San Francisco

We opted to avoid the holiday travel chaos, which meant a delayed trip to the US.

This was the best option after having several airline mishaps in the years past - driving from Washington DC to Ohio on Christmas Eve three years ago, and nearly getting stranded in El Paso two years ago.

Thankfully this year the weather decided to also cooperate with us.

Before our biannual Ohio visit, we stopped in San Francisco for 5 days to visit our dear friends, Emily & Jeremy, and their new pup - Banjo.

Having visited San Francisco twice before, it was so nice to see the city from our friends' view points and to simply catch up more on life after Germany. We sure miss them.

San Francisco is a great city;  fog swept rolling hills, inventive restaurants, creative people, and a lot of high tech industries. The only downsides are the amount of homeless people and dog poo littered sidewalks.

There are also many public parks speckled around and warm weather year round to make it incredibly livable.

Oh, how we missed the variety of American food. The portions may be larger than in many places, but it's the best way to enjoy a meal - by sharing great company and delicious foods. We did a lot of eating and this is certainly the city for that.

A few of the restaurants we visited included:

Tartine ... this is the legendary pastry shop with long lines that are worth the wait.
Nopa ... for a great New Year's eve dinner
Umami Burger ... waygu burgers
Tacolicious ... I will dream about these tacos and margaritas for a long long time. They are perfection. The tuna tostadas were my favorite, but I don't think you can go wrong.
Mosto... the tequila bar right next to tacolicious, making waiting time that much better.
Beach Chalet ... as close to a California beachside biergarten as it gets - with a veggie hops burger.
Tornado Pub ... an endless array of beers from around the world.
Mission Chinese ... this pop up restaurant has caused quite a stir and is now here to stay - don't miss it! The food is crazy good and the rap music is a hilarious blast from the past. The salt cod fried rice and the thrice cooked bacon were probably my favorites.

Bi-Rite Creamery ... delicious ice cream, which is extra sweet to enjoy in Delores Park with great weather in the middle of Winter. They also have an ice cream cook book coming out later this year! 

Chantal Guillon macarons... a touch of France in California. 

Ici ... (Berkeley) I'm not sure what the deal is, but sadly it was better the last time we went

Saigon Sandwiches .... Banh Mi, Vietnamese sandwiches

If you are planning a trip check out the following:
Jamie Oliver's San Francisco tips... We visited many of his recommendations, although the magazine came out a month after our trip.
7x7 Big Eat List of 2012... plenty more restaurants to try
7x7 Big To-Do List... 100 quintessential San Francisco experiences

Not all of our time was spent eating... we also did a lot of walking. I always seem to forget - or mentally block out - how impossibly slow and archaic the public transport is even in the biggest US cities.

With the California sun shining brightly and only needing to wear a jacket I wasn't sure if I was in some sort of alternate reality. A heavy dose of sunshine in the middle of the Winter is really is amazing and was the perfect way to start the new year. Those year-round beaches are such a luxury, too.

Fort Funston ... this beach is so unique. Dogs and their owners stroll along, splash in the waves, and find little treasures washed ashore. I'd go to take it all in even if I didn't have a dog, but I really can't wait to get one.

Tilden Park... for incredible Bay area views and a nice nature stroll.

Street art... lots of self expression around town 

St. Mary's Cathedral... home of the "two o'clock titty", at two o'clock the sun's channels its own Mary Katherine Gallagher to give the church it's own perky bust. 

What a great place to start the new year. Even the fog couldn't hold those fireworks back this year. 

2011 + 2012

In 2011, we visited :

Paris • Marrakech • Essaouira • Croatia • Bosnia + Herzegovina • Montenegro • Moscow •
 Iceland • Boston • Ohio • Venice • Burano • Gaisberg • Florence

We celebrated 5 years of :

marriage • life in Munich • enjoying Oktoberfest

We made a huge array of ice creams and I had some success with macarons, too.

2012 will be another year full of love, excitement, travels, and sweet treats, including:

• Celebrating the New Year in San Francisco
• Going back to Iceland - hopefully to see the aurora borealis!
• Taking an Indian cooking course
• Traveling to Istanbul
• Being part of the lantern world record in Poznań, Poland [I can hardly handle the excitement!]
• Making baked goods from Tartine, Momofuku Milk Bar, Les Petite Macarons, and Heston at Home
• Several weddings
... and I'm sure plenty more surprises we don't even yet know about.

I hope 2012 is a special one for you, too! 

2012 calendar

This vintage airline tag calendar is such a great way to look forward to and keep track of upcoming travels. 

