Color Factory

Mike and I visited the Color Factory in San Francisco a few weeks ago. Holy photo ops! 😉

It was a fun experience and worth the money (tickets were $35/person), mostly because you get treats along the way. You start the journey walking down rainbow steps. (Pretty sure this is also when Mike realized we were going to be taking way more pictures than he wanted to that evening… must.capture.everything.)

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At the bottom of the steps, a Color Factory employee greets you, tells you a few rules and gives you your photo cards that you can scan during your experience to take HD pictures in the rooms. Our first pic is below. 🙂

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There’s a Willy-Wonka-feeling smell wall after. I was less than impressed with this but that could have been because THERE WAS SO MUCH COLOR WAITING TO BE EXPLORED.

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Plus, MACAROONS!

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A back and white room was next, complete with charcoal lemonade to sample.

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After macaroons and lemonade, was the orange room; a room that was painted orange with an orange couch and orange things on the walls. I think this is something I could have put together but whatever! It warranted a picture nonetheless.

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Next was a tiny room filled with balloons. Pretty cool! This was the first room that was more interactive, which I enjoyed.

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We ran into a plethora of disco balls after, in a room that was playing old disco hits.

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Then, a giant light bright. Sounds super Silicon Valley but I was kinda like, been there, seen that at the Googs

In typically Mike fashion, he explained the wall to me and the mechanics behind it. Also super Silicon Valley, an engineer fiancé. ❤

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We were dumped into a bright white room with 5 foot green markers after. I think this room is better in theory than reality. It turns out, a marker that is as big as you are is hard to use. (Disclaimer: the photo below is staged — I did not have the talent, or the strength, to draw that heart.)

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My second favorite was next! 10,000 colored ribbons hanging from the ceiling to walk through. It felt whimsical to be surrounded by all of those ribbons, despite the little kids you couldn’t see in there that were constantly bumping into you. lol

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THEN THE BEST ROOM OF ALL TIME.

One word. Confetti.

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It was so fun scoping up handfuls of confetti and throwing them up above us. Like, I want a confetti room at my next birthday.

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The only downside, confetti everywhere. (I was finding pieces in my purse for days.)

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(There was also a “selfie” room, that had a printer spitting out selfies from the internet every second. They were all over the floor, black and white selfies everywhere. And… that was kind of it…?

To be fair, maybe there was some profound artistic message that was lost on me. Idk, either way, no photos of this room.)

The big sha-bang ending was the yellow room/ball pit. Again, I’m already familiar with the ball pit game from my days at Google but this one was massive and had cameras on the ceiling to take pics like these:

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As to be expected, diving into a ball pit is still as fun as it was as a kid. But, hot!

A sweaty, swell time.

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After the ball pit, we got our last treat. An ice cream cone that wasn’t photographed.

Overall, I’m glad we went and recommend going if you can snag tickets! Just be sure your phone is charged. 📸

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Holiday festivities

Oh, whoa. How are we already down to the last 2 weeks of December?! This year flew by. It seems like every year is over faster than the last, doesn’t it?

Like most people around this time, Mike and I have been jam-packed these past few weeks. This past week/weekend was particularly crazy. On Thursday my team and I had an offsite at Sur La Table in Palo Alto, where we spent the afternoon drinking wine and cooking. Talk about team bonding! We cooked up some nom Thai food and learned a few cool cooking tricks. Did you know a potato peeler peels both up and down?! I didn’t! The time I could’ve been saving by peeling on the way up too (instead of taking the peeler off of the vegetable before peeling down again)!

Lucky us, the fun didn’t stop on Thursday! On Friday, Upwork rented out a theater for everyone to see the new Star Wars movie. We even had shirts made for the occasion. So fun!

Work hard, play hard y’all.

After the movie, Mike and I headed up to San Francisco for a little staycation. My holiday party was in the city on Saturday evening so we decided to get a hotel room up there for the weekend. We took the train (valet parking was $55/night! what!?) and walked the mile or so to the Intercontinental. I love walking, especially through cities where there is so much to see.

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We quickly checked in and headed right back out to meet my friend Debbie for hot pot near Golden Gate Park. We ate a place called Nabe that Debs suggested. Debbie and I went to high school together and I know the girl is good with restaurant recommendations. She always picks yummy places that are healthy. My kind of gal!

