When in Cali, do as the hippies do.

Last Saturday was a gorgeous day... 80* and slightly breezy.... an ideal day, I figured, to wander through Golden Gate Park {just a couple blocks from our diggs!} and find the perfect spot to relax and read. Dan was at school for the day, so I was flying solo.

Oddly, it seemed there were a lot of other people who had the same idea. Usually the park is bustling with joggers, bikers, families on sweet strolls, but today there were loads of hippies in the mix. Old hippies, cool modern hippies, young student hippies, middle- aged parent hippies... tiedye, raggy, and Urban Outfitters clad folks in swarms. They were all headed in the same general direction, and because I had no particular agenda, I decided to tag along and see where they were all going.

I could hear music in the background and the further we walked, the louder it was. Suddenly there was a sea of people and a loud, progressive band was entertaining the crowd of thousands. Every 4th person was toting anti-war propaganda or promoting Proposition 19 (to legalize marijauna in CA). There were activists of every type, about a three hundred people doing yoga on the sidelines, and the air was pungent with pot.

Unwittingly I had stumbled into the Power to the Peaceful festival; an annual international event held at GG Park for, as the website explains, "art, action, and music... highlighting mankind's similarities and celebrating our differences," that draws 50,000 attendees every year. Call a spade a spade-- it's a MAJOR hippie fest. San Fran at its finest.

I felt a bit out of place with my Gap tank top and Adidas sandles and all, but realized quickly this was stupid... nobody cared-- they were all peaceful and stoned. Michael Franti and Spearhead were the main event and next on the line up, and I ended up staying all afternoon.

Later that night Dan asked me what I did all day. I told him, and his dubious look irritated me. "You went to the Power to the Peaceful?" Yep, I did. All day long.

And I'll probably go back next year, too. :)

*Regretfully I didn't have my camera, so I snapped a few pics on my phone and borrowed some from Google images... here's a sneak peek:

Love, Life & Labor Day

A Bakke Blog update is overdue! We've been official residents for 1 month and time sure flies now that we're in the swing of things...

Dan finished work week #2 with a bang-- he's loving the fast-paced, challenging, large-and-in-charge nature of of his new position. He spends all day zipping from project to project around the city overseeing installations, assessing costs, ordering materials, managing crews, creating inventory systems, and on and on. In his own words, he's "a busy bee" from 8-5 daily.

Every evening after dinner he retires to his 'office' {& spare bedroom for visitors!} for a not so action-packed night of studying/reading/writing papers for school. His classes are every other weekend, 8 hour days... and he's thoroughly enjoying school. Conveniently, the content, classes, projects, profs, & classmates are right up his alley. So far, money well spent... and our big move to SF was not in vain.

Me, on the other hand... well, I'm a different story. My job doesn't start until next Monday, so I spend my days lounging in the morning, exploring the city/beach/parks in the afternoon, and traipsing home in the evening to either 1. prepare a delicious meal for my hardworking husband, or 2. {the more likely option} find one of a thousand delicious take out options and carry it home :) Alarmingly, I'm becoming extremely well adjusted to my lackadaisical routine & I can get quite perturbed if any real-life responsibilities cramp my style ;)

I must admit though, I'm getting just a bit bored and am looking forward to starting my new job. Dan is looking forward to my job too... I chat his ear off from the minute he walks in the door until about 7, when he gently tells me that I have to quit talking now so he can get some school work done. Oh. Ok... Instant Netflix, here I come!

We had a wonderful Labor Day with our first official overnight guests at the Bakke B&B! Dave and Tracy (Dan's friends from high school) came down from Eureka, CA, where Dave is in school for the year and Tracy is job hunting/ enjoying Cali life. We had an excellent time showing them around the city a bit & enjoyed our quality time together!

On the agenda:
*Exploratorium (imagine every sweet science museum exhibit that ever existed all rolled into one giant room... ages 5+, but there were probably more adults than kids... a definite must see!)
*Palace of Fine Arts, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square
*Chinatown for yummy Asian fare
*Oakland A's baseball game
*Bike tour through city parks and Golden Gate Bridge
*Relax time... food, drink, great convo & board games!

Thanks for coming, dear friends. We loved having you here and you're welcome back any time!

