Bay Area | August, 2023
August, my friends! It was a very full month for us in the Bay, since we were actually around for the whole month, minus one road trip up to Davis, which I’ve still included in the Bay Area recap below.
First, a little sewing project for some dear friends of mine! This was a pattern of Taiwanese fruits that I drew on my iPad during the pandemic. I had printed a yard of it on fabric but then didn’t do anything else with it– until now. I sewed a little ruffled romper for Baby Garrison, who would make her debut about one month later.
The Office of Accountability, setting and checking in on our goals for the month.
I got called for jury duty, so I stopped by Arsicault for a gigantic almond chocolate croissant before reporting. I got excused in the end, but I’ll come back the next time they call.
Stone fruit season, as I signed up for a fruit CSA with Frog Hollow Farms. Plus, a visit to the farmers market where they have so many varieties of squash… cucumbers, bitter melons, luffa…
Movie night at Santana Row: Barbie!
The gigantic flea market at De Anza College… very, very large and very, very hot.
Dan and Jeri’s baby shower! So many cute little details for this “Pop” themed party: peady to pop / ready to be a pop; various bottles of bubbly that they popped…
Popsicle macarons, and portraits from my maternity session with them.
Alex won this “pop quiz” name-that-tune game featuring pop songs with the word “baby” in the lyrics. Plus, pop-themed party favors.
Then it was time for the crafts project that I helped to lead: making pom poms for baby’s room!
Everyone’s poms were so cute, and Jeri made them into the cutest garlands, mobile, and more for the nursery.
Two mamas to be! And the papas who were college besties. They gave birth just ten days apart.
Alex’s progress on his embroidery project. Plus, meeting up with his friend Cindy for some dumplings, boba, and climbing.
Late summer’s bounty.
A visit from Vince. We lured him with kalbi.
Climbing at Benchmark in San Francisco… and seeing various old Taiwanese American friends!
My momma was in town for a good part of the month too.
A new experience for us at Oracle Park! We got to visit the Gotham Club as “pinch hitters” via Alex’s friend at work. This is a members-only club with a yearslong waitlist that gives you special access to certain parts of the Giants ballpark, like triples alley next to the right field warning track during batting practice.
The clubhouse is located in the space above the arcade. They have a nice logo that they’ve managed to put on literally everything! I kind of want that baseball tote bag, but I really don’t need it. The clubhouse is also located on the back side of these green and white scoreboards where they display all of the other baseball games going on around the league, so you can see people updating the scoreboards live.
They have a restaurant in the clubhouse area with lots of Giants memorabilia, of course. Take note of this framed record, because it will come back later this month!
Most notably, the Gotham Club has access to the secret bowling alley hidden in Oracle Park! Two lanes, free to play for members! So fun.
Back over the arcade, we finally got off the waitlist for dinner at the restaurant.
Alex wanted this cocktail, the “42” (Willie Mays’ number), for the baseball-shaped ice cube that comes with it. And finally, we also got to walk up to the Giants’ bullpen where relief pitcher Camilo Doval was warming up. Note the baseball totally embedded in the pads.
All in all, it was very fun to visit the Gotham Club for the day! I don’t think we’ll become members quite yet, but maybe in the future.
City excursion day on the weekend… riding the muni, grabbing a burrito,
visiting the Castro Valley library, and stopping by The Music Store in Portola, where I picked up three new-old records!
Then, a little excursion up to Marin County
… to visit the Marin County Farmers Market, which is one of the best in the Bay.
We also had a delicious meal at Laos Kitchen and got a couple more records at Red Devil Records, both in San Rafael.
Back at Harmonic Brewing in San Francisco (this location is soon closing, but they still have a bar at Chase Center), we found a bunch of records at the Globe Spinners fair, including that Giants Win the Pennant record. And a couple Taiwanese records too.
Back at the ballpark, this time in the K-sign section (we get to hang one every time our pitcher gets a strikeout), and with a special Bruce Lee t-shirt honoring the 50th anniversary of his passing.
I got to try out two classes at the FUHSD Adult School: ukulele and Chinese calligraphy! They have one day that’s like an open house for all their classes at the beginning of the school year, so I picked these classes to try.
I really enjoyed the Chinese Calligraphy class and would totally have enrolled, except I had conflicts with six of the eight classes scheduled… maybe I can do this in some day in the future.
Besties check-in chat.
Weekend road trip to Davis! I had a wedding to photograph up that way, so Alex and I made a weekend trip of it. Dinner at My Burma, plus records at Armadillo Music.
Davis Farmers Market.
Bountiful ongchoy and teeny patty pan squahses.
A little walk along the arboretum trail.
And a walk around campus.
I started a new crochet project. Check my stories @makelearndo for more of these crafting ventures!
Hosting our friends for mahjong night! John is an actual professional bartender, and he made delicious gimlets! Plus, look at our delicious haul from the Davis Farmers Market.
Delicious bbq with friends.
Followed by mahjong, of course!
Blankpink came to Oracle Park, and we did not actually get tickets, but we did go get merch and then go listen for free from the arcade, haha.
The next day, the new Ikea opened in downtown San Francisco, so I went to go check it out too. My strawberry-vanilla soft serve was delicious.
Annatifftime
Mom and aunt time! With takeout from Joodooboo in Oakland.
Noah from Reeve Wines came to visit us in San Francisco! They were doing a tasting event at Mission Bay Wine and Cheese, so of course went and said hi.
City date night, walking through much-maligned Union Square.
We had dinner at Bodega– delicious modern Vietnamese food.
Then we walked next door to visit their speakeasy bar, Felix. They have mahjong tiles in the tables! So fun. We will definitely need to come back again, because we had to run off to make our 70mm IMAX screening of Oppenheimer.
Ferry Building farmers market morning.
Then I used all of my single serve Matcha packets to make matcha ice cream.
Before and after!
Visited the new wine bar Glu Glu at Chase Center, and we picked out a natural wine to bring down to Los Angeles for our friends.
We were inspired by the Gotham Clubn ice cubes to buy our own baseball and basketball-shaped ice cube moulds, haha. Next we need to engineer a cooler so we can make our ice cubes clear.
Oakland morning – stopping by Bake Sum for some delicious baked goods, including moon cakes!
San Francisco vs. Atlanta with these Atlantans!
Notably, little Leo wore his Giants jersey we got him. He is a San Franciscan after all. Also, this game was originally scheduled for 1pm, but they moved it to prime time for TV, making it coincide with my Taiwanese class! So I attended from my seat.
Afterwards, another bbq kalbi feast.
And ice cream and Bake Sum goodies! And mahjong.
An excursion to North Beach, the little Italy of San Francisco.
El Farolito for lunch. And checking out a new record shop in North Beach, Cantina Records.
Back at the ballpark! We booked our Dugout Club seats (ground level right near home plate) for this Cincinnati vs. San Francisco game. I was confused and wore both teams at the same time. We enjoyed some “Skyline chili” in honor of Cincinnati too.
We got very lucky that our Dugout Club day lined up with our rookie pitcher Kyle Harrison’s home debut! I even made a sign!
Which was also confused, since it was for Cincinnati rookie Elly De La Cruz on the flip side. But I eventually switched back to my Giants hat…
Which was great, because we realized that Kyle’s parents were actually sitting just down at the end of our row. They were very nice to take a picture with us and our sign. Congrats! He had an amazing debut, striking out 11!
Closed out the month with a couple of photo sessions. This one was a beautiful setting over at Shoreline Park in Mountain View, but I got eaten alive by mosquitos, including this bite on my cheek.
And one more at Stanford.
That’s it for August! September recaps coming soon (hopefully)!
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.
