Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - San Francisco, CA (Legion of Honor Museum) - August 2022

I follow a bunch of designers on Instagram because I love fashion.👗 I am not a fashionable person and I'm not a consumer of anything in the high-end fashion world, but I do greatly enjoy looking at it. One of the designers I follow is Guo Pei. Earlier this year, she posted that several of her collections will be on display for a temporary exhibition called Fantasy Couture at the Legion of Honor Museum. Right then and there, I knew we'd be travelling to San Francisco to see it. 

The Legion of Honor Museum is modeled after its namesake in France. It is located in the center of Lincoln Park and is a gigantic museum!! I think we spent over three hours there. Luckily, we got in early because it got insanely busy around lunch time. We had planned to have lunch at the museum café, but the line was out the door and down the hallway. Its website stated that everyone was to purchase a timed ticket in advance, but I don't think they followed that rule because the museum felt like it was above capacity. 

Fair warning - I took at least one picture of every single dress that was on display, so this blog post will be 90% photo album---which you've probably already noticed. If you don't like dresses, turn back now! 👗 There were other works of art throughout the museum. Only the basement was dedicated to Fantasy Couture. A ton of paintings were housed on the main, second and (maybe) third floors -- I honestly don't remember how many floors it had. LOL 😅 But, there were MORE DRESSES scattered throughout the museum to accent the other artworks. I found it hard to appreciate the other pieces because my attention was immediately drawn to the gowns. 

One thing that I really appreciated about Guo Pei's dresses is that I understood them. I looked at the dress, then read the description with the artist's intent, and I could comprehend her vision. They weren't too pretentious, philosophical, or political. That's not to say that I thought her dresses were simple, because they definitely weren't. I don't like when designers are too artistic; their garments don't make sense, and the viewer won't "get it" unless they're as enlightened as the designer is. I also don't like the opposite of that when designers try to have an ultra-woke message, and it seems like they're just pandering. I felt neither of those intentions when I was at the Fantasy Couture exhibit.  

Another thing that I really liked about the exhibit is that the dresses looked like real wearable dresses. I like avant-garde stuff, too, but I want my clothes to mostly resemble regular silhouettes. Although I could never add all the intricate detailing and handiwork to any of my dresses, if I wanted to sew one that looked somewhat like what I saw at the museum, I probably could find a pattern for it.

The more labor intensive dresses had labels that showed how many hours it took to make each dress. Some were up into the tens of thousands of hours!! The labels also showed the materials used. Guo Pei worked mostly with silk and exclusively Swarovski crystals. 

My favorite of her collections is Garden of the Soul. I loved the vibrant colors of the floral motifs. Each dress had so much detail. 😍 There was the dress itself, but if you looked underneath the skirt or inside the sleeves, there would be more crystals and flowers!! I also liked the wigs. Shoes and accessories were an important part of each of her ensembles. One of the placards stated that she liked dressing women in insane shoes with impossible heels to show off how strong her women (models) are. 

My second favorite of her collections is Alternate Universe. Her pieces imagined a world where the animals took over and she advised us to be gentle to all creatures because we never know what will happen after reincarnation. I was astounded by the dresses at the exhibit so I watched the runway show for this collection when I got home. I wasn't as impressed with them when they walked. I think it is because I didn't see all the details and the dresses mostly looked heavy and static on the runway. On the other hand, a collection that wasn't a favorite of mine at the museum, Elysium, walked magnificently down the runway at its show.

One of the dresses had several dolls/puppets sewn in. Each one of her ateliers made one to add to the dress. I thought that was a nice gesture since so many of her dresses are done by hand. I was completely mesmerized by the detailing in her designs. So much so that I was doing the "you're in someone's way so you move left and they move left, and the dance continues for a while" thing without knowing it. The woman who's way I was in glared at me and said some nasty remark before I noticed I was in her way. 😬 LOL I was just trying to get to the next dress! 

Wes's favorite collection is Himalaya. It was a summer collection but the fabric made me think of winter. I guess the colors were summer. Wes said it would be too obvious as a winter collection. The dresses were made from old Japanese silk scarves. She noticed the strange patterns that the embroidery made on the back of the scarf so she used inside-out scarves in her designs. 

I don't remember the name of it, but she had a collection inspired by nighttime in Paris. It was so shocking to see the black dresses. 😮 Everything up until then was either gold or colorful. The back of one of the gowns had a silhouetted scene (like a shadow puppet show) embroidered onto it. It is the bottom right picture in the collage below.

