Celebrating a Milestone Birthday in San Francisco (long post, including photos)

Thursday, March 16-Sunday, March 19: Art + History + Musical + Cocktails

Mr. E and I took a late afternoon Amtrak to San Francisco late last week to kick-off my half-century milestone birthday weekend. Yay! I was able to listen in to about half of my Spanish class as we both enjoyed some train beverages and snacks.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Downtown San Francisco SOMA, a new hotel for us and in a great location on Mission Street, just a few blocks from the Amtrak bus connector drop-off point near the Salesforce Tower. Our corner suite on the 22nd floor was quite spacious, with great views of the city and a cool moss coffee table centerpiece.

When we checked in, we decided to pay for the daily upgrade to access the lounge, which also included breakfast service for the morning. The snack offerings were minimal, and drinks were based on an honor bar system, so the experience definitely wasn't as impressive as at some other hotels where we've stayed.

We then tried out the nearby literary-themed cocktail bar Novela. I ordered the Aster Grey (sign me up for any cocktail with grapefruit), and Mr. E had a margarita. I also ordered the beet salad which was pretty tasty except for the weird overly-sweet pistachio puree at the base of the dish.

We had enough time to hit up the Whole Foods by the Moscone Center to pick up some snacks and other dinner food before settling into our suite for the evening.

On Friday morning, we took advantage of our lounge access for the breakfast buffet, which offered lots of yummy salmon and some veggie egg dishes that I enjoyed. However, we both agreed that the breakfast and minimal evening offerings really weren't worth $80 per day, so Mr. E talked to the Front Desk later in the afternoon to let them know we didn't want to continue with this add-on.

Our first stop on Friday was at the Legion of Honor, where we saw the Sargent and Spain exhibit. I've always known John Singer Sargent as a society portrait painter, so it was really impressive and eye-opening to see his range of subjects and media in this exhibition, featuring works inspired by his multiple travel to Spain. So different!

We also took time for the other two main exhibitions on the lower level of the museum, Paperworks: 15 Years of Acquisitions, which was presented in a new gallery space, and Bookworks: 10 Years of Acquisitions. Some of the pieces in the Paperworks exhibit were fascinating and extremely detailed, really demonstrating the range of intricate possibilities that can be achieved with paper.

Our next destination was the Asian Art Museum, where we were awed by the exhibit Delightful Luxury: The Art of Chinese Lacquer. The galleries included several short videos that demonstrated the process to create lacquer works of art, and the methodology is both time-intensive and pain-staking and gave us a much more heightened appreciation for the objects on view. We also enjoyed the exhibit Color Trip: Yoshida Hodaka's Modern Prints, which was coincidentally in the Osher Foundation Gallery (insider reference). And we revisited the hanging sculptures in the central staircase, which offer a striking contrast of contemporary art with classic architecture.

Before leaving the museum, I made a few purchases in the gift store, including a unique Lucky Cat snow globe to add to my collection!

Since the weather was lovely, we decided to walk along Market Street back to the hotel. We made a few stops along the way, including in the very large It's Sugar candy store (one of my favorites). Mr. E went to the fitness center for a short workout, and I stopped by the California Historical Society in the next block to see the exhibition Mapping a Changing California: Selections from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century. I particularly appreciated the curatorial notes that didn't shy away from acknowledging how the growth and "settlement" of California has had such detrimental impacts on native populations and various immigrant groups.

Since we hadn't stopped for lunch, we each snacked a bit back at the hotel before we headed off to try to have an early dinner at 54 Mint restaurant. Unfortunately, even the bar area was unavailable due to a private party of some kind, so we made do with the Westfield food gallery. I had a yummy poke bowl, and Mr. E got a burger and fries. We played a few rounds of Rummy 500 before it was time to leave for the Orpheum Theatre and our evening performance of Six. 

WHAT AN AMAZING SHOW!!! Neither of us had even heard of it a couple of months ago, but when we listened to the Broadway Showtunes channel on Pandora one evening, several of the songs came on and peaked my interest. So I had looked up the show information and discovered that it would be closing its San Francisco run during my birthday weekend. Perfect timing! And it was AWESOME!!! As I said to Mr. E, I was tempted to see if there were still tickets available for the next day's final performances and see it again right away! Luckily, I discovered that the US Tour will be landing here in Sacramento in January and February 2024, so we will DEFINITELY go again. I LOVE IT!!!

Our breakfast destination on Saturday morning was Noah's for bagel sandwiches because I had a coupon for a free egg sandwich with any purchase. We also picked up two slices of rainbow cake at a French style bakery for later and then of course coffee at Starbucks. After putting away the cake in the fridge in our hotel room, we perched down in the lobby to eat our meal. Today's museum destination was the De Young to see the exhibition Kehinde Wiley: An Archeology of Silence. I was familiar with his work from seeing some pieces at other museums, including the Crocker here in Sac, but it was so powerful and moving to see so many monumental paintings and sculptures presented all together, particularly with the dark red colour on the walls (done just for this exhibit, as we've seen other special shows in this gallery in the past). I also had to wonder how the oversize sculpture of the horse and rider was installed in the space, as there were no visible openings that were large enough to fit this truly awesome creation.

The skies were overcast but with no rain, so we were able to continue with our plan to walk the nearly 4 miles back to the hotel. We passed Alamo Square and the famous "Painted Ladies" Victorian houses and stopped at a French bakery for some fresh fruit salad. Across the street, we discovered a cool urban park with some very odd alien cat statues.