We already have 3 more trips planned between now and April. 

Photo Booth

...always worth a visit - even if there was too much developer, which made me look like I had a 5 o'clock shadow comparable to Stefan's.

This is a great site to find them near where you live or if you're heading out on a trip.

New Year's 2011

Once again we were reminded of Paris' beauty and why we've fallen in love with the place.

We had a two day celebration for New Years Eve and New Years Day on the roof top of the Palais de Tokyo.

Best of all was talking to some of the museum workers, especially about the art heist next door, which happened a week after we visited last May. It's such an audacious theft. We were looking at the window where the person got away and imagining where the works are now being stored and by whom. It's absolutely fascinating.

Hopefully the photos will pick up where the words fail me. It's an incredible city that never gets old.

The iconic Eiffel Tower - sadly there were hardly any fireworks + around 2am they shut the lights off completely

Pierre Hermé, who has a white truffle macaron for the season - it's delicious, as is everything that guy makes.

Patrick Roger's fantastic chocolates - the dark chocolate citron vert is perfection

Pretty + delicious pastries

Centre Pompidou

The I love you wall in Montmartre

Lots of cheeses

Grenelle Bridge Lady Liberty

Love locks

The Notre Dame

Street Art

... more Street Art

Jusqu'à la prochaine fois - à tout à l'heure, Paris!

Parisian New Year

It is going to take me days to pour over the photos we've taken in Paris. To say we had an amazing time bringing in the New Year would be a massive understatement.

Hope 2011 is treating you just as well!

Bonne Année

Happy New Year!

Each year on the first we write a list of predictions. It's a fun tradition to see what comes true and what doesn't - as well as the surprises along the way.

If you asked me at the beginning of 2009 if I would have the chance to make a trip around the world I would have laughed. I thought there was a good chance we would move, and yet we are in the same apartment.

I love seeing how life plays out.

Some of the places I am really hoping to visit in 2010 are:
Istanbul, Turkey
Norway
Provence, France (especially during the lavender season!)
Dubrovnik, Croatia
(being ambitious I'll also add Greece)

I hope to do more creatively and really work on cooking, finding more delicious recipes, reading good books, and appreciating the simple things. 2009 will be tough to beat.

We wish you all a wonderful New Year!

origami cranes

When we travel, we often pick up an ornament, if we can find one. I was so happy to see a unique store front in Georgetown that had tons of beautiful paper cranes and I was even more delighted to later find ceramic ornaments fashioned after them.

In Japan, cranes represent long life, prosperity and good health, so they are fitting for the new year or to keep up year round.

The New Year has been really good to us. Recently everything seems to fall into place, and I just want to sit and take in all of my happiness.

I just celebrated my birthday and I can already tell that it's going to be a fantastic year. I also realize just how much I'm loved and the lengths that people go to make me happy. It truly makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world to have so many caring people in my life. I need to let people know I appreciate them more frequently, which is my challenge to myself for 2009.

It's nice to be content where I am and to have such wonderful people all around me. Tomorrow that will come to a tear filled halt, when I am forced to say goodbye to everyone. It's not exactly goodbye, but more of an 'until next time, whenever that shall be'. And, on the bright side, it will give me something nice to look forward to when we are able to see each other again.

2009 will be a year of change, not because of the Obama mantra, but because there are plenty of surprises in store for us. Some of the surprises are under our control, while I'm sure others aren't, but I'm looking forward to seeing how things unfold.

I'm enjoying my final days in the US and I have many updates in the coming days. I hope everyone is enjoying 2009 as much as we are!

Brooklyn New Years

We flew to New York City to visit a lot of friends and were greeted with chilly weather and many happy reunions. It was really wonderful to spend new years with so many people. Stefan captured a few photos beautiful of the city as we flew in.

Our first stop was to visit our friend Mary Kate. It's always so great to see her.

What was even better is that we were able to see more of her family, including her adorable niece Annie, who lives downstairs from her. I always love MK's close family because even in New York City they manage to make it feel more like a small neighborhood. They are always so welcoming. Her mom even called to say hi.

Mary Kate's view of the city is really a stunning sight. We stared out her window in awe of the lights and action happening all around. Stefan and I both love New York. It can be slightly overwhelming since you can easily spend a life time exploring. I think if I lived there it would be really difficult to figure out where to eat dinner because the options are endless. Fortunately any meal is better with great company.

