Tahoe Thanksgiving!

Balcony view

Happy Thanksgiving!  SMS and I took a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe!  It's 4 hours away and it's hard to muster up the motivation to drive out there on an ordinary weekend.  I booked an AirBnB and we headed up on Thursday morning.

The Lake- approximately 3 blocks from our cabin.  

The cabin was in Carnelian Bay, North Lake Tahoe.  It was a residential neighborhood but there was a lot of space between cabins and the trees made it feel more secluded.  Inside the house, it was super cozy and cute.  I told SMS, "I want to buy a cabin in the woods!"   He pointed out we could just keep booking AirBnBs.   Touché.  

Thanksgiving Feast, semi-home cooked style- roasted turkey breast, box stuffing, rolls
from a can, cranberry sauce from a can, roasted brussel sprouts and sweet potato
casserole.  The heavenly light seems to be favoring the rolls.

Thanksgiving was pretty mellow.   We relaxed after our drive and started cooking.  We had a delicious feast with a ton of leftovers so it was definitely a successful Thanksgiving!

Inspiration Point with Emerald Bay below

Emerald Bay

The next day, we took a field trip to South Lake Tahoe to check out Emerald Bay and Inspiration Point.  It was fairly crowded but we found a parking spot without too much trouble by utilizing one of the road pullouts.  It's legal as long as the car is inside the line, aka completely off the main road.  If we had waited for one of the lots, it would have been awhile!

Vikingsholm

Tree along the trail

We hiked down a gravel road to Vikingsholm, a former Summer residence of several rich Californians as it changed hands over the years.  Now it's owned by the State and open for tours in the Summer.  Ever since visiting Denmark twice, I've enjoy checking out Scandinavian design so it was cool to see here in Tahoe.  I recommend checking it out!

Our brief foray outside

On Saturday, we had a leisurely drive back to Mountain View.  Our first stop was in Truckee at the very cool Coffeebar.  Our drinks were delicious and SMS had an awesome sausage breakfast burrito.  We tried to brave the outside in the full sun but we wimped out and headed inside.  Our drinks would have been cold in an instant!

The coveted Gose, second from the right!

In Sacramento, we stopped for lunch at our favorite spot, Nido.  I had the vegan nut burger, SMS had the vegan steam buns and we split a beer sampler.  According to SMS, I drank more than my fair share of the Gose so I went back up to get another sampler.  Peace restored! 

Then we drove home and traded cars with our friend.  We had borrowed his front-wheel car with chains since snow was (remotely) in the forecast.  Better safe than sorry!  We actually just missed the snow- there was snow on the ground while we were there and on Saturday overnight, 8 inches fell!

Holiday Weekend!

The past weekend was a federal holiday weekend (yay!) and a nice mixture of being mellow and hanging out with family and friends.  This post will be scant on pictures.  It was a "live the moment" weekend instead of picture-taking, which I know, I know, does not make for very good blogging.

Gorgeous flowers outside of Neiman Marcus.  

 Anyway!  I took Friday off and was pretty mellow while SMS was at work.  I ran to his work and we met up for lunch.  I spent the rest of the afternoon at the shopping mall trying to find a specific lipstick but had no luck.  That night, we went to Tomi for dinner, which was pretty delicious.

ZZZZzzzzz....wake up!  The weekend gets more interesting!  On Saturday, SMS and I went to run club.  Neither one of us had been for awhile so it was nice to see our running friends.  Then, we went into the city to hang out with SMS's sister and brother-in-law.  We headed up to Tomales Bay, picked up oysters and had an amazing picnic in Pt. Reyes Station.  Afterwards, we drove out to Pt. Reyes lighthouse, admiring the happy cows along the way.  Does this sound familiar?   It's because we did the same trip with SMS' parents and his sister wanted to recreate it.

Smokestack!

After we dropped them off, SMS and I went out to dinner in the city.  I hadn't really thought of a place, so we ended up going to the Dogpatch and eating at Smokestack.  I loved the interior and the BBQ and drinks were delicious.  Another huge bonus is they had free water on tap- still and sparkling!  I love bubbles!  I ordered a salad b/c I wasn't very hungry.  SMS ordered some delicious BBQ, sustainably sourced and cooked over a woodchip grill only, of course.  I mean, really, we are in San Francisco (ha ha).

