South Park is London in San Francisco!

South Park is tucked sweetly near AT&T Ball Park, between Bryant and Third It is a very lovely Square that was designed to feel like a Square in London, South Park is quaint, warm, well groomed, relaxed,and truely a real Square in San Francisco. Adorable business surrond the Square, Grasshopper is where I get my hair cut , I love walking over, I feel as if I am in Europe.

French, American, and Mexican Food can be eaten in the wonderful Square. Dog's run, kids play, tall shady trees keep things cool, lovers kiss, and cafes's buzz all around the Square, some of my favorite boutiques are located in South Park.

Why fly to London? why not just take a walk around South Park. Stop at Public Bikes and test ride a bike. It's a little bit of Europe
in a unusual ,unexpected cornor of our very lovely City!

The Crown Jewel Of The United States, San Francisco!

South Park .....
a Little bit of Europe in our Fair City!

The Circus is in El Cerrito CA!

"Play Land not at the Beach"
Is this amazing place where my niece had her 14th Birthday,and 8th grade graduation!
it is a collectors dream! There is room after room of Original "Play Land at the beach artifacts, and rooms full of miniature
San Francisco, miniature England from Charles Dickins and miniature scary stuff, but the most AMAZING was a collection of a miniature hand carved Circus, Isaac Marcks and his son Donald LOVED the circus...Donald Marcks ran away with the Circus twice..and the second time he lived with the Circus for five years.

The Miniature Circus was made mostly by Donald Marcks,over the life span of 50 years. He hand carved over 300,000 pieces!
He recreated a little know circus called Sells Floto Circus... Ringling Brothers biggest comptators in the 1930's.

Each Department is in several back room's at "Play Land Not at the Baech" Play Land Not At the Beach is like a lost secret surprise fun house, circus museum with an amazinng miniture Circus, and a fantastic collecton of pinball machines that all work!
Its a really amzing indoor fun house! Fantastic!!

Oakland is Carmel & Salt wrapped up together!

Oakland is Carmel and Salt together!
You know how the new thing is to mix sweet and salt together because its totally yummy, and an interesting surprise the sweet with the salt.. well Oakland is like that, It's the Brooklyn New York of the West..YES it has a bad reputation but, that is minor and much smaller than what is reported, It sweetness out weighs the salty side and where is a little salty the sweet is near by...and the very salty to be avoided at all cost!

for now... I say for now because things change, sooner or later they always change..

Oakland is attracting super star chefs and super cool eaterys are poping up all over the place. Downtown Oakland is transforming seemingly over night with Plum a new sleek reasonablepriced, late night hot spot and bake sale betty just around the corner..Like Brooklyn 25 years ago when Spike Lee single handly changed Fort Green into the multi- cultral mecca it is today, Downtown Oakland is catching fire.


Jack London Square has wondeful local hip places like Encontreau, Blue Bottle roast there bean here , and Minett bakes here!.
Temenscal has Berma Star..
and Lake Marritt is Beyond Pristine its Post Card beautiful..the Christmas Lights
around the lake make it feel like a lovely Piazza in Italy at Christmas..Early in the morning the racing boats row by and you feel as if your in a movie about Ernest Hemmingway...
Oakland has loads of hiking and bike trails and the Oakland Hills feel like
the Hollywood Hills, Lovely HUGE Homes tucked behind the trees..
Piedmont is like a town in New England with big trees lining the streets lovely homes people walking there dogs its really peaceful to walk or bike.
The nehjborhoods that are both Salty and Sweet have some lovely spots.
When you have a sunday morning go to brown bettey for an amazing brunch but go early because there are no reservations and the lines are long.. Seems that Salty Mixed with Sweet is Very popular and growing! That is great News for Oakland!

Tis The Season !

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The Holiday Season begins with Thanksgiving and Ends on New Years Day and
Pre- Thanksgiving and Pre- Christmas there a few little Holidays before and after the BIG Holidays, since we are currently in- between Christmas and New Years this is the perfect time to talk about the smaller holidays.. the one I had the pleasure of experiencing for the first time is December 5th, 2010.

In Valley Ford California the Fire Department has an annual Fundraiser and once you buy a ticket you are invited to attend a Crab Feed which is all you can eat fresh crab, with Salad, Pasta, and Dessert.

Valley Ford is a small town located in West Sonoma California near Sebastopol and Bodega Bay It is full of beautiful rolling hills, cows, and lovely blue sky near the Coast.

The Crab Feed is located in what looks like a one room school house. Buckets of Crab arrive magically before you, and you eat the Crab with your hands, lemon and melted butter. We brought our own wine and ate crab for hours, Because Crab is light, fresh and delicious its easy to eat, and fun to eat, over a long period of time.

Crab Feed in Valley Ford, every first Sunday in December a fun in- between the Holiday's Holiday...

The Band is back together in a Wine Cave!

The Holidays are fantastic for many, many, many, reason one of my favorite things about the Holidays, Is that old friends who don't get to see each other as often as we would like
are in town. On The Weekend before Thanksgiving my good friends, who just had a baby girl decided that we wanted to visit our close friends who this year moved to
Healdsburg.

When we arrived to our surprise, two close friends of all of ours happen to be in town!
We all used to run around in a pack on a regular bases.

Recently some of us have gotten married, had children, moved away, and started our own business which requires most of our time.

We had a mid- week Pre- Holiday mini get- away In the Wine Country, complete with a Spa Day, and a morning hike. We had loads and loads and loads of deep belly laughs, we all stayed with my friend so we had a PJ party..

The Highlight was dinner in a Wine Cave! the friend who lives in Healdsburg is a Chef, and his Yucann specialties are amazing! Our other friend is a wine specialist, so the wine was very special and our dear friend who we were all visiting, is very closely associated with the Hotel Healdsburg so we explored the Hotel's newest project H2. ( Hotel Healdsburg 2) Lunch there was of course divine!!

"The band is back together" is the perfect description for a very sweet and perfect day! Thank You C & M..great to see you D & B & baby K! Great of you to come to town J!
and L!! as always its fantastic to spend time with you!
xoxo S