On this post, a walk through some of the prettiest staircases of San Francisco, what to do with your tomato bounty, cute sneakers, and a podcast you will enjoy..
We are really in the dog days of summer here in Northern Cal. We have had a lot of humidity and dark cloudy days which always reminds me of being a kid and visiting my mom’s family in Wisconsin during the summer. California doesn’t really get rain or overcast days in summer. At least we didn’t use to and I sort of like them, but hate this humidity! Still, we are spoiled as it’s not the norm.
In garden news, my dad has been using me as a sort of produce dealer, unloading so many tomatoes, peaches and cucumbers on me to share with friends and family. We have SO many tomatoes from my dad. I have been trying to use them up as I love them fresh.. They look cute on the counter.. and smell amazing. You can only use so many.
Variations on Caprese…
A few ways I’ve been digging into dad’s tomatoes…My summer lunch is usually a mix of tomatoes chopped with avocado chunks, fresh mozzarella, and either basil or handfuls of baby greens drizzled with olive oil, some salt and pepper and some kind of nut like pine nuts or walnuts.. I often will have a few flax seed crackers to go with it.
We’ve also been eating the traditional caprese salad many nights…and peach are occasionally added..
I’ve also made MANY caprese sandwiches with ciabatta bread lightly toasted, a spread of pesto, fresh mozzerella, basil and tomatoes.. SO good for dinner. I didn’t have the time to make my own pesto, but a container lasts through a few sandwiches and a night of pesto pasta..
I am going to try a rustic tart with the tomatoes later this week..What ways have you been enjoying your tomatoes?
On My Radar
I just began listening to the ‘Wiser Than Me’ podcast by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss . She interviews women who have wisdom to share like Isabel Allende, Jane Fonda, Amy Tan, Carol Burnett, Ruth Reichl and many more women of substance! She also prefaces interviews with her own interesting stories. You can listen on Spotify, Audible or your Podcast app.
These sneakers caught my eye with the same look as the Chloe version, but for a lot less than $800. I am kind of excited to get them for fall..Nordstrom has them here, but is almost sold out – more sizes at Dolce Vita. They say they run small and recommend size up one half size.
I just ordered another pair of these Caddis Readers in the bone color. I just keep using these the most as they seem to make my eyes hurt less with the blue lenses for the computer. I ordered this pair without the blue light so I can use them for book reading. They also have this style in a new compact size as it is bit oversize.
I love this beads on my tray and book on the coffee table. I found these a while back and finally put them out. Similar wooden beads here, and here.
Frames and pictures
I just refreshed the frames in the house. I stored away many of the photos in a fabric box and put my faves in new frames on my bedroom console table from Serena & Lily ( it’s marked down now.) I like having my sentimental pictures and few other books and things on this table..
The little stool on the left below is from Amazon here and nearly identical to the S&L one for a lot less..and great quality. I keep checking back to see if they will get more. They do have a darling identical bench here.
I think they have some of the prettiest frames here. This is mine above, below left and and how cute are these with a scalloped edge on right? A few more I am loving linked on photos..
More San Francisco steps..
We did another walk in SF to the prettiest steps- The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps and The Hidden Garden Steps – both within walking distance of each other, plus four others. We parked at Quintara St in a residential neighborhood and our car was okay left there all day.
These day trips work out nice as Max likes to push me to my hiking limits ( literally), and I like to see new neighborhoods and cute shops and have lunch at a good spot..
On this route you can also stop at Grand View Park, up a long staircase, which may have the most panoramic view of the city and the whole expanse of Golden Gate Park.. On this warm Saturday morning you can see the fog hugging the hills beyond..
I wore light layers – leggings, a tank and a light cotton jacket with a scarf. The weather alternated all day between cold, windy, and hot -so all were needed and easy to carry with a small crossbody bag. I also brought a baseball cap and my water..
This was our route..
I wasn’t cut out for cartography so take from this what you will, but in SF it’s hard to make an accurate map as everything is so wonky. This is as clear as I can explain…
We began at the Inner Parkside where we parked at the top of Quintara, and went up at the Quintara steps that have a butterfly sanctuary, then go past Golden Gate Heights Park, and (left) on Funston ( not 12th Ave like map shows) and take the Aerial Steps left down 14th Avenue (north), then walk right up to the Grandview Park steps and amazing panoramic view, then take the steps down the back of the park to go South on Noriega take a short set of steps down to the 15th Ave where you get to the top of the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps… Then continue down 16th Avenue to the right until you get to the Hidden Garden Steps at the end.. The green dots are where stairs are.
After Hidden Garden, ( this stuff not on map), we crossed the street and continued down 16th Avenue until we got to Irving where we turned right … As it was a Sunday they have a fun street market with the road closed and live music and vintage clothes and other cool things.
There were families and kids doing bubbles and tables with Jenga and other games. We walked through that and at 9th Avenue you can turn left towards the park and the street is full of good places to grab a bite.
This area is called the Inner Sunset and we decided to try the famous Tartine Bakery as it had a cute outdoor patio. There are a lot of choices to eat in this area. We split a delicious muffin because we had to try a baked good, and for lunch had Arnold Palmers and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with tomatillos… we had them hold the jalapeños. They were amazing and we brought home a loaf of the bread too.
At that point we could have walked into the eastern part of Golden Gate Park with the Conservatory of Flowers, kid’s playground, carousel and the Cal Academy of Science and much more.. It’s a great place to just stroll through. We should have done that and Ubered back…We decided to walk back to the car instead. At that point we had already walked a few miles and this was mostly uphill back and I had eaten a huge lunch.
Full disclosure: about half way back it was getting really warm and all uphill and I wanted to Uber back to the car. Max tried to push back and said they won’t pick you up for a mile. I was adamant they would -as this city is filled with hills and sometimes you just can’t get to places without some help. Thankfully we got picked up right away by a nice gentleman, (not the self driving cars we kept seeing around like weird ghosts). I was so thankful as the ‘few hills’ Max said were left was more like 6..
Note- it’s easy to park somewhere and wander then Uber or Lyft back to your original spot- especially if you’ve walked mostly downhill!
The whole route..4.3 miles and 749 feet of elevation..
More SF staircases to walk on this great book I have shared before.
Last week I shared ways to help Maui, the original supermodels back in September Vogue, a cute long shirtdress, a book to check out, and my secret food market in Aptos that has great housewares too.
Happy weekend!
Kim
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