Last Sunshine

Last weekend, my best friend came up to San Francisco to visit me before his trek to Seattle to start up school again. We visited many of my favorite places, Dolores Park, Philz in the Castro, and Thorough Bread Bakery&Cafe. We started our adventure right after church service on what had turned out to be a chilly but gorgeous nontheless Sunday. There was a layer of fog creeping over the hills into the city, and the sun was shining warmly against the wind of the afternoon.

My Not-so-Classic Lemon Tart 

Now, I've mentioned Thorough Bread Bakery&Cafe before, they always have the most impeccable sandwiches and desserts!

As usual, I'm one for a classic dessert, while my friend is always more of the adventurous type. I indulged in a very smooth lemon bar, lined with two intertwining stripes of dark chocolate. What I love about Thorough Bread is that their desserts look so carefully crafted and are fun to eat. Under the lemon creme layer, I was delighted to discover a decadent sheet of white chocolate on the pastry crust. My classic choice had turned out to be full of delicious surprises.

His Adventurous Raspberry White Chocolate Cake

 My friend took the adventurous route, as I before mentioned, and delved into a raspberry and white chocolate sponge cake filled with a fresh, tart raspberry jelly and a creme layer. The taste of this dessert was unlike anything I have ever had before, with the perfect blend of light as air creme, and fruit that was tart without a painful bite to it. The texture was delicate, the flavor rich, balanced carefully with softness. I had not expected such an intricate dessert to have such a simple blend of flavors. It was quite sad taking it apart, as it looked like something you'd see in a museum.

What do you see in this cloud? 

Once we had left Thorough Bread, we headed down to Dolores Park, one of my favorite places in the city to spend time on a sunny afternoon. We fell on our backs on the green hillscape, stared curiously up into the sky. I haven't played that game where you find animals and people in the clouds since I was a kid, and I was happy to reunite with a piece of my childhood. We found lions, turtles, birds, just about everything, even a Chinese dragon.

The sun was warm, I must have fallen asleep for a bit. It was definitely a rare day, and I could have stayed on that hill scape forever, with faint music in the background, laughter and conversation drifting on the wind, the sights of the clouds and the warmth of the sun, and my best friend silent by me.

Eventually, we had to leave the hillscape of Dolores Park, and as the wind picked up and the fog rolled in, we decided to stop for a delicious cup of coffee at Philz. Philz is fantastic in my opinion, because of the way they make thier coffee, in an old fashioned but unique drip style. Thier selection of coffees and spot-on descriptions of flavors leave you wanting to order just about everything on the menu, and their choice of cream and sugar is wonderful and delicious. 

I ordered something I hadn't before: Ambrosia. And I definitely recommend it to everyone. It is a medium brew, if I remember correctly, but just has a delicious natural sweetness, and again, with thier delicious choices of cream and sugar, makes for a soothing cup of coffee that warmed every bone in my body.

We made our way back to the train station, through the sweet streets of the Castro district, admiring the bay windows and vibrant colors of each house. I would like to live here someday, I thought. And I feel that I'd be happy with probably any house in the city, as long as it came with a bay window. Maybe I'm simple-minded or easy to please, and maybe that's not the best thing, but I don't mind. It was a wonderful Sunday, that day. Lately the sun has been following us, and the days are getting warmer, September Summer is truly present, making me want to strike out for perfect days like this one was.

Here at State, the work is starting to pile on thick, and I've noticed I don't really feel as ambitious towards my studies as I did last semester, I'm wondering what this means, if it means anything for me at all. I'm working to at least go through the motions of applying myself. I'm not bored here, I'm just preoccupied with other things. That's my excuse. I'm sure that things will be alright though. Once I start working  on where I've fallen behind, it will seem easier than when I'm faced with a mountain of unfinished assignments, not just in school, but in life.