The 4th of July was an exhausting day, a day spent driving and visiting lots of places.  We were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow at 11 pm.

We decided to take it easy the following day, and made no plans aside from breakfast at Squat & Gobble.  Inspired by crepes on Thursday night, I ordered the Very Berry Crepes a La Mode, which was delicious.  (I know what you are thinking – dessert for breakfast?  What can I say, I was on a mini-break.)   After breakfast we planned to walk around the city with our friend Cristina and see where the day would take us.  Of course, it turned out to be another action-packed day.

Golden Gate Park and Conservatory of Flowers. We started our day with a drive to the Golden Gate Park, one of our favorite places in the city.  We decided to visit the Conservatory of Flowers out of curiosity – we’ve always passed the building but have never been inside.  Inside there were several types of rooms, each built to mimic a specific type of plant habitat.  I can’t remember all of them but they ranged from highland forests to tropics.  We saw lots of plants – lots of orchids.  I love orchids but cannot get them to live longer than a month despite my best efforts (I have a black thumb).  Rene, on the other hand, is not particularly impressed with them.  Sure, they’re pretty and all, but they are difficult to nurture, especially in a hot and dry place like LA, and they don’t even smell good.  Orchids typically don’t have a scent but there was one orchid in the Conservatory with a really offensive odor.  People kept coming over to smell it, and after seeing the reactions on their faces I passed – I imagine it smelled like wet gym socks.  We also visited the butterfly room, where butterflies roamed free after they hatched from their cocoons.  It was a treat watching them glide gracefully above the visitors and the flowers.

We stopped by the rose garden afterwards, taking a whiff from roses that caught our fancy.  A lot of roses look alike (at least to me), so I was amazed to see such unique names being given to seemingly identical varieties.  After a while my nose started to feel stuffy, probably from all that pollen, so we made our way to the Botanical Garden.  The Botanical Garden is Rene’s favorite place in the park – it has several varieties of succulents and other native California plants, and best of all, admission is free.  We spent a couple of minutes relaxing while Rene ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the plants.  Then made our way out of the park to get a snack.

Arizmendi Bakery. My friend Cristina loves this bakery, located on 9th Avenue between Irving and Judah.  It’s a worker-owned cooperative that specializes in different types of bread and pizza.  Rene and I shared a chocolate thing (that’s what it’s really called) and a cup of tea.  I recommend stopping by if you haven’t visited before.  Try the square-cut pizza on focaccia bread or one of their sweet rolls with tea.

Mission Dolores. I couldn’t resist making a stop to Mission San Francisco (aka Mission Dolores) while in town.  This is mission #7 for us, and while there we met another geek – ahem, gentleman – who was also visiting all 21 California Missions.  He’s already done 12, almost twice the number we’ve covered.  Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to chit-chat about our favorite Missions because Mission was closing down in 30 minutes, and we wanted to make sure we saw the church interior and the gardens.  The interior was breathtaking, as always, but the garden was different.  This was the only garden we’ve visited that is entirely comprised of headstones, as in it was a cemetery due to the limited space.  There were headstones from as early as the 1700s, and some were really ornate.  There was one from the 1800s made out of a huge slab of marble, and it housed the wife and child of an Irish immigrant.  There were residential homes right next to the cemetery that I couldn’t help but wonder how the locals feel about living so close to a graveyard.  On Halloween, when Thriller is played, do they envision the dead digging themselves out of the ground and dancing – in unison – in the middle of the street?    I totally do.

Alamo Square. I’ve always wanted to visit this park, ever since I saw it on the opening credits of Full House.  The scene is quintessential San Francisco: the Victorian houses nestled on a hill, with sweeping views of the bay and the city as a backdrop.  I tried to visit this place last year, when I thought the park was located in Nob Hill instead of Hayes Valley.   Nob Hill sounded posh to me – the kind of place that would have the beautiful homes I was looking for – and we ended roaming the hilly neighborhood for almost an hour.  Exhausted, we asked the local grocery for directions, and they kindly informed us that the “Painted Ladies” are next to Alamo Square.  We never made it to Alamo Square last year so we made it a point to visit and take the pictures this time around.