I love everything about the pants in the bottom row of the above picture. 😍 I actually majorly adore both of the outfits on the bottom row. It's weird looking at my pictures again as I type this because I was in a daze the entire time at the museum; I don't even remember taking some of the pictures. It felt like a dream being surrounded by all of the dresses.

I felt so alive and inspired while walking through this exhibit. I told myself that after this experience, I would learn how to sketch (a very far fetched idea ... a toddler draws better than I do, but you get crazy thoughts while you're immersed in something you love, right?) so I could start designing some of my own dresses. As of now, 2 months after our vacation, I haven't drawn a single thing, haven't designed a pattern, and have only sewn a few subpar dresses. 😕 I need to get my motivation back in order!! Wes bought the gallery art book for me -- best souvenir ever but a encyclopedia-sized book is NOT the best gift when you're travelling with only carry-on luggage -- so I probably just need to look through it again to get my brain going.

The last collection in the exhibit was one that she dedicated to her youngest daughter. She designed it while pregnant, and imagined what her daughter would do if her Barbie's came to life. Her models (above) dress a zillion times nicer than my Barbie's ever did! 

After floating through the Fantasy Couture exhibit, we still had time to see the rest of the museum. I took a picture of each painting that I noticed a dog in. There was a mummy on display, which was cool. I really like mummies and artifacts.

We went to the museum on a Thursday and flew out early Friday morning. I still had visions of dresses dancing through my head when I noticed a tiny fashion exhibit at the San Francisco airport! It showed fabric and dresses made from pineapple leaves. Apparently, artists use the hairs on the leaves to weave fabric. How amazing!! 🍍 I am so glad that I got to see the Fantasy Couture exhibit. It is the third fashion exhibit I've seen and I think it is my favorite so far!

Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - San Francisco, CA (Golden Gate Park) - August 2022

We spent our first afternoon in San Francisco at the Golden Gate Park. We originally planned to visit the Japanese Tea Garden so that's where we had our Uber drop us off. It was less than an hour until the tea garden closed when we got there, so we decided to come back another day. Another part of the park I wanted to see was the Dutch windmills & tulip garden. They were on the complete opposite side of the park, so we set out for our very long walk. It was nice to be outside and moving after spending the majority of the day stuck in the airport and then cramped on the plane.

The weather was very nice (almost chilly, which was wonderful!!) so I didn't mind the walk from literally one end of the park to the other. I liked seeing all the trees & plants that we don't have in Oklahoma. 🌳🌻🌼 Wes was less impressed and complained that we should have somehow packed a moped or Vespa instead of walking. 😒 There were lots of small lakes and wildlife scattered throughout the park. The most random thing we saw was a buffalo conservatory. I think that is my favorite part of the park just because it was so unexpected! 

We finally made it to the Dutch windmill and tulip garden after probably 1.5 hours of walking. It was a quiet spot for us to sit and take a break. Very beautiful! 🌷 There were tons of people at the park, but no one paid us any attention. I know Oklahoma is stereotyped (and even made fun of) for being overly friendly, but I sure did miss all the random hellos and smiles from strangers. About 1 in 5 people had a dog with them and even the dogs weren't social!! If it was a park here, I would have stopped to pet 10 different dogs and chatted with lots of strangers.  

I was about to hail an Uber to take us back to the hotel when Wes suggested that we walk to the ocean. 🌊 It was only a few blocks away. We didn't get very close because we weren't dressed properly, and it was really cold. There were several people out on the beach and in the water...must have been locals. We saw Alcatraz prison! It wasn't the best view since it was so foggy. We tried to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was too foggy to see it as well. 

We didn't go to the Golden Gate Bridge, but we tried several times to see it from where we were. I saw it a few times from our Ubers. The best view we got was when we were at the art museum. It was still obscured by trees, but I can at least say I saw it & got a photo. I would have liked to walk across it, but we just didn't have time during the day. It got cold and wet in the early evening, so we didn't spend much time outdoors after dinner.  

We returned to the Japanese Tea Garden on our last day. It seemed so much bigger from the outside. It is actually pretty small. We walked around the entire garden in less than half an hour. There was no set path. I think the point is to just wander and let the scenery guide you. I really enjoyed it, so I insisted that we walk around it twice. I would have liked to wind around another time (there was so much to see!) but it was getting crowded and more difficult to easily maneuver around. My favorite feature was the Zen garden. The beautifully clear water in the koi pond was also very nice. Curiously, there was only one koi swimming around. There was also only one squirrel. He hopped up onto a rock and a crowd of tourists (myself included) ran over to take a picture of him. (Photo above)

The garden had a little café that served tea and light refreshments. We were going to stop in, but the line was outrageously long. Instead, we wandered over to the museum side of the park and explored over there. We saw a dance instructor giving ballroom dance lessons to his pupil on the bandstand stage. I wanted to ride the Ferris wheel but it was foggy out (again😔) so I knew I wouldn't be able to see much. We made it over to the de Young Musem and got into the café just as they were closing! We both ordered a coffee and went to relax on the patio. ☕After finishing our coffees, we walked through the museum's sculpture garden. 

