San Francisco and What I Ate

Spectacular conference location

What a terrific time I had!  I stayed 5 nights - that seemed about right to me. Not a big trip that needed lots of prep and lots of finishing up things at work so I could get away. I was ready to come home, but enjoyed all the time there.  Oh, and the talk went pretty well. It may be on the internet again. I really enjoyed hearing others talk on their data and discoveries.

Aquarium of the Bay

I decided in advance I was going to eat well if not wisely. But I never thought of it as "cheating" - cheating who of what?  I was going to enjoy myself. It turns out I can enjoy myself without going totally overboard (for those who think two ice cream treats in a single day that also featured beer is not going overboard).  I have raised my deliciousness threshold much higher than it used to be, so was only tempted  into carb-land when the bread was truly sour or the beer was a locally made draft.  Ben and Jerry's doesn't cut it anymore - I required my sweets to be local and preferably unusual.

My big boy came along, and we traveled fairly well together. Several of his high school and college friends have settled in the area, so he spent about half or more of his time with them and the rest with me. That was just fine with me. At the beginning, I had my conference, and I've always enjoyed wandering around looking at things on my own which I did the other days. What is always awkward for me when traveling is eating dinner alone (lunches are easy). I'm better than I used to be about going to a nice restaurant and telling the host "just me for dinner", but it still takes some of my finite supply of gumption to do it. So it was fine that it worked out that we ate together most nights.  One night, however, alone in a large dining room, I pulled out my phone and read through dinner.

We had the fabulous experience of the Cafe at Chez Panisse. I've wanted to go to Chez Panisse since I first read of it thirty years ago. Sadly, the restaurant was closed the nights I could go, but the more casual cafe was open and it was perfect.  There, my boy and I first discovered that we have very similar tastes in food and drink - our first and second choices were the same, so we flipped who got what and did tastings. This continued for the rest of the trip.

One thing I remembered to do at Chez Panisse, and then continued for the rest of the trip, was to slow way down in my eating and savor.  I didn't want to rush the Chez Panisse experience, but then I discovered that "savoring" each bite in a mindful way was really worth it. I continued to do this the rest of the trip, and was truly content with simply three forkfuls of a chocolate cake a couple of days later.  My boy ate the rest.

We were staying at Fisherman's Wharf. My conference was about a mile away along the waterfront, so I started right in getting lots of walking. This continued, interspersed with two days of running. One day I got 35,000 steps on the fitbit - my previous record was 25K, set the day before, but before that I had topped out several times over the past few months at 20K. I also ran along the waterfront a couple of mornings. I

Dinner at Chez Panisse

thought of participating in a 5K while I was there, but the logistics of getting to the suburban location defeated me.  Instead, I took a bus to Sausalito and walked. I also thought of walking across the Golden Gate bridge, but after taking the bus over it I was pretty sure I didn't have the head to handle the height. So I walked some more along the waterfront instead and had some fabulous fish tacos while eating outside.

My boy and I hiked the length of Golden Gate park, had a fabulous lunch on the beach, and then hiked along the coastal trail up the Pacific shore and around the point to the Golden Gate. I really like hiking.  I was reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed while I was there, and was inspired to look and see if there is a coastal trail the length of the Pacific Coast in the U.S.. It appears there is an attempt to establish one the length of California, at least. I bookmarked some resources describing the routes and the trails, and also some sites that feature routes for "inn to inn hiking".  I kind of like that idea - I've thought of foreign walking tours (Tuscany comes to mind), but the California coast is also pretty exotic to this eastern girl.  It's something to seriously consider for a future vacation.

This guy really wanted my ice cream cone but it was MINE

So I'm actually tired and footsore from my vacation, but in a good way.  Time to tighten up my eating again - bye bye extra dark Ghiradelli Squares, hello garlicky creamed kale - and see how long it takes to get back on track to losing weight.

(written 6/24 pm, but holding off posting until pictures are consolidated).

Out in Public

I'm taking a vacation in San Francisco. Why SF and why now is because there is a small conference on Quantified Self. This is the (national) group of data geeks that are into hacking themselves, by collecting and analyzing all kinds of data. They asked me to reprise the talk I gave back in November to our local group. So I wrapped a short vacation around the conference dates and took advantage of conference hotel rates to stay right on Fishermans Wharf. Then I talked my big boy into coming out with me.

I've been practicing my talk, which has to be structured a certain way. I worked hard on my slides. Imagine my surprise to walk into the conference facility and discover MY DATA splashed up on a 15 foot tall pillar!