Pink Candles at Ridgemont High: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Bean Bar

Earlier this morning, Bert and I went out on a "morning date"...

TC had her weekend volunteer gig so off we went to downtown's East Village...

to check out a new "craft coffee" bar near the Central Library, whose dome you can see in these photos...

SF Roadtrip Day 3 - Starting the day off right at Devil's Teeth Baking Company

After last night's wedding festivities, we still managed to wake up early to head over to Devil's Teeth, a local bakery on Noriega Street, located in the Outer Sunset...

Although it was Beignet Sunday, we opted not to get one...

We had our sights set on a few other treats for that morning..

Returning to our Summer Road trip, not to be confused with the SF Road Trip (which posts I am still trying to finish)....

It was time to say goodbye to Cayucos and the cute little place we stayed....

We would miss their beautiful garden just steps away from the beach and having our dinners out in the patio. As we took photos, we met another family also on vacation (they were from Madera, CA). Everyone we met during our stay was so kind and nice and we are hoping to make another stop here in the future...

Everything was packed and ready. Southward we would go...

Another Bunny Kitty mural @ the Animal House Pet Shop building

After my cold brew at the new hipster Heartwork Coffee Bar, I headed over to North Park to go thrift store shopping, passing by the Olympic Cafe on the corner of Texas and University...

I've always wondered about this little corner strip mall. Apparently they serve Vietnamese coffee at Golden Donut, which is a regular donut shop, not those craft donut joints, so a future visit may be in order....

A few blocks west of this corner, I saw a familiar street art icon and made a hard left into a seedy alley to see it up close...

MFS's wedding highlights from last summer

MFS's wedding from last summer was certainly one of the highpoints of the year...

It was a great opportunity for us as a family to go on a road trip and also celebrate the wedding of my former student...

Heartwork Coffee Bar

Last weekend, I was out and about on my own. TC had her volunteering gig while Bert had other errands.

This solo outing took me to the neighborhood of Mission Hills...

(photo from my post, "Meshuggah Shack", May 2014)

where I wanted to check out a new hipster coffee bar...

Sultan Baklava is back, Gaslamp Quarter

Last weekend, I met up with Kirbie for lunch...

We were both curious and excited to try the newly opened Sultan Baklava,

after having dined at their previous location in El Cajon in the past. Parking is convenient at nearby Horton Plaza and just a short walk to Sultan which took the place of the old Sammy's Woodfired Pizza...

Lofty Coffee Co.

Right on the N. Coast Hwy, just a few blocks away from the infamous Surfing Madonna mosaic was this rather newish live/work complex...

which houses the Lofty Coffee Co. on the bottom floor...

I hadn't had any coffee yet that day and wanted to try this place out in our quest to try many of San Diego's coffee joints...

Pelly's Fish Market and Cafe

It was nearing our meeting time with Superman, so off we went a few miles south...

to another nondescript strip mall with an eatery that some folks have described as...

a "hidden treasure"...

Pelly's Fish Market was highly recommended by Supe and after persuing their menu online, we were totally up for it...

Dessert from 85c

Between coffee from Better Buzz and dessert in the near future, we'd gone window shopping at Home Goods (D wanted to see their lamps), Ulta (I bought nailpolish for $2!) and Bookstar at the former historic Loma Theatre...

We thought we could enjoy some desserts at 85C since none of the other gals had been to the new location...

Better Buzz Coffee, Point Loma

Fresh from our lunch at Supannee, we had a coffee break over at the newest location of Better Buzz...

The new BBC is located on the corner of Rosecrans and Hugo and diagonally from Winchell's Donuts. Like the BBC in PB on Garnet, this was a drivethrough, but unlike the PB location, this was much bigger and had seating both indoors and out...

KD's birthday lunch @ Supannee House of Thai

Although KD's real birthday was in early January, we, the Educator GF's (TORC, myself and D) celebrated it last weekend...

They were gracious enough to let me choose the venues (plural) for this birthday food crawl...

Carlsbad Danish Bakery

[Update - Closed. As of 11/2015, the bakery is now known as "C'est La Vie, The Cake 'n Quiche Company"]

One the last Friday of my vacation, Bert was able to get the day off so he could spent it with us...

We would be meeting up with Superman for lunch up north in his neck of the woods...

However, we left early enough to grab a few bites at the Carlsbad Danish Bakery...

Super Twist and more from Mary's Donuts

Yesterday I met up with Cathy in her neck of the woods...

The choice of meeting place was convenient for her but also served a purpose for me...

Lunch with Mary at Ariana Produce and Cuisine

A few weeks ago, TC and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Mary during her lunch break...

We went to Ariana Produce, a middle eastern market located in this Mira Mesa strip mall...

Holy Gelato!

A few blocks down from Peasant Pies and around the corner was a gelato place I looked up online...

We still had some room for some gelato, believe it or not...

Peasant Pies

We were digging all of the different places we saw on Irving Street, but it was this place that was specifically sought out...

We wanted something small and snacky and not a huge meal to tide us over until the wedding...

Scenes from Irving Street, Inner Sunset

After checking out the murals at the Beach Chalet at the Golden Gate Park Visitor's Center, we headed east towards the Inner Sunset...

We drove on Lincoln St, which is parallel to the bottom of Golden Gate Park. Here are the gates...

My fears of crappy street parking were realized as we drove past block after block of filled streets...

Spencer's Fresh Market, Cayucos beach, dinner & dessert + a sunset in San Simeon

We headed south on the 1 to get back to our motel in Cayucos, but first passed by these establishments in Morro Bay...

Gotta love those names! Lolo is the Filipino word for "grandfather" but I'm sure that wasn't their intent. I liked how regal Taco Temple sounded.

We wanted to pick up just a few things some salad for dinner later that evening as well as picnic provisions for the next couple of days...

Snapshots from Morro Bay's main drag plus Morro Rock

As we walked down Embarcadero St. in Morro Bay, I couldn't help but think of how old some of these places were...

You could tell that the fonts were on the 'groovy side'...

Crills II & the Morro Bay Skateboard Museum

Picking up where I left off for our Summer Road Trip Day 2 posts from the Central Coast...

We just had a seagull free lunch at Giovanni's Fish Market and Galley and wanted to explore more of this quaint seaside town known as...

Yet more changes at Asia Cafe

TC and I were out and about one day and had a craving for Laotian food...

This could only mean one thing...

Return to Ranas & Pistachios

The winter break was really great because not only was I able to go out and enjoy the weather...

but it gave me the chance to try old favorites with some friends...

Farewell Mr. Pizza Guy, Taylor Negron

For those of you that know the classic 80's movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", you may remember this memorable scene...

in which stoner Jeff Spicoli (played by a young Sean Penn) orders a pizza in U.S. History class...