Sausalito

Sausalito is a dreamy little coastal town on the San Francisco Bay. Strolling along the quaint waterfront with trendy restaurants, coffee shops + art galleries and taking in picturesque views of the sprawling San Fran cityscape makes for a really nice afternoon. 

We scored the perfect waterfront deck table at The Trident and had a fantastic lunch. There was tuna tartare, truffle fries and a crab Caesar salad, complimented by a bottle of Ferrari-Carano Fumé Blanc.

The Trident

 558 Bridgeway

Sausalito, CA 94965

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A glimpse at our night out in San Fran for good measure. We are at Smuggler's Cove an exotic nautical bar devoted to tiki craft cocktails featuring over 700 types of Rum.

Smuggler's Cove

650 Gough St

San Francisco, CA 94102

The Progress | San Francisco

We are 20 days into 2016 and I've found my favorite meal of the year! An impromptu girls trip over MLK weekend brought me to California, and I'm so glad I decided to make the journey. When is girl time in SFO, Sausalito, and Sonoma ever a bad idea?!

The Progress located in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco defines themselves as a vehicle for a completely local production. Innovative banquet-style meals served with memorable wines. The greatest dinner party ever.

 

Everything about The Progress feels fresh and inspired. No one is doing it quite like they are here. Take for instance their Manhattan ($12) made with a smooth and intense black butter bourbon - the butter is made in house before it is steeped it in the bourbon. We also drank some delicious and interesting wines including a Georges Descombes Gamay ($14) (Morgon, Beaujolais, France) and a Piquentum Refosk ($15) (Istra, Croatia).

Meals are shared family style for a fixed price of $58, starting with five rotating small plates - served in a portion size to compliment your party. Pictured up close and personal are the bahri dates with hazelnut crema and bite size roasted carrots with curried yogurt. Then, smoked trout + seven pepper cracker, fish fry with kimchi tartar sauce, and buttermilk biscuits with apple bourbon black butter. These small tastes were a welcome prelude and we had fun each ranking our favorites to least favorites. 

Then you choose four meals which are listed on the menu from lightest to heaviest, with a recommendation to order two from the lighter section and two from the heavier section. We ended up with one light and three heavy - and although it was a bit too much food to finish as our waiter warned it would be, we were happy that we chose what spoke to us! 

In order of appearance: 

Fried Rice | tea-smoked liberty farms duck, lap cheong (Chinese sausage), bok choy + maitakes 

Celery Root Ravioli | wilted escarole, apple paste, shavings of goat gouda 

Half Moon Bay Black Cod | pea greens, pomelo + aromatic vinegar 

Lamb Merguez, Octopus + Crispy Squid | Mediterranean stewed yellow-eye beans

The Progress

1525 Fillmore Street

San Francisco, CA 94115

Go West | Boulder Bound

My good friend Laura moved out to Boulder, Colorado last August. My best college girlfriends and I head to visit her this weekend! Travel plans work out nicely so that we all arrive in Denver within one hour of each other. We have so many great adventures and meals planned, I can't wait!

I have never been to Colorado but I have taken quite a few trips out west, absolutely falling in love with every state I traveled to. It all began my freshman year of college during winter break of January 2003. My Dad spontaneously took my sister and I to Park City, Utah for a week of skiing. We stayed in downtown Park City, the namesake mountain ski lift was less than a block away from our Marriott Hotel. We also skied The Canyons, Deer Valley and Snowbird. The Sundance Film Festival was underway, we saw a movie premiere and partook in the fun associated. We ate at all the best restaurants, I remember lots of sushi and fancy three course meals. My Dad really splurged on us that year, it was an unforgettable vacation. I would post some pictures but freshman year of college I was still using disposable cameras. Same goes for that Summer when my Mom took me to Bozeman, Montana. I was captivated by Montana in all her big sky glory from the moment I stepped foot off the airplane. We had family out there at the time, so with them we did a lot of hiking, dancing around bonfires, swimming in hot springs, white water rafting and a road trip south through Yellowstone National Park to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was simply incredible. I didn't travel back out west until June of 2008 with Adam to Las Vegas, Nevada! We spent 5 amazing days in the "desert" carousing the strip from our home base of The Flamingo Hotel. We also took a day trip to visit the Hoover Dam which is an incredible site to behold.

I flew solo to San Francisco, California in November of 2008 for my best friend Jen's 25th birthday celebrations. I was a Pacific Ocean virgin at 24 years old, so this was pretty cool. 

The epic view from Lower Pacific Heights where Jen lives. She remarked you can rarely see across the bay due to intense fog (of course!) It was a rare and unbelievably clear afternoon.
So there was quite a bit of partying. My favorite bar of the trip was The Makeout Room located in the city's Mission District.

An afternoon spent at Mount Tamalpias with Jen and her roommates was one I'll never forget. The Pacific Ocean vistas meets rolling mountains flanked with massive Redwoods was exceptional!

I had a fantastic morning exploring Alcatraz Island. The history and the jail cells are something else.

Here is what the prisoners ate on March 21, 1963. 

The island itself is also quite lovely. Below is the Agave Trail.
This is the lighthouse and Wardens house (what is left of it.)
I was able to take in some other major city landmarks and sights among various neighborhoods while I was visiting.

Ghirardelli Square

The Transamerica Pyramid

Market Street & Fishermans Wharf via cableccarChinatown

(Which apparently I really loved, I have so many pictures from this neighborhood.)

Wine bar in North Beach

And much much more (Golden Gate Park, Haight-Ashbury, City Lights Book Store, Napa Road trip...) It was an awesome four days!! 

So there you have it. My personal version of "how the west was won." I would love to be able to travel back to these cities and states as I haven't stopped thinking about them since. They all hold a special place, as do the people who were a part of the experience. I also have a strong desire to journey places I haven't been. The possibilities for travel are endless. And with that Boulder, Colorado here I come!