Mike and I had never had hot pot before and it didn’t disappoint. As the title suggests,  a “hot pot” that is filled with boiling broth is placed in front of you. Depending on what you order, an array of vegetables and meats are brought out and you cook them in the pot. The broth was delicious (a part of me was like, there has to be MSG in here… mer) and it is a lot of food with all of the sides and the rice they give you. Definitely worth a try!

We kicked off Saturday morning with brunch at Samovar. Mike and I love this place and used to make it to the city once a month just to go there (back when they still had more locations throughout the city). Our good friend Merriem met us and we caught up over chai tea and noshes. So good to see old friends!

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What else but #avotoast

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After brunch we walked to All Birds, a shoe shop that sells slip-ons and lace-ups made of wool. I know it is the holiday season but I was shocked to find a line outside the store. We waited for about 15 minutes before getting to go inside and try on shoes. They are so comfy, we both walked out with a pair and “joined the flock.” 😉

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Next we walked along the Embarcadero and enjoyed the nice weather. Then a quick trip to the Ferry Building for some browsing before getting ready for the holiday soiree.

My holiday party was at The Pearl in the Dogpatch. Holy glamorous! It was Speakeasy themed and the venue/decorations transported me. There was even a “secret” speakeasy you could only access with a pin and once you left, the pin was taken from you and your access revoked. Mike and I enjoyed the evening, drinking cocktails and mingling with everyone.

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On Sunday we took full advantage of late check out and slept in. I wished we capitalized on another day in the city (Saturday was so fun walking around and taking in SF!) but after a night of drinking and dancing, sleep was priority.

This week we’re finishing starting Christmas shopping and packing up to go to Toronto! Happy holidays!

Melissa comes to town!

I have a serious case of the Monday Blues today because our weekend was so fun with some of my favorite company.

We kicked things off on Thursday when Melissa, a good friend of ours from Toronto, flew in to visit. Mike and I headed up to San Francisco after work to meet her at the hotel we were staying at. We got a room for 2 nights at Hotel Whitcomb on Market street (more on that disaster later…), which was a short walk from Hayes Valley.

Hayes Valley is a super cute area in SF with a lot of unique stores and delicious looking restaurants. We went straight to Little Gem where they focus on fresh and seasonal ingredients. It’s an open space that still manages to feel cozy with candles, succulents, and dim lighting.

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We started with glasses of wine, sparkling, and beer plus an order of their hummus with NON bread. I could’ve just ate this all night. It was so good. For my main though, I ordered the Hen of the Woods Mushrooms on Beans & Rice bowl (talk about a wordy title!) with the mushrooms on the side (because I am picky about my mushrooms – it’s a texture thing). The rice and beans were good but filing. I ended up only eating about half and taking the rest to-go.

After dinner we walked back to our hotel, which looked a horror/ghost movie was filmed in. We spilt a bottle of wine, caught up, listened to music, and went to bed… blissfully unaware of what else was lurking in the room with us.

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Creepiest hotel ever!

On Friday morning I walked to the work, opting to work in from the SF office that day. I wouldn’t want to live in the city but it was a nice change of pace to be there for a few days. There’s an energy you can’t deny in San Francisco.

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The view from Google SF office (not complaining!)

While eating breakfast I got a call from Mike and I thought, weird, he almost never calls me. Maybe he just wants to make sure I made it to the office alright?

I answered the phone and he told me the disgusting news that him and Melissa had found a bedbug in our hotel room. I immediately felt itchy. Melissa had woken up with bites (not fun!) and was suspect of bedbugs. Luckily, they found a live one to show to the hotel staff. It was gross but without the little crawler as proof, we probably wouldn’t have gotten a refund.

Melissa and Mike had to spend the next few hours checking us into a new hotel (the Hyatt!) and being sure Hotel Whitcomb refunded our money, cleaned our clothes, luggage, etc. Total bummer for the start of a vacation (!) but they eventually got out and enjoyed the city. I requested pictures of their adventures and got these ones of the Painted Ladies and the Full House house.

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The Painted Ladies
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Full House house

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After work I walked to the Hyatt to meet them at our new hotel. Man, I love the Hyatt. It was unfortunate that we had to deal with bedbugs but the sliver lining was staying in the Hyatt. It’s such a luxurious hotel.

Melissa has been out to California to visit us 3 times and each trip we get a bottle of champs to drink in Union Square. Keeping up with tradition, we walked to Union Square for some bubbles next. Kicking off Friday right!

