Fleet Week 2018

A slew of photos from one of my all-time favorite days I’ve had since moving here - my friend Kevin and I attended the Fleet Week Air Show a few Saturdays ago and it was outrageous!

San Francisco Fleet Week is an Event with a capital E, guys. Millions of people flood the cities - bars and restaurants and streets are filled with men in naval uniforms, there are countless parties and festivals, and it’s all capped off with a full weekend of air shows featuring the Blue Angels as the marquee performers. As I love few things more than parties, men in uniform, and unbelievable feats of daring aviation, this was right up my alley.

Kevin staked out a flawless viewing spot for us at the St. Francis Yacht Club’s beach…

Campers, I knew the minute we got there that this was going to be an outstanding day. I still get touristy shivers every time I see/cross the Golden Gate - it’s one of those things that I don’t think will ever cease to trigger wonder that I actually live here. I’ve spent fairly little time by the Bay, so sitting on the seawall watching kids and dogs play in the water, Alcatraz to my right, the skyline behind me and the Golden Gate looming on my left felt almost fairy tale-like.

We staked our spots out around noon, and the show started shortly after with trick flying by old planes, a “sky parade” of old WWII planes, a Coast Guard helicopter water rescue demonstration, and a super-low fly-by of a United 747 - they sponsor the air show, and were sure to get their bang for their buck! I felt like a kid in a candy store watching - the Bay at my feet, the sky as blue and fog-free as I’ve ever seen it here, kids and dogs all over the place…it was pretty heavenly.

Kevin, and Charlie and Tessa once they arrived, had a blast making fun of my excitement over the trick flyers. The pilot would kill the engine and death-spiral down toward the bay, so low that it looked inevitable that he’d hit the water, then pull up in a near-vertical rise. I clapped like a kid every time he’d reverse the fall - the novelty truly never wore off for me.

After several hours, it was finally time for the main event - the US Navy Blue Angels!

Guys, words and still images can’t do justice to how insanely cool it was to be where we were for this portion of the show. The six-man squadron looped the Golden Gate, spiraled all over the bay, and seemed sometimes to come truly out of nowhere. Every time they split up and went their separate ways for stunts, our crew would nearly dislocate our necks swiveling around and trying to spot them, yelling “THERE! Over there!” every time we saw a plane, or two, or four coming back over the ridge or around the coast.

The skytrail heart was one of my favorites…

As was this completely over-the-top (pun definitely intended) stunt - the photos don’t capture just how high they actually soared before flipping over, or the unfathomable synchronicity of the five planes. It truly boggles my mind, even now, to think about the precision, timing and sheer familiarity with each other these pilots must have mastered to be able to do this - in planes that are so high-octane that we had to hold onto the seawall to stand up straight as they buzzed our spot from a mere 100 yards overhead.

Their 45-minute show seemed like it went by in the blink of an eye - by the time it ended, I was hoarse from yelling, teary-eyed from staring straight up into a sunlit sky, and absolutely fried on the random patches I’d missed with sunscreen. It was beyond worth it - truly one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had in San Francisco, and one I’ll be repeating with just as much juvenile enthusiasm every year for as long as I live here!

101 in 1001 #11: See the Ring Cycle at the San Francisco Opera!

Hey campers! This one’s coming to you from the security line at SFO – I’m headed home for a long weekend with my Schwegfam! We’re seeing “Hamilton” (yes, this will be my fourth time, and yes, I know that’s absurd), hitting up our favorite restaurants, and hopefully heading to the State Fair and out on the lakes, weather permitting. I haven’t seen my parents since May and June, respectively, and my sibs since March…so this is a long-overdue reunion!

After a long summer break from writing, I have a ton to catch up on from pretty much all of 2018. It’s been a banner year for having adventures, but not a great one for recording any of it…oops. The undoubted highlight of my summer was, indisputably, seeing my first full Ring Cycle at the San Francisco Opera in June! While I had seen “Das Rheingold,” the first of the four operas, in Minnesota, I had never seen the other three, and experiencing them all in just one week was a wild ride and total adventure.