The next day, we met up with a friend of ours for brunch.  I really wanted the chicken and waffle, but went with a big salad instead.  Aiming for healthier eating is not always the most fun, but choices, choices.   Afterwards, we went to the American Heritage Museum in Palo Alto, which was pretty cute.  It was staffed by a lot of older volunteers, who gave us a tour.  We saw several old printing presses, staffed by a guy who had been a typesetter for 30+ years.  I really liked the interior of the house, since a doctor owned it and one room was an OR theatre.  You can't tell now, but the skylights were perfectly positioned for illuminating the operative field.  I loved it!

Since we had been eating out like kings and queens, we decided to eat at home.  I made a version of tacorisu, a Japanese dish that translates into....wait for it...taco rice!  It was pretty good so I'll be making it again.

Newport Beach Weekend

What a great group!

 SMS and I went to Newport Beach for Columbus Day weekend.  This time, we brought along friends!  Or rather, they drove down to Newport with their 2-year old.  Never fear, they arrived sane and in one piece.  That's because they're champs!

Resolution: Work on Food Photography!  Step 1: Picture before starting to eat!

I arrived earlier in the day since I took Friday off.  I went to Wild Taco for a SoCal fix!  I ordered two tacos (lobster and kale/feta) and the roasted corn. The food was amazing and it was a gorgeous day.  I ate inside but the doors were wide-open and the ocean breeze blew through.

I walked back to the house and, after a bit of rest-and-digest, I went for a 5K run.  I discovered that SMS and I had over-estimated the distances to the first and second piers, which was very disappointing.  We thought the first pier was a 3-mile out and back but it's really just 2.5 miles.  Whah!  So, I ran a little past the first pier and turned around.  I knew I had a long run that weekend with J so I wanted to take it easy.

Then, it was off to the airport to pick up SMS.  We ate at home and a little later that evening, our friends arrived!  We had poke for dinner from Santa Monica Seafood.  It was excellent.

The next day, J and I went out for a 10-mile run.  Eeek.  I hadn't run more than 5 in awhile but I hung in there.  We ran 9:00 mile pace, which wasn't too bad.  We definitely weren't trying to push the pace so really, it was nice that 9:00 felt easy(ish).

Oh, yeah!

Afterwards, we showered up and headed out for Sidecar donuts.  SMS and I had heard so much about them and we've tried to go a few times without success.  This trip, we were determined to try them.  We lucked out with the line, which was short when we arrived but completely mushroomed while we were there.  I ordered a LOT of donuts, but I shared them with people then and when we visited SMS' grandfather later that evening.  The donuts were really delicious.  I also ordered a nitro-draft cold brew coffee which was excellent.  Oh man, I would spend a lot of money if that was available at home (and it probably is, I'm just not going to do the research because it is a pricy cup of coffee!).

We went to the beach and had so much fun.  The weather was unseasonably warm all weekend so we were able to go in the ocean every day.  Even SMS tolerated it.  We rode waves and had the best time.    We got a little bit of sun but we had two umbrellas from the house so I was (mostly) good about sun exposure.  No inadvertent burns this time, yeah!

There's a Duffy Boat in the background.  Sorry, pics are limited from this excursion!

We went out on a Duffy boat that evening and toured the Newport Beach harbor.  It was such a beautiful day and the houses on the water are spectacular.  We also had great company on the boat so I was distracted from the scenery a lot of the time.

Sunset at the marina

Auto Ferry entrance

Afterwards, we decided to take the Auto Ferry across the water.  SMS has a funny story regarding the differences in child and adult perspectives.  He remembers the ferry being a big excursion, a really big deal.  As an adult, when he realized that it was a super short trip quite close to the house, he was surprised that he had such a different memory of it.  The ferry was super cool and felt very retro.  J's kid pitched a fit on the ferry because he was really upset that we weren't on the ferry and we had promised we would go on a boat.  We tried pointing out that, at that very moment, we were on the water but he wasn't having any of it.  Adults are filthy liars, obviously.  We think that he couldn't reconcile the fact that cars can go on boats but really, who knows what 2 year olds are thinking sometimes.  By the way, even when he's borderline losing it, J's kid is awesome.

