outfits

Night out at the Tonga Room

 in General Fashion  tagged outfits / restaurants / spring 2025 / staycation by

wearing: statement earrings / black sweater / suede bucket bag / black skirt / gemstone bracelet / spring nail polish / boots /

If you are local to the San Francisco Bay Area, chances are, you have been to, or at least heard of, the Tonga Room in San Francisco. Located inside the Fairmont Hotel, the Tonga Room is part of San Francisco history. It has been there since 1945 and has attracted celebrities, politicians, dignitaries and more. The Tonga Room is more than a fun place for dinner, it is an iconic experience.

The Tonga Room offers both dinner and a lounge/bar experience. Since I still have one child still living at home, we went for the dinner experience. Built over a 1920’s era swimming pool, the floating stage offers lounge music, and the decor surrounding the pool and throughout the venue is tiki themed. The restaurant has tables set up around the floating stage with the bar area on one side of the pool. Our table was opposite the bar which gave us a quiet location and a decent view of the live music on the floating stage.

It was really fun to enjoy good food, live music, tiki decor, and fancy drinks-mine is a non-alcoholic citrus soda, isn’t it fun! If you plan to go, I recommend making reservations. The Tonga Room is very popular, and the tables fill up ahead of time, so making reservations is the way to go. You can make them through OpenTable.

What I wore to the Tonga Room:

Have you been to the Tonga Room? If not, what are you waiting for? This is a bucket list item for San Francisco!

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy

Charcoal latte outing

 in General Fashion  tagged outfits / saratoga / spring 2025 by

wearing: multi-color earrings / necklace / mocha sweater (under $50) / suede bucket bag / spring nail polish / black wide leg pants (avl in petite, reg., and tall) / black boots (old, also love this pair) /

There is a popular coffee shop in downtown Saratoga named Sue’s Gallery Cafe. It was featured on “Zip Trips” which is a local TV show that showcases neighborhoods in the Bay Area and surrounding areas. It airs on local channel two, KTVU. I love this show because it features places I have been, as well as places I didn’t know existed. I grew up here and there are still nooks and crannies I’ve never heard of. This TV show is amazing for showing those locations!

So, when Zip Trips came to Saratoga, I knew I had to watch the episode. One of the places they talked about was Sue’s Gallery Cafe. It is a popular coffee shop which is always busy and attracts locals as well as visitors. One of the customers they interviewed was the one and only Ronnie Lott! If you are a football fan, and a niners fan, you know who he is!

Ronnie Lott told Zip Trips he loves Sue’s Gallery Cafe, and he enjoys their Charcoal Latte! So, my husband and I made it a point to try the famous drink. I mean, we are huge football fans, how could we not try Ronnie Lott’s recommendation? The episode aired last summer, so it took us awhile! We tend to make coffee at home, that’s why it took us so long to finally try the Charcoal Latte!

We decided to grab one Charcoal Latte and one Vanilla Latte; my good ‘ol standby order. I have to admit, the thought of Charcoal in my coffee was a little bit scary, but since it’s served and enjoyed by many, it must be edible! So, this felt like an adventure!

OK, without further ado, here is my take. It tastes slightly different than a regular latte. But, if you sipped it without looking at the color, you may not notice it isn’t a regular latte. Since I tend to like vanilla, I am not sure it will be something I order often. Although, my husband did like it, and he ended up drinking it while I drank the Vanilla Latte. Sue’s Gallery Cafe makes incredible coffee anyway, and when I go there, I have always ordered a Vanilla Latte, so I might just stick with my favorite. That being said, the Charcoal Latte was good.

Have you tried this trendy coffee drink? What are your thoughts?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO
Cathy

What I wore to jury duty

 in General Fashion  tagged outfits / winter 2025 by

wearing: pink earrings / olive tee / tweed jacket / bucket bag / spring nail polish / wide leg jeans (on sale) / boots / (background is AI generated-read below)

OK, first off, I was called for jury duty and wanted to be comfortable yet professional, so I paired my wide leg jeans with a blazer in order to combine comfort with a bit of structure. I was in the jury pool and ended up not getting called despite having to sit in a courtroom for three days while a jury was picked. This was my outfit from day three, I failed to photograph day one and day two because the weather was so bad.

Second, this is a full disclaimer! It was pouring rain when we snapped this photo, and the background was terrible. I wanted to share my jury duty outfit, but I didn’t like the photo overall, so I decided to play with AI.

In case you haven’t noticed, AI is everywhere. Sometimes I really need to examine a photo online in order to ensure it is real. It can be really difficult to tell! Since I wanted to share this outfit, but wasn’t happy with the background, I reluctantly clicked the “generate background” button and typed in various commands, the results were often humorous.

I tried “city streets,” “courthouse,” “sidewalk,” “path,” “downtown,” and from the often disturbing, dystopian results, I decided to try something a bit more on the simple side. My next run through was “brick wall,” and “plain wall.” These two commands resulted in close to real backgrounds. I cleaned up the background on this white wall and voila! I had a clean enough background to make the picture worthy of sharing.

It does feel weird posting something with an AI generated background, but since I didn’t touch the subject, which was me, I felt like it was ethical to post this photo along with a full disclaimer.

What are your thoughts on AI? Do you think using it to improve a photo is ethical? Is what I did OK?

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO
Cathy