Bay Area | June, 2024

Lo and behold, it’s the June recap! I am catching up on my personal posts, at least for now. June was a packed month, with lots of hiking, a vegan edition of our Taiwanese American Cookbook Club, the completion of my eight month-long project making a custom mahjong set, and lots more, as shown below.

First, a Juneteenth market at the Ferry Building, where I got to see my former assistant Jasmine who now owns her own haircare brand Avocurl. And we got a bento from Aedan to bring home for lunch.

Awaiting my surprise proposal clients, with a last-minute drawing since we had to pivot the location upon arrival. You can view the full session here.

Dinner at Canteen in Menlo Park.

A hike at Wilder Ranch State Park in Santa Cruz.

Followed by lunch and a visit to super cute shop Cameron Marks, where we see some colorful wire baskets just like the tortillero we brought back from Mexico City.

This was the month of hikes, mostly because Alex was in the middle of a exercise competition at work. This was a nice hike at Pichetti in Cupertino.

Hello Garrisons! Sydney is helping to blow out mama’s birthday candles.

Happy Birthday, Jeri! Dan gifted her with the mahjong set that we found and brought back from Miami. 

Accountability meeting!

Date night, omakase at Robin in Hayes Valley.

And the Symphony + Alonzo Lines Ballet in one.

Then it was up to Healdsburg for a special music festival hosted by Bloodroot Wines.

First, lunch at Molti Amici…

And a brief meetup with Courtney and Jackson, who were in town photographing a wedding!

The Ramble is a big benefit concert for gun safety, as the owners of BloodRoot (and Reeve, where we had our wedding), unfortunately had their niece killed in the Nashville school shooting. They have been working with Giffords to work for change.

A very warm, but beautiful day.

With headliners Lord Huron.

Afterwards, dinner at Lo and Behold in Healdsburg.

Scouting for another surprise proposal! This time in the Marin Headlands.

Journalist Clarissa Wei was passing through town en route to the James Beard Awards in Chicago, since she was nominated for her wonderful cookbook Made in Taiwan. A big group of us was lucky enough to hang out with her for lunch here in San Francisco! Here’s our TAF contingent.

Kimberly came with Formosa Chocolate goodies! And I brought my Made in Taiwan cookbook (which already had a signed bookplate) for Clarissa to sign a second time. Thank you Clarissa!

Some of our Bay Area restaurant folks, representing Piglet & Co. (San Francisco), Good to Eat Dumplings (Emeryville), and Liang’s Village (Cupertino). 

Artist Felicia Liang with her new self-published journal, Taiwanese Homecoming.

Bay Area Taiwanese Americans unite! And this is mostly just the who’s who of the food scene, connected thanks to HoChie. Thanks for visiting us, Clarissa!

We snagged some highly coveted reservations for Four Kings, the hot new restaurant in Chinatown.

Everything was so good! Would absolutely do again.

Gatherings with friends!

Making great use of our state parks pass checked out from the library, hiking at Castle Rock State Park.

Pride Day with the Giants, plus Season Ticket Members Appreciation Day. We got to say hi to on-field talent Therese Vinal and Anthony Garcia…

And we got served popcorn and treats by the Giants players and staff. Also got a signature from pitcher Keaton Winn!

Father’s Day Brunch at Piglet & Co in the Mission.

Followed by a Giants game, with these funny straw hats that came in clutch for our extremely sunny seats!

A new Ike’s location opened up in Mission Bay! This place has the longest menu ever seen, most of which is named after local sports celebrities. We got two Giants championship greats.

BBQ gathering with friends, followed by the inaugural use of my new mahjong set.

Then Giants great Willie Mays passed away at the age of 93, two days shy of the special MLB game played in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, as a tribute to him and the Negro Leagues. A memorial popped up under his statue at 24 Willie Mays Plaza in front of Oracle Park.

And the Giants opened up the park for us to go and watch the Rickwood Field game on the park.

A special memorial guest book was provided at center field for us to leave our messages.

Beautifully done with thick cotton paper, nice ink pens, and polished rock paperweights.

And a big 24 statue on the field. We came prepared for our San Francisco summer afternoon with a picnic blanket and a full wool blanket.

Then we hosted our Taiwanese American Cookbook Club, featuring George Lee’s vegan cookbook A-Gong’s Table. The next day, we stayed on theme with a Taiwanese American brunch at The Rabbit Hole.

And we got to say hi to our friends who were also at the cookbook club the day before!

I visited a new-to-me branch of the library and got to check off one of my Bingo squares for the Summer Stride activity. more on that to come in the July recap! I love libraries and reading! I post an annual roundup of all the books I read each year, if you’re ever curious to see it yourself here.

Gorgeous hilltop golden hour for a photo session!

First home game after Willie Mays’ passing; the team is back from their road trip and ready to finally win for Willie.

The whole team got to wear the number 24 on their jerseys. It’s been long retired by the team, so this was the first time anyone has worn the number in a long time.

A bunch of Alex’s friends joined for this game too.

Girls’ lunch at Champa Garden, and Courtney brought back a whole haul for us from Japan!

Korean Heritage Night with the Giants. Got the special Jung Hoo Lee shirt for our star center fielder (though he is unfortunately injured for the season).

AnnaTiffTime chat

A brief visit to the Pride Parade! Muni: “We put the Trans in Transportation.”

And then back to Oracle Park for Disney Day versus the Dodgers. 

Very cute Mickey Mouse hats, haha. James and Steph came down from Davis for the game! And though they were rooting for the wrong team, we enjoy going go these rivalry games with them anyway. Even Dodgers show their respect to Willie Mays, widely considered one of the best all-around baseball players of all time.

Just 10 days after Willie Mays passed, fellow Giants great and Mays’ teammate Orlando Cepeda also passed. Alas, a lot of losses for this storied franchise.

And finally, dinner at Lunette restaurant in the Ferry Building before James and Steph caught their Ferry back home.

Another wild and wondrous month! See you next time.

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.