¡Feliz 6 de mayo!

Walking around on the evening of Saturday the 5th, I was surprised by the unexpected number of people sporting sombreros. Just how big is this bachelor(ette) party? I thought to myself, until it hit me: Cinco de Mayo is a thing here. A decade abroad clears your memory of such details of your home culture. But this weekend, I was celebrating the 6th: Nicolas's 30th. Living on two different continents, you get stuck missing a lot of the Big Days. With birthdays in March and May, and a wedding anniversary in April, we each had to accept adding on a year on our own. Still, it's a real bummer to miss such a milestone birthday, one we won't get to mark together for another 96 days. So today, in honor of my husband's 30th, I went out to celebrate on my own in the finest fashion, with ice cream and beer.

I'm not sure if it's too early to call it, but I'm pretty sure I've found my top ice cream shop of San Francisco. Salt & Straw takes the best of American traditions, that ability to think outside the box, flaunting the rules, to concoct fantastic flavors that would never dare to brave an ice cream parlor in France, a country where food is a rigid art form and overly creative thinking strongly frowned upon. What draws me in most is their flavors-of-the-month list, which comes with paragraph-long explanations of each concoction's flavor profile. Not only do they offer a titillating selection, but at Salt & Straw, you can taste all the flavors you want before making up your mind. The servers are fantastically accommodating (as they probably should be given the prices they charge). You can even add some sanity to your order by taking "split scoops," basically human-sized scoops instead of typically-American basketball-sized servings that precariously balance atop the cone. This month's flavor theme: May Flowers. And you'd best believe I tried them all, except that vegan nonsense. The rose ice scream streaked with spicy dark chocolate fudge mole was heaven. I can't think of a more delicious way to mark Nicolas's 30th.

Salt & Straw: worth that 20 minute line

As I was busy covering myself in ice cream—the Salt & Straw stuff is so damned good that, cone in hand, I revert to a childlike state—I walked past this piece of eye candy (which I'll admit to having spotted once before but never having properly visited). Well, in the spirit of Nicolas's 30th, I could hardly just walk by, right?

Healthy Spirits: yet another site on the list of SF locales to which Nicolas must be introduced. Seriously, they have so many drinks that they've even got a ladder to access the selection! It's like an old-timey library, but with booze instead of books. Too cool.

After a couple of hours in the office, I came home and beelined to my rooftop to cap off Nicolas's birthday. If only he were able to share the celebration via more than just WhatsApp.

Drinking a Traquair Jacobite Ale (Scottish ale brewed with coriander and fermented in oak barrels) on my rooftop, in Nicolas's honor.

As they say, next year in Jerusalem! And by that I mean San Francisco. 😉🎂🎉