Foodifornia

Upon reviewing my (very few) photos from my trip to California, I noticed I really only took pictures the day I went to San Francisco. Upon reviewing these more closely, I realized that, aside from my Sutro Bath photos, I really only took pictures of food and myself with food. I know, big surprise. So, I figured I'd put together a little post about some of the good things I ate (and posed next to prior to eating) in San Francisco. First stop, Boudin Bakery!



See, I told you. One of my greatest loves in life is, in fact, bread. I love bread. And sourdough bread? Just forget about it. Sourdough bread is like the cute, witty guy you have a crush on but who has a girlfriend and you can't date but you so badly want to. Because it's just not available on the east coast. That's the only reason I made that analogy. Ahem. Anyway, I'm already going through withdrawals. I made sure to eat as much sourdough as I could while there, which included a yummy sandwich, that was predominantly bread (thank god)



and a loaf of sourdough shaped like a TURTLE. SEE



Ily sourdough turtle. You were delicious



Then, we visited a delightful tea house where I got an iced chai and a little bowl of coconut rice pudding



It was a tiny bowl!



Then we visited Japantown, where I got a crepe with a little puppy face on it!



I had banana, vanilla icecream, strawberry and chocolate crepe. I think they randomly choose which face to give your crepe, but they're all so cute. Cute!



And then I ate him. You were also delicious, puppy crepe. At the end of the day, while walking back to the bart station, we passed this place called THE MELT



It ain't no lie. They only serve grilled cheese, and we got some to go. I have no photos of that sandwich, which was pretty good, but Daphny swiped my camera and took some pictures, including this gem of me and my sister "acting natural"



NATURAL!

BONUS ROUND: Things I did that aren't food related, but that I wanted to share.

I RODE A TROLLEY!



I didn't even know how badly I wanted to ride a trolley until it was happening. Then I made my horrible excited face



I made this same face in both trolley pictures I took. That's how excited I was. Seriously, it was great. I wish I was on a trolley right now. Well, maybe not right now, because I'm in pajamas. Wait, nope, I take it back. Wish I was on a trolley in pajamas. Then, we saw

JOLLY JACK



At Musee Mechanique, a magical arcade/museum full of super old arcade games, I put a quarter in this gem of a machine. Good old Jack just laughs and laughs. He laughed for a good two minutes straight, and kind of shook around like he was having a seizure. GOOD OLD JACK!

I also found this machine that tests how hot you are. For the record, I got "hot stuff."



CALIFORNIA! I can't wait to return to you and your bread.

Until tomorrow,
Nicole

Sutro Baths, 3

Last night, I got back from my trip to California with a lot of thoughts in my head and feelings in my heart. And stomach. Five hour flights make you hungry, it ain't no joke. Five hour flights are also good for staring out the window dramatically and reflecting on the adventures you've just had. I've had a big jumbly, tangled ball of thought yarn kicking around in my head since last night, and the thought of untangling it in this post is kind of daunting. Lucky (unlucky) for you guys though, I'm going to make a valiant effort.

This trip to California was the first trip I took by myself. It was the first major thing I did by myself, really. I know people take trips by themselves all the time, that it's super commonplace, but it isn't for me. Even going through security at JFK, I was thinking to myself, "What the heck you doin', gurl?" In a surprise turn of events (that I'm sure someone other than myself could have foreseen) I found myself thinking on that flight home about how much I enjoyed traveling by myself, how I want to do it again. And then again, and again, and again. WHAT? I think that I sell myself short a lot, is part of my problem. I'm inclined to delete that sentence because to say that you "sell yourself short" must imply that you're some real hot potato, no? No. As much as I like potatoes, I'm no hot one. But I am a capable young lady, apparently, which I tend to forget because I'm not used to it. Ten months ago I was convinced I couldn't go to school without my then boyfriend holding my hand (literally and figuratively) and now I'm flying across the country. Excuse me if I'm disoriented by myself.

I feel like I needed to take this trip for a lot of reasons, one of them being to prove to myself that I'm not the wimpy, dependent, fragile girl I was ten months ago. My second mom tells me this fact all the time, that I've come so far, that I could not possibly ever ever EVER be that girl again because I have grown into a new and improved version of myself. Now, it's a little less difficult for me to believe her when she says that.

I also had a lot of important talks while I was with my sister and her girlfriend. While walking through the Yerba Buena gardens in San Francisco, I received a phone call from my mother, which made frustrated me. In effect, she made it seem like it was selfish of me to go to California because it was stressing her out, because she was "too worried about me." They noticed I was visibly upset, and when given the go ahead, I launched a very long rant about my own guilt about leaving my mother, but my undeniable desire to move to the west coast, to find my own path despite my mother's ceaseless desire to baby me and keep me in New York as long as possible. My sister, having broken free many years ago, had some advice to share, as did her girlfriend. "You don't owe her your future." Hmm. This trip also helped me see that a lot of people have this sort of struggle and that you just have to live your own life, just as your parents did, just as their parents did. Everyone makes their own decisions, for themselves. My parents made the decision to get married to who they chose, live where they wanted, and have their kids when they did. I am entitled to all of those decisions, whether they go against my mother's wishes for herself or not. It's difficult and scary to think about, but I'm glad I thought about it.

This little vacation to northern California showed me a lot about who I am and who I want to be. I definitely wasn't thinking these things during the trip while I was riding a trolley, eating pomegranite ice cream and mac and cheese, playing old arcade games, taking the BART, playing with cats, and walking the ruins of Sutro Baths though. Speaking of Sutro Baths, which you think I would have by now in a post titled "Sutro Baths, 3," it is one of my absolute favorite places ever, and I've been to it on every trip I've taken to California so far. They're these ruins right by the ocean that you can wander around and traverse, and they're beautiful. We took this treacherous, steep path back up from the water, that I was positive I wouldn't be able to climb (I definitely didn't think about the symbolism in that AT ALL. Really.) It was the perfect end to an excellent trip.


















Photos by Daphny

Until tomorrow,
Nicole