Alright, so I mentioned that I got us mostly caught up to the present day. Well, here are the pics that get us the rest of the way.
Another potluck with the folks from the gym means another batch of malasada dough to make!
I think they turned out a little bit better this time around. Must've been the extra time I allowed the dough to rise.
Ultimately, getting folks together to eat was just an excuse for a seafood boil. Truthfully, this crab course was the one a bunch of us were standing around waiting (and saving stomach space) for. Happy Birthday Amy!
Since I also had another shindig to attend, I tried to get the ball rolling on leaving but folks decided to roll on the desserts. So of course I had to stick around to sing HBD! All of this food just lends credence to the belief that our gym really is a food and drink club with a fitness problem.
Drove on up to Ocean Beach in SF afterwards for Lisa's B-day bonfire. Showed up a bit on the late side, but got to enjoy good company, good conversation by the gentle fire (when Tom wasn't prodding it to send sparks flying and smoke billowing). Happy Birthday Lisa!
After that food filled weekend followed another highly memorable food filled weekend. This one started with a trip to Haleiwa after kidnapping Kurt off the street and forcing him into water based activities with a very small, shimmery swimsuit. Those of you not familiar with Japanese (Brent) should note that "Abunai" means dangerous.
We hopped on the boat and headed out roughly three miles offshore on calm normal seas. On the ride out, we did see a couple of humpback whales come up for air which made for a really cool experience. When we got to our destination, we tied up to a cage and got ready to hop into the water. I think you all know where this is going.
Sharkys (galapagos sharks to be precise), Kurt, Me, Travis, Darren (and Kevin, Kurt's brother-in-law). The rest of the gang jumped in next as Group 2. We floated around in the cage for a good 15 minutes or so watching these majestic creatures swim about in their natural environment. They frequent this area due to it being a channel for fishing boats (and their associated scraps) rather than because of the shark boats chumming the water (which they legally can't do). Being in the water, we could also hear the calls of the humpback whales nearby which made things extra special. Rough numbers: we saw about 15 or so sharks that ranged in size between 5-10 ft. They calmly circled around and certainly gave you the sense that these are creatures to be totally respected. I certainly came away from this experience with a greater appreciation for these kings of the sea.
Always got to take advantage of the local produce while I'm home, especially since it's harder to get a hold of deliciously sweet Hawaiian papaya on the mainland.
Had dinner at Side Street Inn (Kapahulu) with Darren and Priscilla and Gigi joined us also despite having already eaten. We started off with Local-style Pulehu Short Ribs. Yum yum.
We also got their famous Fried rice and Chinese Style steamed fish over Asian greens. Also delicious. Not pictured was the order of fried chicken we got which was also quite good, especially with the spicy garlic dipping sauce.
We finished off the meal with a haupia/chocolate ice cream pie for dessert. Good (but maybe not Bubbies good).
I picked up Mum from the airport and we decided to give the employee parking lot Lunch truck a try. I opted for a combo plate of garlic chicken and hamburger steak. Mum got the fried rice omelette (which I ate the leftovers of on the plane ride back to the mainland).
Of course the whole reason for being home being to celebrate Kurt & Traci's Wedding. A nice, small gathering of family and friends for two incredibly awesome people. Very glad I could be here with them and also to be able to catch up with good friends from close and afar.
Kurt & Traci, being the savvy NYers that they've become, had these fancy, gourmet chocolates as their party favors. Having taken one of each flavor, I'll give them a thumbs up for quality.
Poor pig. Sure tasted delicious though.
Shout out to the Halekulani Hotel for being a beautiful place for a ceremony and reception. Also, lots of praise for the homemade "floral" centerpieces that Traci's mom made.
I can't possibly remember all the foods they had in the buffet. Needless to say, given Kurt & Traci's appreciation for good food, this spread provided a delicious variety of both traditional and local favorites.
And last but not least, dessert + the wedding cake.
