The circus is in town!

The circus is in town! And it's quite literally just next door. So, what better way to celebrate than with a work trip to a nearly NSFW extravaganza on the last Friday of September? We had to blow that Q3 social budget somehow or other.

Neuralink goes to the circus!

I was especially excited by the suspended pole performance. In case wasn't tough enough when solidly rooted to the ground. Wow!

We definitely moved to the right neighborhood.

At home in Oakland

I'd been so proud and pleased to call that beautiful tower in the heart of SF home. It offered stunning views, and was the perfect place to welcome Nicolas to America. But, with an office moving to the complete opposite edge of the Bay and five people in a two-bedroom starting to feel cramped, it was about time to start thinking about Nicolas and Emilienne's Big Move 2019. (It's what we do.) 

Goodbye, luxury living (in close quarters) in the heart of SF.

With both Nicolas and myself commuting the same way across the Bay, we had to see what lie on the other side of said Bay. I can't deny I had my misgivings. As someone not originally from California, I arrived here with the idea of Oakland as San Francisco's grittier little sibling. When I saw just how gritty San Francisco could be, I didn't have the appetite to venture further into the grit. But Oakland's reputation doesn't do justice to the Oakland of 2019. What we found when we finally crossed the Bay Bridge was a vibrant, artsy community with great breweries, ice cream shops, and a gorgeous lake. There was no getting around it: it was time to pack our bags.

Our two champion moving assistants

Hello, Oakland!

Prices are lower than in SF, if not by much, and the rents over here allowed us to upgrade from five to just three people in a 2-bedroom, while still having more leftover at the end of each month. For the first time since leaving Brighton, I finally have a living room and a dining table. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed them. We've now got a great stack of boardgames and we've finally begun hosting friends. For the first time since moving to California, it's starting to feel like home.

Our new living and dining room! No more Ikea-shelving-walled-off "converted" third bedroom for us! And we've swapped our old Civic Center view for one of our private pool, where people of all ages and colors can be heard having fun throughout the sunny summer weekends. Definitely a homier touch.

Our new bedroom, complete with the latest incarnation of the charmingly creepy Alice-in-Wonderland corner, carried over from our Lewes Crescent Brighton days.

Our new fancy walk-in closet. Cue the ooh-ah, ladies. I was a little afraid at first about the cats having access to all our stuff, but they've been surprisingly forgiving on this front.

And finally, the new bathroom. Gets the job done, and hides a surprisingly larger amount of storage than the previous place offered.

Not only do we have a charming new home but the neighborhood ain't too shabby.

Oakland has that artsy vibe that had drawn us in to Brighton

Lake Merritt, about 5-10 minutes' walk from our new home, is a lively weekend hangout from humans, their four-legged friends, and all sorts of wildlife including the American White Pelican, North America's second largest bird, boasting wingspans of 9-10 feet!

And finally, a shout-out to my partner in crime, who's moved with me more often than either of us have cared to. I found this gem on the new commute that inspired our move.

Take me out to the ball game

Photographic proof of Nicolas's first time enjoying America's favorite pastime, against the Yanks no less! I guess that takes him one step closer to his green card, whenever that thing emerges from the depths of US immigration services.

My Frenchman's first baseball game: Oakland A's versus NY Yankees

PS - Oakland won.

A quick swing back East

Just before Our Big Move - 2019 Edition, we had a few days for a quick swing back east. The brief visit left us with just enough time for an afternoon on the beach,

Jersey Shore, baby!

a family wedding,

Dan & Arina finally tied the knot! And Grandpa's still got the dance moves!

and a couple of days to explore the nation's capital.

Nicolas's first trip to DC!

It really wasn't the proper vacation we wanted or needed, but at least it was a couple days to catch our breath before the chaos that awaited us on the Left Coast.

The cat's out of the bag!

It's official! The cat's out of the bag⁠—sort of. The blanket ban on social media still stands. As for the Big Day, it was ultimately anything but, at least for those of us on the inside. But the word is out and we finally got to see what the world had to say. and by now, I expect our butts are mostly recovered from those concrete floors. So for all the blood, sweat, and tears that brought us to last night, cheers!

