SoCal Girl Goes North

Last weekend, a bunch of friends and I decided to meet up in the Bay Area (San Francisco, for those of you non-Californians) for a weekend of cool weather, good food, great company, and lots of soccer. Half our group was going from SoCal, and we drove up Friday evening after work, reaching San Jose in around five hours. We probably could have gotten there sooner, but we decide to stop along the way to take advantage of the beautiful, unpolluted skies and try our hand at stargazing and identifying constellations. 

(We cheated and used one of these star-gazing apps that are actually amazing!)

We reached our friend’s place around midnight, and after a few celebratory games of Guitar Hero, a round of Limited Edition Mountain Dew Baja Blast, and lots of complaining about the unexpectedly warm weather, we all crashed for the night.  

    

   

The next morning, we all woke up according to our pre-assigned time slots so that the bathroom and kitchen would never get too crowded. After a quick shower and a simple breakfast of bagels with jalapeno cream cheese, we shuffled out the door and made our way to our first stop of the day; Land’s End, San Francisco. Land’s End is apparently a very popular hiking area, tucked away in the northwestern corner of San Francisco. It was the perfect trail for an early morning hike; very pedestrian friendly with wide, well-paved paths and very little loose gravel. Tourists and joggers littered the trail at the beginning, but as we followed the winding trails, they became more and more sparse. Every few feet there were gorgeous views of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, causing A and I to stop and pose for a mini photo-shoot every few minutes.

(Our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge)

The boys became impatient with all the photo-taking and left us behind to go explore the smaller dirt paths going off from the main trail. We caught up with them quickly enough however, when they hit the stairs part of the hike (all those hours on the Stairmaster finally paid off).

We ran into this super cool rock maze that someone had created, and after many attempts at making it to the center without cheating, we abandoned our efforts and walked back to the cars, and began our journey to the next destination; Asian Ghetto, Berkeley. We parked the cars, hopped on the Bart and pushed our way through thousands of Real Madrid fans to Thai Basil Cuisine inside of Asian Ghetto. It was a small, seemingly family-owned place that served over 50 different Thai dishes, all reasonably priced and freshly made upon order. A and I both ordered the Chicken Pad See Ew with Thai Iced Tea, and most of our vegetarian friends ordered the Spicy Basil Fried Rice (a locals-recommended dish). Our food came quickly, piping hot and steaming. We dug in quickly, and either I was starving or a little something extra was mixed in with the noodles because this might have been the best Pad See Ew I’ve ever had.

                                  

We were running late for the Real Madrid vs. InterMilan match, and so we quickly scarfed down our steaming hot food and ran out the door within 15 minutes. After grabbing boba, we made our way to the stadium, pushing and shoving past thousands upon thousands of fans decked out in white or hot pink Real Madrid jerseys. We made it past security and managed to get to our seats within ten minutes past kickoff. Our seats had an amazing view of the field (if only Iker Casillas and Cristiano Ronaldo were playing), and we were all quickly enthralled with the game. After 90 minutes, the score was 1-1, and the game went into penalty kicks. It was super exciting to watch as both teams scored two of their four PKs and it was all down to the last kick. Real Madrid missed their fifth and final PK, while InterMilan made theirs, and won the match. Scores of disappointed fans left the stadium, us alongside them (my disappointment stemmed more so from losing a bet I had made at work than anything else).

Our next stop was Homeroom in Oakland. All of our Berkeley friends always raved about this amazing Mac N’ Cheese place, and so we were extremely excited to try it. After a nearly hour long wait (Homeroom doesn’t take reservations apparently) for our 20-person table, we were finally seated and ready to dig in. I ordered the Jalapeño Popper Mac N’ Cheese, which was the favorite choice among the table, and a few of the others went with the ‘Gilroy Garlic’ or the ‘Macximus’. The Jalapeño Popper was absolutely delightful, rich and cheesy and glorious, especially with a drizzle of Tapatio. I snagged a few bites of my friend’s Gilroy Garlic, and it so garlicky and wonderful. I’ll definitely have to get that one next time!

  (My jalapeño popper in all its cheesy, bread-crumby gloriousness)

In full on food-coma mode, we stopped in downtown Berkeley for a quick round of drinks before heading back out to San Jose. Exhausted from the day’s events and all the running about (we walked 14 miles according to my handy-dandy pedometer), everyone just lay about, and after a few rounds of Egyptian Rat Screw, we were all out for the night.

The next day was spent in the Santa Clara area, and in between brunch, lounging about in the pool, and a never-ending game of catch/monkey in the middle, we all had a fun and relaxing day. We decided to do a (very) late brunch and barbequed out by the pool area. We had a delicious menu of grilled cheese sandwiches (two slices of sourdough bread slathered with heaps of cream cheese with pepper jack cheese slices in the middle and a grilled jalapeño at the very center), grilled corn, buffalo chik’n Morningstar Veggie burgers, buttery asparagus, and mango lemonade.  We were too hungry to take pictures but everything was so delicious. The rest of the day was spent in the pool and passed by quickly. Before we knew it, we were packing up the car, and picking up chai tea lattes (with seven pumps of chai, of course) for the ride back home.