I don’t know who wrote this but I love this because I’ve been feeling the same way waking up at 5am in the morning. I’ve recently been assigned to a project at work that requires me to attend meetings with other people in all parts of the world. I was worried that I might not be able to get up that early, let alone be awake enough to participate. As you can imagine, I tried going to bed much earlier than usual and had my alarm setup for every 15min leading up to the meeting time. For some reason, I woke up 30 mins before the meeting feeling really great. I remember reading somewhere that if you wake up at the right time of your sleep cycle (like at your lightest sleep), you actually wake up feeling refreshed and well rested. So this 5am meetings are only temporary but I’m serious about changing my sleep cycle so I can start my day early and feel great at the same time. Here are some tools that I’ve been looking into to help me achieve that.
Last friday, I decided to venture out to the city on a mini coffee tour. I had a day off and boys had school so I decided to go visit few new coffee spots in the city. I recently found this photo blog called SPOTTEDSF and it’s such a beautiful blog with great photos and short write-up on all unique shops and cafés in the area (Oakland and San Francisco in particular) also includes some other favorite cities to visit. Since I only had few hours to visit, I decided to park my car at the bart station in Oakland and took the bart into the city. It’s been years since I took bart since I stopped communting to the city. I transferred to muni to go out to Castro to visit new coffee in town REVEILLE COFFEE CO. It was located just few blocks away from the muni station. First thing that I noticed walking into Réveille was black and white tiles against the side of the wall. It was bold but had a very clean and modern feeling to it. I also loved the clean wood ceiling and light fixtures. I ordered their avacado, fried egg toast and their Americano (my morning choice) and it was absolutely perfect. Americano had a very smooth finish to it. Café was not that big but there was plenty of seating space inside with tables, bars stools and chairs outside. What a lovely place in Castro to grab a good cup of coffee. There is another Réveille location in Chinatown and a coffee truck that goes around the city, I can’t wait to check it out.
After walking around Castro area for little bit I was headed to SAINT FRANK in Russian Hill. There is a cable car at Powell/Market that will take you right up to the Russian Hill but it’s usually packed with tourists so it was best to take the bus up there. When I got up to the Russian Hill, it was so sunny and warm with nice breeze. A typical San Francisco weather that I really love. It was a nice day to just walk around the neighborhood. Saint Frank coffee shop had a nice open feel to it when you first walk in. I really love their long stretch counter and seating on one side and work tables upstairs. I sat there for a while to enjoy my cup of cappuccino (my afternoon choice), read, write, sketch some of my recent ideas. It was perfect place to be for that. I like that their music wasn’t too loud so you can work there with your laptop, meet up with your friends. Baristas were super nice and pleasant to chat with. They also have a little outdoor stand in SOMA area if you don’t feel like hiking up to Russian hill. 😛
