Golden Gate Park – The Bouncy Kitty

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For the last week of 2014, my wanderlust swept me away from the City of Angels and up to my favorite City by the Bay – San Francisco. Even though I was born and raised in the Silicon Valley, now that my father lives in the heart of the city I spend a significant proportion of my time gallivanting around neighborhoods in search of epic street art, beautiful scenery and the unique architecture of the city.

Typically, my parents are my road dogs while I roam but this time, Danny and I enlisted a few of our LA favorites to explore with us. Due to weather issues (typical) and unexpected detours (also, typical) over my last few trips, we never managed to make it down to Golden Gate Park, and I’ve kinda been begging, pleading – maybe even whining – to be dwarfed by the awe inspiring Golden Gate Bridge. As we descended on the city after a hearty (and delicious) brunch at the Butler and the Chef, my friends asked around to see where we wanted to go; after squeaking ‘Golden Gate Park’ from the back seat, my friends smiled in agreement. In sync, we took a sip of our roadies while rolling down the windows, the slow backbeat of a moody rock song filled the car while the engine purred in response. Adventure was calling, and we were ready to answer.

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How lucky were we that the last day of the year also turned out to be a beautiful one? A quick storm from Canada trampled it’s way through California earlier in the week. Though it left the city windy and cold our first night, paved the way for radiant blue skies dotted randomly with assorted fluffy clouds. First on the list – Crissy Field. Originally build as a US Airfield, Crissy Field has since been repurposed into one of the best natural spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is often considered the Golden-gateway, or proverbial front door, to the Presidio.

Slowly but surely, we made our sundrenched way through the winding paths and up through the Battery Trail to a great viewpoint of the Golden Gate Bridge.

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One thing I’ve always stood by is that you never know where the limits of your comfort zone are if you refuse to push them. So, on Wednesday – I decided to conquer my tried and true fear of heights (known as acrophobia) and walk the Golden Gate Bridge.

What are you determined to accomplish this year?

Shout out your resolutions in the comments below and let’s conquer them together!

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I gallivanted up to our home away from home – San Francisco – to attend the 13th annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. The festival was started by Warren Hellmen, a philanthropic investment mogul with an affinity for the city of SF, bluegrass music and the community surrounding both. Though he passed away in 2011, his legacy – and festival – live on through a legacy fund he set-up. The event is entirely free and full of the most ridiculous intersection of people ever; but hey, who doesn’t like free, right?! I’d say that easily half a million people showed up, but it could’ve been nearly 750,000. Old hippies, young hippies (which, by the way – it actually costs of money to look that poor), families, stragglers, groups of friends, groups of couples, etc, etc. We only went for Saturday but that was plenty for me! I caught part of Elvin Bishop and then it was off to see Dave Alvin with Greg Leisz. We saw all of Boz Scaggs, who gained notoriety as the head guitarist and sometimes lead vocalist of the Steve Miller Band; he ROCKED! Then we sauntered over to see Los Lobos Disconnected – a unique, acoustic set by one of my childhood favorite bands; and finally, to wrap up the day we headed back to see Natalie Maines, a third of my childhood favorite country group the Dixie Chicks. Other than the festival, we spent the weekend eating amazing food with great company. I have to admit, it’s the first time I’ve been home with my man and resigned myself to just doing family stuff – and it was wonderful! If this is growing up, I can definitely get used to this. Now, onto the pics – enjoy!