Uncle Vito’s Pizza. Our favorite pizza place in San Francisco (in the whole world, actually) is North Beach Pizza, an unassuming hole-in-the wall on the corner of Grant and Union.  During our first visit we had no idea that it had won so many awards – to us it just had really good pizza.  The secret is in the mozzarella cheese they use, which they add after the toppings.  We try to visit every time we’re in town.

This time our friend Cristina convinced us to try another place called Uncle Vito’s.  She worked here for a month after moving to SF years ago, and loves the pizza.    While waiting for our order, she told us stories about the “regulars” and their habits.  The one that I remember is the San Francisco Twins.  These ladies used to (and probably still do) come have dinner every Monday night and order the same thing.  They were very particular about the way the meal was served and had to “educate” Cristina when she worked there.  As much as I love pizza it would be painful to go to the same place every week in SF, where there are so many other wonderful restaurants to explore.

The pizza was delicious, and we washed it down with glasses of red wine, which had giggling like schoolchildren during our meal.

Union Square. When I lived in SF as a kid, one of my favorite places to visit was Union Square.  There used to be a flagship Hello Kitty store with two floors.  I remember saving my allowance in the hopes of getting a new mechanical pencil, stationery, or candy from that store.  The store was replaced by Gucci in the early 90s, and I can’t remember what store is in its place now.

We visited H&M and Macy’s, where we tried on several pairs of sunglasses for fun and practiced Blue Steel and Magnum.  We also stopped by Niketown and gasped at the prices ($60 for a workout hoodie – seriously?!) before making our way back to Daly City to catch a screening of Wall-E.

That, my friends, is how I spent my day in San Francisco.

(Click here for more pictures.)

(This post was originally scheduled for Monday, July 7, as in a week ago. I have been ridiculously busy over the past two weeks due to critical deadlines at work and on top of that, moving to a new place. After a weekend of renovations and moving I feel like one of the walking dead. Oh, and I started a new job this week.)

I’m not alone in thinking that Americans don’t get enough days off. It’s true: on average, Americans get two weeks of vacation compared to four weeks for Australians and (gasp!) five weeks for the French – on top of public and religious holidays. The paltry number of public holidays is probably why the concept of a mini-break is so foreign to Americans: we can count them off with our fingers. The Fourth of July weekend couldn’t come soon enough.

Our plans for the 4^th came together quickly. I got an e-mail from Cristina, an old high school friend, who graciously invited us to spend the long weekend in San Francisco. We love visiting San Francisco (I lived here in the late 80s/early 90s) so we took her offer and made plans to head north on Thursday after lunch. Our plan was to take the scenic route to San Simeon on Thursday afternoon (and camp near the beach) and visit Hearst Castle first thing Friday. We made no plans for Saturday and were driving back to LA on Sunday.

I was planning to get off work by 1 pm on Thursday but ended up getting off at 4. It was more of a mad dash to the door at 4 because leaving any later meant that we would be on the road during rush hour here in LA. Add to that the fires in Goleta (near Santa Barbara) and Big Sur and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Thankfully we were past all that traffic and the Goleta fire by 6 pm.

We made a stop at Pismo Beach two hours later, just in time to see the sun set. We went to eat award-winning clam chowder (served in a bread bowl) at Splash Café after the sun went down, then stopped by Mon Ami Creperie for dessert. The lady making crepes wore a fancy chef’s hat, the kind only I’ve only seen on the Swedish Chef (of Muppets fame). We really liked the strawberry and Nutella crepes served with whipped cream and raspberry compote.

We arrived at the San Simeon campground two hours later. We had planned to reach it before nightfall, to avoid pitching our tent in the dark, but that’s exactly what happened. Thankfully it was easy to find our spot, and our neighbors didn’t seem to mind that we used our car’s headlights to set up the tent. (We forgot our big flashlight at home. Hee.) The bathroom situation wasn’t ideal (no lights or flushing toilets!) but since we were only there for one night it didn’t really matter.

The next day we visited Hearst Castle and signed up for the garden tour. There are four tours that operate in the Castle, and tour #1 is recommended for first-time visitors. Given Rene’s interest in plants, we signed up for the garden tour (#4) instead. We saw most of the grounds, including two guest houses, the tennis courts, the pool, and the cellar. I found most of the interiors to be gaudy but appreciated the chance to experience them. Next time I’d like to take a tour of the main house interior and see how it compares to Citizen Kane.