For dinner, we had boardwalk food after riding the Newport Pier ferris wheel.  It's very small but moves at a slightly disconcerting clip so I'm glad we went on it.

Ok, this pic is before eating but it still doesn't look all that appetizing...

The next day was more beach time and family obligation time.  We went to EAT Chow for brunch, which was another breakfast winner.  I got the breakfast enchiladas, one with tomatillo sauce and one with mole.  Delicious!  Afterwards, SMS and I went to visit each of his grandfathers while J and family went to Irvine to visit cousins.  We watched the debate that night and then headed off to bed.

Bingo!  This looks better...right?

Monday, I dropped SMS off at the airport since he wanted to go to work that day.  What a high-roller, taking the plane to commute to work!  I went to Alta and got a coffee and Bueno Bowl for breakfast.  We cleaned up the house and then J and fam took off.  I went for a run, brief swim and then headed off to the airport myself.  What a great weekend!

Fall Weekend!

Yoda mendala outside of Mountain View library

 SMS and I had an amazing weekend!  It was a great mix of enjoying the area and relaxing at home.

Saturday was our lazy day. We woke up and SMS made an egg-in-a-hole for each of us. It was delicious and accompanied by a delicious from-the-garden heirloom tomato. Yum!  There was also an avocado, but that was store bought. 

What goes with coffee?  Psycho Donuts!

We decided to head out to a nearby coffee shop, Chromatic. We went with our former next door neighbor, which made for nice company. I had the Keynote coffee, part of a Kouign Amann (a caramelized croissant dough pastry) and, finally, a cafe brûlée with almond milk. It was basically a latte with flame torched muscadon sugar on top. It was pretty awesome. I was so entranced by watching it get made that I forgot the coffee beans I bought. Fortunately, they let me replace the bag next day free of charge even though I didn't have my receipt. 

My new little piece of Paradise!

After Chromatic, we were lazy until we headed out for date night!  SMS had booked us a private spa at a kind of Japanese-style onsen in downtown Palo Alto. It was amazing!  The room was slate, tile and very clean. There was a shower inside and while I hope people rinse off before going in, the water was chlorinated. This is not similar in Japan since most of the onsens are continuously fed by the local springs.     There was relaxing music playing and I love it. I highly recommend the place. Next time, I might look into spa treatments too but really, the soak was relaxing enough. 

Fountain by the spa entrance

We walked around Palo Alto for a bit and then we went to the restaurant for our dinner reservation. We went to Thyme, which was pretty good. I had a delicious seafood soup. We both got the scallops which were fine. I've had better but I've also definitely had worse. The decor was nice and I liked sitting by the window during golden hour light. It made SMS look especially handsome!

On the Steep Ravine section of the trail

Sunday was our active day.  I wanted to finish a Mt Tam hike we started last year but had to turn back due to sunset. I printed out the instructions (here's the link!) and we drove up to Marin/Mt Tamalpis. The hike was beautiful and I recommend it!  The scenery was quite varied as it included forest, second-growth redwoods, creeks and sun-exposed golden hills. There's also a bathroom along the way so that was an added bonus!

SMS on Steep Ravine Trail

After the hike, we decided to head home. We were planning on cooking but after we had been driving for about 30 minutes, SMS said he "could use a snack."  Well, my momma didn't raise no fool!  I've thought in the past that there was a general idea of a snack at some point in the future. Nope, nope, nope. "Could use a snack" = emergency distress signal. (I, actually we, have learned this the hard way). So, we stopped at the In & Out that has been our emergency stop before (under worse circumstances when I thought it could wait and then we were stuck in 45 minute Golden Gate traffic. Wrong call!). We ordered food and oh my goodness, I didn't realize how hungry I was either!  It really is our favorite In&Out!

