Life always take unexpected turns that make one look back and cherish the decisions taken along the way.
Hello guys and gals, this is formally my first post in this blog and I’m going to start with a small advise.
When in doubt, go for it!
Yes, for the longest time i hold back for a reason or another and waited for too long to do what felt right to achieve my goals and make something out of my life along the way.
The goal? Find personal and professional happiness.
My goals at the time? Travel the world, financial security, inner peace and find the life partner to share these experiences with. All seemed a bit out of reach 5 years ago when I started this journey, but fortunately I have been in the right place at right time.
It started with moving out of my home town and burst the comfort zone bubble.
What I mean by busting the comfort zone? Well moving to a totally different country where I only knew a handful of people related to the new job I was taking in, the new job itself, as it was a totally different area of expertise from the previous position I was holding.
The good thing about it was the new experience and the assurance that I would be meeting new people and see new places along the way, was hard in the beginning but absolutely worth it.
I have to thank my family that always supported me even under the perspective that I would not be around as much, and also the persons that open the door for. Me and believed in me enough to offer me a position in a totally different industry, I worked hard not to disappoint them while trying to meet my goals.
From these five years onwards, I gained the most beautiful life experience, met outstanding people from all over the world, and traveled more that in my first 33 years back in Portugal. This was a 180 life change and a total culture shock, but as long as one keeps an open mind, one will experience something new every day! Sometimes, all it takes is a small talk with stranger, having a meal at a new restaurant, going into an unplanned route, answering a online message from an online accoitance, this and the simple turn left instead of right can bring you to the most joyful experience ever.
The above holds truth for me as in this process I met the love of my life, it’s hard to explain in a few words how good it feels to have such effortless relationship. It’s rewarding to be able to make her happy just by being myself, and i do try to make her happy, she deserves it, its impressive how we share so many similar interests and how she can make me smile with a simple look or brink of an eye. Love you Em!
In my posts, I plan to relate you to that experience and hopefully inspire someone to enjoy this short life while sharing my day to day experiences with Em while we experience new travel destinations, try new and tasty foods, and anything else worth keeping a written log. Besides traveling for work, I’m also a photographer In my free time. A hobby that I wish I had some more time to dedicate to, but certainly helps me and Em capture the little things that wish to share in this site.
Please note that none of the posts are sponsored nor do we expected to have any earnings from this, the restaurants we go to are just random options. Please consider this as the life diary of a couple that just met and wishes to share their love and similar interests with you.
With this said, there won’t be any chronological order on my posts, I have a lot of pics and stories from five years ago, but those will be mixed with current events, I will keep you positioned in time but don’t expect publication in chronological order.
San Francisco Travel Series…
So, now that you have some background and know what to expect from my posts o this site, I’m going to start with my first trip with Em to San Francisco, this was our first time out of Vegas where we are based on and where met after I moved from the east coast (Miami and Atlanta), we were together for a couple of months at the time of this trip and was a great opportunity to know her at a deeper level and start to build memories together.
Result? Total win, was a fun long weekend, in the end of winter, temperature was very comfortable to walk outside with a light jacket enjoying the San Francisco sunny weekend. we walked, visited multiple points of interest and experienced a lot of good food, yes, San Francisco is definitely a go to place if you would like to experience good food from all over the world.
Fisherman’s Warf
Started with sightseeing walk over the SF hills with a lunch stop at fisherman’s Warf to get Em’s craving for crab meat sandwich satisfied.
Funny story here is that seagulls in Fisherman’s Warf in San Francisco are used to tourists and the whole commotion and can get very frisky. We learned that very quickly right after this picture was taken, as we were walking from the street food market within your seafood snacks to a small open area where folks sit and eat, this seagull flew from above and literally snatched the shrimp cup from Em’s hand, it felt like those National Geographic videos of a wild eagle fly diving 200miles an hour to catch its prey!… I never seen Em jump so high, in less than a second we were reduced to half a meal! Props to the seagull, perfect hit and run, no time to react to it at all, hehehe. Good news was that Em still got her Crab Meat sandwich fix… always a good side to every story!
Delicious by the way, a tasty crab meat pate, in a mini baguette stile bread. Very fresh and moist, really satisfying, especially in hot weather with a cold drink.
In the evening we were pretty worn out from all the walking around while sightseeing, Uber and Lyft are life savers in San Francisco, easy, cheap way to get around outside the cable car lines when the hills are too steep to climb.
Uma Casa!
After some deserved rest and freshen up we decided to go to a Portuguese restaurant, I had to get my Portuguese food fix this time, unfortunately in Vegas we don’t have an original Portuguese restaurant (Big Fail to Vegas BTW), so when we go on these unplanned trips we always try to find a Portuguese place so Em can know a bit more of my home country food an culture. It’s always fun, I’m always able to introduce her to new Portuguese flavors and tasty foods.
This time, we decided to do a few courses so she could have a taste of multiple dishes.
In comes the Cod fried pastries. This is a very traditional snack in Portugal, Main ingredients are Cod, Potato, parsley, and then they get deep fried for a crunchy texture outside but remaining fluffy inside. Ideally should not be too dry. Has a salty taste to it and goes really well with a beer. Can find complete recipe here, I will do a future post with a home attempt to cook these for Em following this trip as I realized how much she liked these.
The appetizer was followed by Clams in Lemmon sauce, AKA “Amêijoas a Bulhão Pato”, this is also a very traditional dish in Portuguese seafood restaurants, and it’s basically clams steamed in butter, garlic and lemon sauce, priceless, very light and goes really well with a light fresh wine and toasted bread with garlic butter. HHHMMMM, mouth is watering just thinking of it! We love to do this dish every now and then for dinner.
Before we move to the main course, and I have to say that we were already pretty full, the waiter brought us a nice Shrimp a la’Jillo, I’m sure you already had this in any Spanish tapas restaurant in the us, but it’s also very popular dish in Portugal, and whenever I see it in the menu, just got to have it! 🙂
Next course was Fried pork meet with potato and clams AKA- “Carne porco a alentejana com ameijoa”. This is a southern traditional dish and there are some variations to it. Some chefs like to cook the meet in a sort of light stew, but I find that the traditional way is to fry the pork meat and then add the potato in the oil as well to absorb the pork meet flavors. Not a diet friendly food, but its crazy good. I have also cooked this dish a couple times at home, and it’s always a hit with family and friends.
E Tutto Qua!
E Tutto Qua! OMG!
Best Italian restaurant I have ever been? Very likely. Will I return? Yes, definitely.
If you are in San Francisco and you feel like Italian food, please make your way to eat tutti qua, not only you will be mesmerized with the outstanding Italian food, but as a bonus, it comes with the authentic Italian experience of a true Italian restaurant somewhere in Sicily.
I mean, fresh, Cooked pasta, with best Italian meats, and a loud, friendly Italian speaking staff that takes your dining experience to a new level and transports you to the promenades and bohemian nights of old traditional Italy.
Biggest fail, on our side is that we were so busy experiencing all this that we did not take a single picture in this place. Here is one that I will return to in a future blog once we complete a new trip to San Francisco, stay tuned.
More to Come on San Francisco travel series! 🙂
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