And with that lovely evening, the weekend more or less came to a close. Short but sweet trip home with a final image of the plane passing Hawaii Kai on the way back to the Bay Area. Aloha 'oe.
And a bonus image for my loyal readers! A new addition to my home decoration: postcard sized replications of vintage airline posters from the early age of flight! Now where should I put it?
Alright, now that I've caught up with the present day, it looks like I'll have to go out there and start getting involved with some more interesting activities to allow for more great blog posts. Keep an eye out for my next exciting adventure! Until then...
So, while I'm in the midst of this prolific blogging binge, I might as well catch us up to the present day. I won't quite do it in this one post, but I'm going to get pretty close. Check it out:
In Sus' words "don't be a hero". Doing silly things like that mean you hurt your knee while doing 100m shuttle runs (at least I went out in the lead). Suffice it to say, I've got to take it easy for a while...
So Deryck came to the States for a visit during Chinese New Year week. In reviewing all the pics during that time, apparently all I have to show are these Sushi buffet pictures. We ate an obscene amount of food at Sushi Factory in Milpitas and while I felt pretty terrible afterwards, I think with a tally of 3 rolls, 3 nigiri, firecracker shrimp appetizer, soup and salad per person (6 people total), we won handily.
We even got to play some Wii U in that evening also! Thanks Ed!
When Deryck and I got home, we had to make 煎年糕 (pan-fried Gao) as an auspicious dessert for CNY. 恭喜發財！
At work, we had a potluck and trivia contest for President's Day. In an attempt to choose an obscure president to present I inadvertently learned quite a bit about a number of obscure presidents and that was enough for me to win the contest by the margin of a couple points. My prize: a US$2 bill!
As you may have seen on this blog or elsewhere, I appreciate japanese food and dino nuggets. In this particular instance I again combined those two likes. Delicious.
In working on her thesis, Mari had been communicating with Ari at Westside Trading Post. He generously offered some tickets to check out the Art of the Americas West (an extensive showcase of Native American arts) held annually up in Marin, which we graciously accepted. I had never seen such variety and quality of Native American arts before and certainly not where I could get up close to and touch some of those works, which helped to enhance my appreciation of it all. Thanks Ari for inviting us up to meet you and experience this wonderful show in person!
The AoA show was held at one of the associated buildings in the Marin Center and being up there gave us the opportunity to also see and appreciate the main auditorium (shown above), which was (part of) the last commission by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Beautiful weather, beautiful building.
Weeks ago I signed up for this "5K Color Run" with a bunch of the folks from the gym. Then I hurt my knee. But, since this was really just a simple, and relatively flat, 5K I said what the heck. Even though I could only walk, it turned out to be incredibly fun. Thanks of course to my friends from the gym (who you'll all see in these pics) and Elise for making this a great experience.
Let the coloring begin! One thing to note, we're hundreds of feet from the start line...
The whole idea here is that you run this 5K course and during it all, there are stations where you are "attacked" (playfully of course) by powdered color. Furthermore, each participant is given a small bag of color to disperse as they please (hence us being covered in color well before the "official" start). This picture above was also taken before the start (you'll notice many of the folks in the background still have pristine, white t-shirts). Anyways, this fun run is a twist on the Hindu Holi Festival (festival of colours) which itself derives from a religious story and serves to usher in Spring and celebrate love (from what I gleaned by glancing at the wiki page anyways).
Our group "strong" pose post-run.
And of course the jumping pose as well!
And why not one more with the "runicorn", the official mascot of the Color Run!
After getting smashed with color on Saturday, I had a quieter, yet just as fun Sunday which saw Phil drop by for a visit. So, Nick, me, Noelle & Phil got together for some Dim Sum in Millbrae!
Noelle, Phil and I headed up to the city afterwards to fulfill Phil's desire to visit the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park. While there, I got to sample this tasty (yet probably overpriced) genmaicha (roasted brown rice tea).