We spent several hours walking around on both of days we visited the Golden Gate Park but it didn't feel like I was there that long. I can actually say that I enjoyed the exercise! 🏃 I'll walk Athena and Zephyr around the neighborhood and be completely out of breath like I just ran for my life. I didn't think I'd survive walking up & down the hilly roads. I guess the cool temperatures in San Francisco made all the difference. 

Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - San Francisco, CA (food) - August 2022

8 Tables by George Chen

Our vacation seems sooooo long ago... but I've been super busy with craft shows and custom orders (definitely not complaining!) and I've become way more active with my sewing club so I'm just now getting around to posting about our trip in August. I usually like to wait a couple of weeks before journaling so I can gather my thoughts and let it sink in, but I think this time I might have gone on too long and have forgotten some of the nuances & detail. Oh well, it'll mostly be pictures anyway. 

I usually bring a book on flights, but I switched to crocheting this time and it was so much better. I think my love of reading has been replaced by audiobooks.

Wes and I love to eat, and the food in San Francisco did not disappoint. We went to our first tasting menu, and it was a dream!! 😋 My first meal on our vacation was a bag of Cheez Its I got at the airport in Oklahoma, then we got breakfast at the Las Vegas airport (Wendy's and Leaf & Bean Coffee). Our first meal in San Francisco was at Goldilocks in the airport. Goldilocks is a Filipino chain restaurant. It was good... for an airport meal. My garlic fried rice was mushy and entirely too garlicy. 

Our first actual meal was at the Beach Chalet Restaurant at the Golden Gate Park. **Side note: I've always meticulously planned our trips... what to see & do, where to eat, etc., but this time, I just made a general itinerary. It was hard to pick restaurants in advance because there were just so many! I think the spontaneity made the trip fun, but I also think we missed out on some essential San Francisco eateries.😕** We spent our first afternoon walking around the Golden Gate Park and the plan was to just end up somewhere for dinner. At the end of the park sat the Beach Chalet. The restaurant was pretty upscale; we weren't dressed for it and we didn't have a reservation, but they seated us anyway. (Luckily, it was a slow weeknight.) They had their own brewery, but I was way too dehydrated from walking around to enjoy a beer. Wes got a Seal Rock Black Lager, and fish & chips. I got the mussels. They were really yummy, but I think I prefer them in a tomato-based sauce instead of cream. I ate Wes's coleslaw for him since he doesn't like it, and it was very different from what we have in Oklahoma. The coleslaw dressing was mayonnaise, like a thick flavorless off-brand mayonnaise. Everything else about the meal was great.

The next morning, we set out for Chinatown. We wanted to head out early to grab coffee but literally everything was closed until 10am. It was just before 9am when our Uber dropped us off. 😔 We wandered a bit and found a tiny coffee shop inside of a bank lobby. The owner was the nicest man in the entire city! He was the embodiment of a jovial Italian immigrant that you would see on a sitcom, but in a good way. He even said "fuggedaboutit" unironically. I ordered a macchiato and he warned me that it wasn't like the ones Starbucks makes. I accepted and Wes ordered his drink. When he brought it out, he had me try it in front of him and request adjustments. There was zero sugar in it. I didn't want to say anything (or admit defeat) since he was so nice, but he must have saw the look on my face because he took it back and added more milk and sprinkled cinnamon on top for me. Still not sugar though. He offered us brownies on the house as we were leaving. He spritzed Persian water on them, which smelled amazing. 

Lunch was at City View. I knew I absolutely had to have dim sum while in San Francisco. A majority of the dim sum restaurants didn't have dine in so that sort of limited our options. But, City View was so good and we got there right before the lunch rush!! The stuffed eggplant with fried tofu was my favorite. Wes really enjoyed the lotus wrapped sticky rice. We had to be careful not to order too much so I had to skip some of my usuals (no tripe or chicken feet this time around). 

