Day 98: If you're tired, you take a Napa, you don't move to Napa!

Apparently wineries need special permits to have picnic tables or to allow food on the premises. Therefore, while waiting for our tour of the Robert Mondavi Winery, we hid in a corner of the parking lot and ate our sandwiches while sitting on the ground. My cheese and challah sandwich was deliciously melty from the hot sun of Napa Valley. I had two mini sandwiches (it was the end of the loaf of challah, so the slices were small). They were delicious and really filling. I could have used some cold water to go with it but there was none to be found. The challah did an excellent job of absorbing the wine from that morning's tasting at the Hagafen Winery. For dessert we had fresh grapes off the vines, almost ready to become a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Day 95: Haight means Love and REMINDER: MEETUP on Thursday

I started lunch today with some Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream from the Ben and Jerrys scoop shop on the corner of Haight and Ashbury. The shops on this street are still 100% devoted to the hippie era that was birthed in this neighborhood, and B&Js is one of the only chain stores on the street. They are accepted in the community due to their Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, and Half Baked flavors and their happy cows. We walked with our ice cream through the Haight neighborhood to Golden Gate Park, SF's answer to Central Park. After wandering through the grounds and a Victorian flower garden, we sat on a grassy lawn and ate sandwiches. Once again, I went for a mini bagel with American cheese. It tasted delicious. I love Chocolate Fudge Brownie and melty bagel cheeses are pretty awesome so it was a pretty awesome lunch day. It was a good thing we ate a big lunch because when we were eating dinner on the ferry ride over to Alcatraz, a seagull ate my sister's sandwich.

Reminder: Meet Up on Thursday! More info to be posted soon!

Day 93: Sunny San Fran

Lunch on Friday was eaten outside, sitting on a small stone wall surrounding the parking lot in front of Coit tower, with views of the Bay Bridge behind me. I was carrying around some American cheese and some mini lenders bagels, so I combined the two into the kind of sandwich that I would only think to make if I was on the go. It was bright and sunny at that moment, and the sun felt great on my face as I ate the slightly smooshed and slightly melted cheese sandwich. It was the perfect mid- day meal as I explored San Francisco.

Day 81: American Woman

When I woke up Sunday morning, everyone was lazying around the house and eating brunch. Alex was making himself a bagel, and it looked really good. This inspired me to make myself a bagel sandwich as well. I took a whole wheat bagel (as I had ordered from Deborah in the aforementioned google doc) and had Scott slice it open for me with his machete. (He had already sliced open one finger so I let him handle the giant knife.) I put three pieces of American cheese into the bagel, and then ate it. The American Cheese went well with the Independence and Perseverance flags that Mor and Sol had bought on Friday.

Day 53: Farmer's Market

Fresh, local grown Southern produce looks and tastes a lot better than the so called "produce" at Keyfood in Washington Heights. Everything at the Farmers Market was brightly colored and huge and perfectly shaped. We saw bright purple egg plants, tiny watermelons, huge green zucchini and perfectly round cherry tomatoes. I tasted white and yellow peaches, black berries and blue berries. Everything was really sweet and delicious. Sara also tasted apricots and tomatoes. My grandfather bought a bunch of tomatoes to make tomato sauce. We went home to eat a much more mundane meal of macaroni and cheese. Sara and my grandfather had some raspberry vanilla Dove ice cream that comes with a chocolate bar inside. I ate some small chips of the chocolate bar, but not the ice cream because I do not like Vanilla ice cream.

Day 32: Lunch with a View

Gondola rides and cave crawls are fun, and watching a 20-something year old man squeeze through a tiny cave hole as if he was being birthed backwards is always entertaining, but they don't quite work up the same appetite as a full on hike does. So even though I brought two sandwiches up to the top of Loon Mountain, when we sat on the platform of the amphitheater and ate lunch overlooking the view, I only ate one sandwich. When faced with the choice between tuna and American Cheese, I had to go for the smooshy deliciousness of the cheese sandwich. I should eat these all the time. Back at the bottom of the mountain, after experimenting with a trampoline and conquering my fear of a rock climbing wall (does making it to the top before you freak out mean you are no longer scared?) we devoured an entire red juicy watermelon for dessert.

Day 30: Lunch on a mountaintop

Lunch never tastes as good as it does when you eat it after climbing 2500 feet to the top of a mountain, especially the day after a rainfall that left a set of challenges including mud pits, slippery rocks, and waterfalls on the trail. I was instructed by Shlomo, one of my hiking mates and frequent commenters, that I HAD to bring two sandwiches on the hike. So when we got to the top I started in on my chunk light tuna and whole wheat bagel sandwich. I had an unexpected treat when I discovered mayo in the cafeteria at the mountain top. However, I added too much mayo to the tuna which was a little bit unfortunate. Overly mayoed tuna is pretty gross. But when eating in a cloud at 4300 feet, anything tastes good. Next, I ate my second sandwich which was three slices of American cheese on whole wheat sliced bread. This sandwich was particularly delicious because it was perfectly smooshed from being in my backpack all day. I finished off lunch with some Hershey Kisses, which are great energy boosters when hiking.

Day 4: Sunday in the Park with George

After spending a couple of hours running around in the hot sun at the park playing Frisbee and throwing around a baseball, I was starving. We considered making fruit smoothies but laziness got the best of us. I came back to my apartment and made a late lunch of mac and cheese. My mac and cheese recipe is simple - it's just noodles and cheese melted in the microwave. And in my opinion, it it always good. I will soon be eating some fruit to complete the meal.