Okay, so after alluding to this in a previous post, I've finally gotten around to getting these pics together and uploading them. Thanks to Linda, we had an opportunity to camp at the awesome Big Basin Redwoods State Park for the second year running. A few different faces this time around, but still plenty of Abbott folks representing. Away we go!
We managed to consolidate into fewer tents this time around and Linda, being camp counselor extraordinaire, brought the massive two cabin 10 person tent on the right for us "kids" (all 5 of us) to stay in.
After a lovely lunch on Saturday, a group of us set out to tackle the Pine Mountain Trail heading up to Buzzards Roost. Here's a pic of Babu, Khine, Me and Stephanie on a log bridging Bloom Creek near the trailhead.
The hike up the mountain (roughly 1200 ft over 2.5 miles) wasn't too bad and afforded us many great photo ops. In this one, Khine does her best "pro rock climber" impression.
Alas, it all comes down to perspective...
We made it up to Buzzards Roost on a lovely afternoon and gathered for a group pic: Me, Khine, Stephanie, James, Teleshia and Babu.
While we got a good amount of shade on the trail, the top didn't have much at all. As we took a break to rest and snack, I caught sight of this little guy hiding in the shadow of a small tree trunk to get a bit of respite from the hot sun.
As previously mentioned, not much shade at the top there. That, however, didn't stop us from doing a jump pic! By the way, at the horizon towards the left side of the pic is the Pacific!
Another pic of Blooms Creek after we finished the hike back down the Pine Mountain Trail. So cool and calm!
Post-hike, we sat around and recuperated before getting ready to prep dinner. Here are Me, Khine (carrying Linda's dog Ed) and Babu enjoying our rest on the picnic table.
As I learned last year, Linda takes her food seriously and so here we have the tri-tip hitting the grill (teriyaki on the left, bbq on the right).
Dinner is served! Arugula/artichoke salad, red quinoa polenta, tri-tip and grilled veggies. Yet another legendary Linda camp meal!
And for dessert, Steph, Stephanie, Khine and Teleshia took jumbo marshmallows and stuffed them in their mouths!
Another year, another enjoyable weekend at Big Basin. Thanks so much to Linda and the rest of the gang for making it fun and memorable. Cheers to the outdoors!
Graduation season has come and gone. I've long appreciated the ribbon leis Mum has made for me and Deryck throughout the years and I occasionally thought to myself perhaps I'd give that a try someday. What folly...
The task began with a treasure hunt of sorts. After deciding on a specific lei style, the Pakalana lei courtesy of Joy of Crafting, I had to go find eyelash yarn of natural colors. This being the mainland, fat chance I had of finding anything particularly useful, other than the bright green color in the middle. Thankfully, Google came to the rescue and I stumbled upon the website for "Amazing Yarns" who I found out I could drive 5 minutes or so up the road to visit. While they didn't have exactly what I wanted in terms of eyelash yarn, the nice lady did scrounge up this reddish silk yarn and dark green yarn that just might do the trick. Side note: if you happen to be looking for some unique yarns, call on the friendly folks at Amazing Yarns!
The Youtube video made it look so easy, but I had never crocheted before. It took me FOREVER to get the hang of the chain stitch...
After about an hour or so, I only had a few inches of chain stitch to show for my efforts. Talk about frustrating! To boot, I began to worry that the red silk yarn overpowered the bright green eyelash. The dark green yarn, with its low profile, could barely be seen. Had I chosen wrong?!
On top of those doubts, I made the rookie mistake of tangling up the silk yarn. And then I had to stop the chain stitching to untangle the monstrous ball o'yarn.
This literally took hours. Slowly and painstakingly removing knot by knot and carefully laying it out so that I could keep it untangled.
With silk yarn untangled, I could resume the chain stitching. I think by this time, I finally began to settle into a rhythm. A slow, inconsistently-sized chain stitching rhythm. It didn't help very much that my fingers started to hurt too.
In the end, after hours upon hours of work, all the chain stitching finally came to an end and I could then loop and twist the full length together. I think it turned out pretty good given the materials I had available. In particular, I'm pleased by the color of the red which turned out to come through very nicely in a fairly natural looking floral way. Victory!
Anyhow, as amazing as it felt to finely complete the job (in the wee hours of the morning no less), I'm pretty sure I'll retire myself from the lei making business and leave it to the professionals. The combination of coordination, repetition and patience required just doesn't quite suit me. Now more than ever do I appreciate the craft that goes into making each of these leis. Mum, you amaze me. To all my friends out there, I hope none of you consider going back to grad school anytime soon! Congratulations to all the 2013 grads and, until next time, adieu!
There are a bunch of great restaurants and eateries in the City, but in addition to many of those established dining locations, there are a few other places to find great food. Observe:
Let's start at the newly relocated Exploratorium. Home to a lovely array of scientific, interactive exhibits, they keep their doors open late a day or two during the week and on the first Thursday night of the month, host a party with some unique exhibits, entertainment, drinks and food. This elaborate, "popsicle-stick-like" model/sculpture depicts many of the famous sights in SF combined in one giant piece. See if you can pick out all the landmarks!
Josh visited from Portland and I met Brad in the City and we wandered the museum checking out some of the cool exhibits (it was super crowded) before deciding to grab a bite from the cafeteria style restaurant. On my plate: roasted fingerling potatoes, 1/4 rack of ribs, coleslaw and 1/2 a roast chicken. All quite delicious if I may say so.
This huge concave mirror shows you an enlarged image of what you see in front of you and even lends it some illusion of three-dimensions. Really cool.
