Saint-Émilion, Home of the World’s Most Convincing Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Is nine months too late to write an overdue travel post? Last June we found ourselves in peaceful Saint-Émilion, staying in an historic farmhouse in the middle of wine country.1 We began in Bordeaux on the day of a huge wine festival,2 enjoying local wine and the best sunset of our trip. The following day, we explored Saint-Émilion, an ancient city dating back to prehistoric times. We explored Roman ruins, sampled more local wine (of course), confused a cat, and visited a nearby market town with friends. We bought homemade, herb-encrusted...
read more ->San Francisco 2011, Day Nine
I’ve been behind by a day throughout this trip, and it looks like I might finally catch up if I can knock this one out before I fall asleep. Today was our long-awaited Chinatown1 day. We strolled down Stockton Street and found ourselves in the midst of a bustling food market that extended several blocks in each direction. Every kind of fruit and vegetable you can imagine, seafood, dried who-knows-what, candy, tea, snacks, noodles… the list goes on. But the highlight of the day turned out to be the bizarre toys we found in bazaars...
read more ->San Francisco 2011, Day Eight
We woke up at the crack o’ dawn on Sunday1 to drive down to Muir Woods as soon as the park opened, and before all the tourists arrived. Choosing the path less taken every time, we found ourselves on a beautiful two-hour hike through the woods, culminating in a spectacular view across the park. Mist was still blowing through the trees, so the landscape changed every couple of minutes. Spotted some cute banana slugs,2 a gaggle of chipmunks,3 and a couple of hawks. I also made friends with a lizard and he allowed me to get within a few...
read more ->San Francisco 2011, Day Seven
A weekend road trip took us north up the coast1 to Bodega Bay, where we hoped to spy some Hitchcock-esque scenes. Ironically, Bodega Bay was relatively bird-free and we had a hard time even finding a flock of birds larger than two.2 Not much going on in a town that I expected to be teeming with avian-themed attractions. We even attempted to find the schoolhouse from the film. Well, we found a schoolhouse circled it twice, couldn’t decide if it was the right one, and eventually left disappointed. Bodega Bay did have some redeeming...
read more ->San Francisco 2011, Day Six
We spent day six wandering around the Castro, caught a screening of Vertigo in 70mm at the beautiful Castro Theatre, ate dinner at Orphan Andy’s, and ate an excessive amount of ice cream at Ghirardelli. More photos on Flickr. Share...
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Writer, illustrator, musician, rogue librarian, explorer, ill-fated baker.