Our oasis!

We drove home and got stuck in some Sunday traffic congestion. Maybe a little worse due to a morning Raiders game but I think the roads are just bad around here. 

Although I was really tired of walking, SMS tempted me into going into town to get a shave ice. We went to Teaspoon and got a tropical delight. It was amazing!  I think it's a testament to how tired I was that I didn't think to get my own but hey, I think it was better shared!

Monday morning, I went for a run. My legs felt good considering the hike but my times were a little slow. We went to breakfast at Esther's German Cafe where I got to flash back to Switzerland by ordering a cheese plate for breakfast- hearty bread, butter, cheese and jam. Delicious!

Janelle Monae and a Great Weekend!

Thornton Beach Overlook hike

This past weekend was a mix of study and play as I worked on a paper for my "Strategy and War" class but also did several fun things with SMS.

Friday night, we headed out to Antolian Kitchen, a Turkish/Kurdish cuisine restaurant.  I had the broiled whole fish, which was really delicious.  I'm on the tail end of a Whole 30 month so I'm trying to go to places that fit within those strict parameters.  I'm sure I've inadvertently broke the rules with a tiny bit of added sugar, butter and oils but nothing major.  SMS had a baked meat-stuffed tomato eggplant dish that was awesome.  I think we'll be back, even off of a diet!

Saturday was a study/paper-writing day.  SMS and I started the day with the I'm taking my course through the Naval War College Distance Learning program and it's interesting to learn more about military history.  Some of the books are very dry so focusing is tough, but that's what blog entry writing breaks are for!

Hanging out!

The next day was Sunday Fun Day.  SMS and I went up to San Francisco to the Stern Grove Festival.  It was opening day and Janelle Monae was the headliner.  I saw her at Coachella a few years ago and she was fantastic.  We were supposed to go with friends but their son was sick so they bailed.  The show was amazing with a great setlist:

Suite IV Electric Overture

Dance Apocalyptic

Sincerely, Jane.

Q.U.E.E.N.

Electric Lady

One Fine Day

I Got You (I Feel Good)

I Want You Back

Cold War

Tightrope

Yoga

Let's Go Crazy Come Alive (The War of the Roses)

Sitting on the stump!

Our concert seats were...interesting.  The place was packed!  We arrived at 1:15, 45 minutes before the start of the show.  We climbed up the hill and found an awesome tree stump.  We stayed there through the opening act Midtown Social and then headed down the hill for most of Monae's set.  The sound was better and the energy level higher.  It was great!

Thornton Beach

Afterwards, we went out for sushi at a place with a TV so we could watch the first half of the Warrior/Cavs game.  It was Game 7 and I think most of the Bay Area was watching!  It was a great game- very competitive.  We didn't want to stay for the whole game so we headed back home and listened to it on the radio.  I even streamed the last few minutes on Periscope with mixed success.

Thornton Beach

On the way home, we stopped at Thornton Beach Overlook and hiked down to the beach cliffs.  It was so beautiful and a good impromptu hike along the Pacific.

Summer Begins!

Our second moving truck!

Phew!  At first glance, June seems like it will be more mellow than May, which was filled with lots of great trips.  I think, though, that finishing up fellowship and moving will bring its own version of excitement to the month.

SMS and I got a lot done over Memorial Day weekend.  His parents had cancelled a trip to visit us so we decided to move instead.  Bad tradeoff!  But it was nice to get the moving done.  We rented a truck and moved the furniture that he's keeping.  Some of the smaller items were moved via a few car loads.  The process was fairly painless and our new place is shaping up really nicely.

Main course at Madera

We also went out for a great dinner on Friday night.  SMS had a great week at work so we decided to celebrate by going to Madera.  It's at a very fancypants hotel in Silicon Valley and since he's been doing so well here, we decided to dine among the high-rollers!  The food was really good.  One of the highlights was the pre-dinner bread basket- great focaccia and light scones.  I got a lamb dish that was quite tasty and SMS had a halibut carpaccio that was awesome.  Our dessert was pretty amazing and the plating was very artistic. The service was a little on the hands-off side but I think they're used to people wanting to be left alone.  Maybe it's kinder to say the service was inconspicuous.

