3 Whole Days!

After a 12-day run, Adam and I got to spend 3 straight days together; a luxury, considering he was one of the very few interns who got Columbus Indigenous People's Day off. This makes two 3-day weekends in two months--likely a record for interns at UCSF!

We took advantage of one of the busiest weekends in San Francisco as best we could. We had a sort of open house on Saturday morning in preparation for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park. I was a bit of a "Jewish mother" (Adam's words) in that I made kind of wayyy too much food...banana bread, pumpkin bread, 2 chile rellenos, various crackers/dips, and an entire watermelon. In addition, everyone brought something to add to the spread, so we had a TON to eat and still have a stocked fridge. We both invited basically everyone we know (Adam's intern class, various teachers from my school, other friends) and probably had 12 - 15 people altogether. Not bad for our little apartment! We hung out for a while before a small group of us headed to the festival.

It was very crowded and there were various stages with musicians playing at different times throughout the day. If you know us, you realize that Adam and I know nothing about music, so we just followed the others to the stage of their choice. We fought through massive crowds and Colleen found the perfect location: the woods on a hill. We could hear the music, get in some amazing people-watching, and still hear one another talk. Perfection! We camped out there for a few hours, joined by Nate and his neighbor and my co-worker Sarah. After a lot of wine, beer, and candy, we walked home through the park around 6. We were pretty tired and crashed early after a fantastic day. (Pics are courtesy of Gisela's phone. After just a few glasses of wine. AKA apologies for my enormous head.)

We used Sunday as a "get things together" and workday - catching up on grading (me), reading (Adam), talking to friends/family at home, cleaning, laundering, etc. We also started planning our trip to Sonoma in November (how is it already our 1 year anniversary?!) and ended the day with dinner at a delicious little Korean place in our neighborhood.

Since we worked through yesterday, Adam and I decided to have a half-day adventure today. We took Highway 1 (the scenic highway, also called the PCH--Pacific Coast Highway) down to Half Moon Bay, a beach town about 26 miles south of our apartment. The drive was spectacular--surfing beaches, coves, mountains, farms, more beaches, etc. We both just wanted to stare out the window (Adam only did sporadically--he's a safe driver!). I took as many pictures on the road as I did once we arrived. I loved the contrast between the farmland on one side and ocean on the other--so California!

We parked a short walk away and went for a run along the cliffs above the beach. (side note: we passed a llama in a pen next to a driving range on the walk to the beach. Random!) There's an 11 mile trail along the coastline of the entire town, and we saw tons of people walking. It was a great way to get in some activity but have it feel different and like a vacation--our soundtrack was the waves crashing along the beach. Amazing!  We alternated walking and running on the beach most of the way back to the car, where we gathered a blanket, picnic, and my camera. We laid out our picnic and relaxed on the beach for about an hour--it was perfect!

Definitely warm (especially after running), but breezy and not so hot that Adam would get sunburned (I'm not such a good barometer!). There were lots of other people of all ages along the beach. It was such a nice getaway, yet so close! We ran a few errands on the way back and still made it home by 3.

I wish all weekends were 3 days...imagine how much fun we'd have together and how relaxed we would always be!