In the City by the Bay, Days 6 and 7.

Don’t you just love how it’s taken me months to write up this trip? Honestly, you’d think I had a life or something.

Anything, after my day traipsing around Hilary’s neighborhood with her and her kiddos, on top of the previous days of nonstop walking, I was in honest-to-Goddess pain. I fucking hurt, I tell you. If I owned it, it was sore.

So I went to the sex shop. Why, what would you have done?


I was pleased to discover that Good Vibrations, famed women-friendly purveyor of toys for grown-ups (or at least those over 18), had a location right around the corner from our hotel. I believe in supporting progressive, independent, and women-owned businesses whenever possible, so I (slowly, gingerly) walked myself down the street and did some shopping.

No, I’m not telling you what I bought. Yes, I do recommend visiting if you’re in town (Good Vibes has other locations, too. Plus, there’s always the internet).

The rest of my day was free except for our dinner date at Millennium, so I thought it wise to seek out a yoga class to help my poor muscles unclench. Luckily, there was one about a mile away. Unluckily (and typically, given my sense of direction and confusion with regard to mass transit), I picked the wrong bus and ended up walking most of that mile. It was worth it, though: Satori is a lovely, welcoming studio and I very much enjoyed a Mellow Flow class. I was glad I’d packed my travel mat; it’s very thin and unsupportive on wooden floors, but is perfect on top of those generic studio mats you probably don’t want to get too intimate with. To top it off, they offered post-yoga hot towels and I even got the right bus back to the hotel. Then I sat my ass in the hot tub for a while, soaking away any residual stiffness.

When I came back from all that me-time, Red was back from his final day of conferencing. I was happy because I like it when he’s around.

Then, Millennium! We both spiffed up and prepared for an awesome evening. Spoiler alert: We are big fans of Millennium. We sat at the bar, and Josh started us off with drinks that were so delicious, I can’t remember what they were. Mine had smoked pineapple sugar; that much I can recall. They get creative with their cocktails there, which I appreciate. Also, it was a dream come true to not have to fret over the wine list, wondering if any of it was vegan. BECAUSE IT ALL WAS. *fistbump*

And the food. Red and I were sort of, “We’re in your hands; feed us whatever you think we’ll like.” And so we had pickled veggies, a medley of olives, and fried oyster mushrooms to start. We shared a little salad that I think might have been warm and had potatoes and arugula in it (this is what happens when you wait five months to write up what you ate; I do remember the dressing being yummy).





As our entrée, one of us ordered these fried sushi rolls with asparagus:


I could have eaten a dozen more and been happy with my Millennium experience, but no. And look! My first time eating lotus root! It was very crunchy. And so pretty, too. I almost felt weird about eating it because I feel an affinity for lotus flowers. (Here’s how to do padma mudra. This has been your Daily Yoga Snack™.)


We also shared this delicious spicy glazed tempeh with veggies in a coconut curry. So rich and sweet.


During all this, Josh suggested wine pairings and made sure we picked wines that complemented our food. I fell in love with one wine (Woodenhead Halfshell White, marry me), only to have my heart broken when I got home and my liquor store guy told me he couldn’t get it. Looks like we’ll be going back to Northern California so I can stock up.

Oh yes, dessert. Not to be anticlimactic about it, but we were so full that we knew we wouldn’t really enjoy it if we snarfed it down there at the restaurant (my friend B calls it “eating through the pain”), so Josh kindly boxed it up for us. Obviously my photo is crap, but this little panna cotta was the perfect ending to a fabulously indulgent day.


HUGE thank-yous and hugs to Josh and the staff at Millennium for giving us an amazing final night in San Francisco. I hope we’ll be back soon.


Day 7 barely counts, because we got up and went to the airport. But there was food involved, so I’ll tell you about it. Because we were not lucky enough to be flying Virgin America, we couldn’t get to the terminal where Plant Café has their all-vegan outpost. I was bummed about this, because it also meant that we couldn’t get to the yoga room, either. Terminal 2 is where it’s at, y’all.

Still, we managed very well. Go Bistro only had one vegan option, but one is all we needed. Veggie stir-fry: Breakfast of champions. Then we found our gate and settled in to watch some Doctor Who on Red’s laptop. (We had Sherlock, too, but wanted to save the last episode until we got home.)


Dinner was less successful. We changed planes in Atlanta, which is a terrifying megalopolis of an airport. The best thing we could find to eat was french fries. Sad, I know. But after that, we made it home and crashed and woke up and brought Lucy home and everyone took a nap together and everything was awesome.

Thus ends our West Coast saga. I’d go back in a heartbeat; Red, maybe not so much. But wherever we go next, I’m looking forward to it.