I recently had the good fortune to travel to the Bay Area for a long weekend to visit friends and run the inaugural Oakland Half Marathon.

The weather was amazing.

We enjoyed afternoon sweets at Mission Pie, toured the Takara Sake Factory and worked our way through the Mikkeller single hop series. 

We enjoyed beautiful sunsets, fresh eggs from the hens Molly and Stefan's housemates keep, and gorgeous produce (the Berkeley Bowl grocery store is out of this world).

My arrival back in the office came too quickly, but the gorgeous weather followed me. I've found myself enjoying many meals outdoors, sitting on our front stoop watching the neighborhood activity or reading on our backyard deck. When I am in the mood for something quick and light, Orangette's chickpea salad is one of my favorites.

It only has five ingredients - chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, Parmesan and salt - but the bright flavors make a satisfying meal.  I like to add in some lemon zest to Molly's recipe and often add a few handfuls of red leaf lettuce as well. I'm loving spring.

(For more Bay Area photographs, visit my Flickr album.)