A Little Shopping in Berkeley, CA

So my time here in Berkeley has been spent doing a little bit of work and a little bit of shopping!  Actually - scratch that - make that a lot of work and as much shopping as I could fit in.  With days beginning with a 3:30am wake-up call, I had to make sure I was getting plenty of rest at night.  All started out well with an upgrade at my hotel to a room with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Close to my hotel is Fourth Street, which is a really cute road with lots of great shops and restaurants.  I made my first stop at Paper Source, which we don't have close to where I live.  And I'm a stationery NUT.

So of course I walked away with a package.  :)  I bought 20 white circular flat notecards and some square envelopes to fit them in -- 10 in Curry, 10 in Pool.  The colors are a pretty golden yellow and an aqua.

Making my way down Fourth, I spotted a C&B outlet.  We're registered at C&B so I was curious to see if I could get any of our pieces at a discounted price and have them shipped down to us.  While they didn't have the specific glassware I was looking for {these, if you're curious}, I did fall in love with a leather chair with a dark green velvet cushion that I had to tear myself away from.  

Continuing down Fourth, I was in awe at some of the window displays.  Check out this one with life-sized chef mannequins and lots of whimsical details at Molly B ...

... and this one with gorgeous colors at Z Gallerie.  

I stopped in Z Gallerie to drool over this mirrored buffet {want to buy it for me? here ya go.}

It was getting dark and I was getting pretty hungry.  I'd heard great things from my client about Sabuy Sabuy II {and cross-referenced it with stellar reviews on Yelp} so I headed there for some Thai food.  Yes, I had Thai food for lunch the day prior in Portland -- but Ian's not crazy about curry, so I'm loading up on as much of it as I can handle on this trip before returning home today!

My green curry dish included chicken, tofu, red and yellow peppers, and broccoli.  It was great but so spicy that my nose kept running like crazy.  At least I was dining solo and not on a date!  Right as I was dying from the heat, they brought me a complimentary tasting of their homemade ice creams.  Can you guess the flavors?  Pistachio and grape?  Nahhh, keep guessing!

How about asparagus and mulberry raspberry?  Ding ding ding!  You guessed right!  The asparagus was my favorite -- it was fresh and green tasting.  Does that make sense?  It was so different than what I'm used to, and it was sooooooooo .... Berkeley.  :)  I think that's why I liked it.

Time for me to head to the airport for my trip home today - I'll get home around 7:15 tonight and not a moment too soon!  TGIF!