Weekends: Bon Voyage

This weekend was a little nuts with preparations for our last-minute trip to France! On Friday, I went to see Ender’s Game with a group from work. Took the subway back home, where Rob and I booked our tickets and looked at places to stay.

On Saturday, I woke up early to reserve our first apartment in Nice on Airbnb and rush around cleaning the apartment. At noon, I drove over to pick up Nicole and we went to the de Young Museum to see the Bulgari and David Hockney exhibits. All those beautiful oversized landscapes have me excited for the trip:

Nicole and I had planned to go out to lunch after, but decided to return to the apartment and have a “clean-out-the-fridge” meal instead. I improvised a kale pesto with spaghetti to start:

I also made a big pot of chicken soup with a leftover roaster and trimmings from the pesto. The three of us sat down to lunch with the delicious pasta and a spread of cheeses, salami, cherry tomatoes and pears:

Lazy afternoon from there, we watched some TV. Nicole took a nap on the sunny chaise in the living room before heading out to a Dia de los Muertos party in the Mission. Rob and I had chicken soup for dinner before walking over to the opera. This was a fantastic production of Falstaff. Amazing music, a phenomenal cast and a witty plot.

Irish coffee at intermission – like usual. There was an amazing line in the opera that went something like “Let it rain truffles and radishes on the meadow of love” – how great is that?!

After the show, they had a special ceremony recognizing their principal cellist who has been with the opera for 40 years. I LOVE awards, especially lifetime achievement awards, so this was a treat to watch. Rob and I walked home after and stayed up too late reading.

I slept in on Sunday morning, nicely accommodated by daylight savings time. Stayed in bed with the paper, coffee and yogurt while Rob went for a bike ride.  At noon, we drove down to meet Jean for lunch at Alice’s on Skyline.  Little Everett was a handful, but still managed to charm all the motorcyclists at the cafe:

From there, we drove to Thornwood Park for a hike. Ev was having a hard time getting to sleep, so I danced around like a goof on the trail.

He fell asleep for the hike down to the hidden pond and  through the redwoods but woke up on the way back up and needed a break from the pack. Just a little stretch to put some sticks and leaves in his mouth.

Definitely felt like fall with the crisp air and red berries along the hike.

Back at home in the afternoon. While packing for France I also put away my summer wardrobe, lots of linens, bright colors and whites, and put out the winter tweeds.  Rob and I had a cozy dinner and I worked on thank-you notes for my birthday presents.  I can’t believe we’re leaving in two days!