Achievement Unlocked: San Francisco!

We’re returned from our jaunt to San Francisco! It was awesome.

We attended my cousin’s wedding in Walnut Creek for the first few days – it was HOT but there were actually a few shops and restaurants in walking distance, even if it did take 4 pedestrian signals to cross under the highway! The hotel had a pool, so we bought bathing suits and hung out there for a bit before going to the wedding at Heather Farm.

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Once back in SF proper, we toured all around. It was fairly warm, but nicely breezy. Every day we’d get up a pretty relaxed time, have breakfast, go around for awhile and have lunch, walk around some more and then pretty much pass out at the hotel at dinnertime. My feet were pretty tender from all that walking – you never know what giant hill was around each corner.

By the time dinner came around we’d pretty much be done with being out, so we mostly had dinners in the hotel suite with my mum (groceries or take-out), except for the one night we had ramen, in Japantown. I didn’t take many photos, but here are a few highlights…

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Took a hop-on, hop-off bus one day – it got us to Fisherman’s Wharf, which was great, but then when we wanted to leave, the last bus had already gone! We ended up waiting an HOUR to take the cable car back downtown. The Cable Car Museum was a great (and free) little museum stop.

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SF MOMA recently reopened after a long renovation – it’s beautiful. And rather large!

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Union Square

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Japantown was great – interesting shops and buildings, yummy ramen. We actually spent more time there than I was expecting.

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Asian Art Museum.

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Happy hour oysters at the Farallon with my mum! (I should probably have gotten some photos of the three of us.)

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Golden Gate Park. We went to the California Academy of Sciences and the de Young museum, which had a great observation deck view.

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So many pretty flowers and plants, surviving the drought.

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Lands End was a highlight – definitely worth the bus trip! The views were breathtaking.

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Golden Gate Bridge, of course. (We didn’t go across or even very near it, ha!)

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Sutro Bath ruins.

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I was there!

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And of course, high on my list was visiting A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland! It was beautiful, I spent a bunch of money, and then we went out for tacos with Kristine and Julie.

I’ll share my purchases from Verb next post! Stay cool.

Wednesday Eye Candy

I couldn’t help myself – I went a little photo crazy with my latest handspun! I think you can see why…

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This top had such great blocks of colour, and I really wanted to preserve them. So I split the top vertically all the way down the length, and spun each half separately from end to end.

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Then I chain-plied the singles into a very light, 3ply yarn.

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I thought I had done a pretty good job of splitting the top evenly, but one skein is 15g heavier than the other! The heavy skein is also a touch thicker overall.

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Fibre: Into the Whirled Targhee Top, purchased at Rhinebeck 2015
Structure: split lengthwise and spun end to end, chain plied
WPI: 20+
Skein 1: 49g, 259 yds
Skein 2: 65g, 270 yds
Total: 114g, 529 yds

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Amsterdam, part 1

Hello! It’s been awhile! We went to Amsterdam for a holiday last week and it was lovely. Of course the re-entry to real life is a bit jarring, but what’re you gonna do?

Process photos! I sort of felt like I wasn’t taking very many, but it looks like between my big camera and my phone, I was able to capture some decent snaps. We visited 8 museums in 7 days, took a train to the Hague, and ate a lot of food. I did have some trouble with panic attacks :( so I wasn’t always able to do/eat everything I wanted, but I managed to have a great time anyway.

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One of many, many canal views

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Sarphatipark

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Saturday Albert Cuypmarket – holy moly was it ever crowded.

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Saturday at Niewmarkt

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Binnehof in the Hague

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Escher museum at Het Paleis in The Hague

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Vermeer’s Girl With the Pearl Earring, Maurishuis, The Hague

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National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam

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National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam

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Rijksmuseum

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Rijksmuseum Library

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Singel Flower Market – we passed by here multiple times a day since it was right by the hotel and a good landmark!

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Stedelijk museum – the modern art was a nice change from all the other Very Old Stuff we looked at!

Museums visited:
Rijksmuseum
Dutch Resistance Museum (Verzetsmuseum)
National Maritime Museum
Mauritshuis, The Hague
Escher in Het Paleis, The Hague
Van Gogh Museum
Stedelijk Museum
Amsterdam Museum

More to come!