32, but who's counting?

lots of weekend trips for us lately. this time around? good ol' san francisco.

at the last minute we asked our friends if we could head up there for the weekend. last time we were there we stayed with J+J but this time our friend MZ offered up his place near haight-ashbury since he and his sister would be out of town. we had a whole apartment to ourselves, which worked out great.

we arrived on thursday night and had dinner with J+J at park chow near their house (a few years back we went to chow in the castro with them too). after some post-dinner wii-ing, we headed over to MZ's apartment to get some much-needed rest (my allergies were really bothering me all day).

we woke up to a lot of fog on the fourth. i went for a run along the panhandle towards golden gate park in the morning and came back pretty wet from the very misty fog. the weather was pretty cold and gloomy the entire day, unfortunately. made for a very odd fourth of july; i'm used to sunshine and beach weather. (come to think of it, the last time we were in sf for the fourth in 2005 it was pretty darn cold too.) lunch was at burma superstar in the richmond. the tea leaf salad and the pumpkin pork stew were quite tasty; the salad in particular has a really unique taste and texture.

afterwards we headed to the legion of honor for a hike down the trail near the water. maya and i made it down el camino del mar but since we had the stroller we opted to wait back at the car. good thing, too, since the trail ended up having a lot of stairs (222 in one set alone, according to ian). sadly, that meant maya and i missed the nude guy walking around on the beach. nudists i understand, but who walks around butt-naked in weather like that?? rupert was not kind enough to bring back photos of the big naked man.

dinner was an impromptu bbq back at the apartment. i was already in a it's-my-birthday-and-i'm-not-gonna-lift-a-finger mode so i sat around on MZ's very comfy two-seater couch and read stiff by mary roach. very morbid and entertaining. in fact, it was so entertaining that while the rest of the group (a couple of other people joined us for dinner) watched air force one ('cause it's patriotic?) i went into the bedroom and kept on reading.

after staying up until an ungodly hour reading, i woke up nice and early with the kids. just like last year, i let rupert sleep in on my birthday and spent the early morning feeding the kids and watching tv. thankfully the weather started clearing up and by the time we made plans with J+J to go to the ferry building it was quite sunny out. lunch was at the primavera stand since there was no way we were getting into the slanted door (my first choice for a birthday meal) without a reservation. no biggie since i really enjoyed the ceviche tostada i ordered. sure, it was $9.50 but i felt like it was well worth it. (and, heck, it was my birthday.) i had a bite of ian's pork tamale and that was good too. it's just too bad the famous chilaquiles were already sold out.

since it was saturday the farmers market was going on and it was so fun to see all of the great stands and taste the sweet fruit (have you had a candycot before? yum!). i even saw a wild boar leg being sold and it reminded me of the hunter/gatherer section of michael pollan's omnivore's dilemma. what wasn't so great was the price of everything. crazy expensive; i was going to buy some strawberries for the long drive home but balked at the $3.50 per basket price.

what i really like about a place like the ferry building is that almost everyone around you is a foodie. they share the same love of food that you do and the same fascination with interesting ingredients. J+J and rupert decided to make pasta for my birthday dinner after i picked up a package of ink squid dry pasta from italy.

later in the afternoon we headed to the de young museum to see the dale chihuly exhibit. unfortunately, by the time we got there the special exhibit tickets were sold out. we had to settle for the not-as-impressive-during-the-day chihuly saffron tower sculpture in the museum's garden of enchantment. after a stroll through the golden gate park botanical garden we walked back to the apartment and took a little break before dinner.

i got to sit around while a wonderful dinner was prepared. the garlicky squid ink fettuccine was served with really plump mussels and tasty clams on top. i'm used to squid ink pasta sauce, which is much brinier in flavor than squid ink pasta. although it might look scary because it's so black, the squid ink dry pasta doesn't taste fishy at all.

before heading home on sunday we had brunch at squat and gobble in haight-ashbury. i had the strawberry blintz crepe, which was good but had a bit too much ricotta in my opinion. ian had belgian waffles and maya inhaled part of rupert's omelette. we are beginning to notice more and more that the kids are eating like real people lately, which means they are starting to cost us more. darn kids!

after a weekend of lots of eating, rupert drove us home amidst end-of-fourth-of-july-weekend traffic. i am thankful to him for taking us up there for the weekend and really looking after the kids so i could enjoy my birthday weekend. thanks honey!