Corgi Con 2019

I just attended what is quite possibly the greatest free activity in San Francisco: Corgi Con. I'd heard talk about this last year on the very afternoon that it had happened. Heartbroken to have missed it, my attendance at this year's event has long been in the works.

Imagine nearly 1000 loaves of enthusiastic fur waddling around the beach, dressed to the nines (and occasionally competing in the most ridiculous corgi Ninja Warrior event imaginable). My heart was exploding and my iPhone didn't have enough battery to satisfy all my photography needs. All in all, a Saturday mid-day fluffed to perfection.

SO MANY CORGOS!! 😍

Our family trip to Costa Rica

The slog of everyday life hasn't left me much room for inspiration when it comes to this blog, but a family trip down south— way south— sure serves as fodder. It's been a week since we've gotten back and I'm still dragging my feet on writing this up. My blogging began as a glorified photo album, so today I'll embrace that side. After all, a picture's worth a thousand words, right? So here's my Costa Rican novel.

En route to Costa Rica via an overnight in Mexico City, complete with some fabulous guac and tacos

A happy discovery along the ride to visit a volcano: the Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia, where we saw all the steps of coffee production, from seedling to ripening fruit to roasted bean.

Not too far from San Jose, the capitol of Costa Rica, lives the Poas Volcano, an active volcano, at least according to Wikipedia. As far as we were concerned, it might very well have been a quick hike over to a very large fog machine.

The La Paz Waterfall and Peace Lodge Gardens are a private animal sanctuary and resort for wild animals rescued from illegal capitivity that are not fit to be released to the wild. This place was a major highlight of our visit, and definitely merited more than just one collage. Here we've got the birds and butterflies, including the world's friendliest tucan.

The sloths at La Paz merit their own collage.

Monkeys at La Paz!

A few of the "cuter" snakes at La Paz - yikes!

The big (and not so big) cat at La Paz

The frogs at La Paz were unexpectedly charming, especially Costa Rica's iconic and highly photogenic red-eyed tree frog!

Scenes from San Jose, sculptures by the Costa Rican sculptor Deredia, and artefacts from the city's Pre-Columbian Gold Museum.

Finally, we headed down to the Caribbean just north of the Panamanian border, for afternoons on the white and black sand beaches, crisp Costa Rican beers, fruity cocktails, and fresh iced coffees straight from the coffee bean farms.

Our Airbnb in Puerto Viejo was nestled in the jungle just a few minutes from the beach.

Like good tourists, we checked off the jungle canopy zipline tour, complete with the stomach-dropping tarzan swing.

My favorite part of the vacation: the Caribeans chocolate tour. Just outside of the center of Puerto Viejo, we kicked off with some incredibly fresh iced chocolate drinks while waiting on our tour. Wandering into the jungle that hugs the coast line, our tour guide taught us all about cacao farming. As she walked us along the jungle trails and we developed an eye for it, we starting realizing that the cacao fruits were just everywhere around us, in so many different colors from bright yellow to pale green to deep purple-red. We learned about the fungus that's been devastating Costa Rica's cacao farms, destroying over 80% of the crop, a fungus which the locals believe was brought in by the big banana companies, who took over the land when cacao farmers went bust. (I loved how what they called "farms" were basically jungles carefully tended to ensure 50/50 sunlight/shade for the cacao plants.) We learned about new resistant strains that are being bred, to help Costa Rica's cacao farmers make a comeback. We learned that the cacao fruit is shockingly substantial, a white slimy tropical food so yummy that it surprised me that anyone got past it to realize that the bitter inner seed might have so much potential! And finally, we learned to taste chocolate, in an experience surprisingly similar to wine tasting, just without the buzz. We even learned that chocolate mixes surprisingly well, of all things, fresh garlic. And in case that wasn't enough, we got to know a very hardy sloth en route back to the cafe when a crash landing caught us all by surprise.

Finally, back in San Jose, we bid the rest of the family goodbye on an early morning flight, and then enjoyed the wait until our late night departure with a day trip out to Tortuga Island on Costa Rica's Pacific Coast. In a tropical paradise, just the two of us for the day, it nearly felt like the honeymoon we're still planning on getting around to.