Ricks and Alexis: the month of may.

early this month i dragged ricks to a performance of cinderella by the sf ballet. it was a lot of fun to head into the city, eat good food, and to check out the civic center part of sf - which we had never done before. the performance was at the war memorial building. we bought the cheapest tickets which were surprisingly good. the performance was a fun adaptation with really great production value and some great comedy mixed in. it was a lot of fun. the minute the performance ended ricks and i gave each other knowing looks and then rushed out of the theater. we ran down all the stairs and then rushed to our car so we wouldnt get stuck in the parking garage/traffic. it was definitely memorable!

the following week my mom came to CA again! she and i had planned to party it up just the two of us this trip and we definitely kept busy. we stayed in a little hotel in the marina neighborhood and then set out to explore the shopping and food of sf. we had a list of stores we wanted to check out which took us to the mission, richmond, hayes valley, soma, tenderloin, union square, nob hill, north beach, the embarcadero, chinatown, alamo square and lower haight neighborhoods. some of the stores we went to were a bust but others were great finds! for example, there is a store in richmond called kamei restaurant supply where you can buy a ton of kitchen stuff for super cheap and pretty much any souvenir item that you might find in chinatown is there for a fraction of the price. there was a fabric store called discount fabrics that was a great find and a few other odds and ends that we were happy to come across.

we also ate well, too. we did go to ghiradelli square twice because, lets be honest, ghiradelli square is the best. we also ate at a restaurant at ghiradelli square called mccormick and kuletos that had pretty good food and great views! we ate at big 4 which was delish and had a really fun ambience. we found a yummy breakfast place called stacks and another across the street called la boulange. yum! we also ate at mamas and learned that you can do take-out there....! there were a few other fun restaurants that we went to as well.

we did a few real touristy things, too. we went to coit tower and paid to go to the top for the 360 view. we drove all the way through and around golden gate park and found a huge windmill that neither of us knew was there. we drove across the golden gate bridge and stopped at vista point before going on to check out the shopping in sausalito. and we went to the exploratorium. after going once, ive decided i need a membership to the exploratorium- there is soooo much to be seen.

on our way back to davis, we stopped in berkeley and found an awesome crate and barrel outlet. this is where we made most of the weekend's purchases and we were beyond thrilled to find it. we also stopped at the vacaville outlets which i had never been to. those outlets were crazy crowded but there were some good finds there, too.

once we got back to davis, she and i decided to increase the storage space in my apartment a little and so we worked on that. of course ricks and i took my mom to freebirds, our newest burrito obsession, jacks urban eats, and we also went to try the firehouse in sac, which was excellent and a lot of fun. my mom really wanted to see sutters fort so we went there, too. sutters fort was actually really nice. since ive been to nauvoo and williamsburg, there wasnt anything new for me to see but they have done a nice job with it.

it was sooooo fun to have my mom around and we had a really great time together exploring sf and sac. i cant wait to see her and the rest of the fam again soon in tahoe!