The other weekend, Dan and I spent a Sunday afternoon in Piedmont. It’s a small affluent city surrounded by Oakland and is known for its beautiful architecture and trees. I’d never been to Piedmont before, so we stopped by a park and walked around. There was so much green, I loved it! The area reminds me of my hometown of Vienna, with its lush foliage and manicured lawns. I miss the East Coast….
Here is a little video I took…
Last night, Dan and I went to the much-anticipated Muse concert in Oracle Arena in Oakland. Muse is one of Dan’s favorite bands, and so when I heard that they were coming back in December, I immediately picked up a pair of tickets as a birthday gift for Dan. I’d also grown to become a fan, from listening to Dan’s music library, so I was pretty psyched to see them live too.
The stadium was packed and Muse put on an awesome show that did not disappoint! They sang all of their much-loved classics, such as Uprising, Resistance, Supermassive Black Hole, Unnatural Selection, and my personal favorite, Starlight. Their set was incredible, too! They had these massive skyscraper-like structures onstage that opened up to reveal them inside each at the start of the show, and they kept being lowered and lifted and spun atop them while all sorts of motion graphics and effects played on the sides of them. It was visually stunning; I’d never seen anything like it before.
Here’s a video of Muse performing Starlight last night. Amazing!
It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, and I came out even more a fan than I was before! Definitely looking forward to seeing them live again sometime. 🙂
If you know me, you know that one of my latest obsessions is cupcakes — more in terms of eating them, rather than making them (although I do enjoy trying my hand at a few cupcake recipes here and there).
So when I heard about Cupkates Truck from a friend recently, I was immediately intrigued. Cupkates Truck is a mobile cupcakery, and the very first “cupcake truck” in the whole Bay Area. They wander around Berkeley and Oakland selling delicious cupcakes straight from the truck (like a taco truck, except with cupcakes!) Their cupcakes are apparently baked fresh daily with local high-quality ingredients. Sounds like a winner to me! 🙂
We actually didn’t get a chance to try them until today, since aside from us being busy, the truck moves to a different location everyday and sells out promptly within a couple hours of arriving. You have to be on the ball to catch them before they’re out of cupcakes, especially on a weekend (which is really the only time we can get them, since we’re both at work when they’re out and about during the weekdays).
Let me tell you right now that Cupkates Truck is a slice of heaven that you will not want to miss out on. If you don’t believe me, here are some mouthwatering photos.
I’m so glad that we were finally able to track down Cupkates Truck after stalking them on Twitter for quite some time now. Their cupcakes are definitely some of the best in the area, and have a great balance of seasonal/unique flavors and traditional (like double chocolate and double vanilla). You can follow them on Twitter or Facebook to see where they are daily, and look up their available flavors on their Menu. I know I will definitely be paying them another visit soon to get my cupcake fix.
July is National Ice Cream Month, and what better way to celebrate than with a heavenly ice cream sundae from Fentons Creamery? Fentons was recently immortalized by the Pixar film UP, in the ending scene where Mr. Frederickson and Russell sit on the curb and count cars.
Fentons has enjoyed a long history of over one hundred years in Oakland since they opened in 1894, and is a favorite among the locals. The ice creamery is dedicated to preserving the tradition of creating ice creams and toppings batch-by-batch, scoop-by-scoop.
I indulged in my first taste of Fentons about four years ago when I was visiting Dan from Virginia, and loved it — although I couldn’t quite finish the ginormous sundae. We hadn’t gone back in a while but we finally had a chance to go for a second time with some friends last week. Dan and I got their cookie sundae, which features cookies n’ cream and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream piled on top of a chocolate chip cookie, and it was a heaping pile of sweet deliciousness. (and we were able to finish it!)
Oh, how I love summer and all the yummy desserts that come with it — ice cream, gelato, sorbet, frozen yogurt… bring it on!