In the city by the bay...

Friday, July 25, 2008

A good Syracuse pal was just here for a couple of days and aside from him getting a parking ticket and his car getting broken into, we had a great time! It certainly helps that he has a great attitude and is a very positive person... and that insurance covered the broken window completely.

So wednesday we walked down to the bay where we enjoyed some free chocolate and wine at Ghirardelli Square:

Then, we walked along the water where we watched the herd of sailboats drifting in the bay. There's a Festival of Sail this week so we enjoyed the lovely view along with the other tourists. Next we stopped at Hyde St. Pier and explored the old restored ships for free. (Yay for Jordan's National Parks pass!):

Jordan took many pictures with his fancy camera (which fortunately wasn't in the car when someone broke into it). This was the view from atop the ferry:

On the way to meet Chip to see "The Dark Knight" we hopped a cable car. Extra touristy? Yes. Extra fun? Absolutely!

table eatin's fer city folk.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

the exciting news at the hardeman household is that we ate at a table last night! no, san francisco doesn't have a shortage of table-chair combinations, just our apartment. however, because we shopped till we dropped at target, ikea, and world market last weekend, we now have two--count 'em, TWO--tables (with chairs) at which we can eat our dinners. this is exciting because we've had one of the tables for quite some time. it's a little blue--what i like to call "breakfast nook"--table in our bedroom. that's where we had dinner last night and it was glorious. the sweet tea i made earlier in the day topped off the excitement.



other excitement involes all of the kitchen, bath, and general living things that we got, putting our gift cards to good use (thanks, everybody!). oh, and i can make coffee this morning because chip's mom mailed us the french press that was given to us as a wedding gift. it just keeps getting better and better...



and the really awesome thing happening today? jordan (former neighbor of mine and the road trip king this summer) should be arriving this afternoon/evening! he'll be here all day tomorrow to check out the city, so i'll get to do some more exploring with him. yay!



it seems that my body knows when there is coffee to be made.

First Week

Friday, July 18, 2008

So my first week in the city has nearly come to an end. For those of you not in the loop,--I don't know why you'd be reading this if you're not in the loop...--I just got married and moved to the lovely city of San Francisco where Chip, my new husband, has been living since last October.

That's us at our wedding reception. Yay for kissing in front of outdoor water features!

Anyway, Chip's quite accustomed to the city, and I'm floundering around trying to figure things out (with his help, of course). I've explored a bit. Wednesday I walked all the way up Van Ness till I got to the water and then walked out onto Municipal Pier:

On this particular day, I got a ghostly view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Yesterday (Thursday) I decided to fill my time with some volunteering, so I helped unload and load donated books for the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library (shout out to Val). Apparently they have this huge used book sale in September in Fort Mason--the largest used book sale on the West Coast. They're also having a Latino Poetry Festival next week that I think I'll check out (and maybe volunteer for).

Today I have an interview, so we'll see how that goes. I'm really looking forward to it, even though it doesn't mean they're going to hand me a job. It'll just be great to see how another independent high school works in the city. It's also in a beautiful location with a great view of the Marina.

I went to my first Community Group last night. A Community Group is basically a small group Bible study (organized by our church, City Church) which is organized according to neighborhood. Chip leads the discussion and people take turns providing dinner. Chip volunteered us last night, so it was good practice for me (thankfully, I've had some experience cooking for groups with Friday night Bible study in Syracuse). I made a slow cooker lasagna that turned out really well, especially since I was gone most of the day with the library folks. For those of you who might be interested, here's a link to the recipe:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeID=39294&Source=SearchResultPage .