Dessert- very impressive!

The short workweek was pretty uneventful.  We met up with friends on Thursday night and had dinner by the pool.  It was a lot of fun.  It's pretty funny how fearless kids are.  Their kid can't swim but that didn't stop him from sprinting repeatedly to the pool to jump back in.  Self-preservation does not necessarily seem like the greatest strength of the 0-5 years old set.

Pastry Counter

This weekend, we headed down to Newport Beach for some family time.  We stayed at the condo with Linda and Rip and hung out with both of SMS' grandfathers.  The weather was in June Gloom-mode but we had a great time.  We hung out with family, walked on the beach and had a really nice dinner at home.  Yesterday, we had a great lunch at Xanadu Cafe, a newly opened cafe about two miles from the house.

More desserts

I'm about to go for a run and then I think we're going jeans shopping later.  We're leaving tonight but stopping at the Blue Water Grill first on our way to the airport with Pam and Marty.

Bay to Breakers 2016 weekend

This past weekend was amazing and packed with fun events.  There was even a special bonus on Monday (teaser alert!).

Pretty Mountain View Garden- not ours though!

On Friday, we picked up our keys to the new place and did our walk-through.  The house is absolutely lovely.  The property manager spent two weeks between the two tenants fixing up the place- and it had already been quite nice!  There's new paint, completely clean interior, new recessed lighting and a backyard drought-resistant landscaping, aka, mostly gravel.  SMS and I love the place and are so happy!

SMS moves rocks.  Literally.

Saturday was a little less glamorous as we rented a truck, bought and picked up a couch on Craigslist and moved SMS' stuff from storage to the his new garage!  We met a neighbor building an electric go-kart and overall, we're looking forward to our new place.  It was really a very lucky find!

Beautiful SF day!

After moving, I headed up to the city to pick up my Bay to Breakers bib.  The expo was pretty cool and absolutely mobbed.  Thanks to the power of Facebook, I messaged and met up with two friends from San Diego.  We belonged to the same book club and they are so much fun.  They had originally come to San Francisco for the Spartan Race but when they heard B to B was going on, they signed up for that too.  I was so happy to meet up with CL and Beth!

This is how I will take my coffee from now on!

Plus, we met up at The Buena Vista Cafe, famed for its Irish Coffee.  The cafe has been on my "SF List" and through serendipity, I ended up there with two great friends.  The coffee was delicious and I highly recommend.  Well, actually, there's a caveat because we actually went to two places with Irish coffee.   The second was one that Darren, SF native, knew about called the Gold Dust Cafe.  Here, hidden in plain sight among the tourist traps in Fisherman's Wharf, is San Francisco's "best and cheapest" Irish Coffee.   Unlike the Buena Vista with its white-tiled, bright interior, Gold Dust is more lounge-y with lots of crushed red velvet.  Both are awesome and really, can you ever have too many Irish coffees? Yes, I'm sure the answer is actually yes but if you have two spaced out over a few hours, you should be alright.

Yummy shabu shabu!

After leaving CL and Beth, SMS and I met up for a late shabu shabu dinner at Shabuway in Mountain View.  It was pretty tasty and brought back good Japan memories!

The Ladies!

Costumes from Bay to Breakers

More Bay to Breakers photos!

The next day, I met up with CL and Beth for Bay to Breakers.  They were actually fairly hungover thanks to several Irish Coffees (see above) with more drinking after that.  But they rallied like champs!  We jogged/walked the race and had an amazing time.  There were so many people with costumes to see.  It was an incredible event and I'm so glad I did it.  I've been wanting to do it for years and since this is the year I live here, I made it a priority.

Costumes included: a group of chickens, men in Franzia boxes, a Pintrest-worthy homemade rocket pack, male Disney princesses, oompa-loompas, many Princes with a heavy “Purple Rain” contingent, a few David Bowies, old naked people (not technically a costume) and so many more costumes that it was hard to remember them all.  It was costume overload!