I really wanted to snack all day while we were in Chinatown but our dim sum meal was so filling. The only snack I got was matcha ice cream. 🍦 OMG it was amazing!! It tasted like matcha, it tasted like vanilla, it was an awesome soft-serve swirl!!! 😍 Besides the tasting menu we had for dinner, I think this singular ice cream cone was the best thing I ate on vacation. Wes was going to get the pandan coconut soft-serve swirl but changed his mind last minute and just got a yuzu drink. 

I wanted to go to San Francisco for two reasons: 1. The Fantasy Couture exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum and 2. the tasting menu at 8 Tables by George Chen. One of the food bloggers I follow called the tasting menu "the best meal of his life," and one of the food magazines I came across hailed 8 Tables as one of San Francisco's "most sought-after reservations." I wholeheartedly agree with both. 😀 This was my first experience with a tasting menu and it 100% did not disappoint. Literally everything about it was great -- the food (obviously), the building, atmosphere, staff, drinks and overall vibe! The meal represented a cozy & intimate traditional Chinese dinner. It was eight courses, all using local seasonal ingredients. We also got drinks (cocktail for me & wine for Wes) but I don't remember what they were. 

The first course was the "9 Essential Flavors" of Chinese cuisine according to chef George Chen, called Jiu Gong Ge. Our waiter explained each morsel to us, and I think we promptly forgot as soon as he walked away. 😂LOL My favorites were the right most of each row. The top right corner is a sweet pear, the center one is spicy eggplant wonton, and the bottom right corner is salty crunchy thing with caviar. Wes's favorite was also the pear, with the sweet stuffed date (top left corner) coming in a close second. 

We found out during the second course that we had to eat everything before the waiter would bring out the next dish. Our second course was Suan La Tang, a spicy & sour soup. I love soup but it isn't Wes's favorite thing to eat. He still had about 1/4 of his bowl left when the waiter came to collect our dishes. The waiter peered into his bowl and said, "You have one more bite," and walked away. 😂 

The seafood course, Steamed Monterey Squid, was my favorite of the night. It was also served on my favorite plate. LOL The squid's tentacles are fried and the rest of him is stuffed into a squash blossom. I liked the squishy surprise when I bit into the squash blossom, but Wes didn't like the texture. I've never had squid prepared this way before and really liked it. Steam and emulsify everything from now on!!

Next was more soup!! We had a Porcini Mushroom 'Dun Dan'. There was a custard at the bottom of the bowl that we scooped out and ate with the soup. The soup reminded me of the traditional Chinese medicines that my mom would cook in the crock pot and have me eat when I was sick as a child. I never enjoyed it then but I'm glad my taste buds evolved because this was delicious! The chicken is stuffed with some other sort of poultry and placed on a little grill to keep it hot. 

After the first four courses came the entrees. I was already starting to get full by this point. 😓 Our first entree was Lapsang Smoked Squab. Before bringing out our plates, the waiter brought out a box of knives and let us pick our own. I grabbed a beige one and Wes went with black. The square bit next to the meat is scallop and asparagus sticky rice. I think I liked it more than the squab. I love how artistically it was presented. I've never had squab before. 

Longevity Noodles came next. They were cooked with beef and vegetables in an XO sauce. I really liked the seafood dish but this one almost took over first place. Our waiter gave us a small glass of the wine pairing, a Melville Syrah, with this dish. He must have noticed we had finished our drinks but were too timid (or, let's be honest, cheap LOL) to order more. 🍷

I was so relieved when the waiter told us this would be our last savory dish. I was 1. getting extremely full, and 2. really wanting dessert. Wes liked this dish the best; Iberico Pork Char Siu. The pork was really really good, but I think the fried rice was the star here. I just noticed that this is served on the same plate as the seafood dish. Wes & my favorite courses both came on the same style of plates. How neat! Anyway, I didn't want to get in trouble for not eating everything but there was no way I could finish it, so I gave Wes most of my char siu.

Dessert time!!!! 🍨 Up until now, my favorites were the squid and noodles... dessert (Jasmine Tea Rice Pudding) quickly took the #1 spot. The rice pudding was topped with strawberry ice cream, bits of dragon fruit & strawberry, and jasmine foam. I've never had foam, but I didn't expect it to taste so much of jasmine. Our waiter brought us the wine pairing, Degeorgis "Sori del Re" moscato d'asti. The meal was everything I could want it to be and right as I thought it was over, our waiter brough us a second dessert! 🍭

🐉We got dragon's beard candies as our one last bite before the meal ended. Our waiter said they are stuffed with something different each night; the night we went was peanuts. Dragon's beard is another thing I had never tried before. It tasted like fancy cotton candy. What I liked most about this experience is all of the new foods I got to try. I told Wes that we are getting reservations to a tasting menu on each trip we take going forward!!