As can often be the case, a beautiful day on the peninsula does not preclude a foggy/chilly day in the city. Despite the less than ideal weather, we still very much enjoyed the well manicured gardens, ponds and temples that the Tea Gardens had to offer us.
The Tea Garden visit of course cannot be complete without sampling the tea (check) and also seeing the Buddha statue (double check).
In an effort to get indoors and away from the cold wind outside, we popped into the de Young Museum for an afternoon snack (french fries for me) and to see the view from Hamon Tower (which wasn't that nice given the cloud and fog). While in the museum lobby, I noticed this Wayne Thiebaud painting, Three Machines. I've certainly become a Thiebaud fan of late for his use of bright colors, clear geometric shapes and, of course, many works depicting food as the subject.
After exiting the de Young, we popped on over to the Cal Academy of Sciences Museum with the intention of checking out the building exterior. As we neared, we noticed that they actually were allowing folks in for free! Bonus! Phil and I spent a while exploring the museum and even spent several minutes observing Claude the albino alligator (who, as you can see, was pretty chill). We wandered throughout the aquatic exhibits, the living roof, penguin area and the temporary earthquake exhibit but didn't have enough time to see the planetarium or the rainforest dome unfortunately. Next time!
Phew! There we go everyone. I've made it to March and have just about caught up the blog! I hope you all enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed experiencing all of the food and activity from the other side of the lens. Cheers!
I must say that the last few Januarys have featured some truly remarkable weekends and 2013 continues that tradition with some wonderful,warm weather and clear blue skies. Why not take advantage and spend time outside?
The day begins early on at Land's End in San Francisco. Quite clear, but a bit of a cold wind kept us in our warm jackets as we hiked down the path to the Sutro Baths.
The baths, built as a swimming complex in the late 19th century saw use through the early 20th century before closing and being badly damaged by fire in the 1960s. We decided to visit the ruins since we had heard a story of a river otter setting up shop in the baths. While I didn't get a picture of "Sutro Sam", we did catch a glimpse of him pulling grass from the side of the pools and diving down to pack the grass somewhere. He just kept going back and forth, working diligently at his task. We could even see a trail of bubbles (maybe those escaping his thick fur?) as he swam underwater. I'm glad we took the chance to see the cute little critter as I've heard he hasn't been spotted at the baths for quite some time and may have headed back north.
It took a while to drive north to Point Reyes from SF, but the day just kept getting better and better. When we finally got out there, we took the shuttle bus from the visitor center out to the lighthouse trail. We deviated a bit to check out this north facing lookout and to see the beautiful surf rolling up onto the ever expanding coastline.
And finally continuing onward to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. Not only did we get this great view of beautiful ocean, but we also got to see some migrating Gray whales who cruised near the lighthouse lookout. No breaches, but we saw a lot of spouts as a widely dispersed pod made their way passed the point. Truly spectacular.
After witnessing the lighthouse and whales, we sat down for a packed lunch before continuing onto check out the Chimney Rock lookout at the other end of the Point Reyes Peninsula. The shuttle bus takes you to another trailhead where you can then hike out to see Chimney Rock. On the trail heading out to the lookout, we got to see this amazing view of Drake's Bay.
The Chimney Rock lookout gave a great view down to the aforementioned rocky outcropping. Though in my humble opinion it holds truer to the rock part of the name than the chimney, this end of the peninsula has really become known for...
...being a breeding ground for Northern Elephant Seals. Can you see the group of them lounging in the shade on the little sandy beach?
Maybe you can see this group a bit better as they spread themselves out to take advantage of the warmth of the sun. They look pretty small from up above, but they generally grow up to 3-4 meters in length and weigh in excess of 600kgs! For those non-metric readers, that equates to about 10+ ft in length and well over 1000 lbs in weight.
Really lovely weekend in January and just so beautiful an area we live in up here in the Bay Area. Hope you all enjoyed the pics!
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