We love the free admission days the MFA has on many holidays now. Since we drive in and need to pay for parking as well as a meal, it makes it much more affordable for us to visit often.

Our little tulip tree out front lost a major branch but I think it’s likely to survive. We had two big oaks out back lose their crowns and that may prove too much for them. Time will tell. Many neighbors lost entire trees and the town streets are lined with downed branches, trees and wires. It’s going to take ages to clean up.  We’d been talking about buying a generator but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. That would sure come in handy about now!

On my last full day in SF, I was lucky enough to get a tour across the bay from my friend Lori who very kindly rearranged her schedule to make time for me. I managed to take the train in the right direction and get off at the correct stop. Right across the way was craft mecca, Lacis. If you’ve only ever seen the catalog online you have no idea just how much more there is. It’s quite overwhelming but absolutely amazing. After that we went to A Verb for Keeping Warm, an amazing knitting/spinning store run by a woman who learned dye and fiber lore on a Fullbright scholarship. Our last stop was Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics. I’m fairly certain I have shopped these folks at quilting shows but there’s oh so much more in the shop! I found the perfect raincoat laminated fabric. I’ve been searching for that for 2 years so I was very excited. That meant I couldn’t get much else and in fact, I didn’t even look at the second room other than that laminate right in the doorway- at least double the selection I’ve seen anywhere else. There was tea towel fabric right on the roll and I was tempted to get some for making bread bags. You can see all my San Francisco photos here. At the end of our touring, Lori and I stopped at the original Peet’s and then had a little time to just visit at a lovely Golden Gate overlook before she dropped me back at the hotel in time for me to head out for dinner. I also made a fair bit of progress on my hurricane shawl with all that time on the plane.

I had a second visit to Chinatown Monday when it was lovely and quiet. I went into Blest Tea and was delighted to find brown rice Matcha tea. The shopkeeper was equally delighted that I knew what it was. I visited the fancy shopping district as well but just window shopped there. It was fun to wander through four stories of Williams Sonoma!

Yesterday I had some delicious fish tacos for lunch, just like Columbo and then wandered through the ferry building oggling all the delicious food. Across the way I found skaters and skateboarders having a photo session. The skater would jump up on the rail with his skates sideways as the photographer tried to get a closeup of his wheels. five or six skateboarders took turns with tricks in front of the camera. I visited the Cartoon museum and the Railway museum as well.

Jason volunteered to work the job fair for his company at MIT yesterday. We planned to go out to dinner at Clio in the evening and I planned to walk about town while he was busy for the afternoon. My first stop was meant to be Bob Slate stationer but they are moving over a few blocks and are closed until the 30th. Darn! Instead I visited Black Ink for some lovely paper goods and Burdick Chocolates for treats for later. From there I took a nice walk down to Gather Here, my main destination for the day. It’s been tough to find the more modern fabrics and I’m not crazy about ordering online until I’ve seen the colors in person and have some clue what I am getting. I had a lovely browse around the shop and thankfully did not notice the big chest full of vintage buttons until after I’d made my purchases. From there I walked on down to MIT to meet Jason, passing Dan’s old elementary school along the way.

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The raspberry picking this week was phenomenal. The conditions were perfect for nice ripe berries without mold and I took the opportunity to fill up my box. I put about 2 1/2 gallons in the freezer all told.

I thought for sure we’d miss blueberry season due to vacation but there are still enough to go around. We picked ten pounds yesterday morning and hope to go back at least once more. We normally go through about 4 gallon bags by the time the next season rolls around.  Some of these won’t even make it to the freezer as Jason plans to make a blueberry peach cobbler and I plan to make blueberry zucchini bread.

Yesterday was our twelfth anniversary. Saturday night we drove into Boston for a lovely dinner at Hamersley’s Bistro where we dined with my boys and Jason’s sister the night we were married. We’ve been several times but I think it’s the first time I’ve seen him there in the kitchen. Our table was right smack in front of the kitchen where I could watch the action.

Over the weekend Jason and I went into Boston to see the new wing at the MFA. It’s increased the size of the museum by nearly 30 percent so while much is familiar, there are also many things we hadn’t seen now on display. It will likely take several trips to take it all in and things in the rest of the museum have been rearranged as well now that there is space  where things had been. The new wing is art of the Americas and it’s 4 levels and 53 galleries.

Afterward we ate a late lunch at Tapeo (warning- it will maximize your browser and play music. I need to learn how to block this), visited Newbury street and the Copley Mall ending with a walk around town too look at the pretty holiday lights.