The Phoenix Hotel

The Phoenix Hotel had an awesome hand-painted sign.

Yesterday after work, Ryan and I stopped by the Phoenix Hotel for a cocktail and a quick bite to eat. This little establishment was built in the 1950s as a motel and eventually remodeled in the image of Rolling Stone magazine to appeal to rock and roll bands. The exterior of the hotel is painted a great shade of light turquoise / sea foam / mint green while the inside of the connected bar and restaurant Chambers has a completely different vibe with much darker tones, dimmed light fixtures and records lining walls. I had my first pisco punch, so refreshing but still nice and stiff, and split the chicken pate with Ryan by recommendation from the bartender. The Phoenix Hotel is a perfect venue for hosting some friends or to kick off a night out in San Francisco. I'd love to spend my next birthday here, but with cocktails at eleven dollars a piece (eight during happy hour), it would have to be a one drink stop.

The open blinds covering the windows made for a nice foggy effect.

We hopped straight on the BART afterwards to visit Ryan's parents' house and to see his puppies, Sadie and Pip. They're the next best thing from seeing my pups back in LA and they're always as happy to see us as we are to see them.

This is Pip. He's the sweetest.

A solid week of good things

In the last week...

I witnessed the first perfect game from the Giants after buying an impromptu 5$ ticket. I'm not the biggest baseball fan in the world, but having been a part of the 2010 World Series win and now the first perfect game in franchise history, the Giants have no doubt drawn me closer to San Francisco. Plus I enjoyed the game with these lovely people:

My friend Bryan and my boyfriend Ryan. He's wonderful.

My roommates Emily (a proper Giants fan) and Chris (the token anti-sportsman).

I camped by the Russian River and spent the better portion of two days wading in the water. It was so nice escaping the city for a few days and sweating uncontrollably in 98 degree weather. For the most part the locals were friendly and left us alone to drink our beer and gawk at all the natural wonders like the city kids we are. The water was perfectly warm and the river bank was covered in colorful rocks of all sizes. The landscape resembled what I imagine the surface of a marian planet to look like, and the sunset on our last night there was one of the most intense and vibrant thing I've ever seen. The combination of the clouds and colors gave the illusion that there was a desert in the sky. If I ever become a musician, or decide to learn how to play an instrument, that'll be the name of my first single.

Ryan scoping out a campsite.

My pup Charlee was featured on Fuck Yeah Smiling Dogs. She's one of my favorite things in the world. Check out her photo here.

Charlee aka Black Squirrel, Baby Fox, Chahlay, Cheesey, Cha-Chi, and Charlee Cheesy Breakfast Burrito.

And last but not least, this past week has been a beautiful one in SF, with temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s, and I was reunited with some buddies who had been away from the city for too long. I hope your week was as good as mine. Here's to another solid one!

LA for the weekend // Summer kickoff party with the family

I spent this past weekend in Los Angeles to celebrate the June birthdays in my family and mine, my sister's and my cousin's graduations. Recently, it's been difficult to make it down to Los Angeles from San Francisco and even harder for my three sisters and I to be in the same place at the same time, so this weekend saw some much needed family time. I have a huge extended family in LA of titas (aunts), titos (uncles) and cousins, and when we all get together we throw the best parties in the Valley.

Our annual summer party was on Saturday, and as usual there was obscene amounts of food, plenty of boos and a lot of loved ones at my mom's house. Anyone familiar with Filipino food knows we love bold, satly flavors. The highlights of the dinner: letchon (roasted pig), lumpias (deep fried spring rolls), and spider crabs, which were repurposed into amazing crab bisque by my mama at around 1am (major drool). All of the amazing food available in San Francisco can't compare to the food I eat at home. So until next time LA, I will make due with spinach salads and frozen chicken cutlets from Trader Joes.

PS. Besides my mom and my pup Charlee (plenty of photos of her to come), my little cousins are probably the most excited to see me when I come home. I only get to see them every few months, so when I do they seem to age years at a time. The last time I spent more than a weekend in LA was about six months ago, and this little girl on the left still had chubby cheeks and baby fat. I picked her up from school on Friday to find a young lady waiting for me.

Greetings from San Francisco!

hi

Hello! My name is Lauren and welcome to Rock Salt, a digital space for my ideas, projects, and adventures. Here you'll find album reviews (I'm in a huge garage rock phase), photos, DIY projects, book recommendations, existential musings (yeah I've taken intro to philosophy. Sup Marcuse?) and other things I enjoy. I also want to use this space to capture San Francisco from my point of view and the point of view of my friends, who are equally as curious about the world as I am! This is a project that I've been wanting to start for a long time, and now that I am freshly graduated from school, I have no excuse not to blog the shit out of the internet. So here it goes. Feel free to stop by, anytime.

L