san francisco (and others) saturday

I guess going to the First Fridays art walk wasn't enough art for the weekend, because on Saturday my mom, sister & I headed up to San Francisco to check out the De Young.  I've been there several times, but it's one of the museums that's free on the first Saturday of the month if you just so happen to bank with Bank of America.  I say "just so happen" because, really, it seems like all the banks are the same, right?  But still, this little perk is nice.  I think next month I'll go to the Tech Museum here in San Jose (even though I've been a million times).  

 A while back I got this nail polish on sale for 30c and I finally got around to trying it.  I actually don't think I'd ever worn a shade other than black because I'm always paranoid about make-up colors not matching my skin color...but I actually really like this shade, and how it goes with (at least in my mind?) my blueish plastic ring~  

It was a pretty cheap, crappy little bottle of nail polish but I've found that if you put two coats + top coat, most nail polish stays on pretty well.

 We kicked the day off by going out for Filipino food at Magic Wok.  I know, the name implies Chinese fast food rather than Filipino, but it is Filipino for real.  I like this place because Filipino food is still something of a novelty in these parts...and somehow, having Filipino food with my mom just feels really homey.  This spot is actually right by my boyfriend's place, but he doesn't like Filipino food! :'(

Pictured above ^ pansit palabok

Some shots from inside the museum:

 The coolest thing I saw was a painting of an anthropomorphic chicken playing a piano in shades of blue and green (no photo, unfortunately. Just go to San Francisco and see it for yourself!).

Come to think of it, though, I wish we'd gone to the Japanese Tea Garden after because it's right next door.  I've been before and it's beautiful, but it sucks that there's an admission price. Also, oh my god, I can't believe that website has that hokey music on it.

We did head to Three Twins Ice Cream, though.  I've been slowly but surely making my way through the delicious ice cream places in SF.  This was solid, but my pictures didn't turn out.

 I guess I got to see koi anyway?

 This is an awesome window (decal?) portraying a giant walrus destroying the San Francisco bay.  Whoa, giant walrus, all the way.

 I guess my sister & I are macaron addicts now.  Since Pamplemousse was on the way home, we stopped in for macarons for the next day~

 I got back from SF just in time to see a beautiful sunset in the suburbs.

 My bff Tracy♥ asked me if I wanted to meet her for coffee & beignets that evening, too.  How could I resist?  My mom told me about Powderface, a new coffe+beignet place and I told Tracy in turn, so we went to check it out.  Above ^ is my mocha something (latte?).  It was just OK, but they have a pretty extensive fancy drink menu~  I'll have to make a date with my sister to check out some more!  The picture of our beignets didn't turn out, but they were delicious.  Deep fried anything is delcious.  I like that this shop poped up on this side of town, because the East Side is def. not a cool or cute part of town.  Until now?  Are you listening, earnest small businesses?

That day people were celebrating lunar new year, and there was a street fair outside the coffee shop.  Entrance cost $10 (to a STREET FAIR, WTF?), so we didn't get in, but we did get to enjoy a fireworks display with our coffee.

 The perfect ending to the day: a game of scrabble with my dear friend Kathy.  We used to play a lot and we'd like to start up again; I forgot how much I love this game.  She won, of course.  She always wins!  But...I'm in it for the love of the game... Scrabble is such fun while having some beers.  It was "predatory bird beer night."  I forget the names, but the beers we were drinking were called stuff like "Hawk Tail Beer" and "Eagle Beer" etc.  For real.

♥!