A Bay Area Fourth of July

We opened the second half of 2014 with a lovely week in the Bay Area when Jesse came to visit. Basically, we ate our way around the Bay and enjoyed some Fourth of July fireworks too.

 

We got to use the remainder of a gift certificate I had to Pizzaiolo in Oakland.

And them some ice cream at Ici’s on College Ave., where we befriended two strangers who really liked Jesse’s leather camera strap.

Lunch the next day was also on my gift certificates– this time at the Berkeley City Club.

Sweet corn everything! So good.

Fourth of July began on Valencia in the Mission District. We met up with my friend Mark at Craftsman & Wolves and then visited Young at Self Edge for some high-end denim.

 

Then we headed down to San Jose to check out an exhibit at the Tech Museum about the photography of Modernist Cuisine.

The exhibit was alright, but not as much behind-the-scenes as I would have liked. It was mostly just enlargements of the photos that appear in the Modernist Cuisine cookbooks.

But the rest of the Tech Museum proved plenty entertaining. Here’s Jesse demonstrating some interactive exhibits including a mashup of faces…

That’s a lot of really big Jesse faces.

Dan flies over the Taj Mahal.

An interactive music device that uses patterned cubes to create different combinations of rhythms and harmonies.

Back at Dan’s apartment, we cooked up a storm. My patriotic cake; some local desesrt wines I’ve been harboring for way too long; buttermilk fried chicken sliders from my Blue Apron box; cole slaw; local organic berries; shrimp skewers; and a nice caprese salad.

  

After much waffling, we decided to go ahead and try to see the fireworks in downtown San Jose. They don’t normally host fireworks in San Jose, so it was extra packed. Here are a couple of my favorites:

 

Some more buttermilk fried chicken– so delicious!– at Bakesale Betty, Oakland.

A walk around Lake Merritt

Simple dinner at Sunflower in SF.

Sunday Brunch at Hopscotch in Oakland– food looks good, but was underwhelming.

If only they had braised the pork belly rather than drying it up to a mediocre jerky consistency…

And finally, dinner at Izakaya Sozai with Young & Jess.

  

Cheeese!

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find her on facebook for more daily adventures, and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.