May came and went bloody quickly this year. Can't pinpoint why time seems to be flying by so furiously this year but that it has. After a bit of a light post last week, I return with a bit more substance to close out an eventful month.
Back from a wedding down in LA (and a drive from Sacramento), Melissa dropped by RWC for lunch at Sancho's Taqueria. After walking around Seaport with Nick (to log steps on my pedometer), we grabbed some frozen yoghurt at Culture in Palo Alto. Plain w/choco-hazelnut crisp for Melissa and a blueberry w/granola for me.
Melissa hung out for a bit longer to help me collect Kurt from SFO. He decided to drop by and spend the weekend here in the Bay Area rather than LA. Good call I'd say. Anyways, we played a bit of MW2 on the PS3 before making our way to Refuge, a beer and pastrami place in San Carlos. Being known primarily for having a comprehensive selection of Belgian beers on tap, I sampled "La Chouffe". The description for that beer read: "Experience the power of the gnome". Can't argue with that.
I ate a tasty mushroom and brie burger with some garlic fries (they earned the underlining due to their potency).
Nick chose to try the pastrami, of which this place is known for secondarily. You probably can't tell from the pic, but that's some of the thickest cut pastrami I've ever seen.
Kurt, his beer and his mushroom & brie. The amount of food we ate probably doesn't look like much, but we left the restaurant feeling absolutely stuffed.
That apparently didn't stop us from waddling down Laurel St to search for dessert. We eventually found Harmony (it moved from its previous location) and got ourselves some fro-yo. You can see my plain + mochi above. Yes, I ate frozen yoghurt twice in the same day. No, I'm not obsessed.
The three of us enjoying our yoghurt. This pic got taken just before a massive fly circled around and deposited itself in Kurt's yoghurt. It then could not fly out of the calcium rich grave it found itself. Death by fro-yo. I didn't make this up.
Finding ourselves in the midst of some brilliant Bay Area weather, Kurt & I decided to enjoy the great outdoors. Kurt and the creek in the midst of our hike in Huddart Park in Woodside.
5 miles (~10,000 steps) later, Kurt and I have worked up quite an appetite and decided we needed to find some lunch.
We ended up at Himawari in San Mateo for a feed. It began with some agedashi tofu.
And continued with all you see below. Deluxe Tan tan men with kakuni & rice for Kurt, Miso buttercorn ramen and fried rice (not pictured) for me. We ate ALL of it.
After that monster lunch, we took a monster nap. That pushed back dinner a bit later than we wanted but all worked out in the end. We made it to San Fran for dinner at Cafe Claude without incident (even managing to find a great parking spot in front). The meal began with a tasty chèvre chaud (warm goat cheese salad).
Poor lighting meant that I couldn't get a great photo of some really tasty food. Apologies for that but you can make out Kurt's duck confit above and my coq au vin below. Very delicious. We ate quickly so that we could make it to see Prince of Persia at the Metreon. Enjoyable film that compares favorably with other, recent video game movies.
There you have it. Thanks to Melissa, Kurt and Nick for contributing to a fun weekend. That brings the wonderful month of May to a close. Here we go June...
Not the best of weeks I must say. I'll avoid the details but part of it has to do with work getting very, very busy. That itself stems from my boss getting the boot for perceived performance shortcomings (rough deal if you ask me). The catheter manufacturing engineering team has now been reduced to two (until the new junior engineer arrives on monday). Fun, fun, fun (and quite a knife in the throat to morale). Anyways, let's focus on some happier things.
I had a pleasant surprise at work as my co-workers planned a lunch in honour of my upcoming b-day, complete with Chinese take-out and homemade red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (decorative plant-life only came with mine). Thanks everyone. My apologies for getting stuck in a meeting midday and for being the last to arrive to the festivities.
Also, today marked the beginning of the walking competition that I am taking part in at the office. A few of us (~20) have been given pedometers and the person who walks the most over the next four weeks wins a nice (mystery) prize. I've had this thing for about twelve hours now and I've managed > 10,000 steps. Hopefully I can keep that pace up!
Anyways, that just about sums things up. Enjoy your weekend folks. I'll do my best to get some pics up if I end up doing anything noteworthy over the next couple days.
Time really flies, ey? I don't have too much to share with you all except for just a quick little post.
Dinner @ Shabu House in Burlingame. They have a Shabu Challenge here where you have to eat six plates of meat and a plate of veggies & udon noodles in 45 min or less. I didn't attempt it this time around but I'll say that it does sound manageable...if you can manage the scalding hot soup. In case you're curious, that's Harrison's arm in the pic. We went out for dinner w/Nick & Diana (while Diana's sister was in town). I just realized that I don't have any other pictures of his stay. Oh well. I hope you enjoyed your trip to the Bay Area.
Chicken apple sausage omelet at Nini's (also in Burlingame). Pretty good breakfast I must say. Good home fries too! Took Melissa here after picking her up from SFO. She had the corned beef hash and Nick, who tagged along while Diana cruised SF, had the biscuits and gravy. Enjoy being back out in Sacramento Melissa!
Only other thing worth mentioning here would be that I sighted gray whales swimming by Half Moon Bay this past weekend. Didn't have my camera on hand, but I imagine it would've been pretty difficult to capture. A pleasant surprise to top off a bit of a spontaneous trip. A little reward for braving the cloudy skies and freezing winds perhaps? Adieu for now.
Another weekend of beautiful weather, another weekend of taking advantage of it. It started with a trip to Muir Woods and I relished the opportunity to see it without the torrential rain. Anyways enjoy the pics.
