SF Beer Week: Butchers & Beers

San Francisco Beer Week recently hit the city, and we were excited to attend one of the events--Butchers & Beers, hosted by W's buddy's brewery, Almanac Beer Co.

It was a Friday night, and the event was hosted across the street from Anchor Brewing Company, another SF landmark.

We ate all kinds of pork and sampled beers from seven local breweries.  Our favorites were Almanac's two sours and Drake's Hopocalypse.

Pork Belly with North Carolina style and Kansas City style BBQ sauce, pork sausages, and apple-bacon pies.

Pork belly, burgers, and the chicharrones were the highlights on the dinner menu.

Pork belly being chopped up for dinner

After eating (emphasis on after), Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats did a pig butchery demonstration, which was fascinating.

Pork chops and pork belly:

Here he is sawing the ribs between the different cuts.

They auctioned off the cuts at the end of the night and even offered instructions to those who wanted to smoke their own bacon or make proscuitto.  We didn't bid, but instead were drawn to a beer they paired with a chocolate malt macaron and thick chocolate malted milk.  This was an amazing bite.

We ended a great evening with chocolates that had beer and bacon in the ingredients lists!

Can't wait for next year's SF Beer Week.

Point Reyes

Over Presidents' Day weekend, we took a day trip to Point Reyes.  We didn't have firm plans for the day, but we planned to wander around some of the small towns on the way up the coast before lunch and then hike.

It took about an hour to drive the scenic route up the coast, past Stinson Beach...

...around the Bolinas lagoon.

Seals on the marshy part in the lagoon

We parked to explore the little town of Bolinas, which has a main street with about 8 stores on it (population 1600).  Will started talking about moving there, so I got us back in the car.

Talk about getting stuck at home...

A tree full of blue herons

Cement blocks covered in anemones.  They were squirting water.

Seagull found a crab lunch

From Bolinas, we drove north through Olema to Point Reyes Station, where we knew Cowgirl Creamery had its headquarters.  Cowgirl Creamery is one of our favorite cheese makers at the Farmer's Market, and we have also enjoyed their sandwiches and food in the Ferry Building.

We shared a few sandwiches on the picnic benches outside the Creamery (unfortunately cheese-making was finished for the day).
Fueled up, we headed towards the trail head in Point Reyes.

Will researched several good hiking routes on the map, and we chose a 9.4-mile route that began in the forest and circled down to the ocean.  

The temperature was awesome.  It wasn't the most clear day we've seen, but it was sunny and pleasant.

Right before the trail hits the ocean, there is a campsite and a tree swing.  We took advantage.  I forgot how fun a tree swing is!

The map calls this "Sculptured Beach"

The Coast Trail follows the beach for about a mile before cutting inland at Limantour Beach and leading back uphill towards the trailhead.  The distance seemed just right, and we had worked up an appetite again.

We had tossed around the idea of checking out Drake's Bay Oyster company, since they will be closing this Spring, or the well-known Hog Island Oysters.  But the length of the drive to Marshall from the trailhead in Point Reyes would have put us there just ten minutes before closing.

Instead, yelp led us to Saltwater in Inverness for oysters and beer, and to warm up.

It turned out to be the perfect stop.  We have a knack for good seafood and IPAs after Bay Area hikes.

Fun day in Point Reyes!

Skiing Tahoe

We spent this past weekend up at Lake Tahoe, getting in one more ski session this winter.  

We drove up with our friends on Saturday morning.  It was beautiful scenery, and we were driving through snow for the last half hour.  We arrived at Sierra at Tahoe just as the lifts were opening, and the bit of fresh snow made for good conditions.  Horsetail was our favorite run of the day.

When the lifts closed that afternoon, we packed up and drove down towards the lake, to the Lakeshore Lodge and Spa.  We promptly took beers, chips & salsa down to the hot tub right on the beach.

Sitting in the 100 degree water when it's 30 degrees above the surface is such a weird feeling!  It's also funny to see snow on the beach (the girl in the photo above was sledding on the snow, on the beach!)

Here we watched the sunset and relaxed until we got hungry.

For dinner, we wandered to MacDuff's Irish Pub near our hotel.  This spot received high marks from all of us--it was the perfect way to end a ski day.

Our second day we skied at Kirkwood, which is an awesome mountain--it definitely became one of our favorites!  Unfortunately, on our second lift of the day, the chair lift faulted and lost power when we were almost to the top.  Four of us sat about 20 feet from the unloading area, swinging in the wind, which had picked up significantly from earlier that morning.  The chair lift started and stopped seven different times, each time inching us a foot closer to the unloading ramp before faulting again.

Our jokes about jumping off the lift early turned more serious as the lift showed no signs of starting up again.  My fingers and toes were completely numb by this point.  Finally after 25 minutes of being nearly blown off the chair, we had inched close enough to the unloading ramp that we decided to jump off.  Ski patrol arrived right as we made the jump--definitely the most "exciting" event of the day.

Since the trail had completely cleared off during the time the lift was inoperable, we enjoyed a perfectly empty run to ourselves.

By the end of the weekend, we had built up to more challenging trails with views (and signs!) like this:

I finished the afternoon with two back to back runs on a trail that was like a mini version of a half pipe--I think it was my favorite ski run ever.
It was a great way to close out the Winter ski season.  I will be looking forward to future skiing adventures after such a fun couple of experiences this year.

Taco Shop Hopping

Happy Friday!

This short week flew by--I'm glad another weekend is almost here.
Last weekend's extra day allowed for plenty of downtime and adventure around here.
Friday night we attended Butchers & Beers, a San Francisco Beer Week event down in the Mission, hosted by our buddy's Almanac Beer Company.

Saturday we were extra lazy until we geared up and went bodysurfing at Ocean Beach.  The water temp must have dropped 10 degrees since the last time we surfed.  It was really, really cold.

Sunday we took a day trip to Point Reyes to hike, eat, and explore--details to come.

Monday we wandered around the Mission and taco shop hopped to compare taquerias.  Specifically, we were out to find the best carnitas.  Though I think Will could have hopped all day, I tapped out after three taco shops.

Our consensus?  First prize for best carnitas went to Pancho Villa, second prize to El Buen Sabor, and third prize to El Toro (though their carnitas was still really good, and I actually thought their taco al pastor was my favorite bite of the day).  Since I was the weakest link and couldn't eat anymore after the three taquerias, we agreed that there will be repeat tests in our future.

We're heading back to Tahoe for some skiing this weekend with friends.
Hope you have a good weekend!