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Champs!

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Dinner was next at Jasper’s Corner Tap and Kitchen. We ordered drinks and the Oh Canada! poutine (fitting), pomegranate organic chicken breast with kale and quinoa, and the mac n’ cheese. The drinks were strong and the food was drool-worthy! We even ordered a second mac n ‘ cheese for dessert. 😉

On Saturday we trekked across the Bay to Berkeley. We went to Marker’s Common for lunch (more mac n’ cheese and avo toast) and popped into a few stores in downtown. It was really hot and I just wasn’t all too impressed with downtown Berkeley so we didn’t spend too much time there. Next time I’ll have to do more research on local spots before.

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The heat was worse in the south bay but we popped into Whole Foods for adult essentials: crackers, cheese, berries, and wine before going back to our house. We promptly threw our clothes in the washer – despite the hotel cleaning them – to double protect against the Whitcomb bedbugs. Then we chilled out for a few hours before a BBQ at our house.

Because of the fight on Saturday, dinner reservations for our friend Shelby’s birthday were impossible. Instead we offered to host a BBQ at our house because we have a big outdoor space. We host Canadian Thanksgiving here every year (read about 2015 and 2016) and it’s the perfect spot with multiple BBQs, picnic tables, shade, and outlets to play music.

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❤ ❤ ❤

Everyone left after 10pm and Mike, Melissa, and I went back to our house where Melissa and I stayed up until 5am. The last time I pulled an all nighter was in high school! I’m usually a stickler for getting good sleep every night but was happy to make an exception.

On Sunday we woke up at 11am, showered and went to Los Gatos for coffee and lunch. It was another hot day and we were running on little sleep so things were slow moving. Around 4pm we dropped Melissa off at the airport and I had to fight back tears. It was so good to have her in town for the weekend. We’re already texting each other talking about separation anxiety… 

The countdown is on for when we’ll see her again in December when we go to Toronto for Christmas.

Girls weekend!

This weekend I spent a lot of time with my girlfriends. The older I get, the harder I find it to carve out quality time for friends because of hectic schedules and the miles in between us. It was great seeing so many of my girls and spending more than a shared meal or quick coffee catch up sesh with them. I’ve noticed that too often we spend our time together reminiscing on the “old times” – and all of the memories we made once upon a time – instead of creating new stories to tell years from now…

One of my good friends Leslie is in town and we spent all day Saturday together. We started the day in San Francisco, wondering Union Street and eating breakfast at a place called Perry’s. Lucky for me, Leslie doesn’t eat much meat either so we happily split a veggie scramble and the California eggs Benedict, plus 2 lattes; but no splits there! 🙂

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After breakfast we did some window shopping. Shortly after we decided we could both go for another coffee and popped in a Starbucks for round two. We stumbled into a place called Urban Remedy; which is a vegan storefront that offers juices, quick grab and go meals, and a few other snacks. We picked up a bag of their Ginger Brittle and sat with our coffees, chatting, snacking and sipping.

After some vegan noshing, we headed across the Bay to Livermore for late afternoon wine tasting with Leslie’s mom. We started at Wente Vineyards and then went to Concannon. I am actually the worst at wine tasting because I find that I always forget what the last wine I tried tasted like, so I can’t compare the wines the way other people seem to do. Plus I’m also not a picky wine drinker by any means (being way more bougie about my beer than my wine) and can’t tell a merlot from a cab from any other red… Nonetheless, both vineyards were beautiful.

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After wine tasting we went downtown for Italian at a place called Bruno’s, which was delicious but really, what Italian food isn’t?

On Sunday, Leslie came down to my house, along with our friend, Shelby, and her cute little chunk of a baby. We spent the afternoon poolside while snacking on chips, hummus, and guacamole.

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My other good friend Morgan was also in town for a work conference and came over shortly after we got back from the pool. Morgan and I used to be neighbors but now she lives in Washington. I haven’t seen her since October when Mike and I went to visit her and her fiance.  We caught up for a while at my place and then went to our friend’s Jules and Ben’s house for wine and burrito bowls.

Overall, it was a fun weekend spent with some of the best girls I know (and, not to mention, a few cute babies and glasses of wine too). Good stuff, if you ask me!

Stay tuned and eat your greens.


** Note this blog went through a rebrand and is now veg vibes; which aligns better with the direction I organically gravitated towards. It’s all about your vibe **