Day 1: Ice cream, ramen and drag.

Day 2: The Pork Store, Haight and Ashbury, Relic Vintage and The Ice Cream Bar.

Day 3: Ferry Building, Musee Mecanique, cable cars and Mission.

Day 4: Long coastal walk, Golden Gate windmills and the best grilled cheese ever.

Day 5: Conservatory of Flowers, botanical gardens, Ethiopian food and taiyaki.

Day 6: Bette’s Diner, Cheeseboard, ridiculous rain and anniversary dinner.

Day 7: Vegan brunch, cat cafe, trans rock opera, Mexican food and catching up.

Day 8: Berkley again, bookstores and Little Giant Ice Cream.

Day 9: Oakland, brunch, spice shop, Cookiebar ice cream and graffiti.

This was my third trip to the Bay Area and I still haven’t visited half of it. It’s one of my favourite places in the world and I always feel so welcome. Remember there is so much to see outside of San Francisco – so go and explore!

In January, I went to my first ever drag show, you can read about it here. I loved it to say the least. On holiday in the Bay area, I caught another show at a club in Castro (though I didn’t document it that well sadly). When my friend Kelly suggested we go to the UK premiere performance of Sasha Velour’s Nightgowns, I just couldn’t say no. She a fellow lover of drag and it would be too good an opportunity to pass up.

It was a scorcher of a day so I slung on this dress from Collectif and trotted off to meet Kelly. We started off with bibimbap in Soho – maybe not the best idea for a hot day but so good! We then cooled off with a fabulous (if not slightly messy) ice cream from Chin Chin.

After a little wait in the sun, we found our seats at The Grand in Clapham. It was a beautiful space indeed and we were so excited!

We came away from the show just full of joy. I’d seen so many queens I’d never seen before and I’m so glad I did. Throughout the performances, we laughed, cried, boogied, sang and held hands. A truly wonderful drag experience.

Yay! The weather’s warmed up and it’s actually sunny – on a bank holiday too. A few months ago, we’d started to plan what we’d get up to this weekend and finally it was here. Both of us have had full-on weeks at work so some downtime was needed.

As I knew we were heading to a cat cafe, I wore my only cat-print piece of clothing with a top from Lady K Loves.

Our first stop was Housmans bookshop in King’s Cross. I follow an artist called Soofiya on Instagram. I first heard about them at Burnt Roti’s ‘Beauty Of Being British Asian’ exhibition – you can read more about it here. They’d created a zine called ‘Auntie Fatima’ and I was desperate to pick it up. I fell in love with Housmans – I could have blown my entire bank account in there. If you get the chance to visit please do – their children’s section is awesome too.

Next on our list was ‘Sense Of Space’ at Broadgate. It’s an art installation designed to activate your senses and challenge your sensory perceptions through art. On such a beautiful day, it was tempting just to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. Each room definitely made you feel something different. Our favourite room was The Infinite Garden – not only was it visually beautiful but you felt like you could lose yourself in there. The installation is free to view until May 18th so you can see what it’s like for yourself.

After a stroll through the graffiti-covered side streets of Shoreditch, we were ready for afternoon tea at Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium. My other half’s mum arranged it as our Christmas gift this year – such a lovely idea. Nick adores cats so this was perfect for him. Afternoon tea surrounded by roaming cats sounds a little odd but you get used to it quite quickly. Savouries included mini-baguettes filled with tuna or egg mayo, cheese scones and jalapeno cornbread. Then, we moved on to scones with raspberry or strawberry jam. Finally, we got on to the cakes – a mixture of quite yummy patisserie. After we munched, we spent some time petting kitties, feeling very content.

It was a simply wonderful day – good company, perfect weather and memorable experiences. What more could you want?