Doing a full Ring Cycle is a cultish, hardcore, elite-opera-lover thing to do – so naturally I needed to do it. Over the course of our six-day cycle, I met opera fans who have done the full Cycle as many as 22 times – people who travel all over the world to experience it, spending thousands of dollars and years of their lives obsessing over it and discussing it with like-minded fans. As a first-timer, I found that the brotherhood of other Ring lovers was warm, welcoming, and enthusiastic – we made friends over the course of the week during intermissions, at restaurants beforehand, and even in the pool of my apartment complex.

Of course, who better to do a Ring Cycle with than my favorite opera friend Michael? He flew out to California early, spent the weekend in Yosemite being a beast and climbing Half Dome, and rolled into town on Monday night. We kicked off our week of operas with Rheingold on Tuesday:

First, cocktails at Laszlo. We went with mezcal-based drinks: a Melanie for me and a Margot for him.

Then we headed two doors down for an unbelievably good dinner at Lolinda – Argentinean wood-fired meats, including the most incredibly tender tongue I’ve ever had, and a Chappellet cabernet that was revelatory for me.

Rheingold was fantastic – we actually happened to see the same Wotan (the bass) that we had seen in Minnesota in November of 2016! The SF Opera production was set at the turn of the 20th century, and was set-designed gorgeously.

For me, Die Walkure, our second show, was the standout of the cycle. We raced downtown after a long day in Muir Woods and at Lagunitas, and made it to our seats with only three minutes to spare. At the first intermission, we discovered that the balcony of the opera house had been converted to a German beer garden, serving brats and giant soft pretzels with enormous German beers. Bonus: the view of the Civic Center is absolutely stunning from the balcony…

I was blown away by Swedish soprano Irene Theorinn singing Brunnhilde – her “Heilegin hoy” aria at the beginning of the second act got a spontaneous ovation from the audience, which is incredibly rare for Wagner. The entire third act, where Wotan curses her (his daughter) to sleep, left me in tears- the music is ridiculously rich, evocative and moving, and they really left it all out there during the scenes. As soon as my tears dried, we headed out and made it home…after midnight, after four and a half hours of opera! The Ring Cycle truly is a marathon, and I think we were really feeling it after an early morning, strenuous day, and mad dash downtown.

We fortunately had Thursday off from opera for a rest day, so we didn’t pick back up until Friday. This time, to avoid another frantic rush-hour race into the city, we packed formalwear and spent the day downtown exploring, thinking we would grab drinks and change before the show. So we popped to Epic Steak for oysters and Iron Horse champagne (of course). As we finished, I headed to switch my jeans out for a gown, and almost shit myself when the zipper zipped onto the dress midway up. The restaurant manager, who happened to be in the other stall, tried to fix it and, instead, ended up ripping the entire zipper out of the dress.

Not going to lie, I had a moderate panic attack. I didn’t have a gown, and we had dinner plans with another couple in an hour, and I was NOT about to wear jeans to the opera. Thankfully, there’s a stand-alone Rent The Runway in the downtown Neiman Marcus…

…where an absolute angel staff member hooked me up with a gown in five minutes flat. (She seriously deserves a prize for dealing with my panic-sweating, tear-stained, frantically-rushed spaz self with such grace and patience.) That gown was definitely out of my comfort zone…I tend to default to black dresses for the opera just because they’re elegant, understated, and most of all, safe. I’m not the kind of person who likes to stand out, and nothing stands out quite as much as full-length gold sequins…

…especially when coupled with a very low neckline and a very slinky fit. The funniest thing, for me, was that as uncomfortable and self-conscious as I was, I was besieged with compliments all night. Michael, being who he is, found it more and more amusing as I felt more and more awkward…and ended up making a game of it. So there you go… “Siegfried” was most memorable, for me, for the fact that I dressed up like a human disco ball.

(The opera, for what it’s worth, was spellbinding.)

Saturday was another day off for us, and we spent it in Napa…our non-opera activities will have to be a post of their own, because this is getting long. Sunday brought us the six-hour behemoth that is “Gotterdammerung,” “the fall of the gods,” which legit ends in fire, flood and death to all parties. It is heavy, and it is dark. And I adored it.

