Bay Area Adventures | January, 2020
It’s time for our first monthly recap of 2020! I had a wonderful January in the Bay, with the tail end of our Redwood National Park excursion in the beginning, my birthday party in the middle, and a small road trip to Monterey as well. But otherwise, I spent most of my time right here in San Francisco, enjoying California’s sunny winters and lots of quality time with friends.
First, a weekday walk to the Ferry Building. Plus lunch at Champa Garden in Oakland.
Hot Pot at David & Annie’s.
A tour of the Dandelion Chocolate factory, where I got to peek inside a fresh cacao pod for the first time! Did you know it starts as this pulpy, lychee-like fruit in the middle? Only after fermentation does it become hard and brown cocoa beans.
Dandelion’s approach to chocolate is very straightforward: buy different beans and showcase them. Their only ingredients are the cacao and sugar. No dairy, rice puffs, nuts, spices, or any other add-ins. This was a fun and informative tour! At the end we got a beverage of our choice from the cafe. Alex picked hot chocolate. I picked a cacao smoothie, made from the original fruit. It tastes tangy and lychee-like.
Then, a bagel from Daily Driver, where we spotted more Dandelion Chocolate on display.
Small hike up Bernal Hill.
Plant Therapy. And a quick breakfast at Cafe Reveille.
Our monthly Office of Accountability Meeting. This time hosted by Chelsea.
Passing along Do-Hee’s cape to Stephanie. And hot pot with Junshien, our annual catch-up lunch.
Alex’s parents were so sweet and got me a birthday cake which they left for me in his fridge.
I’ll post my birthday party soon, but here’s lunch on the actual day of my birthday. Lunch at Kantine.
A whole fun Danish smorgasbord.
Our inaugural hike club! In the rain! We talked about wanting to start a regular hike club, and the hikes are generally very short and easy, but it’s a great habit, and we’ve been doing it every week! I’ve been doing hikes in both SF and Oakland. This one was up in Tilden.
Second hike club, with dogs! Over in Stern Grove, SF.
Alex and I have matching bikes now. We rode them over to SFMOMA!
South Bay movie time, trying to check out some of the Oscar noms. We watched 1917 and then grabbed some Malaysian food afterwards.
A night at the ballet with Cassie and Michael! With dinner at Little Gem first.
So fun! We watched Cinderella with Frances Chung as the lead, and it was wonderful.
Next, Paint Club at the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens. With an exhibit on botanical illustrations on display.
Actually three of us brought our iPads instead of physical painting supplies this time.
Here’s my meta paint club painting.
Lunar New Year dumpling party at Cassie’s!
Berkeley meetup with some Taiwanese American friends. And fancy Japanese dessert afterwards.
So many cute new bars in Oakland these days.
Symphony date with Nancy! We got to see a chamber music performance. Anne Sophie Mutter and others performed a quartet I played in College, Beethoven’s Harp Quartet.
More hike club! Lake Temescal edition.
And the next hike club: Joaquin Miller Park, fog edition.
Cerf Club is back after the holidays! We really hope they expand their menu again since it seems pretty pared down, but we’ll be back in a couple days to try it again.
And that was my incredibly full January! Tune in next month to look back at Feb.
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.
