Two-race weekend in SF

Those of you who read this blog but not my running blog may not have known that I was out of town last weekend, in San Francisco for two races. I carpooled over on Friday with my friend Amber, who had to stop in Carson City for a job interview on the way. (They offered her the job on Monday, after we got back. Yay Amber!) From there we drove the south way to Sacramento, then on into the Bay Area where we stayed with her brother and his girlfriend. Thanks, Scott and Sara, for your hospitality...

We pretty quickly got organized and went out to dinner at Fonda, a Bay Area top 100 tapas place. My first experience eating tapas out - despite sharing small servings, I filled right up and felt like I had a great dinner. Too much good stuff to name, but the Cuban mini-burger with chorizo was awesome...

We got up early and took BART across the bay to the city, then walked the three blocks to the 555 California building. Did the race (read about that here), hung out at the top for awhile listening to music and enjoying the view, then headed out for some lunch.

Chris had a specific beer bar on Haight street that he wanted to visit, but it wasn't open yet, so we had Middle Eastern plates with hummus, baba ghanoush, falafel, etc., at a nearby cafe. After lunch, the Toronado had opened, and we each tried an interesting beer, with Chris buying a few extra bottles to take home. Here he is, studying labels, with the board full of available beers behind him:



We then drove to where Chris and Abby were staying, Abby's cousin Eric's house. I'm not exactly sure what part of the city this was; some hill overlooking the Castro. It was super fun to take a little tour of his beautiful house and garden, and relax there for a few minutes. From his back deck, you could even see the building we had just climbed:



And what a relaxing little garden:



We then took off across the city - I had a packet pickup at Fisherman's Wharf for the race on Sunday. Did a lot of walking, trekking up those San Francisco hills:



And passing by the Chinatown branch of the library, which I weirdly recognized from seeing it on Google Street View:



After picking up the packet at a kind of disappointing expo, Amber and I walked back to the closest BART station, all the way back on Embarcadero. We spent a couple minutes checking out the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Memorial, a really cool water/sculpture thing:



Back in Berkeley, Scott and Sarah picked us up at the BART Station and took us grocery shopping at the Berkeley Bowl. What an incredible store! I could've spent hours just in the bulk and produce sections, not to mention the cheese counter and the beer display. With our spoils from shopping, Scott made us green curry with veggies and k=Korean short ribs. Delicious! We shared a Lindeman's Framboise/Adams Chocolate Stout combo for dessert.

Sunday morning Amber and I snuck out early again, this time to drive across the city to the Presidio. I did the Presidio 10 (race report here), then we hung out on the beach at Chrissy Field for a while, did some shopping at Sports Basement, and headed back to Reno. What a fun weekend!