Warning: hipster pics will make you hungry.

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I didn't think I was going to San Francisco last week after all because of moving and the hurricane. But MAGIC HAPPENED, and thanks to the talents and persistence of the hyounpark travel agency and our Bluepasses, my flight got booked Tuesday night, and 24 hours later I was ON A PLANE.

First stop: Udupi Palace for pineapple uttapam with high school friend Karen, my brother, and his college friend Ian.

We're talking cafeteria-size trays here. Enough that we all walked out with leftovers, and then a homeless guy asked us for spare change; we asked him if he was hungry, and he walked away with at least a day's worth of food for himself.



I wandered back into the Mission for elevenses at Mission Street Chinese: savory egg custard with uni and roe. This is what the ocean tastes like - briny, slippery, smooth.

I spent the early part of the afternoon wandering around the Mission - stumbling across a mural dedicated to Los Gigantes, watching fish theatre at the pirate supply store, chatting up the guys at the local bike shop, and having a snack at Tartine.

After that, I met up with jd for ice cream at Humphry Slocombe; from the flavors that day, he got Jesus Juice and Azuki Bean; I got the classic Second Secret Breakfast (bourbon and cornflakes). Crappy picture, awesome taste:

And then I took a break from eating, and we took BART to Rockridge and were enthusiastically geeky all over the bookstore formerly known as Pendragon (I guess it got renamed at some point in the last few years?). I found a used copy of a String Figures and How to Make Them, which I am incredibly excited about - I used to be really into string figures when I was a kid, and we gabbed about scifi and fantasy and magical realism and children's books, at which point it was time for me to hop back on BART to go hang out with a very cute baby (and her not-pictured mama):

And then back to eating: family dinner at Koryo BBQ.

And then we katamaried on back to the hotel, because OMG STUFFED.

*

Friday morning, I make my way over to Brenda's for breakfast in the form of crawfish beignets and watermelon sweet tea:

I wandered Japantown for awhile after that, though I didn't make it to Paper Tree for origami supplies, alas.

Lunch was off the grid (while really, being quite near the grid): paneer tikka masala burrito from Curry Up Now, and a Yes Please (nutella-strawberry creme brulee) from the Creme Brulee Cart:

I spent the afternoon puttering around the Embarcadero, enjoying the sunshine, picking up $1.50 sunglasses from Daiso and schmancy chocolates from Schoggi, and then it was time to go to the airport! One last train ride, and I spotted one of the new demo cars with space specifically for bikes:

Which was pretty awesome. Some of the BART stations have covered/indoor bike parking, but these are down a good number of stairs, so the stairs have little channels where you wheel your bike down them :)

*

A redeye back to Boston with a transfer through wee Long Beach, a day of moving in, and then back on a plane 24 hours later to go to DC!

1. Excellent burgers at Ray's Hell Burger. hyounpark says this is the best burger he's ever had: the B.I.G. Poppa. Au poivre burger cooked rare, topped with aged Danish blue cheese, cognac+sherry sauteed mushrooms, grilled onions, and thick chunks of roasted bone marrow. Holy hell. (And don't forget the Cheerwine!)

2. Time spent at both the Air and Space Museums, and the unphotographable National Archives.

3. Last-minute dinner at America Eats with high school friend Jungdae and husband Dan. It's a Jose Andres pop-up resto done in conjunction with the What's Cooking, Uncle Sam? exhibit at the National Archives (which we went to Monday morning). (Did you know that there's an Aunt Sammy to go along with Uncle Sam? She was created for a radio show in the 1920s to share household cooking tips with housewives.)

No pictures because my phone was out of battery, but it was amazingsauce:

- Shrimp Remoulade with fried green tomatoes
- PB+J with foie gras
- she-crab soup
- peanut soup
- Chesapeake crabcakes with pickled watermelon salad

They were all delicious, but I think the best part was dessert: "Vermont sugar on snow." A large bowl of shaved ice over whipped cream was brought to the table, and then the waiter poured molten maple over the ice; this caused it to harden into a sticky caramel candy.

4. Ethiopian meat plate at Etete with rustnroses, though we'd kind of consumed all the lamb and most of the beef by the time I whipped my camera out:

5. Yummy cupcakes at Baked and Wired with memerath, although the cupcake I had (Pretty Bitchin' - chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting) is not pictured below:

6. Girly shopping time with H + M, and introducing Hyoun to shoes that are neither running shoes nor fancy work shoes. (I think it helps that they are lined with fuzzy warm wool and have non-skid bottoms so they will be useful all winter long.)

So yeah, that's how I spent four days in a row in airports. ;) Thanks, Bluepass! Now to figure out where we're going this weekend ... we'd originally thought Pittsburgh, but that may get pushed back to next weekend, and we may do Chicago instead. We'll see!