We wanted to take PCH all the way up to SF but ended up backtracking and taking the 101 freeway due to the fire in Big Sur. On our way to SF we passed several Missions and decided to visit one called San Juan Bautista. (I’ve been visiting California Missions since last summer and made it a goal to visit all 21 of them. This was #6 for us.) The last scene in Hitchcock’s Vertigo was filmed there. The bell tower used for the scene doesn’t exist – it was built in the studio and superimposed on the Mission. The real bell tower is on the right side of the church, and is comprised of three small bells that aren’t accessible by stairs. From the Mission you can also see the San Andreas fault line, which caused the Loma-Prieto earthquake back in 1989.

We made it to SF two hours later, with the Bay Area fog coming to meet us as soon as we entered the city limits. It was a cool 60 degrees when we arrived, which was a welcome change from the 100-plus degree heat we had in LA. We took an hour break before heading out for dinner and fireworks.

We had burritos in the Mission district, in a place called Pancho Villa’s. I had the prawn and steak burrito with black bean paste, which I recommend. Afterwards we walked to Dolores Park to see fireworks. We waited for an hour for some kind of fireworks to appear – we did see a few in the distance, ones that made it through the fog – and when none appeared above the park, we asked one of the many SF policemen there when the fireworks would begin. Apparently, fireworks were not scheduled to go off at the park but there was a heavy police presence due to a man losing his nose and a girl losing her finger to illegal fireworks at the park last year. There weren’t any “incidents” at the park this year save for people lighting sparklers and/or being asked to leave because they were drunk. We left at 10 pm, as SFPD was closing down Dolores Park.

(Click here for more pictures)

Last weekend Rene and I resumed our goal of visiting all 21 California missions. So far we had visited four: Santa Barbara (which we will need to revisit because we didn’t go inside the church nor the grounds inside the compound), San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, and San Luis Obispo. This weekend we visited our fifth mission: San Diego de Alcala, California’s first church and also known as the Mother of the Missions.

We went to visit the church first because another wedding was starting shortly. The church layout was simple and elegant: white walls, dark wooden benches, and painted ceiling beams. What I like most about the California missions are the altars; this one was made of wood and was painted with green, gold, and coral. This altar was made in California, but some were carried over from the Old World, which is amazing when you take into account how many thousands of miles they had to haul that thing after crossing the Atlantic Ocean. I also liked the pulpit, which had a yellow/red fabric suspended on top of it like a roof.

We didn’t stay inside the church too long, only long enough to pay our respects and take a few pictures. Also, preparations were underway for the next wedding and we didn’t want to be in the way.

Also to the right of the church is the mission’s religious education center. Unlike the mission with its curved arches and asymmetrical structure, this building was essentially a white box with nice shutters. It actually looked like a house with a nice brick trail leading up to it. I want my next house to have a brick path and a big magnolia tree in front of it just like this one.

To the left of the church was a large fountain and the parking lot. The parking lot took most of the space, actually, so there wasn’t much to see there. Supposedly a priest named Father Jaime was buried within the mission grounds but we didn’t see his grave anywhere. Back in the 1770s the local Indians raided the mission and Father Jaime was killed in the altercation. Unlike the San Gabriel mission, the graves here were out of sight.

Overall, the mission was picturesque but small. It was nice to visit the Mother of the Missions.

Church altar

The mission garden, on the other hand, was a less complicated affair. It’s small, about the size of a large back yard, and very well-maintained. It had a nice wooden trellis in the middle, with grapes growing on the top and side of the trellis. We explored the garden in 10 minutes, which was stretching it because there wasn’t a lot to see. The only other things worth nothing were the three church bells displayed in the back. I don’t know if these are the bells rang for mass or if they are the original church bells but they looked pretty lined up in a row. I love symmetry, and having things lined up in a row always makes me happy.