One of the most simple, but delicious meals we had was at Maggie Brown's in Brooklyn, with Mary Beth. I am still thinking about my sandwich. While we were in the subway, we saw a floating orange balloon. It reminded me of the French tale of 'The Red Balloon'.

The Brooklyn half of our trip, we spent with Mary Beth. She lives in a beautiful Brooklyn brownstone with exposed brick walls that I love.

If I had an endless cash supply I think I would buy one and refurbish it. They have so much character and charm. The funny thing was that one of her cats did not think we were so charming. The cat in this photo actually liked us (he was yawning), but the other one would lurk in the hallway and take swipes at our legs. I couldn't stop laughing as Stefan walked past and the cat tried to scratch his leg out of no where. I guess he was angry we were taking MB's time from him.

Rather than standing in Times Square and dealing with the frigid temperatures and being surrounded by drunkards for New Years Eve, we opted to celebrate with friends who were throwing a graffiti party. Everyone wore t-shirts and wrote comical messages on each other.

It was so nice to see so many familiar faces and we didn't tell everyone that we were coming, so there were also a lot of surprised to see us faces.

Seeing everyone really made me home sick for my friends and made me realize just how much I miss everyone. Stefan and I both commented to each other that at times it felt like we were looking in on things and how much fun everyone has together.

We really didn't feel like tourists since we were always with our friends and not doing much of the tourist circuit. Plus, we know we'll be back again... maybe even sooner than we think. I'm already looking forward to that and missing everyone!

Thanks so much Mary Kate and Mary Beth!

New Years

My favorite holiday of the year is New Years. To me, it's a day of celebration that affects everyone regardless of where they are. I love that everyone has the option to gather in the name of hope, mystery, and awe for the coming year. It seems so uniting.

How many holidays are celebrated around the globe without concern over religion, ethnicity, or location? It's definitely something special!

It's also a special day to me, because ever since Stefan and I have known each other, we have celebrated together, and it's also the day that we got engaged. (He sure is a smart fellow... I never even had to tell him it was my favorite day of the year.)

As we shed our newlywed status we continually find new holiday traditions for our tiny family. One fun tradition is that on New Years Day we write predictions for the year. Sometimes it's funny to see how life plays out and how completely off we are. I'm already looking forward to opening that envelope to see what predictions were accurate for 2008.

This year we are ringing in 2009 with great friends in New York and I really can't wait.

I'm already listening to, 'My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year)' by Regina Spektor, way too often, as I contemplate what I will wear, where we'll shop, and of course, which restaurants to choose.

I look forward to a beautiful 2009, filled with family, friends, and fun.

I'm already wishing the same for you!

Gott Nytt År

Happy New Year! Frohes Neues Jahr!

Stefan and I celebrated last night on the streets of Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm. It is so crazy to think how much has happened and how much we have done in the past year... and to think it's been 2 years since we were engaged this very day!

People in Stockholm get seriously dressed up - I had to laugh when I saw men wearing tuxedos with dark gym shoes. The women of Stockholm all wear skirts with tights and boots, despite the freezing temperatures. Leave it to those Scandinavian women to be stylish during an arctic freeze.



Stockholm had a nice celebration. While there were still people going a little crazy setting fireworks off right next to spectators, it wasn't like mini-armageddon like last year at the Olympic Stadium, here in Munich. We also enjoyed my favorite beverage of choice - champagne! I know it's probably a strange choice to most people, however I love that it's always drank during celebrations.

Right now we actually have three bottles chilling in our fridge. We would make Reims proud with a bottle each of Veuve Clicquot, Pommery, and Piper Heidsieck. I guess we are always prepared to celebrate.

I decided that I wanted to start a new tradition of writing our predictions for the year and sealing them up to read next year at new years... I know life loves to throw curves, but it would be interesting to see what surprises come our way in 2008. Hopefully many more adventures and travels!

New Years is my favorite holiday. It's such a fun time to reflect, and think about all that we have been through, as well as the surprises that await us, and of course to be thankful. I never would have guessed that we would have gone on so many trips in 2007, or that our first year of marriage would pass so quickly. We celebrated my one year milestone living abroad, Stefan's promotion, and our 2nd Christmas as a married couple. It is also one holiday which Stefan and I have never been apart since we've known each other.

The New Year is always fascinating for me as well, because my birthday is so close (another date Stefan's always been around for). I can't believe I am going to be on the upside of my 20's... and a bit closer to 30. I don't think it's old, but it does signify settling into life a little more and growing up, considering when we'd want to start a family of our own, and simply growing older, wiser, and having our lives pulled together more (at least in theory!).