I wore my Japanese fuzzy monster costume from our Amazing Race days.  I’m glad I had something because I would have felt out of place in normal running clothes although there were many people in just that. 

Andytown

After the race, we met up with SMS and headed to Andytown Coffee for a Snowy Plover.  Oh man, that drink is so delicious.  Since it's been awhile on the blog, I'll remind the reader that a Snowy Plover is espresso, Pellegrino and whipped cream.  Delectable!

Then we headed out to Lale cafe in Inner Sunset.  It was very good and best of all, no line for brunch!  I got an egg scramble with a homemade English muffin, which was delicious.

After brunch, we dropped CL and Beth off at their house and went to Glass Key Photo where SMS sold a camera.  It was a cute shop with a lot of old cameras.  We headed home and relaxed for the afternoon.

Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires

That evening, we went to Mountain Winery for a John Prine concert.  He's an excellent performer with great songs, although I want to listen to some of his older recordings since his voice was a little clearer when he was young.  The opener was Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires.  They were excellent and a new-to-me find.  I also want to seek out some more of their work, which shouldn't be hard since Jason Isbell is a very well-known performer in his own right, even though I hadn't known about him before the show.

The venue was absolutely gorgeous.  It was also so cold!  There was a mountain breeze and the temps were in the low 50s/possibly high 40s.  Yuck!  We were definitely not dressed for it.

San Diego Wedding Weekend!

The bride, groom and a photo bomber!

SMS and I are in San Diego for the wedding of SMS' childhood best friend.  They've known each other since first grade!  SMS was the best man and the last two weekends have been wedding-focused.  Last weekend, he came down for the bachelor party where they shot lots of guns, went out to Ironside and then partied late into the night at the Andaz Hotel rooftop.  I stayed home and drank green juice.  Boring!

Academy of Our Lady Peace, San Diego (Wedding Venue)

This weekend, we both came to San Diego for the actual wedding weekend.  After a delay on Southwest, we arrived in San Diego at lunchtime.  Rip and Linda picked us up and we had lunch at El Indio.  Yum!  SMS and I shared several Mexican food items- a tamale, enchilada and California burrito (steak, fries, cheese).  We only ate half of the burrito though but never fear, it was still at least three pounds of food!

After lunch, we headed back to the Homestead where we spent a lazy afternoon.  SMS and I headed out to the rehearsal around 4:30.  The rehearsal started at 5 and I very quickly realized that it was going to be a long one.  So, I texted a residency friend and we met up for Sangria at Cueva- a much better plan!  We caught up on work gossip and talked about our respective new jobs coming up this Summer.  It was so great to see her and I really had a great time.

SMS texted a "SOS" so I headed back to the Church.  The head camp counselor, aka the wedding coordinator, still had about 20 minutes of talking left but finally, we made it out of there.  We went to Kahn's Cave for the rehearsal dinner.  It's an Asian fusion/tapas type place and it was really tasty.  I liked the sesame chicken and the calamari the best.  The beer came in close second.  I had a milk stout and a Belgian gold style- eclectic choices but delicious.

It was great to catch up with the bride and groom, plus his sister who's a really close friend of mine. After dinner, we headed home and went to bed.  I slept well, which was great after a really tiring week.

Caffe Calabria!

The next day was wedding day!  SMS and I did some fun errands after a lazy morning.  We went to North Park and hit up Caffe Calabria *my heart* and Pigment.  Then we went to the Exchange where I stocked up on some makeup.  It was definitely worth the savings!  We headed back home where SMS got ready.  He looked great in his tuxedo!

My wonderful in-laws!

Wedding Party

Rip, Linda and I went to the Church together.  The wedding was nice with a Priest who fancied himself to be quite the comedian.  After the ceremony, we headed over to the Admiral Kidd where they had a beautiful, huge (300 people!) reception.  SMS did a great job with his best man's toast and we had a lot of fun.  We're so happy for John and Grace and wish the very best for them!

Sailboat on San Diego Bay.  And me!

BEST best man!

Best man duties!