Older, Wiser, Stronger and more in love <3
We’re back in town and back to work! We had a great break.
I kicked off my birthday week out in Oakland where my friend Jenny took me out to Bombera for spicy roast carrots, duck mole and palomas, and doing some spice shopping at Oaktown spice. I bought myself chardonnay mustard and some interesting hot sauce and some grapefruit flavored sugar. The next morning we had coffee down the block where I ate a giant khachapuri (Georgian cheese bread with runny egg) for breakfast with a great cappucino and a walk to the Lakeshore farmers market which is massive. Pickled things and multicolored raisins and all sorts of fruit things filled up my basket. By afternoon it was time to run home to pack and head off to the woods for a week of camping.
On our way out of town we had to stop at Oakdale cheese for grilled cheese lunch and feeding some koi fish, and petting some goats. Another stop in Columbia to hit the candy store for old time hard candies, I always get peppermint. By evening we were grilling carne asada over a fire pit, reading in a hammock between two pines, sleeping under the stars and then waking up to the odd sounds of huge ravens at dawn. Pour-over coffee before scampering through meadows of lupine flowers, kayaking back and forth across the lake with my 11 year old, and an epic 7 hour hike with my newly 15(!) year old son (rated “hard” on alltrails, “easy” according to him, the rock climbing enthusiast…) We cooked some steaks and had chocolate cake on my birthday proper. My 18 year old bough me an espresso at the coffee cart, and spent a lot of time reading too. We also did the rocky 4 mile hike around the lake with my girlfriend and our 6 combined kids aged 5-18 in record time. We’ve all gotten stronger year over year, and that is super cool to see and feel.
We ordered pizza from our pals at Sacred Slice while coming down the mountain and picked it up in between de-loading the pine needle filled Subaru. It was a warm welcome home, I swear their pizza is the best. Saturday morning back at our farmers market found us with coffee from our friends at Penny, berries and catching up with Patty the berry lady, a great mariachi band and plums and pupusas. A sweaty fold up session of all our refreshed clothes at the laundromat, and off to brunch with old friends where there was quiche and french toast and catching up the old fashioned way, face to face and flopping on a couch.
It’s a good place to be here, in the middle of the urban landscapes of the bay and the rocky woodsy landscapes of the mountains in our dusty oak-y valley fruit bowl. I love it more and more, mostly because you are here too.