Category: Life

Fisherman’s Wharf

Yesterday I have the pleasure of playing tourist with my friend Lauren. We decided to head to Fisherman’s Wharf to see what the tourists see.

We were blessed with amazing weather; sunny skies with a high of about 78°. Anyone who lives in San Francisco knows that this is a rarity. As we traveled on the Market and Wharves F street car, I had the chance to catch glimpses of the famous landmarks of San Francisco; Coit Tower, the Ferry Building, and Alcatraz. Looking out onto the Bay, you could see clear across to Berkeley, Sausalito, even Richmond. I began to appreciate my city more and more.

We rode the street car to Pier 39, the mecca of commercialized tourist attractions in Fisherman’s Wharf. Walking around Pier 39, the view of the Bay was spectacular. It felt like every cold, foggy and miserable day I’d experienced in San Francisco was melting away into a distant memory.

Lauren and I continued to wander through the Wharf, taking in the sights, sounds and the food! We made our way to the Musee Mecanique, an arcade of old-fashioned coin operated games. The arcade used to be at the Cliff House, at Land’s End in San Francisco, where I had visited it in my youth. It was very nostalgic to be there, knowing that my parents had played on those same games as a young couple when they lived in the City.

As the day went on, we visited more tourist spots; Ghiradelli Square, Hooters, and the souvenir shops. We took in the commercialized tourist attractions, right alongside the more historic landmarks.

Our last stop on our adventure was the famous Buena Vista Cafe, home of the Irish coffee. This bar had been on my list of places to go while living in the City, so I was happy to be able to visit it. We ordered Irish coffees (which were delicious) and admired the view of the Bay from the bar. At this point, it was early evening and we could see the fog slowly creeping in through the Golden Gate. It was a reminder that San Francisco’s true nature is to be foggy, even on the days we get warm and sunny weather.

To finish our adventure we took a cable car home. Out of all the passengers on the car, it is safe to say we were the only locals. The cable car couldn’t take us further than Washington St near Chinatown, so we walked the rest of the way down Powell. We began to enter our San Francisco reality, leaving our tourist day behind.

We eventually worked our way to a friend’s house near San Francisco State, the neighborhood where we spend so much of our time. We both remarked that this area of SF seemed worlds away from Fisherman’s Wharf; that it as if we had spent the day in a whole other city.

Our adventure to Fisherman’s Wharf to play tourist for the day renewed my love of San Francisco. As a local, the city can quickly become a frustrating, hectic place. The allure of the City can quickly become tarnished by terrible traffic, MUNI breakdowns, and cold, damp weather. Sometimes it is necessary for locals to move away from the unsavory parts of the City and see what the tourists see.

Thousands of tourists flood San Francisco every year; my trip to Fisherman’s Wharf helped me understand why.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

So today was a crazy weather day in San Francisco, we had a tornado just north of SF and a water spout (water tornado) just off Ocean Beach, just a few blocks from my apartment!

I stayed put today with the exception of going to class for an hour this morning at 9am.

When the weather is awful I tend to just stay home and bake. That’s exactly what I did today and I made Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, my latest obsession.

I have been making the recipe over the last several weeks because it is so delicious. I eat it for breakfast, as a snack or as dessert. Because I believe in sharing great recipes, below is the recipe. I originally got this recipe off the Internet and I modified it to my liking. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder (amount depends on your liking, optional but its a great addition)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3 bananas, mashed (1 cup mashed banana)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup chocolate chips

1/4 to 1/2 chopped walnuts, or pecans (again amount and type of nut will depend on your liking, this can also be omitted completely if you don’t like nuts)

PREPARATION

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F .

Grease and flour a 8 1/2-inch x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan (or use baking spray, such as Baker’s Joy brand).

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon powder. Add chocolate chips and walnuts or pecans.

In a separate medium bowl mix together the oil, bananas and eggs until well combined.

