A few weeks ago, I was treated to the loveliest few days ever as the always-delightful Hannah made her way west for a long visit!
With multiple friends in the Bay Area, timing was perfect for her to take a week and come explore the best of our west coast world, and I loved every minute of my time with her.
We had the most delicious boondoggle of a workday Thursday for me, starting with pastries at Pamplemousse in downtown Redwood City, followed by a lengthy lunch at Terrain Café at Anthropologie.
We sipped on passionfruit and blackberry spritzers, shared the pistachio hummus, and pretended it felt like fall with butternut squash bisque. The sunshine-soaked terrace and perfect temperatures made going back to the office so hard!
While I wrapped up work for the day, Hannah explored Stanford's campus, which still takes my breath away every time I stop and look up and think to myself, "Hey. I work HERE."
I left work extremely early and we met back up for manicures, then headed home for sunset views, Hanna cabernet (so appropriate!), and a woodfire pizza adventure with Dave and Laura!
Takeaways from pizza night:
- Dave is an EXCELLENT hand-tosser of pizza crusts.
- I am not.
- Our woodfire pizza oven is a complex and somewhat terrifying animal.
- Pine nuts make EVERYTHING taste more delicious.
- So does wine.
I unfortunately had to work almost a full Friday (oh the horror!), but Hannah and her friend Sara enjoyed a day trip to Santa Cruz before heading my way for a low-key evening of appetizers and wine at Martin's West and Cask Wine Bar.
Hannah and Sara spent Saturday in the city while I tailgated the Stanford-Oregon game with Dave and Laura, but we met up on Sunday for lots of wine tasting in Livermore! Hannah's trip fell during the peak of the Napa and Sonoma wildfires - about which I have A LOT to say very soon - but Livermore is actually closer and much cheaper for us than Napa/Sonoma, and did just fine in a pinch for a wine country experience!
A fantastic added bonus - my beloved Meems was in town for a weekend with her girlfriends, and headed to meet up with us at our final stop of the day, Murrieta's Well!
Along for the weekend? Natalie, who might as well be an honorary Schweg at this point - she and Emily have been besties since kindergarten (possibly earlier!).
So fun to get to spend a little sister time together - I'm already excited for more Em time over Thanksgiving!
For me, though, the highlight of the trip was my Monday with Hannah, mostly because it felt so much like old times. All touristed out, she and I opted for a night in featuring all of our favorite things. We started with an afternoon of wine by the pool, soaking up sunshine and catching up on the most absurd, minute happenings in our lives, then transitioned indoors for delivery Mexican, which we devoured on our patio. It felt just like old times at Rojo, happy friend tears and all (although the queso was NOT up to standard and we were on mezcal cocktails and wine instead of Rojo's lethal margs!). We wound down the evening in the best way imaginable...indulging our love of "The Bachelor" franchise, first with Sean and Catherine's wedding in our hot tub, and then with an episode of Emily's season - which Dave and I were watching at the time in advance of Arie's upcoming stint as The Bachelor!
Having such a great, relaxed night hammered home for me just how much I miss, appreciate and love friends like Hannah. Being able to pick up right where we left off, with our ridiculous inside jokes, laughter, and heartfelt conversations, felt so natural and reminded me what an abundance of truly wonderful people I have in my life - both here and back in Minnesota. So grateful that she chose to spend precious vacation days in the Golden State with me, and can't wait until our next reunion!
