Last Thursday was a beautiful sunny day here in SF. My Mom was supposed to have arrived into town that morning, but sadly she fell ill and had to cancel her trip last minute. Considering I wouldn’t have gotten much work done while she was here anyway, I thought I’d take the same opportunity to take the time for myself and have a little staycation.

So, Thursday morning after lazily getting out of bed, I headed down to Dolores Park Cafe & bought myself an iced soy latte & lunch to-go (their yummy chicken with chipolte aoli – which is my favorite sandwich of theirs), before walking across the street into Dolores Park to meet my friend, Corey.

The Ferocious Few were playing a show in the park, and it was such a beautiful sunny day! Here’s Corey’s video of them rockin’ it freestyle:

As you may recall, they also played our apartment at SXSW – aka the SFEmbassy! So awesome.

After a bit, my friend MJ joined us, along with her adorable 11-month-old little girl, Amelia. It was so nice to introduce these amazing women to each other for the first time, and have realtalk about life, and the interesting changes we’ve seen in the landscape of the web scene here over the years.

After Corey left, it was great to catch up with MJ one-on-one, too… we’ve known each other since 2003 now! Plus, I had SO much fun rolling around with her adorable daughter, Amelia. *sigh* Babies are so amazing… they really get you present and everything else just melts away. This photo (by MJ) pretty much sums up the joy we were experiencing in the sun that day. <3

After a few hours relaxing in the park, I said goodbye to the girls, and took myself for an ice cream at Bi-rite. I had yummy coffee toffee + mint chip, and doodled, while I slowly savored every delicious bite.

It probably goes without saying, it was super yuumm!

After seeing my checkin at Bi-Rite, my cutie friend Emily pinged me to say hello, as she was just a few blocks away working at Four Barrell. However, on my way to see her, walking down Valencia, I stumbled upon Clarion Alley, and decided to take a quick detour to stroll down it & explore all the fabulous murals painted on the walls there. I can’t believe I’d never walked down that alley before!

Clarion Alley is where most of the photos in my photoset are from, as I can’t find the charger to my camera right now, so I only had my iPhone’s camera. I love meandering through this city and discovering new gems. After 14 years living here, San Francisco never ceases to amaze me. :)

Finding my way to Four Barrel finally, Emily & I had a lovely chat and hug-it-out. She’s one of my new favorite girls… just LOVE that woman! Check out her site, The San Franista, where she features a bunch of the local tech & art scene fabulousness. She even profiled WilloToons after we first met, a year ago!

Walking back down into the Mission, I walked through two of my favorite stores: Aldea and Therapy. I loved soaking up all the fabulous goodies and getting inspired.

Around 7pm I went to Casanova lounge, where my friend Cory was doing his Absolutely Kosher Happy Hour. It was so great to see him, catch up & listen to some great music! One of the finds being a band out of Calgary, called Gobble Gobble.

After that I went & grabbed some wine and sushi-to-go, and headed over to Alba’s for our impromptu girl-date. We drank wine & watched A Serious Man, but right before it was over, around 11:30, we decided to join Michael (her bf) at the Chirp afterparty downtown… which was super fun! All I knew is that it was open bar & will.i.am on the decks, so I was like ‘heck ya!’ But I should have guessed that TONS of my friends would be there, too. It was a blast! You can spot us girls on the dancefloor in Ken Yeung’s photo here (JayZombie, LauraGlu & I, bottom left). He has several other great ones from the night, too.

Overall, it was such a great day off… and very creatively rejuvenating! :)

What would be your ideal day, staycation, or art date for yourself?

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”willotoons” id=”72157623894320656″]
View the full photoset: “Art date (with myself) in the Mission”