First Houseguests!

This past weekend, Rip and Linda visited us in our new Mountain View home.  I was really excited to see them and it definitely gave us a kick-in-the-pants to make sure the apartment was ready.  And it was!  SMS and I did a really great job (I know, I know, I should hold the self-congratulations and sounds of one hand clapping).  We had unpacked everything and there were no boxes to be found in our apartment.  Although I certainly am not a minimalist, I'm pretty happy with the level of "stuff" we have given our current situation in life.  I know we move a lot but we're not constrained by costs and weight limits since we own about 1/4 of the maximum amount that would be covered by a Navy move.  Also, SMS and I both like keeping a (somewhat) reasonable amount of keepsakes and nostalgic items that may go someday, but not today!

That being said, SMS picked his parents up on Thursday and ended up spending part of the afternoon receiving our shipment from non-temporary storage.  Although he took them to San Jose's gorgeous rose garden, the storage unit is not high on the TripAdvisor's recommended "To-Do's" in Mountain View, but Rip and Linda were really nice about it.  That night, we went to Shellshock and had amazing oysters, a tuna tartare with jalapeno, a chicken/maple/bacon donut (ha ha, I ordered that!), fish 'n' chips and fish tacos.  We all shared the small plates and it was a great dinner.  My co-favorites were the oysters and the fish tacos.  Afterwards, we went to Gelato Classico for dessert to cap it all off.   It was unnecessary but delicious!

Friday, they had a great time driving out to Half Moon Bay and visiting the Twin Peaks Park in San Francisco.  I don't have too much to say about this since I was at work, but we had a great dinner at Cascal that night.  SMS and I had been eyeing it for awhile.  The Spanish appetizer assortment was pretty phenomenal and we shared it easily.  I would say it's best for 2-4 people.  There are two of every appetizer so if it were two people, you wouldn't have to halve everything but it would be hard to have anything else for dinner that night!  We split it and then had some paella, eggplant tartin and a small salad.  It was all delicious and I saw several things I'd like to go back for in the future.  No gelato that night...we're not animals!