Woo hoo! After a long drive (not long in distance but long in duration since we got stuck behind the slowest M3 driver on the face of the planet), I'm sure you can tell how excited we were to begin exploring.
Diana, Nick & the redwood forest.
Peek-a-boo.
We saw some interesting fauna on our walk.
Unfurling fern frond (aka koru).
Diana & I on the pathway amongst the trees. Such a lovely day in the Bay Area.
Obligatory Asian photo.
My, what a big camera you have there Nick. The photos in this entry have been brought to you courtesy of both the massive Canon dSLR shown above, and my nifty Panasonic point-and-shoot.
We stopped by at the appropriate time to hear the "tree talk", expecting something slightly more elaborate than what it turned out to be: a park ranger answering questions. So, we just took more pictures instead.
Nick, Diana, myself and the first of many self-portraits. I'm becoming quite fond of my wide angle lens...
They had a special event at the entrance to the park talking about birds. We got to see this cool owl for a little while. The person explained that owls can't move their eyes, hence their ability to rotate their heads almost completely around to give them a better field of view.
Next stop = Muir Beach lookout. The view above ≠ Muir Beach. Actually, we took this picture northward, looking towards Stinson Beach (though you can't see that in the picture either).
Doesn't look like you can really tell in the picture, but there was a strong, chilly wind a blowing. Also, we're both wearing Icebreaker shirts.
The path to the lookout from the parking lot (looking back towards the parking lot).
Diana, Nick & I at the Muir Beach lookout (this time, we pointed the camera southward and that's Muir Beach behind Nick's head).
Since canceling his Planet Granite membership, Nick hasn't found much opportunity to climb. He makes up for that by climbing things he comes across. Like this bunker.
Bunkers.
We continued down Highway 1 and stopped off at Stinson Beach to enjoy the sandwiches we brought for lunch (and a grape mentos for dessert). I didn't test the water this time 'round as it looked plenty cold.
We headed into Sausalito afterwards to lounge about a bit.
By lounge about, I mean nap.
The three of us with a view of the Bay from Sausalito. Unfortunately, the background got a bit washed out so you can't make out San Francisco behind us.
Ah, I finally made it to Sausalito!
Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers. I didn't notice this before, but you can see the nose of Nick's car just behind Diana.
We decided to eat in Sausalito, at Fish, before heading home.
Hamachi poke with homemade yam chips. YUM.
Us waiting patiently (and in Nick's case, quite enthusiastically) for 5:30pm (when the restaurant first takes orders for dinner)..
Until then, I'll focus my attention on the delicious hamachi poke.
Nick got in the queue and ordered up the main courses on our behalf.
And after a bit of a wait, they arrived: Clam chowder, shrimp tacos, crab roll with fries (probably my favourite) and mussel bouillabaisse. Pretty tasty I'd say. Still, I think my overall favourite dish of the evening had to be the hamachi poke.
We finished all the food before piling back into the car and starting the drive back south. One last stop on the way though: romantical Golden Gate Bridge lookout spot!
One more group pic of us and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Still windy. Still cold. We didn't hang around at the lookout for too long...
But, just long enough for one more pic...
And there you have it. Quite a full up day in Marin County. Who knows where to next?!
*UPDATED* So we were blessed with another weekend of lovely weather here in the Bay Area. Got a few pics to share with you all of my day in the City today.
I've not been much of an oyster fan in the past but I guess that's changing a little bit recently. We made the trip up to SF to go to the Ferry Building. Amongst all the great food options there, one can find the Hog Island Oyster Co. [Those frequent blog visitors may remember that I went to Tomales Bay to the actual Hog Island Oyster Co. location this past summer]
Diana & Nick. My friends who I accompanied for this little excursion. Diana's sister, Samantha, was in town so we took her up to enjoy the good food and great weather.
Our platter of oysters. It was a mixed bunch that featured two of each of the different oyster varieties available that day. My favourites are still the kumamotos (the small ones seen at 12 o'clock).
Me & the oysters. I'm quite hungry in this picture. Not sure if you can tell.
My entree: Gumbo. Oysters, clams, mussels, roast chicken and andouille. Yum. The Acme bread was a great complement and helped in absorbing every last drop of the gumbo.
Nick's grilled cheese (mezzo secco, gruyere and fromage blanc). One of the fanciest grilled cheeses I've ever sampled. Quite tasty.
Clear, beautiful day in SF. Me, Nick & Diana in front of the Ghiradelli Square area with the Bay behind us.
Signore Nick enjoying a bit of sunshine in Ghiradelli Square. We got to hang around and produce some vitamin D while Diana & Samantha were doing a bit of shopping.
We waited for ages in line. Our feet. What were we waiting for...?
On the way out of the City, we stopped off at Humphrey Slocombe for some ice cream. Shown above is the "special breakfast" flavour which is corn flakes and bourbon. Not bad. Kinda interesting if you ask me. My Bay Area ice cream ranking remains the same: 1) Bi-rite 2) Ici and now 3) Humphrey Slocombe.
Nick, Diana, Samantha & I enjoying our ice creams. It really was a crazy nice day up there in SF.
Since we weren't done eating for the day, we went to Sweet Breams down in San Mateo on the way home. We bought a box of taiyaki which are little fish-shaped cakes (Japanese in origin) filled with fillings such as red bean paste, custard & creme. Yum, yum, yum.
So, the bottom line is that I ate a lot today. A LOT. I hope everyone else's weekend was just as enjoyable. Not a bad start to May if you ask me! Cheers and adieu for now.
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