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Bay Area Adventures Part 5: Wendy, Lulu and Flowerland
Next up was my lunch with Wendelonia. You might know her from her books on bento boxes for kids. We met when we both worked together for alphamom.com. You know when I said all the best artsy people live in the Bay Area? Well, Wendy is definitely representing in that department. Look where she took me for lunch: Lulu on Solano! Is it art or is it food? Is it art you can eat?? Yes!
I was swooning over the wallpaper and wondering why I never got into textile design, and then the food came, and I lost my mind. Forget bad manners, I interrupted our conversation, whipped out my phone, and had to take photos immediately. It was almost too pretty to eat. And guess what? It was so flavorful and delicious too! Everything was vegetarian and gorgeous. Sadly, some of the spices disagreed with me, and I found out later explosive flavors also like to explode in my gut but it was kinda worth it.
Wendy and I walked around Solano Avenue for a bit, and then she sent me on my way to Flowerland. Flowerland is my new favorite nursery. It blows doors off Roger’s Gardens back home. It is so aesthetically pleasing that I wanted to buy a tiny Airstream and move in. I wanted to set up tables and host a wedding there. It’s just so beautiful. The healthy plants thriving everywhere in layers and layers of leafy textures and colors. The little shop with all the cutest things I couldn’t afford to buy, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it. I took photos and stored notes away in my brain for future gift ideas.
Everywhere I look, I see adorable, pretty things. I never saw anything like this back home, where Walmart reigns supreme. Do people in the Bay Area just have better taste? I think they do. Maybe there are more artists here—more affluent artists, artisans, and craft makers with better supplies and better budgets supported by people who really appreciate them.
I appreciated every moment. I wandered around soaking it all in. You either have time or money and I’ve got time so I just lived in the experience of exploring such a beautiful place. I took photos like a hoarder taking things.
I definitely want to come back here. I wish I could have bought plants and gardened in Matt’s little slice of a side yard, but I also didn’t want to give him more responsibilities since he doesn’t have a green thumb like I do. So I just stored all the ideas away and dreamt of my home desert garden. I can’t grow plants like this, but I can make my desert a wonderland if I try hard enough
Look at those shadows!
I bought a strawberry milk latte at the HighWire counter and petted a cat. It was a very nice day to be out and about!
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Bay Area Adventures Part 3: I love Rockridge
I’ve been so busy having fun here in the Bay Area that my time is almost up, and I still have so many posts to write! I don’t like backblogging. I forget little anecdotes, and the details fade so quickly. But life goes on, and you can only document what you can document.
The title of this post should be “I Love Rockridge.” I found it after lunch with Torrie. She had to run to a doctor’s appointment, but she directed me to walk up a few blocks from Downtown Berkeley to College Avenue to find a bookstore she recommended. I followed her directions and found so much more!
After I checked out the bookstore, I texted Matt to find out how to get back to his place, and he said, “Don’t rush back; I’ll come to you,” which was really sweet because I was quite a ways away and had no idea which way to go. He met me at College, and we walked all the way to the Rockridge BART station, stopping along the way to admire all the many cute shops, wine bars, and coffee shops.
My favorite store is Maison d’Etre. Whoever curates their merchandise has my number. I love it more than Anthropologie!! I might even be over my Anthropologie obsession and its mass-produced art. I only want to support cute little shops like this from now on. I told Matt he could buy me anything in that store, and I would absolutely swoon over it. Not that he needs to be buying me gifts; I’m already spoiled rotten.
I found a flower shop called Wisteria and asked if they were hiring because I felt I’d found my calling. We were meant to be! But then Matt brought me back to earth by reminding me that I do have parents I need to go back home to, and we are actually not moving in together, no matter how much I fantasize about it. Stupid real life. But it’s not off the table. We have no idea what our future holds.
We bopped around a bunch of shops and then took BART home.
THEN!!! A very lucky thing happened. I got an email from Core Power Yoga in my inbox saying that I had five classes about to expire. What? I had completely forgotten about them. I bought them last year when I was living in Costa Mesa, but then I moved and had no hope of redeeming them because Hemet doesn’t have fancy places like Core Power Yoga. Matt and I poked around on Google Maps and found that the Rockridge studio was the closest to him. It was providence! I booked my five classes for the next few weeks and had a reason to spend more time tripping along my favorite new street.
I’ve been here so long that I feel like a local. A month is just long enough to enjoy all sorts of local haunts, but not quite enough time to annoy each other. Staying with anyone else would probably be more challenging, but Matt is incredibly easy to get along with. I was so worried I’d smell like fish after three days. I mean, you’d have to ask him and have him take a lie detector test to find out how this experiment went, but from my point of view, we’ve had a really good time.
I’ve also found all the best places to have coffee along College Ave. I particularly liked Hudson Bay Coffee and The Chocolate Dragon for their local vibes.
And that pretty much sums up Rockridge for me!
