.

      Posted in California, San Francisco, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged bay area, San Francisco, travel
    • grand island mansion

      Posted at 7:57 am by jasminedesirees, on May 5, 2015

      This last weekend I made a very quick trip back to California for a wedding. It was held at the Grand Island Mansion near Elk Grove. The wedding was really fun, and the venue was completely gorgeous, so I made sure to take lots of pictures to share.

      The Mansion was built in the 1920’s, and apparently it was a place where rich San Franciscans would take the steamboat for the weekend. It was also a place for people to drink without getting caught during prohibition, but we couldn’t find any secret passages. They were probably in the library, behind a bookshelf. That’s just science.

      I ended up staying the night there, and I’m about 98% sure it’s haunted, but it was still a really great weekend.

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      Posted in California, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged California, grand island mansion, San Francisco, weddings
    • bay

      Posted at 5:59 pm by jasminedesirees, on August 29, 2014

      As much as I’m loving life in Australia, this video is making me a teeeensy bit homesick for the bay. I’ve been lucky enough to live in some pretty cool places.

      Posted in California, San Francisco, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged bay area, California, San Francisco, travel, video
    • street food

      Posted at 6:09 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 21, 2014

      One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do in the City since I’ve moved here is go to a Food Truck park. Food trucks are such a big part of the culture here, and I’ve eaten from them a lot, but they have events like Off the Grid, where you can try a bunch of different ones, and get drinks and hang out as well.

      While my sister was here we were driving to Half Moon Bay, and we were hungry. I looked up food trucks on the map to see if any good ones were around that day, and I found one, so we decided to go get some lunch.

      It was a really great surprise to discover that we weren’t just at one food truck, we had accidentally found our way to the SOMA StrEat Food Park, where a bunch of food trucks congregate every Thursday and Saturday nights.

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      It was a really cool environment, with lots of drinks, neat little areas like a barn and a school bus you could rent out for events, and a bunch of food trucks that switch every week.

      We scouted the place out and made our selections, I got beef sliders and crab stuffed wontons, the boy got an amazing pulled pork sandwich, and my sister was adventurous and got ox tail soup, and poutine.

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      It was a gorgeous sunny day, the food was delicious, although I was a little disappointed to discover a truck that was selling mac and cheese burgers after I was already too stuffed to eat another bite.

      Saturdays are Sangria Saturdays, where they have bottomless Sangria, and they also sell mimosas and lots of other drinks.

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      I was absolutely in heaven, to the point where, after yet another poetic exclamation of undying love, the boy responded with “Do you? Do you love it here? But do you love it?”, and I realized that I would need to try to be a bit more discreet about the depth of my feelings in case he got jealous and refused to accompany me on subsequent visits.

      But just between you and me, yes, I LOVED it there.

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      Posted in California, exploring, family, food, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged bay area, exploring, family, food, food truck, food trucks, Half Moon Bay, San Francisco, travel
    • why is the rum always gone?

      Posted at 3:35 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 17, 2014

      One of the coolest things we did while my sister was here was visit the Smuggler’s Cove, a really neat bar in the city. I’d never even heard of it before, but it was on her list of things to do during her visit.

      We did some shopping earlier in the day, and then started walking over there. After a brief but terrifying sojourn through the Tenderloin district (I wanted to make sure she soaked up as much SF culture as possible), we got there, but it’s quite sneaky, if you didn’t know where it was you wouldn’t be able to find it.

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      It’s on a quiet residential type street, the front door is plain glass with a very tiny sign on it. Once you go through the door, you find yourself on one side of a draping black curtain. Once you pass through the curtain, you find yourself in Heaven.

      The inside of the bar is a pirate ship. It’s 3 levels, complete with netting, masts and water features, and dark, ominous lighting. There are two bars, one upstairs and one down and limited seating (it only holds 50 people) so you have to get there early.

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      They have over 400 different kinds of rum, and their menu is a massive leatherbound book of rum recipes (and other liquor recipes) from around the world. It’s really hard to pick one, and dangerous too apparently, after my initial selection the bartender dissuaded me since I’d picked a fruity drink with 4 different kinds of rum and “there had been incidents in the past” with that one.

      I tried a couple different drinks selected at random, and all of them were delicious. We also had a flaming volcano, their answer to the fish bowl, that is served in a large wooden bowl, with 4 straws, and a fiery show as it’s served. It was very potent, especially since there were only really two of us drinking it, but it was also scrumptious.

      The Smuggler’s Cove is a very unique place, I would definitely check it out if you’re ever in the area.

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      Posted in California, San Francisco, USA | 4 Comments | Tagged bars, exploring, rum, San Francisco, Smuggler's Cove
    • asia sf

      Posted at 8:04 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 10, 2014

      I’ve been wanting to go to Asia SF for ages, it’s basically a San Francisco rite of passage and I knew it would be a really fun night out, I just needed the right person to go with.

      Asia Sf is a bar and restaurant where all the waiters are in drag, and they do cabaret/burlesque style shows on the bar as you eat.

      I took my sister when she was in town last week, and we had a blast.The show was great, everyone was there to have a good time, and the waiters looked amazing, one of them had the best legs I’ve seen on anyone, period.

      The food was delicious as well, which was a pleasant surprise, and their lemon drops were divine.

      I would definitely go back there with anyone visiting the city, as they say at Asia SF, “welcome to San Francisco, where the women are strong, and the men are beautiful”.

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      Posted in California, exploring, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged Asia SF, burlesque, drag, drag queens, exploring, restaurants, San Francisco
    • surreal

      Posted at 6:36 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 4, 2014

      We were lost in San Francisco yesterday, wandering on random streets, when we came across the coolest building ever.

      It was covered in beautiful graffiti, and had antique furniture hanging from the windows and the roof of the building.

      I know this place isn’t for everyone, but when I come across something like this I can’t help but feel lucky to have lived here, even if it was just for awhile.

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      Posted in art, California, San Francisco, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged art, furniture, San Francisco, surreal
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