Rene in front of the bells

Rene sitting in front of the fountain

My size doors

After our visit to the mission, Rene and I checked out one of our favorite stores in the world: Ross. Until recently, I have not been a fan of stores like Ross because there is too much stuff to dig through, too much stuff to process. I’ve only started liking Ross because of their random household items, and this is the only section that I like to visit. I don’t even make an attempt to scope out the clothes or shoes because it pisses me off when I find something I like and it’s not in my size – then I have to sort though 8 million other racks to see if what I’m looking for is even in the store. Anyway, their household stuff was so-so and we came out empty handed.

We ate a late lunch/early dinner (Linner?) at this local barbeque place with good tri-tip, then went over to Barnes & Noble for to browse the magazine section and check our e-mail (what, you don’t carry your laptop with you at all times?). Afterwards it was on to Fresno for the night and Yosemite the next day. Fresno, as you can imagine, was pretty uneventful. The highlight of our stay there was when Rene and I went to Ross (again!) and bought this really cool pot for one of his plants and really cool Daisy Fuentes sunglasses for me for $6.99. I call those shades my Daisy Funtesssss sunglasses for added pizzazz, but they are really just oversized brown sunglasses (from Daisy Fuentesssss).

Guess what I did this Saturday? Why I visited another mission of course (as if the title didn’t already give that away, man I make it so easy!). Rene and I went to see Mission San Gabriel Archangel (#4 of 21) in beautiful San Gabriel, California. I dressed up as Nicole Ritchie for the occasion, in a short dress complete with oversized sunglasses (minus baby bump). I hope I did Nicole proud.

Before we visited the mission, we lunched at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, my favorite restaurant in Pasadena. If you haven’t been you should definitely check it out; without question they make the best fried chicken in LA. As you know, I have certain rules about food I do not break, namely having anything sweet in my entrée. Hence, I do not like any salads with fruit added, I do not like orange-flavored chicken, and I hate raisins in my main dish. I like to limit the sweets to dessert, which I enjoy tremendously, sometimes more than the entrée itself. But I digress. The reason chicken and waffles work reason is this: I always eat the chicken first as an entrée and have the waffles as dessert. I do not eat them simultaneously – genius. You should try it! And don’t worry about feeling out of place in that restaurant, especially the one in Pasadena. I have seen people of all races eat there without any eyebrows raised, and I have been there plenty of times (enough to know not to show up after church on Sundays). If you don’t believe me look at the picture of N’Sync in their glory days on the wall. Man that Justin Timberlake was rocking some baby jeri curls back in the day!

So it turns out that the mission was located only minutes away from my beloved Roscoe’s. We found the area after a short commute on surface streets. On the way to the mission is a lovely street with restaurants and mom-and-pop stores. Rene and I checked out a shop called Sol y Cortina which sold handcrafted household items and clothing. We fell in love with their beautiful ethnic mirrors, all of which were priced under $200. Sadly, no mirrors came home with us but we will definitely come back when we are in the market for a beautiful red mirror like the one I saw that day.

As we walked further down the street, we came across this beautiful little theatre called the Mission Playhouse. At first we thought it was the mission and started snapping away in front of the fountain and the entrance. We finally figured out that it was NOT the mission by processing these clues: there was no cross atop the structure, there was a ticket booth on the side, and there were movie posters displayed in Chinese at the entrance. Yep, this was not the mission. Don’t laugh but it took me ten minutes to figure that out. Sometimes I am such a dork. Also, this adult recreation center on the side kind of gave it away too; in church it’s called a rectory or something, but definitely not an adult recreation center. Do you know why this would be a recreation center just for adults, and not for everyone? Hmmm… Anyhow, it turns out the mission was just around the corner but in the other direction.

On our way to the entrance, Rene and I spied a group of teenagers taking pictures for a Quincenera on the church lawn and decided to spend time observing them (code for checking out that incredibly heinous outfit the birthday girl was wearing! Sadly, we took no pictures). Since when did gold and red princess gowns come back into vogue? Honestly, that outfit, complete with the poodle hair, would’ve made me cry at 15. I feel sorry for the poor girl for having such unfortunate photographic evidence of that look!

We finally made it to the mission after our break. The mission façade, like the other missions, is pretty simple. It’s basically beige stucco with large wooden doors. It wasn’t laid out in the shape of the cross like San Juan Capistrano (or SJC as I like to call it; kinda catchy, huh?) but rather was like an “L,” with the church in the bottom with the campanile (fancy word for bell tower, see I learned something in Italy!) and museum on the side.

