Bay Area | September, 2023

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September in the Bay! This was also the month we went to Los Angeles and New York, and yet we still managed to pack so much in to the rest of the month too. Starting with the Office of Accountability’s monthly meeting.

Hosted by Eileen, shortly before she moved into her new house!

Kina Grannis, in concert at the Great American Music Hall.

With a cameo from Kina’s sister Emi, and an opener and duets with Kina’s husband Jesse (Imaginary Future) as well. Also, Kina’s mama is currently searching the world for a blood stem cell donor match. You can register here to be tested for free to see if you can save Mama G’s life. Never have I cried so much at a concert and been happy about it. A very special night.

Flower Piano in the SF Botanical Gardens, with twelve pianos sprinkled about the gardens and a mix of scheduled and spontaneous performances.

Back at the site of our wedding ceremony!

Crocheting at a Giants game… featuring player portraits drawn by pediatric cancer patients, very fun.

And a drone show! This was actually rescheduled from a previous date where they cancelled due to technical difficulties. It was Bay Area hip-hop themed.

Very excellent. Would totally plan to go again next year!

Back up to Healdsburg, where the farmers market is in full bloom.

Antique shopping. Didn’t find any full mahjong sets this time, but always looking!

Back at Reeve, where we had our wedding this spring! Chef Chris’ pizzas are always excellent.

We had our storytelling ceremony under this oak tree!

Now the baby grapes are all grown up and ready for harvest.

A new restaurant in Healdsburg, Molti Amici.

 

Quite tasty!

 

Noble Folk ice cream on the square.

Back in San Francisco, it’s Westin’s second birthday!

They had very cute sensory play and flower hammering stations, plus enough food and desserts to feed five hundred people.

I love how much Leo and Westin love each other! It’s so sweet to see.

Happy birthday, Wild Wild Westy!

An outing to SF Chinatown

and North Beach. I’ll be back at this church in a couple months for a wedding!

Very excellent mozzarella cheese stick pull at the Flour & Water Pizzeria.

Back at another Giants game

Beanies, actually very pragmatic for the weather at this ballpark.

Our Explosions in the Sky record we brought back from LA (thanks Jon!). The thing about vinyl records is each side is limited to 44 minutes of music, but modern music wasn’t designed to conform to that length. So this particular album ended up with 3 short sides and one entirely blank side, on which they decided to draw pictures of birds. Quirky! Also, lunch with Rebecca, who always makes this face when I take a photo of her.

A meal with Sue Anna and Vince, after which I picked up my signed copy of Made in Taiwan Cookbook by Clarissa Wei & Ivy Chen from Omnivore Books.

Drinks & Dinner with Michelle, in town from LA for work. And my visit to the Garrisons’, where I got to meet newborn Baby S and deliver Buster his Dogbuster toy.

We took Michelle to brand new Korean BBQ spot Baekjeong, which was so popular we still had to wait half an hour for our resy and another 45 minutes to receive the meat we ordered, but it was still delicious and we’re still planning to go again. Hopefully they’ve ironed out some of the issues since!

Then Michelle’s husband Rahim joined in from LA as well, and we took them to Seapot for hot pot, haha. This is championship level eating two days in a row.

Followed by boba, and mahjong!

Then I got to be a plus one at a wedding instead of working! Congrats to Kenna and Tom and their incredible childhood photos.

Loved their use of a photography book as their guest book!

All dressed up for Duke’s debut on College Gameday. We were good at football for a minute, and it was kind of fun. Plus, I’m meeting Baby Yen for his newborn photos too.

Picked up some goodies from Bake Sum. Including the specialty mooncakes that they made in a collab with Sheng Kee.

Final game of the year, and it’s Giants versus Dodgers! Wearing Duke Blue is a bit confusing on this day, but we’re still rooting for the Giants, haha. And the Giants won!

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.