I found myself in tears again as the opera drew to an end – in part because it was so ridiculously emotional, but also because I was so sad that this gorgeous, immersive adventure was coming to an end. It felt like coming up for air having held my breath for a long time when the lights came up after the show…I was completely jolted.

We went to The View Lounge to dissect a little over cocktails while enjoying, you know, the view…and immediately started discussing the Cycle. Both our opinions were largely favorable – the casting was impeccable, the staging innovative and cohesive, and the orchestra faultless. The Ring is extraordinarily demanding of every person involved, and the way the San Francisco Opera rose to the challenge of putting on three consecutive weeks of Cycles was insane. I’m already thinking ahead to trying to catch it at the Met in New York next May…anyone feeling like 16 hours of German opera?!

101 in 1001 #86: See a ballet.

One of the aspects of my Minneapolis life that I have missed the most since moving Bay-side is total immersion in the arts world. I've saved a lot of money by NOT going to an opera, symphony, or play on a legit weekly basis (well, actually, I've spent soooome of those savings on wine, but I digress)...but I so miss the feeling of watching the lights go down and the curtain rise. 

Minneapolis doesn't have a robust ballet scene, and as such I never really got into the medium, choosing instead to focus on the Guthrie and Minnesota Orchestra/Opera. San Francisco, on the other hand, has an absolutely outstanding ballet that is breaking boundaries and innovating on a grand scale. The latest example? Their spring "Unbound" series, which was inspired by a question posed by their director: "What is the future of ballet?"

Choreographers responded with their interpretations - half-hour mini-ballets, that were later grouped by broad theme and performed in sets of three as part of the Unbound Festival over the last month. Dave's cousin Francesca invited me to join her for one, and as it was really my first non-Nutcracker ballet experience, I jumped to say yes. 

After fighting brutal traffic, I was rewarded with Karl the Fog-free skies over the Civic Center, and the most amazing arancini and sangiovese at Dobb's Ferry pre-show. 

This was also my first experience with the War Memorial Opera House, where Michael and I will take in the entire Ring Cycle in just under a month! The building was jaw-droppingly stunning - exactly the kind of old-world opulence that makes me happy. 

As for the ballets? I was incredibly grateful to have Francesca with me to decode some of the more subtle nuances, but honestly, the entire evening was a viscerally intense joyride. The San Francisco Ballet is known for having ridiculously athletic dancers, much moreso than other ballets in the US; as such, their choreography and style truly pushes the limits of what ballet has traditionally been considered to represent or encompass. The three pieces we saw seemed disparate at first glance, but came together in the end to support a theme of contrast/duality/opposition and harmony.

The first piece was much more abstract - almost a Jets-and-Sharks style antipathy, stylistically very sparse and driven by the use of different-colored costumes that almost completely obscured the gender of each dancer. The second, a riff on Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome," was easily my favorite - lyrical and emotive, with a lush score and stunning choreography. As the piece required only three principal dancers, the ensemble danced as both falling snow and "the emotions of the leads;" in reading the program I scoffed a bit but it was incredibly effective in person. 

The third, which I wasn't really sure about initially, used really interesting black-and-white costumes to separate males and females. The choreography of the third piece emphasized synchronous movements rather than the more pas-de-deux focused style of "Ethan Frome," and ended with the entire ensemble moving together downstage, finishing on one perfectly-timed group leap airborne as the curtain dropped. I was genuinely on the edge of my seat watching, and left the theater on a total high. 

Needless to say, I'll definitely be revisiting the SF Ballet in the future - because of COURSE I need another expensive and time-consuming new arts passion, ha! 

Check out more 101 in 1001 here...lots coming down the docket soon!

101 in 1001: a catch-up

Guys, holy crap, I'm a lame delinquent loser who apparently never writes anymore and definitely never has any fun. (One of those statements is true.) I've been slowly but steadily checking off my 101 in 1001 list over the course of the last several months, and it's been a grab bag of incredibly fun, amusing, and just plain productive experiences to have! 

Up first: #84, See a comedy or improv show! 