You enter the mission through the gift shop, or at least I did, since there was a wedding in progress. This is probably how they get you to pay the $5 entrance fee, since it’s hard to walk through the gift shop without them noticing you. When you first enter the mission grounds, the first thing you notice are the gravestones with a huge figure of Christ on a cross in the middle. It didn’t feel creepy seeing all those headstones since they were arranged so neatly and many, if not all, of the deceased were priests who used to work at the mission. The huge Christ figure didn’t bother me either since it was surrounded by grass and fruit trees. Overall, the effect was peace and tranquility. It’s nice to see the church pay tribute to those who served it during their lifetimes. Rene specifically told me not to smile while we took pictures, so instead I look pouty and pissed – thanks Rene. It would’ve been better if I wasn’t in the picture at all.

Right after the graveyard is a little museum dedicated to the mission’s history. There were lots of pictures of the local Indians, called Gabrielinos, on the walls, along with their art work and tools. What really excited me was the exhibit of a mission bedroom from the 1800s; on display was this beautiful, ornate headboard depicting the Virgin Mary. Can you imagine sleeping with that image above you? It must’ve been such a luxury back in those days to have a bed, let alone such a beautiful headboard.

After marveling at the artifacts in the museum, Rene and I strolled to the garden, where three artists were painting. One was using an angel statue as the subject, the other a person they came with, and the third a really large desert plant. Of the three, the one painting the desert plant had the best picture, so we took a shot of her working under a beautiful tree with yellow blossoms. Past this tree is a model of all 21 missions that were constructed by elementary school kids. Seeing this only reminds me of my shortcomings in 4th grade – no way they made those on their own! Come on –I couldn’t even figure out how to make one wall, let alone a whole model. And what kid puts stucco on the mission? Seems a bit too complex for me… they definitely got help.

To top off our visit, we went inside the church itself and saw a baptism in progress. I noticed that the parishioners definitely use this church – first the wedding, now a baptism. Perhaps there was another wedding on tap so Rene and I sat down for only a few minutes to take a picture of the altar.

That’s it for mission #4. Stay tuned for the next mission!

Rene and I made plans to visit San Diego on Saturday: first to see the San Diego Mission (first mission in California!), then the Balboa Park Botanical Garden, Sunset Cliffs beach, and a nice dinner in SD to cap off the day. Unfortunately our late start, combined with the crazy traffic on I-5, forced us to make other plans. As soon as we saw the sign for San Juan Capistrano we got off that poop sandwich of a freeway and decided to visit Mission San Juan Capistrano instead. This mission is world famous for the swallows that migrate to the town in March every year (and leave in October). Apparently it is a sight to behold.

Mission San Juan Capistrano is the 7th of 21 California missions. Rene and I are planning to visit all 21 missions, and this is our second mission. Living in the valley we have passed the San Fernando Mission dozens of times but that I don’t count that one because we have never seen the interior or taken pictures in front of the church. Anyway, the lovely people who oversee SJC kept the original structure of the mission, which was built in 1776 by Friar Junipero Serra. In addition to the church, there is a compound that housed the religious order and a garden area where crops were grown for the residents. Now the mission is a museum and can be rented out for special events. On the day we visited tables for a wedding reception were being set up. It must be great celebrating a marriage inside the grounds of this great place.

The first thing Rene and I noticed while wandering the grounds were the size of the doorways – Rene could’ve been Yao Ming’s size back in 1776 judging from the small door frames. Even I looked tall standing right next to them! All the doorways in the mission were this size, so Rene had to duck under each entrance to make sure the frame didn’t clock his head. These doorways reminded me of Castle Sant’Angelo in Rome. They are roughly the same height and width, which got me thinking – would I have been considered a tall girl back in the day?

The mission grounds were beautiful. There were two big fountains with koi fish and lotuses, one by the front entrance and one in the middle of the mission courtyard. The grounds were landscaped with rose bushes, succulents, and native California plants. They also had some crops growing on the side of the mission: corn, artichokes, beans, squash, and herbs like rosemary and fennel.

