La Vie est Belle: Design meets Sustainability @ Compostmodern, SF

I had the privilege of attending the Compostmodern conference in San Francisco this weekend. The conference was Saturday and Sunday and then we spent all day Monday and Tuesday sight-seeing. I went with four other students, our design professor and PLU's sustainability manager who funded our way. The conference brought into question how to create sustainable thinking in people. It also just opened our minds to the possibilities of sustainability. It kinda felt like we were all getting together to come up with ways to "save the world."

We stayed in a gold LEED certified hotel, with a zero carbon footprint. It was a beautiful hotel with an Arabian twist and rooms that smelled like lavender. We made record speed each morning getting up early for the conference. We felt quite accomplished that we could get four girls ready for the day in 30 minutes!

After the conference was over we spent the rest of our trip exploring SF. We walked Fisherman's Wharf, where we met up with a friend of Chrissy (PLU's Sustainability Manager), who was nice enough to have us all over for tacos. On the way to tacos our cab driver drove us down Lombard street (how fun!). Homemade tacos after eating out for every meal was definitely a treat! On Monday we explored China Town, ate lunch on top of one of the downtown buildings, met with the MBA Program Director at California College of the Arts (which is the coolest art school ever) and took BART under water to Oakland. We flew home Sunday night but that didn't stop us from making use of the entire day. We actually ended up using every form of transportation on Sunday: 3 busses, 1 trolley, 2 ferries, 1 taxicab, 1 airport shuttle, 1 airplane (with only 20 people), another airport van and then finally our car. We visited Dolores Park, ate the most delicious brunch, and ferried to Sausolito where we walked around the neighborhoods and drooled over the most beautiful properties.

I had such a great time visiting SF again, what a diverse city! If anyone is visiting SF in the near future I highly recommend Brenda's French Soulfood for a large breakfast (on Polk and Eddy), Mission Beach Cafe for brunch, they have the best eggs, bacon and potatoes I have ever tasted (on 14th and Gerrara) and Fly (on Sutter and Larken). Those were a few among the many gourmet meals we treated ourselves to.

Enjoy my photos!