So, this past weekend San Francisco decided to surprise and delight by offering up one of the most beautiful weather days I've seen in a long time. I have the pictures to prove it.
The fair weather day coincided with a plan to visit Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. Too bad things kinda went a bit pear-shaped at the start with our original party size getting whittled in half down to four, followed promptly by the on-time departure of the 11:20am ferry...while we stood watching from the pier. After a two-hour wait for the next ferry (including some coaster hunting in Sur La Table and a walk to Pier 39), there she be.
Finally, away we go!
How about that! A view of Golden Gate Bridge without a veil of cloud cover. About as rare as a blue moon I reckon.
The ferry continued onward past "The Rock". No, I didn't see Sean Connery or Nick Cage running around...
Better late than never. We arrived at Ayala Cove on Angel Island around 2:30pm with a wicked appetite. After downing our turkey, pesto & havarti croissanwiches (Costco FTW!), we briefly toured the Visitor Center and listened to a bit of the live music that was playing in front of the Cafe. Then, back on the boat and back to San Fran. Not the longest possible trip to Angel Island but I think it whet our appetite for future adventures.
Mari, Me, Todd & Erin on the ferry back to SF. You might notice me in the short-sleeves and everyone else bundled up pretty well. I wanted very much to fully enjoy the sunshine despite the somewhat cool,blustery conditions. I paid the price with a very noticeable sunburn later on though... You live and you learn.
Gotta enjoy days like those as best you can. They just don't come 'round as often as you'd like. Cheers.
So, it has been quite an eventful weekend the last few days. I'd like to offer a perspective of my activities through pictures of some of the things I ate.
We start with a blueberry scone from the Legion of Honor museum cafe. I did a mini museum tour of SF (that also included a stop at the de Young) to check out the cool exhibits that depicted art from the Impressionist era. Seeing all the wonderful works of art, a large number of which have made the journey here from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris) made me miss the City of Light quite a lot.
After all that museum-ing, you can sure work up a good appetite. And given all the feedback I've been given about this restaurant, Aziza, I had to try it sometime sooner rather than later. Plus, it has a Michelin Star.
It all started with some harissa pretzel rolls. Delicious.
Onward to the beet salad with an oat/pinenut (kinda sweet-granola-like thing) topping. Also delicious.
By this point, I'm feeling quite impressed. Then came the main dish: lamb. Lamb belly, lamb loin and lamb shoulder served with a bit of fennel/corn/mushroom mix and some sweet onion puree. This knocked my socks off.
Along with the main dish, we opted for a side of cous cous that also tasted amazing. I came away satisfied with everything I tasted and I can't wait to come back again (though Gitane needs to get tried sometime too).
I'm waiting to snag a pic of the oysters from the Tomales Bay bbq, but here we have a pic from the Palo Alto Obon, which we hit up afterwards. I got in touch with my inner Japanese by eating some teri chicken & beef (shown above), listening to some traditional music, playing some games and watching a kendo demo. Sadly, we attended a day too early to participate in the bon odori. Next yr...
Having seen a large quantity of "local" (HI) people at the Obon, we kinda got inspired to make some spam musubi. Thanks to Safeway's late opening hours for aiding in our quest.
We also bought ingredients for this French toast. The key here being the use of King's Hawaiian Sweet bread. Pretty damn good if I may say so.
And finally, a (late) sunday dinner of pan-fried chicken, broccoli and rice. Yum.
By the way, I'd be remiss if I forgot to mention (and thank) my guest for the weekend: Grant. Cheers man.
Not a bad way to send off the month of July. 2010 just keeps on trucking...
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