So I just got back from some trips to NY this past month that have been absolutely amazing. Yes, the food was great. Yes, drinking was super fun and I went to many of my favorite places. Yes, I did tons of shopping…too much shopping. Yes, I saw some of my best friends get married, and saw some ads I worked on light up Times Square.

Well, I can only eat, drink, and shop so much, but I can’t get enough of you guys, so check this out and see what other activities we could be doing if you were here!

This was our weekend in Carmel with Ning, and new friends Thi, Noel, and Sadie.

It started with awesome fresh seafood at Sea Harvest Near Monterey Bay Aquarium, and then meeting the peeps for some sea kayaking. I’m sorry to say I don’t have any pics of that because I didn’t want to bring our big camera and have it end up in Davy Jones’ locker, so you’ll just have to use your thinking brain and imagine the scene:

It was pretty overcast in Monterey Bay, but the water was super calm and clear. We got to wear wetsuits so we were plenty warm. we saw tons of smelly seals (sea lions I can never remember…) jelly fish and tons of sea otters. even a big family of them all playing in the kelp. a few even popped up really close to our kayak but then disappeared just as fast. Oh those clowns of the sea, how the make me smile.

then we headed to a house Ning rented in the hills of Carmel.

After a grocery run we began Dinner prep. Ning Got the peppers going.

Noel and Matt manned the grill and cooked some killer flank steak, and an elaphant garlic and bread.

Also got some fresh fish skewers at Sea Harvest earlier in the day and marinated them tossed them on the grill. Yummers!

After all that hard work, the 5 of us then ate way to much food in a very romantic setting.

Then we made some S’mores

and sat in the hot tub and boiled ourselves for a little while until we all passed out from awesomeness overload. I don’t have pics of that, but I do have this pic of the entry of our amazing rental house in the evening.

Why yes, that is a gigantic tulip staircase leading down to the master bedroom suite.

After we woke up from our food comas the next morning, I treated everyone to my (Rachel Ray’s) world famous sausage, potato, and cheese waffles with fresh fruit to make up for my lack of doing anything helpful for dinner.

We unfortunately had to bid farewell to the awesome house, but not before a group photo.

Then we went home.

JUST KIDDING! we still had a whole heap of adventures because it was only Sunday! Carmel is only about 2 hours away, and you can make a whole amazing overnight escape out of it. ha HA!

We then drove south a bit to Point Lobos. Here we saw tons of seals being lazy fat asses, all the while we were being awesome adventurers.

The we came upon China Cove beach.

Even though it was in the 70s, don’t let the beachy clear water fool you. It was quite chilly in the water.

Despite the cold water, Point Lobos was beautiful and full of life and color. We sat on some rocks and just took it all in for a while.

We left when we saw all these amazing houses lined up near the water and all began to sink into despair as we realized we have gone horribly wrong somewhere in our lives to not be living in one of those houses.

We we came out of our depressions, we headed down into Big Sur and visited the Julia Pfieffer Burns state park.

There is a beautiful little waterfall there.

And when you turn around, this is the view on your other side.

We then went to a beach and had some sandwiches, and snacks and kicked around the the water. Again, I didn’t take any pics there in fear of taking out our camera with all the salty sea breeze whipping around us, but it was pretty spectacular.

We ended the day completely exhausted and wondering how we fit that whole amazing trip into little more than a day and a half. Oh, It’s because we live in San Francisco and this stuff is close enough and easy enough to get this that it ain’t no thang.

I mean, If you were here we could go next weekend. I’ll make waffles!

I had a little epiphany about NY vs SF while walking to work this morning.

There are numerous reasons why someone might think they choose to live in one city or the other. It might be family, friends, jobs, space, money, weather, etc. But having been in both cities back to back (a couple of times) recently, I think it comes down to one thing:

New York smells like poop.

San Francisco smells like pee.

the choice is yours.

Ok. So I don’t want you to think this is just about hating on NY (because I don’t. I love it.). So I’d like to even things out with something I hate here.

Spiders.

Not only do they have lots of spiders here but there is SPIDER SEASON and it is STARTING. On top that, it’s apparently really bad in Potrero Hill. Wait, what? I live in Portrero Hill! Holy shitballs!

This guy lived outside of our front door area last year. They start tiny and they’re all over right now. and then they get like THIS. I would dare say this image is actual size. they seriously get 1.5 - 2 inches of nightmare fuel. I had one fall in my hair once. They build webs in minutes. you might take you laundry downstairs without incident, but when you go back down to get it, one of these fuckers has built a web across the stairs and you get a SPIDER IN YOUR FACE! AAUURRGGG.

They’re not as horrible as roaches though. Or rats, ugh. I have yet to see a roach or rat here, which is nice. Wait, how did I get back to saying nice things about SF?

Really. I do. Things are pretty awesome here and I wish we could hang out a few times a week (Even on WEEKDAYS! Gaspers!) and talk about more awesome things to do.

But we can’t because you’re not here, which is why I’m starting this blog. I know New York is pretty great. I was there for several years and Matt was there twice as long as several years. We loved every minute of it. But I think many of you think San Francisco is cold a rainy, foggy, and awful in general. How could someone who loves NYC so much also love SF so much?

Let’s start with a topical and obvious beginning. Summer.

I’ll just end it there. I would hate for you to spend one more minute with the computer on and cause a blackout.

Ha HA! Love you guys. you know I do.