Weekend Round-Up: Summer Nights

Amazing weekend! Rob and I spent our break enjoying the very warm weather and spending time with friends.

On Friday, we met Matt at the gym after work. After about an hour of climbing, we jumped in his car for dinner in his north beach neighborhood. Unfortunately, there was some sort of movie crew blocking off the streets and taking all the parking spots.

On to plan B, we picked up Amber and drove out to the beach for dinner at Park Chalet. I’d never been to this favorite spot at night. A jazz trio, lots of cute families and tasty food. It was great to catch up with both of them as they prepare for the arrival of twin boys this summer. They drove us home around 11.

Saturday morning, Rob left early for his citywide NERT drill. I spent the morning cleaning, shopping and cooking for the evening’s party. Going to the market for an eight person dinner party by yourself is okay, carrying home everything you bought on foot is not great. Rob was back just in time to help a bit before walking up to Jill & Peter’s place. They gave us a ride out to our friend’s thesis art show and back. I spent the rest of the afternoon prepping for the party and had everything done an hour before the party was set to start. Love that!

Our guests arrived at seven and launched straight into the first set of earthquake trivia challenges with Rob. I went around and lit all the candles as the sun was setting. I love this photo Rob snagged with his phone.

I’ll do a more detailed post about the party later. Suffice to say, I was so pleased with how everything turned out and had an amazing time.

After eating our fill of salad, cioppino, sourdough bread and strawberry shortcake, we sat around the pretty candlelit table and talked until late in the evening.

The next morning I begrudgingly got up around nine and helped Rob with a bit of the tidying. The weather was far too warm to stay indoors, so we hopped on the bike and rode our favorite breakfast cafe. From there, we rode over the bridge and down to Kirby Cove (warning: may not want to try this on your bike, it’s a very steep gravel road). This beautiful little beach is tucked away under the Golden Gate Bridge. I spent a long time wading in the water and spotting starfish.

We had to climb all the way back up the road and over to Point Bonita before turning back home for a total of 22 miles. Lots of rest and chores in the afternoon. It was too hot to do much of anything else in our non-air conditioned city.

Margaret came over at five to hang out. We went for dinner at Chow – it was too warm to cook. The streets were full of sunburned city residents returning from days in the park. It finally was starting to cool off while we made chicken salad for the next day, washed dishes from the party and had ice cream floats.