Fransanfrisco

WARNING: if you don't like pictures of bridges, you might not want to keep reading.  

Because there are lots of them in this post.

 

(Case in point.) 

This past weekend, I found myself reunited with Rachie Pie, one of my old college roommates from the FLSR, 

et ÇA ME PLAIT BIEN!!  Or, if we're being gramatically correct, ÇA M'A BIEN PLU!!

After not seeing Rachel for more than 2 years, it was SO GOOD to reconnect over old memories (mango rice, pranking the French boys late at night, trying to double-date the German princes [royal fail], the guy-gallery on the bathroom door, and our inappropriate Russian home teacher with excellent fashion savvy) at the same time we were making new ones.  I know, I know: cheesy cheesy, lemon squeezy. 

RK is basically my literary spirit animal.  She's one of the smartest ladies I know, and is brimming with interesting opinions about movies, literature, and of course,  fashion.  (The Day of The Chartreuse! 

Never forget!)  We're essentially soul mates of friendship, and we just picked up where we left off in 2012. 

We spent a day doing all sorts of touristy "Princess Diaries" activities, like visiting the Musée Mécanique and Fisherman's Wharf (WHARF), and then we ate bread shaped like a turtle and giggled at the sea lions.  

WHARF.  WHARF.  WHARF.  

I also dragged RK to this little SF bakery that was so sneakily hidden.  But they didn't best us! We ate our decadent tarts and I raved over the idea of using puff pastry as a pie crust.  I mean!

But that's not all, that's not all.  Of course we took multiple photos of the Golden Gate from our windy viewpoint on Baker Beach.  I was positively enchanted by how it was all shrouded in fog.  

It was so....misterious.  (And rugged, and chiseled, and great.)  

PS.  Things about this trip:

1. There was a FIFTY degree temperature difference between PHX and SF.  50, I tell you!  Everywhere we went, I was a broken record, rhapsodizing on the weather!  And the breeze! 
   And how we were prancing about wearing JACKETS in AUGUST!
2. Most used words in my San Francisco vernacular = "cute" & "charming." Couldn't stop, wouldn't stop.   All those pastel buildings, just squished together!

Also: we found our engagement photo spot at the Palace of Fine Arts.  Someone propose to me there already! 

This afternoon, windy picnic and all, was just so entirely dreamy.   

I wish I could have painted it for you.  

 One of the best parts of the trip, though, was Friday Night in which we came so (almost) close to Escaping from the Mysterious Room.  Essentially, we paid to be locked in a room, and then we had to figure out how to get out.  There were clues hidden about the room in the form of letters, numbers, zodiac signs, and codes, and we had to not only make meaning of them, but use them to get out of the room in under an hour.  It was thrilling and tense and confusing and stressful and brilliant all at once.  There were cross-word puzzles and anagrams and logic problems, not to mention false-bottomed desks and keys and combination locks and treasure chests.  Believe me when I say that we were SOOO CLOSE. 

After all the hubbub and tourism of Friday, we took it easy Saturday, strolling lazily around Palo Alto, 

eating strictly desserts and lusting after table settings at West Elm. 

Rachie Babe also showed me around her Stanford stomping grounds and I bought a t-shirt, like a groupie, so everyone will know I have a Rachel there getting her doctorate. 

And then I found Bryce Canyon at church and once again, my life was and is complete. 

It truly was the loveliest of lovely weekends.