Pour wet mixture into bowl with dry ingredients. Using a large rubber spatula, fold wet mixture into dry mixture, being careful to not over-mix (combine wet and dry mixtures until dry ingredients are JUST incorporated). Pour into the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, between 60-80 minutes. Cool the loaf in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely, right side up.

This banana bread will keep for about 5-6 days stored at room temperate in an air tight container. In my apartment it really only lasts for 4 days because its that delicious.

If you are looking for more recipes, check out my food blog; The Petite Gourmet.

Tsunami

Its just after 1 am on March 11, 2011 and I am awake keeping tabs on the earthquake and tsunami situation from Japan. Everything that is happening is so sad and scary. San Francisco is currently under a Tsunami Warning, meaning that a Tsunami is imminent. My boyfriend and I live about 4 and a half blocks from the beach, so naturally we are quite concerned. It is likely that we will be just fine and won’t be too affected by the tsunami, but one can never be too careful.

I feel for everyone in Japan who has been affected by this disaster. My thoughts and prayers go out to all around the world affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

I will try to get sleep tonight, staying up all night won’t do me much good.

Good night, good luck, and be safe.

Underachieving; The Newest Trend?

Since when is it cool to act stupid? When did it become admirable to be lazy and blow off 90 something percent of your college classwork?

So I have my gripes with San Francisco State, that is nothing new. But what has shocked me as of late is how people in my classes brag about the fact that they didn’t do an assignment, failed a test, or don’t pay attention in the class.

Since when is that worth bragging about? Really? Its cool that you don’t do anything in your classes and you barely pass, if you do at all? I just don’t get it.

Don’t get my wrong; I am not an obsessive, overachieving, perfect student who never makes mistakes. I try my best to do well in all my classes and maintain a good GPA. But I also have learned to pick my battles with classes and that some classes can’t be aced. But I do not brag about how I failed a test, am too stupid to know what projects are assigned in class or that I don’t pay attention during lecture.

I don’t see how people think this makes them look cool. It will definitely won’t look cool when you leave college and have a job. Just imagine, bragging to your coworkers about how you never pay attention in meetings, that you didn’t do half of your assigned work or that you constantly skip out of work early to hit happy hour. That won’t make you look cool to your coworkers: that’ll make you look like a loser who doesn’t pull their weight. That will also never get you promoted.

If nothing else, college teaches us how to meet deadlines, pay attention, and be responsible. So if you half-ass learning these skills in college, you will just have to learn them in the working world. That is if an employer is willing to keep you around long enough for you to get the chance to learn them.

I know I am ranting, and for this I ask your apologies. I just can’t believe that in every one of my classes I can hear someone bragging about not doing their work as if it makes them look so cool.

OK, I have ranted long enough. Thanks for your patience my lovely reader, whomever you may be 🙂

I promise to be more positive in my future posts; ranting  doesn’t really do a whole lot of good.

Blessings in Disguise

Perhaps one of my favorite quotes is “God never gives you more than you can handle”. I am not a deeply religious person, in fact I am hardly “religious” at all. I have my own version of spiritually and my own relationship with God that exists beyond the parameters of any one religion.

OK, enough religion talk; it always makes me uneasy.

Today my favorite quote came to me over and over again. Things didn’t exactly go my way today and I was feeling unhappy. I had been given the gift of time when I didn’t exactly want it.

The more I thought about my situation, the more I realized that whether I wanted it or not, I needed this gift of time. As any busy college student will tell you, when homework rains; it pours. Most students typically get assigned a ton of projects, papers and exams that all are due around the same time.

I am no exception. This month is filled to the brim with term papers, exams, a 20 page research paper, and a 10 minute speech. This is the best possible time for me to get the gift of time; to be able to finish all my assignments without having to cram the work into 3 days per week.

I may not be completely happy with my new found gift of time, but I have little control over it. In fact, I have little control over a lot of things. The sooner I come to terms with that the better. The only thing I can control is how I feel about situations that come my way and try to see the positive in everything.

“God never gives you more than you can handle”. I realized that what happened was God’s way of not giving more than I can handle. And that truly is a blessing.