The crown of the mission is the church, and this one is beautiful. The altar is from the baroque period and it was originally brought over from Spain. According to the mission guide, this was the first church were Friar Serra gave mass. Although the church is small and only contained a few rows of benches, the altar was pristine and gorgeous, and the benches were originals from the 1700s (no doubt priceless antiques by now). This blend of ornate and simple gave the church a comfortable vibe, and some worshippers said a few prayers while visiting the church.

Outside the church is a small courtyard with a fountain, and this is where Rene and I took a break from the sun. After we regained our energy we visited the gift shop and more of the grounds. Here are some pics:

After we got back to the car, I thought that maybe our detour to SJC was meant to be: check out my necklace. As I’ve said earlier, SJC is famous for its swallows. To me, the fact that I am wearing a swallow necklace is a sign that I was meant to visit this mission today. That, or the I-5 had too many accidents that caused horrible traffic. I think the necklace as a sign is a more plausible explanation.

After our visit to the mission, we took PCH home and the 405 home (curse that I-5!). We ate dinner at Cafe Brasil, one of our favorite restaurants. I love having the ranchera meat with salsa, beans, plantains, and fresh passionfruit juice to wash all the goodness down. I’ve been coming to this restaurant since 2001 and I never tire of having the same thing.

After dinner we made a quick stop at Ross to look for a new lamp shade. Besides having low prices (the lamp shade cost $6.99!), Ross is great for unique finds. While browsing through the household section Rene found a Spode plate depicting the Vatican and Castle Sant’Angelo for $5.49! This is a great addition to our Roman sourvenirs and will be mounted on the wall next to the framed map of Rome. I was so happy that I decided to take a picture of our find in the store. Yes, I am a geek.

Last Sunday Rene and I made our way over to Santa Barbara with plans to see the botanical gardens and to hang out at the beach.

To our surprise it only took about an hour to get there and the weather was beautiful – sunny but not hot and humid. On our way to the botanical garden we passed this beautiful old church, which ended up being Mission Santa Barbara. I remember learning about the California missions in third grade and can even recall the sad excuse I turned in for the project – a 3D map of California. Well, it was either my 3D map of California made out of play-doh and painted with watercolors or a 3D model of my favorite mission, Mission San Carlos, with was next to impossible. I ended up getting a “C” on this project for effort and feeling disappointed with my grade. I felt that I deserved a “B” because it took more effort than the results showed, oh well.

Seeing this beautiful church so soon after my trip to Italy only deepened my appreciation for it. Despite being a simple, humble church (and I only say this in comparison to St. Peter’s Basilica) it is beautifully maintained with an adjacent park and rose garden. Unfortunately it was too late in the day to organize a tour of the church so Rene and I didn’t have a chance to visit the chapel and took pictures of the exterior instead and visited the rose garden. My favorite variety is called “peace” and it is light yellow mixed with pink and lavender at the edges. It smells heavenly. We promised ourselves to visit again with our families. Next stop: the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden.

The Santa Barbara botanical garden was established in 1926 (the same year our tour guide, Will Brown, was born) by Anna Dorinda Blakesly Bliss as a memorial to her father. The garden is entirely composed of native California plants and also serves as an educational facility and nursery. Rene and I saw a few plants “engineered” by the garden’s horticulturists and got to hear about how plants are brought from the wild to the nursery. Apparently, you can’t just uproot a native plant and stick it in your garden due to ecological and botanical reasons, so it is best to purchase native California plants from the nursery. The plants from the nursery are supposedly hardier and are bred to withstand elements they don’t experience in their natural environment. The Santa Barbara Botanical Garden has also re-introduced certain plants back to their native areas. It’s funny how we take it for granted the wild things that grow in California and never think about how they affect our environment. I also never noticed how beautiful some species are – for example, the live-forevers. Yes, that is the real name, and my favorite variety is the Santa Barbara live-forevers.

After touring the garden, Rene and I stopped by the nursery to add some more native plants to our collection. We ended up buying four plants, two for our collection and two for my Mom.

After visiting the mission and the garden, we made our way to the outlets and visited a few stores. Thankfully, the roads were clear by this time and we made it home safe and sound.