(you can click the collage for a sharper view)

happily employed

Thrilled to announce we were both offered-- and accepted-- new jobs this week!

What a relief. Fear of imminent homelessness? Not any more! Fretting over the financial burden of including costly protein in our meals? Nope. Life is good and we are grateful :)

Dan starts work Monday (!) at New Light Energy Design as their "Installations Manager." It's a small company that replaces costly, inefficient commercial lighting with new, sustainable options. Dan's bosses/owners also have GreenMBAs, so the three of them already jive . It's a perfect fit for him-- he'll use his electrical skills and get business thrills.

I start work in September at the Children's Hospital of Stanford in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The patient population is {somewhat} similar to Gillette, but they get a lot of transplant, dialysis, and heart kiddos. *For my nurse friends-- a lot of ECMO & oscillators... a learning curve that I'm looking forward to :)

The sweetest part of our joyful employment was sharing it with our FIRST visitors!

My college roomie and her hub conveniently planned a vacation to wine country a few months ago- perfect timing. They made a pit stop on Wednesday to see our new diggs. Then we went to lunch in cutesy neighborhood Cow Hollow, hoofed it up Lombard street {aka: the crookedest street in world}, and took in some GG bridge sights.

Highlight of the day: found and photographed the Full House house. We also relaxed in Alamo park-- the site of many Tanner family escapades & where the opening credit picnic happens {if you're a true fan you know what I'm talking about...}

On Friday we met up with Lindsay & Kurt again in Sonoma Valley for some delicious wine tasting & a fabulous celebratory dinner. *Only the best kind of friends let you intrude on their romantic rendezvous to wine country. Thanks pals-- we love ya!

Can you tell Kurt is almost done with dental school? They have some rockin' teeth.

Dan & Kurt excited for their french dinner & annoyed I insisted on snapping a pic in the fancy restaurant.
(sorry it's fuzzy)

(our turn for a fuzzy pic)

So delighted to have time with friends :)

Weekend-o-fun

Good news for peeps like us who are trying to conserve our rapidly dwindling moolah-- lots of free things to do in San Fran!

Last weekend we navigated Muni (municipal transport, aka: buses/lightrail) to find ourselves the haps in the fair city. Lucky for us, it turned out the mission district was hosting the San Francisco Street Food Festival. Cheap, ethnic, delicious food + people watching galore= feast for the senses. We had a grand ol' time :)




Sunday: conquered Muni once again {we're getting more & more adept every day!} and found our way down to a city park that hosts free concerts on Sundays during the summer. They Might Be Giants was playing, and we... well mostly Dan... were excited for yet another fun + free to-do. And this was no little to-do.

Approximately 8,000 people were there... the park was positively swimming with eager fans and other cats looking to relax on the bea-u-tiful day and listen to some rockin' tunes.

Trekking through the woods to find the concert

found it...

Our view of They Might Be Giants from the wooded hillside

Top the weekend off with some instant Netflix flicks in the eve & we had ourselves a fabulous weekend #1.

Only missing some amigos to share it with... Come visit?

We made it!

It's official: we're SF residents! We arrived safely & soundly last Sunday-- happy to report a successful, non-problematic journey from MN to Cali. However, after 6 days of car- living, tent- pitching, & slow-leaking-air-mattress- sleeping, we were definitely ready to have a home again :)

Then on Monday-- after waaaay too much headache & hassle-- our goods were delivered {side note: never never never use WeHaul Moving Co! Long story short: the fee jumped an additional $1100 after they hauled our stuff away...} So, we've spent the week making our bare bones apartment liveable... fast forward 1 week, 100 boxes, 85lbs of garbage, and a rockin' trip to IKEA, and we're finally home again.

News on the job front...ummm.... no. Rest assured friends and fam, we are searching endlessly and applying as best & as fast as we can. In the mean time we'll just keep enjoying our ramen noodles, grilled cheese sandwiches and $1.99 bottles of wine ;) Ok ok, just kidding {kind of}, but we are hopeful this week will bring promising leads on gainful employment!

Dan strapped on his backpack and went to grad school orientation on Thursday. He came home chatting away & rearin' to go... mostly excited about some potential new friends....

