places of interest
pamplemousse cafe
Feb 23rd
It has been quite some time since I last posted about a local bay area haunt. Well, I decided today that this cafe is too good to not mention. For serious.
Oh my goodness.
If you live in the bay area, you must go there IMMEDIATELY and buy yourself a croissant. Or two. We won’t tell. The croissants are amazing.
They serve breakfast all day. You can get French breakfast (tartines) or other breakfast foods. Lunch is also great. The quiche is delicious. The soup is fantastic. Oh yeah, they also make cakes. I’ve not yet sampled them, but they look unreal. And delicious.
Pamplemousse Patisserie & Cafe is located at 2401 Broadway in Redwood City (corner of Broadway & Winslow).
a bit of perspective
Oct 11th
There’s nothing quite like redwoods to make your problems seem insignificant. A view from Samuel Taylor State Park, looking straight up:
labyrinth at lands end
Jul 3rd
There’s a long story that goes along with this visit to Lands End in San Francisco, so I’ll try to summarize: my mom likes labyrinths, she was told there was a labyrinth at Lands End, and so we went to find it. Twice.
In July 2009, we followed the directions of “park by Cliff House and follow the path for a bit; you’ll see it, it’s just right there” and found nothing. We had no idea how far “a bit” was, and we saw no labyrinth.
In June 2010, after some investigative work and preparation on my part, we found it. It turns out that you need to park not at Cliff House but at the Merrie Way parking lot off Point Lobos Ave. At the far north end of the parking lot you can pick up the Coastal Trail. Follow the Coastal Trail east for about 1/2 mile (maybe 3/4 mile) until you reach the trail for Mile Rock Beach. Go down the stairs – there’s about 100 of them. When the stairs make a sharp left, follow the trail that goes straight instead. At the end of the trail is Lands End Point, which is where we found the labyrinth (map).
Quite the view, eh?
And even though we didn’t follow the steps that led to Mile Rock Beach, here it is:
grace cathedral
Jul 2nd
My mother really really really likes Grace Cathedral. That might be putting it mildly. Anytime she comes to visit, she MUST also visit Grace Cathedral. I’m not into it quite the same way she is, but it truly is an extraordinary building right in the heart of San Francisco.
Located at the corner of California and Taylor, Grace Cathedral is the third largest Episcopal church in the U.S. It is also well-known for its labyrinth, which is a big part of the reason my mother loves it so. The stained-glass windows are beautiful and there was the most amazing light streaming into one part of the cathedral on the day I was there.
Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day. Clicking on an image will take you to the same image on Flickr, where you can view the image in various sizes.
I’m playing around with ways to post pictures on this blog, so let me know if you have any problems with the slideshow.
Grace Cathedral is definitely worth a visit, regardless of if you live in the area or are just in town for a few days. Visitors’ tip: the bathrooms, cafe, and gift shop are all in the basement.
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