We had an amazing weekend. It was so much fun. We ended up taking off straight from work at 4:00 PM. We didn't hit any traffic, thank goodness... and made it to Oakland around 10:00 PM! Not bad, huh? We even stopped to get some food!
The drive was pretty smooth ...although, when it got dark around 8:00, it was so boring. By that time, we were both ready to be out of the car and standing up. After working 8 hours (sitting down) and then sitting in the car, we got a little antsy. Somewhere between Indigo Girls, Radio Head, and the Movin Out soundtrack, I saw flashing lights behind me. SHIT.... I looked down and saw I was speeding.... seriously speeding. The speed limit was 70 but we were cruising at around 95 MPH. No one was on the road so I thought, why not? I started shaking, slowed down, and started pulling over. Suddenly, the cop went whizzing by me... apparently going to get someone else. I about died. I looked up and immediately thanked G-d and tried to stop shaking. It was pretty funny actually.
When we got to Danny's, he had spaghetti and homemade sauce on the stove for us to munch on. We had a few glasses of wine, some grub, and just laughed and talked until about 2:30 am. I felt like I was back in college. His house is just amazing. We got in the big ole king sized bed with really soft sheets and fell asleep almost before our heads hit the pillow.
Friday morning, we got up, had some coffee, and then went to his gym downstairs. I know… totally on crack… but we had sat so long the day before, we wanted to get some exercise. After some cardio, weight lifting, and stretching, we went back upstairs, showered, and got ready to hit the town.
We first went to Berkeley for lunch. We went to this cute little French place called La Note. It was gorgeous outside… look at the patio and garden pictures…. so we got a little table on the back patio. The food was incredible. We shared some cinnamon brioche with lavender honey. Whoa- so good.
From there, we headed into San Francisco to do some site seeing and shopping. Danny showed us the beautiful, huge homes by the water and the Palace of Fine Arts which was breath taking. We then went down to Ghiradelli Square to shop around and have some ice cream sundaes. See, we felt ok about eating all that chocolate goodness because we worked out that morning! Jon and I bought some cute San Francisco shot glasses and some ghiradelli carmel coffee. I can’t wait to try that.
After that, we walked around Beach Street where they had a bunch of vendors selling silver jewelry, hand made pipes, and other cool stuff. I was good and didn’t buy any more silver jewelry. I definitely have enough.
Once we were completely pooped, we went back to Danny’s in Oakland Hills to relax and get ready for the evening. Around 7:00, we headed over to Garibaldi’s in Oakland. That place is really cool…. Danny and I went there when I was visiting him last year. We had a few martinis and some really good food. I had this halibut dish that was served with Romano beans… YUM… and Jon had a filet mignon that he devoured! Once we had had quite a few drinks, we decided to go back to Danny’s and get in the spa. How nice was that?
Again, we stayed up talking and laughing and finally passed out… close to 1:00 am.
Saturday morning, we had a light breakfast with Danny and then headed into San Francisco by ourselves to meet up with my brother, Derek, and his girlfriend, Heather. We met them at their cute place around 11:15 after getting a little lost. Don’t trust map quest. They told us to get off at an exit that no longer existed! Thank goodness, I had a map of San Francisco already highlighted to my brother’s house from when I went last year. We pulled that sucker out and figured out how to get back on track.
We hung out at their place for a little bit and then took the dogs for a walk. Starting to get hungry, we strolled down to Zazie’s, a cute breakfast place. We had to wait a few minutes for a table but it was definitely worth it. I ordered the most amazing gingerbread pancakes with this sweet lemon sauce and roasted pears. Mmm… heaven! Jon even ran into a friend of his that he’s known since High School at the restaurant! Small world!
From there, we walked over to Golden Gate Park to check out the Conservatory of Flowers. Apparently, they had been closed for renovation since 1995 and had just opened up on Saturday! We tried to get tickets but the first available time was 3:30 and that was too late since the wedding was that night. So, we walked around there, peaking in the windows and checking out the area. We headed back towards their house, catching a concert in the band shell, walking around the Aids garden, hearing the drum circles, seeing the big stage being built for Duran Duran, and being offered pot by a grungy girl who said she had “massive nuggets” and that it was “dank shit”. Pretty funny.
We got back to Danny’s around 3:30…. I thought the wedding was at 7:00 but it was at 6:00 so we had to rush to get ready. Looking cute and directions in hand, we headed off to Sausalito. We thought were going to get there on time….until I missed the exit and accidentally got on the Golden Gate Bridge. Seriously! I was so pissed. We had to take the bridge all the way across, pay the fee, get off on some road that took us 2 miles out of our way, flip a u-turn, and go back on that road, back on the Golden Gate Bridge, and then off the exit. It was the biggest pain in the ass… and it was then after 6:00. Finally we got to the Spinnaker where the wedding was. As we walked in, there was Andrea, looking stunning, running over to us!! They were waiting for us to start! How cool was that? We felt so special. We took our seats, and the wedding started.
I have to say, it was the most beautiful, heartfelt, honest ceremony I’ve ever been to… and we’ve been to like 6 weddings this past year. They created their own vows and just cried through the whole thing. I was a big ole mess. Truly, it was amazing. The service was beautiful, everyone looked gorgeous, and I was so grateful that we were able to be there. We even got to see some old friends that we hadn’t seen in years!
We did one slow dance, heard the speeches and toasts, watched everyone dance, had some food, waited for them to cut the cake, and then decided to take off. We were so exhausted from our day; we couldn’t wait to go to bed! However, G-d had other plans for us. We waited in traffic for a half hour to go 1 mile because there was road construction! Nice…. But, we finally made it back to Danny’s around midnight.
Sunday, we got up a little later than we wanted to… but, had some breakfast with Danny and then got on the road around 10:00 am. We again, made great time and got home around 3:30 pm…. And went to sleep! We were so pooped that a nap was definitely in order. That night, we ordered Chinese food and went to sleep at 9:00 PM, like old people!
All in all, it was an amazing weekend!
Glad you had a good weekend Jenn!
Posted by: Hyla on September 23, 2003 10:01 AM