I'm not sure if it was because I was still stuffed from last night's dinner, or if the food was really blah, but breakfast at Brenda's French Soul Food was the most underwhelming meal in San Francisco. The selling point for us was their beignet flight, but they weren't even that good. 😒 It's one plain beignet, one stuffed with apples & cinnamon, and one with chocolate goo in the center. I got the biscuits and gravy; the gravy had way too much onion in it. There were gigantic pieces of (almost) raw onions littering my gravy! No thanks! 🙅Wes said his breakfast was good though. 

Our home for the week. The Courtyard Marriott was in a terrible location for Uber drivers. One of our drivers told us that he couldn't drop us off in front of the hotel because there wasn't a legal parking space to do so. 😑Annoying. 

The concierge told us about the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel when we first checked in. We had planned to have one of our meals there. It looked really nice, and the menu online looked decent but there were NEVER any diners in there. Our room faced a curious dive restaurant called Tommy's Joynt. At the last minute, I suggested that we lunch there instead of the empty hotel restaurant. Tommy's is a cash only, no frills, not very friendly, sandwich restaurant. It advertised all sorts of house-smoked meats. I got a corned beef sandwich and I think Wes got the brisket. It was very tasty but I liked the potato salad more. I've noticed a pattern of me liking the sides more than the main part of the meal...

Our flight out of San Francisco was at 5am so the plan was to eat an extremely early dinner, then get back to the hotel to pack and rest by early evening. The problem was that we've been eating almost all day and were not hungry at all for an early dinner. I suggested a sushi train so we could just get a few dishes and be in & out. We went to Hikari bullet train sushi. 🍣 I've had sushi train before but not bullet train. We ordered on a tablet and the food came out on a cute little conveyer belt. It was brought out on either a ship or a train. Our tablet flashed and made noises at us when the food was about to be delivered. Everyone else at this restaurant must have been regulars because I was the only one amused by this. The sushi was super good!

So there's all of the food pictures from our vacation. We did a ton of touristy stuff, so more blog posts to come!! I didn't take any pictures of our airport meals, but on our way back, we had a crazy long layover in Las Vegas. I discovered a Shake Shack at the airport!! Shake Shack is my favorite hamburger restaurant and there aren't any in Oklahoma, so it was a nice surprise to find one. We had breakfast there and also got coffee from Dunkin'. Our vacation fulfilled all of my foodie wishes. I will fondly remember our meal at 8 Tables for the rest of my life. My only regret is that I wish we had more time to eat in Chinatown.
 

Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition (Kansas City) - April 2022

Immersive art exhibits are the new hot thing and I've been wanting to go to one, but the only ones that have been available have been Van Gogh (not a fan of the Impressionists) and Frida Khalo (would have loved to see that one but it was in Dallas and not at a convenient time for us to get away). I was super pumped when I learned that there would be an experience in Kansas City... on our anniversary month... when we had a legitimate excuse to go somewhere and do something nice. Perfect!!

I always assumed the snake from the Adam & Eve story was a traditional snake. Michelangelo painted him as half snake and half human. I guess that makes more sense since snakes can't talk or have hands to hold apples. 

The Chapel Sistine (I guess they couldn't legally call it the Sistine Chapel) exhibit was advertised as a floor to ceiling reproduction of each of Michelangelo's frescos. I guess it wasn't exactly "immersive" since it didn't have any projections, lights, or 3-D effects, but it was still supposed to be a larger-than-life experience. Sadly, it wasn't. 😕 I still REALLY really enjoyed it, but the marketing was a little misleading. 

The exhibit had licensed reproductions of each one of the frescos. They were laid out in order from one corner of the ceiling to the other. Each one had an accompanying map that showed where it is located on the ceiling and a brief explanation of the painting and it's artistic and religious significance. I think they were reproduced using a mix of photography and a high-tech printing technique.

My favorite frescos were the three creation ones (Separation of land from sea, Separation of light from darkness, and Creation of the sun, moon, and planets). The Separation of light from darkness fresco is unique in that we're seeing God rising above us. The perspective in the other frescos show us looking straight onto the scene. Wes thought the "from below" perspective of Separation of light from darkness was neat but he said that the Sistine Chapel wasn't his thing. He isn't into religious art and said the colors were too dull. I really enjoyed it. The frescos are gorgeous!! I thought the reproductions were amazingly well detailed and it was cool that we could see the cracks in the paint and original brushstrokes; I also thought it was neat that you could tell which frescos have been restored more than others.