Dave, Laura and I are all obsessed with Iliza Shlesinger, who won "Last Comic Standing" in 2008 and has produced several Netflix specials since then. We marathoned through all three of them within the first couple months we lived together, and some of her jokes have become so integrated into our day-to-day interactions with each other that I find myself checking in with outsiders, asking "Wait - have you seen Iliza?" Inevitably, the answer is no, which makes me think I must have really un-funny friends (or, more likely, friends who DON'T just watch Netflix comedy specials for fun on a random Tuesday...). 

Dave found out she was coming to San Francisco in December, and once we discovered that those tickets were sold out, I immediately jumped on her shows in San Jose at the end of September. We grabbed dinner in downtown San Jose before the show, took a quick tequila shot, and headed over. 

Friends, it was such a win of an evening. I honest-to-goodness laughed so hard I actually cried at a few of the sketches, which are incredibly relatable and universal. Her skewering of Millennial female stereotypes, the all-encompassing physicality of her performances, and her voices and - best of all - random noises ...it all set the stage for an evening of complete giddiness. I can't wait for her book to come out (next week, already pre-ordered, nbd) and for her next Netflix special.

Also on the list: #42, Subscribe to a podcast. I've written in the past about my love for Minnesota girl Nora McInerny Purmort, who lost her husband to a brain tumor and has turned tragedy into empowering triumph with her Still Kickin' foundation, Hot Young Widows Club outreach group, and gorgeous memoir, "It's Okay To Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too)." She's taken her empire-building one step further in her American Public Media podcast "Terrible, Thanks For Asking," which delves into how the human spirit experiences, works through and survives tragedy. I, for one, am totally riveted. 

The honesty behind the podcasts,and the way they don't gloss over and shy away from the negatives, is really refreshing in this world where everyone is always "so busy!" "so happy!" "so grateful!" "so #blessed!" - I derive a lot of value from the gorgeous storytelling and the reminder that there are people in the world who are fighting terrible battles with grit and humor and frustration and anger every day. Check it out if you need a reality check - and let me know if you do!

An item I've had on my housekeeping list for way too long: #47, Join the bone marrow registry. This one couldn't have been easier to check off - I did a quick survey and provided some information on Bethematch.org, and a kit was mailed to my apartment. After a simple, painless cheek swab, I popped the kit in the mail and called it a day. 

This is legitimately one of the easiest ways to do some good in the world that I have ever found. It takes all of twenty seconds to do the actual swabbing, it's free, and there's no guarantee that you'll be called upon to be an actual donor. Even so, though, putting the possibility out there is a great thing to do - get your kit today!!

On the admittedly shallow end of the scale, I derived SO MUCH SATISFACTION from calling "#63: Figure out how to fold fitted sheets" complete. Fitted sheets have long been the bane of my anal-retentive, perfectionist existence - I can't stand floppy, imprecise piles of sheets in my closet, and with space at an all-time premium in my non-walk-in here in Cali, I prioritized this. How'd I do it? I watched this video no less than ten times, cursing and sweating a little bit as I battled with my own sheets, and then - suddenly, miraculously - it clicked. Look at that sweet folded pile, below! Proud of me, and you should be too. 

And wrapping up this round-up, #56: Try to grow an herb garden. When my mom was in town helping me move, we blacked out a little bit in the Palo Alto Anthropologie and Co's gorgeous Terrain outdoor department, and before I knew it, I had dropped like $75 on plants and herbs and gardening kits. OOPS #basicfail. 

We potted cilantro, basil and mint, and parked them on my sunny little windowsill to see what happened. Call me a bad blogger, but below are the only two photos I took after the (messy) potting process: 

So how'd it go? Well, my cilantro flourished, and I used it twice on Taco Nights with the roomies! My basil came in profusely, but was kind of undersized and a little bit bitter...I threw it in pesto to use it all up. As for the mint? Total fail. I never saw even one seed sprout. What a disappointment - I guess all my fantasies of mojitos and juleps were meant to come to naught. Oh well! 

With the holidays approaching, I'm planning on checking off a few more fun items and seeing what I can get done...check out the rest of my 101 in 1001 here! 

Hannah Hits California!

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!