Oh - San Francisco!

Can you see that circular rainbow right around the shadow of the airplane? I don't know how common that is, but that rainbow was around that shadow the whole ride up to beautiful San Francisco. It was either an indication of how great my trip was gonna be, or how much it was gonna rain!

Friday afternoon was mostly business. Meeting went great, we'll see what actually materializes. I got to see my two sisters' apartments. They live about two blocks from each other in The Mission disctrict. Very chic and cool. Dinner that night was at a beautiful and tasty Thai restaurant called Osha on Valencia Street. We also happened upon a gallery opening of all kinds of mixed-media art. I simply loved this artists' work:

This piece is called "Sad Girl" by Erin McElroy, and is a scan of the postcard I took from the gallery. It is an image transfer onto found pieces of wood, with acrylic paint. I just love the texture and grain of the wood that also shows through the image transfer. You can see more of this artist's work here.

The next morning, we were off to Berkeley to visit my wonderful friend Peggy. Yah, that chick who won the earrings. Don't hate her, she's super cool. We met in this area called 4th Street, which is on 4th Street (imagine that!) just off University. As you will see, this is a MUST VISIT when in the Bay Area. We started the morning at Betty's Diner on 4th Street. Yum! You get a scone with most breakfasts, which I was totally looking forward to. Then, the waiter comes up to me to tell me THEY ARE OUT OF SCONES! What the eff? He rattles off some other tasty sounding items, and I chose the cinnamon bun. Well, all I can say is, thank God they were out of scones, because I'll be dreaming about that darn cinnamon bun for a long time.

The first store we entered was Castle in the Sky. Oh My. This is an art store. The maniquins in the front window are dressed in beautiful dresses, all handmade from PAPER! Here's a little taste:

Yes, all those clothes are made entirely of paper, german scrap for the trim, doilies for the "lace".

The first thing that caught my eye was this amazing assemblage piece called Pygmy Place. It was about 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall. Amazing...can you see the little party happening inside the treehouse?

You better believe I got me some of those mushrooms!

Little assemblages everywhere!

All handmade! In the back of the store was an Under the Sea room, with little sandcastle assemblages, and, of course, a mermaid throne for kids to take pictures. Here's one of the sandcastles:This store has one of the most amazing selections of german glass glitter, german scrap, and...um...mushrooms!

There was a truly lovely Japanese paper store, and then this little tea shop and tasting room. Right above the little fountain in the floor is a rain shower head at ceiling height, which is pouring water into the fountain. This is the scene when you walk in the store. I just love the sound of water!

I also loved the big red lantern above the tea bar.

Here's a closer look.

We also perused a great scrapbooking store called Scrapbook Territory. Found lots of goodies for my spraypaint art and ribbon that I have been looking for forever!

There were cool furniture stores, and the ubiquitous Restoration Hardware and Crate and Barrel. After Peggy and I parted, my sisters and I stopped at Urban Ore on the way back to the city. WOW!!!! The best junque yard ever! I found key holes, old photos, and rusty things galore. Sorry, didn't take photos - too busy shopping! Very reasonable prices too - like $1. Or less.

That evening we had dinner at Red Star Pizza on Mission Street. Think spinach, tomatoes and lots of gooey cheese, or chicken sausage, red peppers and tomato with lots of gooey cheese, all on a crispy, deep, cornmeal crust. Oh yah - it was GOOD! I washed it all down with hard pear cider. My mouth is watering just writing about it!

Then, I pretended like I was in my twenties again, and we went out dancing!!! I haven't been dancing in sooooo long. First we went to The Elbow Room - and lemme tell ya, not much elbow room. Then we went to Little Bow Bow - awesome!! Funky reggae/"world" music with a hip hop twist. Right up my alley. Even less elbow room in there, but I danced and danced.

Being the actual suburban mom, not in my 20s, I pooped out at about 1am, which, is not too bad actually. I have three kids - I need sleep!

Well, that was just Saturday. Sunday was even better! I'll post about that with lots of cool pics later this week! Check back, because you don't want to miss what I saw at Paxton Place...