Davis

When eating at home, I have this horrible habit of getting up to clean my plate while I'm still chewing my last bite. Am I in some kind of a rush? Apparently so given what happened yesterday: while grating Parmesan onto my fried egg, I was grating so rapidly that I grated off part of my finger nail. I'll spare you the gory details, but needless to say it's time to slow down.

April was all about clean-up, refresh, re-new. I spent most weekends at home, making my apartment a bright, happy and intentional place. Remember: out with the old, in with the new. Now that almost everything's in order (bags of unneeded items to donate are still in my hallway! Sometimes that one trip to Salvation Army is like pulling teeth!) and May is here, I'm ready to enjoy this space I've created.

First order of business: get out of town! Sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but yes, it's true. After basically spending every weekend of April in my apartment cleaning, sorting, re-imagining, organizing, I was ready for a well-earned day trip. Sarah mentioned spending the day in Davis for biking, farmers marketing and burgers and brewing. Sounds like my kind of day!

 

Davis is just an hour or so north east from San Francisco. I've only been once before and have been eager to get back up there. I loved the idea of biking through the farmland and UC Davis, a most idyllic sounding college campus from what I've heard. I wanted it all: the small town, the sunshine, the wheels. It is Bike Month in Davis, after all. But, first, this farmer's market I've been hearing all about:

 

Buckets of flowers are always reminiscent of the opening scene in My Fair Lady.  Our first taste at the farmer's market was a cherry. The first of the season too!

Musing over why I might need one of these baskets. I didn't buy one, but it's a great excuse to go back!

Freshly baked pretzels are one of my favorite treats. I come by them so infrequently, I'd definitely call them a delicacy.

The dreamiest, freshest looking bread. It actually reminded me of the bread at one of my favorite restaurants in LA, the Ivy at the Shore.

Next, onto some cycling. On this trip I learned that a.) two bikes fit perfectly in the back seat of my car and b.) Davis was voted the #1 Best Small Bicycle Friendly City by Bicycling Magazine. Number five on the list was Burlington, VT - another small town I've spent the day riding in. It's hard to compare the two. In Burlington, I road out onto a causeway over Lake Champlain that made it feel as though I was floating on the water. In Davis, we biked on rural roads, so seemingly endless and open, it was as though we were flying through the fields on either side of us. Horses grazed to our left and, for us, nothing but freedom ahead.

We also got to explore the campus on our bikes. The bike lanes were amazing. At times, they intersected. No wonder everyone's on their bikes. It was also 80 degrees. Did I mention that?

Thank goodness for places that are called Burger and Brew. Makes days like these feel whole. 

After lunch, it was time to wind down. We plopped ourselves in Central Park (don't worry, we were still in Davis) with a blanket and some magazines. The black and white stripes above are Sarah's dress and that photo was an accident. Isn't that cool!?

Me, waking up from my nap.

The center of town has an amazing flower and herb garden. These roses were utterly beautiful and delicate.

Davis is bike friendly, that's for sure. It's also friendly for big-city dwellings in need of a dose of small town life. We made a wrong turn on our way out of town but it was a happy accident. We literally turned into the parking lot for the COOP, the one place in Davis I'd been to, once before, years ago. We got icy cold drinks for the road. We played music with the windows rolled down, heading back again to another city.