outdoor adventures.

I usually post on Sunday's but if I would have attempted to post anything last night it would have been even worse writing than usual. This weekend was incredibly active, going from one thing to the next. I wouldn't have had it any different. Since I knew I was going to run a half marathon Sunday I was trying to take it easy when we went out on Friday, but alas, I was tempted by Anchor Steam. Late night pizza reminded me of Antonio's and made me a little less sad that I missed out on homecoming this year. Go UMass!

Saturday consisted of my first official brunch in SF. Unfortunately the restaurant we went to in North Beach was underwhelming, but there was a dog there and so my attention was directed at him for the morning. After brunch, we did the tourist thing and walked down to the wharf. Along the way, we stopped in at Buena Vista Cafe for a little drink since the weather is starting to change here and it was feeling a bit brisk. The underwhelming brunch also meant we were still hungry to off to Scoma's for a true Italian gem. I'd been here once before when my uncle got married about five years ago - it looks exactly the same. Wood paneled walls filled with pictures, white table cloths, a little stuffy, but so good.

I headed off to the Presidio to grab my bib for the race and walked along the water, which turns out was a part of the course. Pretty uneventful, but the place that they handed the bibs out is called Sports Basement, where you can rent bikes (Maddy and I did this when I visited in May). It's an outdoor lovers paradise in the and I had to walk out quickly before I bought anything; also very close to the Golden Gate bridge, making it the perfect place to rent bikes.

I'm not usually who eats out a lot, but I was in the mood and had a bit of coaxing so I followed along with others to this great Thai place close by called Lemongrass. The dish I had (eggplant and tofu) was incredible - possibly the best Thai food I've ever had (although I don't have much to compare it to). That night we had some rain, which we all welcomed. It just felt like back home and I didn't mind the mist at all.

Sunday I ran the SF half-marathon - in my last post I said that Tank Hill was the best view of the city, well, I take that back. Mile 7 of the half was on a look out spot in Marin County looking back at the city. It was absolutely breathtaking. I couldn't take a picture because the sun was so bright, but took others along the way. I don't know if I'd run the specific race again because there were at least four bottlenecks on the bridge because of the amount of people in the race, but it was a perfect day for a race. Nice and cool at the start, sun warmed you up around mile 5 and didn't get very hot. I took it slow and didn't push myself (mostly because I wanted to walk today). At the finish, I remembered that all participants could get a free Lagunitus, so I headed straight for the keg. I'm embarrassed to say that I bypassed the water and just went for it. Oh well.

Shot from the course.

I gave myself a break and rode the cable car for the first time - so fun! It's pretty expensive for just single rides, but I couldn't handle walking all the way back up the hill so I treated myself. Treat Yourself 2011. After a shower and some coffee,  we headed out to Ocean Beach to the Rip Curl Pro Search to catch a heat of the surfing contest. So cool! I'm looking forward to going to Hawaii for Christmas and will try to get on a surfboard (it's been 12 years, so I'm not sure how that will go).

The day was certainly not over and we had a few hours to kill with our zip car so from the ocean to the mountains we went. On the other side of the Golden Gate are some amazing cities and we headed uphill to Muir Woods. Maddy knew about this great place that sounded cool when she explained it but I didn't expect it to be so incredible. It's called the Tourist Club and it's a German bar that you have to hike down to (short hike). Only three beers were on tap, but it didn't matter. We grabbed a deck of card, parked ourselves outside on a picnic table and enjoyed the view. Next time I want to bring a full lunch and just hang out for a few hours.

Last, but certainly not least, we ate dinner in the Mission (so many neighborhoods in so little time). A couple of us were really craving some Indian food and we got a recommendation of Pakwan - it was cheap, fast and amazing. The food reminded me a bit of Punjabi Dhaba (miss it!).

Alright, that's all. If you made it this far, congrats. I was too tired tonight to filter this.

Have a great week!