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were both ready to put our feet up and rest for a bit! But we did make sure to head out again in time for the great oyster Happy Hour special at E&O Kitchen + Bar near the Chinatown Gate. We almost missed out when we decided to first check out The Whisky Shop in the same block to look for Lion bars for me, and Mr. E stumbled upon a delectable whisky tasting. Luckily, we had just enough time after our respective purchases to snag two seats at the E&O bar and place our orders for cocktails and oysters and a few other Happy Hour snacks.

Our next stop was Iron Horse Cocktails in an alley off of Union Square, which offers Happy Hour pricing on select drinks until 7pm. That's late! We lingered for a bit and played a few more hands of cards as we enjoyed our beverages: Alice in Wonderland for me (left) and an aged Negroni for Mr. E (right).

Dinner was another poke bowl for me, while Mr. E tried out the fried musubi roll and "cowboy" sushirrito at a different spot. We finished off the evening with this take-out dinner in our suite, including our cake slices that had been procured in the morning. Yum!

Sunday morning brought grey skies and rain, so we popped across the street for takeout breakfast from The Grove (eggs Benedict with no sauce for Mr. E, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich for me) and made do with the coffee pod machine in our room. Then we braved the weather to pick up second coffee for Mr. E at the Starbucks near Target before going to the Contemporary Jewish Museum for our final art outing of the weekend. 

We were surprised to see the line out the door of the museum and so many kids... Who knew it was free Family Art Day?! Oops. Luckily, the special activities for this event occupied the majority of the museum guests, so we had a wonderful and relatively peaceful time exploring three exhibitions, Gillian Laub: Family Matters, Cara Levine: To Survive I Need You to Survive, and L'Chaim: Celebrating Our Building at 15. The latter exhibition provided a fascinating glimpse into the history and symbolic design of the museum, which gave us both a greater appreciation for the building itself along with the thoughtful and meaningful spaces created by the modern architecture. Cara Levine's works were equally thought-provoking and reflective, providing a wide range of pieces in different media, including wood, metal, and paint.

We had been able to secure a 1pm late check-out at the hotel, so we didn't have to rush to pack up or store our bags before our morning activities. I popped over to the store at SF MOMA after we checked out since we had a little extra time before we needed to catch our Amtrak bus connector. Our return trip was a bit delayed (per usual), but we still made it home in plenty of time to unpack and get organized before welcoming E & C over for dinner to celebrate my actual birthday. Mr. E even had time for a Trader Joe's run since our fridge was nearly empty!

A truly wonderful birthday weekend, filled with so many of my favorite things. Now if only we had been able to bring Louis XIV along with us... ha!

March Madness: Combo Family Birthday Celebration + Remote Work

Friday, March 3-Friday, March 10

Mr. E and I headed to Austin on Friday morning for a combo family birthday celebration! A and F came from Denver for the weekend because both C and F were turning nine years old this year (yikes!), and their birthdays are just a few days apart. For me, the milestone day a bit later in the month was to mark my half century, and it was lovely to have a family gathering to celebrate all of us at the same time.

We stayed at the same Residence Inn as we had over the winter holidays, but this time we didn't bring Louis XIV along with us. Since our flight arrived late afternoon on Friday, we went directly from the airport to Mom's to pick up both her and her car, which I was then able to use for the rest of my visit since I stayed for an entire week to work from my J's house and help out with some Mom stuff. Our first family dinner was at J's that evening, and we made a quick stop on the way at our favorite local adult beverage shop, the Austin Shaker, to pick up some supplies for the weekend (and the week). I discovered the small canned cocktails selection right by the register and decided to get both the Bee's Knees (not so good) and the Negroni (quite tasty) to try later in the week.

On Saturday, Mr. E and I had breakfast at our hotel and then went to J's house to meet up with the family and hang out a bit before doing a bunch of family photos. J had bought fabulous birthday hats for C, F, and me, which was a fun accessory for some of the group photos. Later in the afternoon, a group of us went to iFly to try out the indoor sky-diving. OMG! SO AWESOME!!! I can't wait to do it again!!! Once we were done with that adventure, Mr. E and A and I went to pick up Mom on the way back to J's house, where we had our combo birthday dinner with food from family favorite EurAsia and cupcakes from HEB. The three of us birthday folks got to open some gifts and of course donned our amazing celebration hats for the evening.

After breakfast at the hotel again on Sunday morning, Mr. E and I picked up Mom and brought her over to J's for some family visiting. F and C burned off some energy in the pool, and a few other folks joined them there and in the hot tub. Eventually, the group headed off to C's soccer and lacrosse games, but Mr. E and I opted out of those activities, especially since his flight home was scheduled for the mid-afternoon. After I dropped him at the airport, I went for a treatment at Deep Relief Massage, which J had recommended and which is in the same nearby shopping area as EurAsia. J took Mom home before dinner, and the rest of us enjoyed a final evening together with a lively game of Scrabble before bed. Such a fun visit with the family group!

I stayed at the hotel one more night since A and F were staying at J's until Monday morning. They had a super-early airport pick-up and got home in time to go to work and school (!). I spend the day with Mom, bringing her to a doctor's appointment, going out to lunch, and starting to work on taking over responsibility for her finances and bills. Then I relocated for the week to J's house in the evening, unpacked, and set up my work station in the guest room.

I was able to meet up with Mom for dinner on Wednesday evening and skipped my Spanish class on Thursday night to have time with C and J and B and M on my final evening. I took Friday off again to spend with Mom, doing some errands, taking care of her taxes, and finishing up the bill pay set-up. My return flight to Sac was in the late afternoon, so I got home to Mr. E and Louis XIV in time for dinner. Having a weekend at home was a welcome reprieve after some challenging conversations and situations with Mom.

The next visit will likely be in mid-May, over Mother's Day weekend. But there will be other travel and stories in the meantime!