The Mission

Nothing like a nice relaxing Saturday! I spent most of the day working like a dog in the backyard. Went to the nursery ad bought some plants for my pots and some more filler for the flower beds. After about 6 hours I decided to stop since I had a hot date to get ready for. Nick and I were going to have a nice romantic dinner at the Foreign Cinema in San Francisco. It is right in the heart of the Mission district. Being that we got there an hour before our reservation, we decided to drive around a bit. I was not going to park and hoof it in 3 inch Anne Kleins! I love the Mission, it is such a funky, lively area that you almost don't notice the vagrants or any garbage, all you see is little outdoor vendors and corner produce markets and wall murals and jazz clubs. We even saw a Greek Import store that made Nick perk up. We drove all the way down to 30th and oh the sights we saw! Of course just driving down 10 blocks took about a half hour but it was fun sightseeing. The Foreign Cinema is an incredible little hole in the wall restaurant that you would not even look twice at passing it by. It is between 21st and 22nd and has a weird industrial looking door that leads to a long concrete hallway. Last night the hallway was lined with votive candles and cherry blossoms in big vases. You come to the end of this dark hallway and it opens up to a tiny bar and the most beautiful outdoor patio where they show movies on the brick wall at the end of it. Last nights movie was Breakfast at Tiffanys, but of course I already knew that and that is why I made these reservations a month ago! Our dinner was fabulous. Now...I am not an adventurous eater by any means but I always try something different when I go there and have yet to be diappointed. In fact, I even ate the vegetables that graced my plate! Yum! So un-Erin. The movie was a little hard to pay attention to since the speakers were not at our table and there was alot of chatter. Fabulous none the less. But the reason you go there is for the ambiance and that we were overwhelmed with. I love going to San Francisco. It is a place were you can get lost and end up finding the most incredible little gems and treasures. Nick finds it hard to get past the homeless issue and says that I romanticize the city but I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing. We are so lucky to have such beautiful and historical playground right in our own backyard. If anyone has any other "gems" please let me know...I am always up for a hunt!

www.foreigncinema.com