I spent the long holiday weekend in San Francisco with MJ. So I’ll start there, for those of you not hovering over twitter MJ and I started dating this weekend :)
.We’ve been close friends for years, and in spite of the distance this progression in our relationship makes me very happy.
But on the trip itself! I started work an hour early on Thursday so I could skip out at 3PM and drive to the airport, I flew out on a non-stop 5:55PM flight arriving in SFO around 9PM. MJ was clued into into the fact that flowers and food are the direct route to my heart, he had a vase of beautiful, mostly pink, flowers for me back at his place. And the next morning? Breakfast at The Crepe House on Polk, where we split a delicious crepe entrée and an amazing fruity dessert crepe.
From there it was off to the Asian Art Museum to check out their Lords of the Samurai exhibit. The exhibit was fantastic, and after we spent some time on the 3rd floor exploring the beautiful Indian and Persian exhibits they had. From there we headed out to Yerba Buena Gardens and explored the surrounding area. The garden itself is stunning, must have a picnic there someday!
Dinner was at MJ’s favorite local sushi bar, where he knows the sushi chef and got us an amazing assortment of exciting rolls and some spicy mussels that I fell in love with, finishing off the meal with some fried green tea ice cream. Yum yum!
Saturday was the 4th of July. The day began down at the Ferry Building Marketplace where we had lunch at DELICA rf1 Japanese delicatessen (hm, a lot of Japanese on this trip). It was beautiful out and we were able to grab a spot outside where we could take in the beautiful view of the bay, watching the ferries come in. Wow, I miss the ocean so much. After lunch it was over to Ciao Bella Gelato for some gelato. Um, wow, yum! I’ve been having so much good gelato lately.
Later, we decided to head down to Pier 39 for the 4th of July festivities. The place was quite crowded by the time we got off the super crowded bus down to the pier, but not so bad to be too uncomfortable. We snagged some take-out dinner of fried calamari and shrimp and clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Sabella & Latorre’s on Fisherman’s Wharf.
From there we found a great spot to stand and watch the 9:30PM fireworks display, and were even able to peer across the bay and watch a bit of the Sausalito fireworks.
The fireworks wrapped up and we wandered around the wharf for a bit before heading up to to Ghirardelli Square for some yummy ice cream sundaes. From there we walked back to the apartment to pick up the car and drive over the Golden Gate to see a view of the city at night from there. Beautiful view, terribly romantic :) We didn’t get back until quite late.
Sunday morning I headed back to The Crepe House, because I really couldn’t get enough of that place, and I had arranged to meet up with, Megan Gruber, a girl I knew from High School and who recently found me on Facebook. We hadn’t really talked much in the past decade, and I think since leaving Maine she’s only the second person I’ve seen from those days (my close elementary-middle-high school friend Leslie being the other). It was fun meeting up, swapping stories about what we’ve been up to and what we’re doing now. Eventually we parted ways and headed back.
Sunday night I caught the very very sad redeye back to Philadelphia, with a layover in Las Vegas where I won $2.25 in slots ($12 in, $14.25 back – woo!), and touched down at PHL shortly after 6AM. Luckily MJ was able to snag me first class tickets on my way home (thank you!) so sleeping for much of the second leg of the trip was possible and I was able to work today. Tonight I got to have snuggly and playtime with my kitties, who my friends Jon and Crissi stopped by to check on Saturday, I sure missed them, but I’m missing MJ and San Francisco already.
Tuesday, Jul 7th, 2009 at 0:19
So happy for you! I hope you find a way to beat the long-distance relationship syndrome.
Tuesday, Jul 7th, 2009 at 2:03
Wow, what an incredibly romantic place…. that picture with both of you, MJ is either very tired or very happy..hehe (i know, i know… happy) and you look very happy Pleia….
As for the distance thing, I was originally having a long distance relationship with my then girlfriend, who I later went on to marry, now in our 20th year!
Tuesday, Jul 7th, 2009 at 4:42
way to go, very very happy to have noticed status change:)
you two look happy, so nice to see sparkle in yr eyes again!