Play date

Thanks so much to everyone who has been leaving comments on yesterday's post! Keep it up!

Monday was one of those lovely days to remember. I drove from my home in wine country to the Larkspur ferry and rode into San Francisco around lunch time. It was a perfect day - a little fog in the distance, curled around the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. I grew up riding the ferry, but I hadn't been for a few years, and I took along my favorite mohair shawl to wrap around my head, neck and shoulders so that I could ride out on the deck.

Here's the view coming into the City. It never fails to please!

At the Ferry Building I met up with Kristine and her mother Michelle, Anne and Adrienne.

This person might look a little familiar too. No? :) I had to take a picture of Cookie's fabulous haircut, perm and color!

We ended up at the Slanted Door, and Vietnamese fusion restaurant, for lunch. Anne ordered the seafood over crispy noodles, and I snapped this one pristine picture. By the time the rest of the food came, I was more interested in eating the food than photographing it. It was delicious!

After we ate (and removed all the napkin lint with the handy dandy lint brush the waitress provided), we window shopped through the Ferry Building. Here's Mushroom Queen Adrienne outside the fungi stall. She had us tasting Candy Cap Mushroom ice cream. It was incredible!

This was next door; I thought it was hilarious.

Here's Anne checking out all the amazing varieties of gourmet mushrooms.

Cookie found her cheese and was sooooooo happy!

Kristine and Adrienne had arranged for us to take a tour of the quilt exhibition at the Museum of the African Diaspora. This is Shiree with Adrienne. The museum was closed on Monday, but we got the red carpet treatment (Kristine taught Shiree how to knit, you see). :)

Quilts made up the current exhibition, and we all ooooohed and ahhhhhed at the immense amount of care, love and work that went into these. Shiree let me snap a little close up of this quilt because of the interesting English language patch. Third world countries receive huge bags of used clothes from the US, and this quilt shows at least one of the bits of material.

After the MoAD, we moved on to SFMoMA for the Stein collection exhibit. And again, another treat! Wow.

I had to snap this little bit of yarn bombing out front!

Connie Chang Chinchio and family joined us MoMA, as they were in town for a wedding. This is Connie's little cutie-pie. She and I are friends now and I think I have convinced Connie that she needs another auntie. Because babies always need lots of aunties! Especially adorable little smiley babies. :)

I love this picture of Connie and baby (who, btw, has the same birthday as my younger son).

We sat at the MoMA cafe, drank beautiful cappuccino,

and ate beautiful Mondrian cake.

And when we closed down the place, we wandered across the street to Yerba Buena Gardens. I hadn't been there for many many years. My mother was the executive director for PR there (Yerba Buena Alliance as it was then called), and it had been a very painful place since her death. I wish she could have seen how much the trees have grown. It's funny how, no matter how much you think you are over something, it can all come rushing back so quickly. I kept expecting her to come down the walkway from her old office and say hello.

I've always loved this fountain; there is a walkway around behind the water with MLK Jr. quotes. It's my favorite part of the Gardens.

After relaxing in the sun for a bit we headed out to Bourbon & Branch, a fantastic period speakeasy. On the way, we saw a felted managerie. There was a sheep,

a giraffe,

a dragon,

and a zebra.

The speakeasy didn't allow photos inside and I'm afraid none of us had the presence of mind to take any outside. The door, a plain wooden one, was locked. We knocked three times and the hostess emerged and asked for the password. She was dressed as a flapper. Terrific! They served designer cocktails - very herby and fragrant. I didn't end up ordering one, as I was expecting to dash out to the ferry any moment. But way led onto way and I didn't want to leave, so I stayed, chatted, and laughed a little longer.

I did end up making it to the 8:10 ferry, and I was the last one they allowed on. I ran halfway there - down Market Street. A complete trip down memory lane!