FLEETING MOMENTS from SAN FRANCISCO

Hi everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend. My friend, Andres and I drove up to San Francisco on a whim Friday afternoon. We were half joking about it at first and decided, why the hell not, so we loaded up my new Honda Fit, grabbed a quick bite at In-N-Out and then headed up north. That's how I typically like to roll. I'm all about spontaneity these days. The drive was especially beautiful because the grapevine was covered in snow from the storm last week.

We got into Oakland in less than six hours and stayed with Andres' friend, Carlo at his downtown pad. He was ridiculously sweet to accomodate both of us in such short notice. I'm not familiar with Oakland or the East Bay at all so he showed us some cool spots. We had a delicious breakfast at Brown Sugar Kitchen (their chicken and waffles is must), stopped by Albany Bulb afterwards to walk off those waffles and beignets, then skedaddled over to Mountain View Cemetery to enjoy the bay view. After exploring the East Bay, we decided to venture out to the city to catch up with my college printmaking pal, Marc. We ate at my new favorite ice cream spot, Bi-Rite. I had a triple scoop with salted caramel, honey lavender, and mint chocolate chip. Omg...so rich and creamy and flavorful. One of the finest ice creams around. And for dinner, we wandered aimlessly around Castro and popped in Starbelly because it looked stylish and happening from the outside. They have a yummy catfish dish. The rest of the night was spent shimmying. I was completely wiped out by 1am so we called for a Lyft back to our place in Oakland. Have you heard of Lyft? It's this brilliant new form of transportation where you holler for them through their app. It's essentially a taxi on demand, but driven by really nice and cool people. And you can even track how close they are to you. Check it out if you're in SF or LA. It's super cool. I was able to charge my iPhone for a bit and even play my own jams.

It was a perfect getaway and I feel absolutely inspired after connecting with some old and new friends. I love spontaneous road trips like these because they're so easy and requires very little planning. It's liberating. I'll be heading back up in April again as part of my mini birthday road trip.