About a month ago my buddy Andrew and I flew up to San Francisco to visit some friends. If you don’t know, I went to culinary school in SF back in 2004, so I make a trip up there to visit friends at least once a year. I have friends that are chefs, bar tenders, clothing designers, managers, photographers - nearly all of them are creative.
Sam, Jared and I had this wonderful idea - we’d all buy different rolls of film and shoot Chinatown at night. Then we’d develop the rolls, scan them, upload them and share our photos online. Well, my poor buddy Sam got super sick the week I was heading up and ended up in the hospital. Our little Chinatown adventure didn’t happen but we still made a trip out of it.
This trip was different than most - I wanted to focus more on beverage photography. With the help of SF Travel, I linked up with Stanford Court and was granted access to their wonderful bar - Seven Stills Nob Hill. Their location is amazing, right in Nob Hill with sweeping views of the city.
Someone told me I had to try the cocktails at Seven Stills so I ordered a few. The bartenders were gracious, knowledgeable and accommodating. Plus, there was a beer brewed for Pride Week that we were able to shoot as well.
The beer was good too, especially from the rooftop.
After taking a few more cocktail photos, we ordered some food and called it a night.
The following day we drove south, hugging the coast. Pacifica to Santa Cruz then Monterey. Jared had told me about some amazing breweries he had tried so that’s what we did. The first brewery was called Humble Sea. It’s in Santa Cruz. As you can see, some of us like our beers, hazy and hoppy and others like them dark, motor-oily and thick. To each their own!
After Humble Sea we headed to Sante Adairus for some Rustic Ales. The lighting was perfect for us photo nerds so we had tons of fun geeking out on beer shots. Keep in mind these are “tasters” that’s why the glass isn’t full (in case you’re wondering why we drank the beer then took the photos).
After getting some food, we headed to Monterey, checked into our hotel and walked to my friends tasting room - Fieldwork. Alex Tweet, the owner is a childhood friend of mine from San Diego who moved to Berkeley to start Fieldwork. Now with 6 locations in Northern California, he’s established himself as one of the best brewers in all of California.
After dinner, Jared and Andrew hopped in the pool for a while as I sat and watched them. I forgot my trunks and was somehow short a shirt as well. I might be the worst packer, ever.
The following morning we drove to the Lone Cypress - one of my favorite drives. The 17 mile drive is gorgeous. In fact, my 6 year old daughter (whom I took here back in April) confused it with a drive we did in Hawaii last summer because the trees are so green and everything is so lush. Monterey has to be one of my favorite cities in California.
You know what’s crazy, we drove back to SF that day, had some beer and food at Wood’s Beer Co. then drove up to Mt. Tamalpais, which also holds another special place in my heart.
I leave you with photos of my one favorite places on earth - Mt Tamalpais, mainly because it’s late and I don’t want to write anymore and because this place speaks for itself.
