Bay Area Adventures | May, 2019
It’s time to recap May in the Bay! I was around California for most of the month, except my one week in Chicago, so plenty of adventures were had. We start with our Amber Collective planning meeting, where we invited people to help us brainstorm the next event. You can see how it came together by the end of the month here.
Next, a place I almost don’t want to share because it was such an incredible find… a beautiful space, really great food and drinks, plenty of space, and quiet enough to have conversations… well, I guess I’ll tell you. It’s Après, a weekly wine bar at Cerf Club.
The best.
Our monthly Office of Accountability meeting.
Lunch afterwards at Shandong in Oakland Chinatown.
Here’s San Francisco’s latest apartment building… I second shot here for Courtney and took a peek at all the fancy apartments!
Wade E. Dickinson of Heirloom Engravers was on site for custom gold foil embossing of notebooks… yes!
Very fancy. Also, a look at that Salesforce Transit Center which is finally slated to reopen July 1.
Next, I met up with my friend Julia who was in town from NYC! We had dinner at Kin Khao and then met up with some other friends at the Asian Art Museum fo CAAMfest’s Opening Night Gala.
Taking pictures of people eating, haha.
CAAMFest is the Center for Asian American Media’s annual Asian American film + music festival.
TaiwaneseAmerican.org staff!
Next, second shooting for Courtney again, this time a really fun wedding at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga. The bride and groom met through Taiko drumming, so of course they had some awesome performances during their reception.
Sunday, Heath Ceramics’ annual seconds sale! I picked up the goodies you see on the right.
Then seeing a one-woman show by Susan Lieu, part of CAAMFest.
And in the second photo below, YiFang fruit tea date with my cousin.
Next, a solo trip to the deYoung to see the Monet show before it closed.
I’m so glad I went. Monet is an easy favorite, and I loved seeing roomfuls of his large waterlilies and other late paintings.
It wasn’t quite to the scale of being in L’Orangerie in Paris, surrounded by his 360º waterlily murals, but it did remind me of that.
Such stunning color palettes.
Afterwards, a little visit to one of my favorite hidden gems of the deYoung. Most people don’t seem to know it exists, but it’s always been right outside the museum, and free to access. Exit through the cafe and follow the signs to James Turrell’s skyspace.
Next, a last minute gettogether with Ho Chie over Taiwanese food at Taiwan Bento in Oakland.
And then it was time for a weekend getaway in Napa, celebrating Whitney’s birthday, her passing the bar, and getting into a grad program in New York! It was a rainy weekend, but beautiful nonetheless.
First winery: Artesa.
Netflix’ new movie Wine Country had just come out, and apparently some of it was filmed at this winery. I ended up buying a bottle that is purportedly Tina Fey’s favorite.
Lunch was at Goose and Gander.
Happy Birthday Whitney!
Fog and rain, still beautiful.
Next, a wine cave tour at Beringer.
Perfect for a rainy day.
And afterwards, dinner at Oxbow Market followed by soft serve at Gott’s Roadside.
And finally, breakfast at the hotel since they botched so many things about our stay that they had to give us four extra bottles of wine and $250 resort credit to make up for it. Well, it was still such a great weekend.
And in the second photo below, hanging out with Aparna at her new place in Oakland!
Our May paint date was in Stephanie’s blossoming garden!
I picked a hellebore and a Sally Holmes rose as my specimens to paint.
Pam trying to create some shade to paint in, haha.
Paint Date bobbleheads!
A little venue visit to Colorbloq in Soma. They have a gigantic space with various shipping containers in it, perfect for a large event or teambuilding activity.
And closing out the month, a book reading event called There at the Octopus Literary Salon, where I got to see author Chia Chia Lin read from her novel The Unpassing.
And that’s it for May!
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.