Here's a sneak peak of our whirlwind adventure across the wild wild west:

Sad to say goodbye to fam & friends

Finally on the road

Salt Lake City, UT

Our noble steed

Somewhere in Nevada

Lake Tahoe, CA

Last night on the air-mattress

Hallelujah! Our things have arrived!

The perfect housewarming gift from Kate & Chris!

Weekend Trip

On Thursday night July 15th we set out via SunCountry to find our new home. Upon arrival we discovered the pain that is parking in SF, and were welcomed officially by the city in the form of a parking ticket. I'd like to thank the city for such a heart felt welcome, it made us feel like real locals. Thursday night wasn't eventful at all, we relaxed in our hotel and prepared out selves for the great apartment hunt that was to be our 1st day, Friday.

On Friday we set out early in the morning to find our neighborhood and our future home. The day was filled with appointments and ambition, and we were ready for it. The region we've settled on is called the Richmond District its not your full house style San Fran but its nice, safe, cheap, and the most bang for our buck. Through out the day we saw 1 bed rooms and 2 all of them wouldn't do. Amber liked some and Dan liked the others, but we couldn't agree and started fighting with each other. After driving around looking at places and spending the day on the move we were ready to retire back at our hotel. Instead of street parking we found a lot that cost 1/2 of what the hotel wanted to charge us, and about the 1/3 of a cost of a parking ticket.

Upon parking our car we decided a warm meal and an internet search would do us soom good. If Saturday was going to be anything like Friday we'd need to eat a good dinner. The concierge at the hotel recommended us a fancy pants Chinese restaurant in china town which I must say was what we needed. After our dinner we made our way back to the hotel and posted up at a starbucks for the free internet. We found some interesting places most of which were open houses and only 1 appointment on a place that didn't have an address only cross streets. Either way we had until Sunday and we were determined to find our selves an apartment.

Saturday morning arrived and we rushed out the door reached the cross streets of our appointment. Being a few min early we thought we'd be able to find the "for rent" signs but weren't able to see them. Our plan was to get out and look lost. It worked perfectly, little Mrs. Loo found us wondering around the corners looking for the rental signs. The apartment was perfect, both we both fell in love with it instantly. It has two bedrooms, and open kitchen and more then enough storage space for all the extra crap. Now to seal the deal. Mrs loo is a small Asian woman who came over from Hong Kong with her husband many years ago, she has a lot of rental properties in the area and is surprisingly sweet. Mrs Loo decided that due to our situation and the "feelings in her heart", that she'd rent to us straight away, no long credit check and no limbo for the next few days of weather or not we'd be able to rent. It was good to go and we had our new place!

After singing the rental agreement Mrs Loo invited us to go out to lunch. It was too good of an offer to pass up, seeing as how we didn't know the area and she'd been around for so many years. Her grand son Kenny the firefighter was going to join us, so we waited around her beautiful apartment. Mrs Loo took us to one of her favorite Cantonese restaurants, it was phenomenal, if we can remember where it is we'll be back. After lunch we parted our ways and thanked her for her hospitality, it seems we've got a new grandma to watch out for us.

Seeing as how our goal had been reached and we didn't have any need to check out the rest of what could have been our apartments we made a trip to Home Depot for some paint and cleaning supplies. The apartment was one color, in all the rooms .... Flat White. To spruce things up and make it warm we painted our living room a "butter cream" white, and then gave everything a good cleaning. At about 10pm we'd had finished our chores and retired to the hotel, with an open and free Sunday morning.

Sunday arrived and we were ready for the last bit of our adventure. With a free day we thought it would be good to see the sights and check out Dominican University, the whole reason we'd made the move out here in the first place. It turns out it was worth the move. Dominican is a wonderful quiet campus made out of older buildings and a few giant houses it absorbed in the neighborhood for administrative buildings. We are both exited to visit again in August. With our visit to Dominican done we thought we'd head out and see the major tourist attractions... Golden Gate Bridge, The Crookedest Street, Cute houses (Amber saw them on a post card), Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, and the Pacific Coast.

We took the red-eye home to MPLS and started the day at 5am. (Dan had to work that morning, and Amber slept away her jet lag)...

Post 1

So... we've decided to put tidbits of our lives on the web, hope this works out.