Bay Area | September, 2024
At the start of September, we returned from our New York trip, and in the middle, we spent a long weekend in Kansas City. The rest of the month was packed full of birthdays and gatherings!
First, some casual hangouts with friends– it was warm enough for a pool day in SF! Plus, visiting Benchmark with Vince and Cindy.
Happy birthday to Ryan!
Happy birthday to Westin! So fun to see all of these little accountability babies at this “Under the Three” party.
The Office of Accountability ladies.
We even learned how to play Filipino-style mahjong!
Chase Center had an open house celebrating its 5th birthday! Our friends’ daughters took full advantage of the face painting, haha.
Still on the same day, we put together a whole surprise party for Vince’s 40th Birthday! He thought just a couple of us were meeting up with him for climbing and dinner, but we brought a whole takeout + hotpot setup to the gym and Sue Anna created a whole photo & message wall at the front for him.
Surprise!
Midwestern transplants. :)
Happy birthday boy!
And we played with my handmade SF mahjong set too.
Birthday brunch at Plow for Vince’s actual birthday the next day! I do love some ricotta pancakes.
Our cookbook club participants with George and Laurent for their A Gong’s Table event at Good to Eat! This was just my first of two times in a row visiting GTE this week.
I snagged a much-coveted reservation to Noodle in a Haystack, a tiny restaurant in the Richmond District of SF with only one counter and one seating per night. The whole thing is run by a self-taught husband wife team and has a multi-course prix fixe menu leading up to a full bowl of ramen at the end.
We loved all of the small bites. The ramen was good, but the particular clam ramen we got on this seasonal menu wasn’t my favorite. Really lovely dining experience though! And an interesting byproduct of the expense of doing business in SF as a restaurant. They originally wanted to just be a normal midrange ramen joint, but due to the cost of building out the restaurant and getting through permitting, they were basically forced into this higher-priced prix fixe model.
Taking my new Sony camera for a spin!
Chef Pim sneaking up on Alex with bunny ears… at her new Khao Soi shop, which popped up in the upstairs of her restaurant Nari (where we had our wedding reception). She only put out one article announcing the soft-launch of this pop-up, but a bunch of us got the memo and showed up right away! Everything was delicious, of course.
The four of us disbanded after lunch and then gathered again in Chinatown for their block party.
Very festive!
I picked up some very cute ghost stickers from Chanamon and this happy egg tart cushion from On Waverly.
Vince and I got the black jackets and blue hats memo, while Cindy and Alex got the light denim jackets memo.
Vince’s favorite salt & pepper fried chicken wings, from Capital Restaurant. I love the egg tofu.
Playing mahjong in a Chinatown alley! What a vibe. Thanks to The Mahjong Project for the setup.
Another birthday party! For Everett’s first birthday in Oakland.
Followed by a brewery meetup with Alex’s friends.
And then it was time for the Mid-Autumn Festival at Good to Eat. Many tasty bites purchased on a token system.
Friends, photobooth, mahjong bingo, sinbala (a dice game to win sausages), and live music!
A visit to our friends’ home, and getting try Jean’s homemade moon cakes!
Brunch at Cavaña, the roof bar on top of the Luma Hotel, featuring views of the ballpark.
Loved this concha sandwich– savory & sweet!
I got to see my former client Susie performing piano duets at Flower Piano in the SF Botanical Gardens!
Loved seeing all of the painters in the audience too.
Grilling kalbi with the Valentes!
Mid-Autumn meal with the in-laws, featuring moon cakes we got from Bake Sum.
And all of that was the first half of the month, before we took off to go visit Kansas City for another baseball stadium.
More baseball upon on our return– this one is the end of an era, as Alex’s childhood team the Oakland A’s have now left their home in Oakland, thanks to their villain owners. At the last minute we decided to attend the penultimate game at the Coliseum.
Genius move on our part, we picked up Thai food from Pintoh and brought it in to the stadium for dinner.
End of an era.
Mahjong night! Steph even took a break to hem Cassie’s living room curtains for her.
Nearing the end of baseball season.
Said goodbye to two all-time greats this year.
Members party at Reeve, our favorite. We enjoyed Nashville hot chicken from Chef Chris, some tasty pours from the latest lineup, and a walk around the grounds to say hello to the goats.
Followed by a visit to Healdsburg’s town square, where they were having an art fair.
And one final Giants game for the year. We got to walk out to the field and run the bases too! No playoffs this year, alas. See you again in the spring!
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.