Now that we've come into the summer months, it's the perfect time to enjoy food trucks in SF and no other gathering tops Friday night's "Off the Grid" at Fort Mason (where I previously took Kurt) where you can eat at over 30 different vendors! Took Josh there on his last night in SF and Brad, as a new SF resident, also came to experience his first "OTG". We kicked things off at "The Chairman". I've shown plenty of pics of their delicious bao so instead of another, I'll instead show this Miso Clam Chowder that I tried. Tasted great as a clam chowder, but I was just a tad disappointed to not really be able to discern the miso. Oh well, the bao still is the best food truck food I've had in SF to date.
Next up was Koja Kitchen where we got two of their "Kojas" (rice cake patty sandwiches), one kalbi style short rib and the other coconut glazed pork belly, along with the kamikaze fries (bulgogi & kimchee topped waffle fries). The pork belly was a new creation to me and it tasted very different and delicious.
As dessert, we opted to try Side Pony (a sandwich place) that had an amazing sounding PBJ creation: grilled peanut butter, blueberry jam and fried plantain sandwich. Pretty darn good with all the right kinds of flavors.
Not content to have attended OTG one week, I went up again the following week with Kevin (recently returned to the Bay) and a bunch of work friends for another round. In addition to more Chairman/Koja/etc, I tried Bok Ssam ("Korean comfort food") for the first time. This Korean fried chicken and waffle sandwich was pretty good (pictured) as was their Korean BBQ wrap (beef bulgogi, rice and lettuce in a rice wrapper with gochujang sauce; not pictured).
Stephanie braved the long line at Bacon Bacon to try this bacon fried chicken sandwich with a side of bacon topped fries. Very bacon-y and tasty in the savory and unhealthy manner you'd expect. Didn't get to have much more than a couple bites since we took the strategy of getting a large variety of foods and sharing a little bit of each.
Those of you who haven't checked out all the great eats up in the City (especially all the mobile ones), definitely head up there. If out-of-towners are feeling a bit hungry and want to come visit, I'd be happy to go up there with any of you too! Also, stay tuned for a recent outdoor adventure...post to come!
Sucks knowing that had I left just 15 or 20 minutes sooner, I would've made it to see the culmination of three hard years of Master's work. I'm sorry MC.
And with that contrite message, I've officially racked up 300 posts on this here blog. What an interesting eight years it has been.
So with arguably the best part of the year upon us, let's take a look at the food and fun I've enjoyed the past several weeks.
Always a treat to visit the Inouye-Wongs, hang out with Devin, Kaylee and company and also enjoy some of Richard's prime rib roast.
We've continued the tradition of Monday potluck's at work you can see my mini lasagne cups mid-prep which I made for our "red" theme. Hats off to Mari for finding the idea on Pinterest which repurposed wonton wrappers as mini lasagna pasta sheets.
Garlic fries at a sporting event? I must be at...
AT&T Park. Go SF Giants! I keep forgetting how cold it can be here in the evening...
Here you can see Lou Seal (Giant's mascot) and Phillie Phanatic (Phillie's mascot) doing their thing in between innings. Unfortunately, the Giants could not overcome the Phillies in my second ever MLB game. Thanks to Howie for letting me tag along.
Summer weather = bike riding time! Got to test out this fancy pants Felt bike from a demo tent set up along Cañada Road. Full carbon fiber frame, electronic shifting and a happy cyclist. Even though I only rode it for about a mile, you could easily tell the difference from my aluminum frame, cable shifting bike. With that said, I can't justify the nearly $7000 more that this bike costs compared to mine. Sigh, maybe someday.
Summer also means BBQ weather. This year, I enjoyed my first BBQ of the season up at Imran's place where we had burgers, sausages and veggie skewers cooking away on the open flame. P.S. I made the skewers!
Summer time also means daylight savings, which equals ample sunlight after work for an early evening bike ride (assuming, as I did on this particular day, I leave work on time). I hadn't ridden up Farm Hill in a while, and that meant my lungs and legs did't appreciate it at all. Luckily I got to enjoy this lovely view of the Bay from the top before a leisurely cruise downhill.
Summer/May also means another Bay to Breakers! This year, thanks to the generosity of VW, I even registered to participate. This meant that I started from the very beginning and went all the way to the end. Thanks to Mum, I got to stay up in the City the night before the big event. I got an early start and met up with my friends and off we went to mosey on with the masses.
No joke, I made it all the way to the "breakers" (i.e. the ocean and the finish line). We certainly didn't break any records during our leisurely walk, but we enjoyed great weather and saw some creative costumes along the 7+ mile course.
Thanks to Sam, Melissa and Amy for completing our traveling group. Sam & Amy (from my Crossfit gym) decided our theme would be Ninjas (complete with a child sized costume) and Melissa had independently determined she would be Mckayla Maroney (of "not impressed", Olympic gymnastics fame).
Coming back to a nice summer food item (and thanks again to Mari's inspiration), I made this inari-type sushi. In this instance, somen, seaweed and tofu strips replace the typical (and kinda boring) rice filling of inari. Turned out pretty yummy and well received for our Japanese themed Monday work potluck.
Howie had another spare ticket to an SF Giants game which he generously offered to me and back we went to AT&T. In an effort to combat the chilly wind, I opted to consume some warm clam chowder. Soup tasted alright, but the sourdough bread bowl fell seriously short of the quality that I'm used to (e.g. Boudin's).
As you may have seen in the ticket stub in the preceding image, this game pitted the SF Giants against the Washington Nationals. Thankfully in my 3rd MLB game, I finally got to see a Giants victory. Hopefully I'll get to see many more in my lifetime!
In celebration of a former work colleague's birthday, a group of us took her to the de Young museum to see the Girl With a Pearl Earring (and other paintings by Dutch masters). Since you couldn't take photos in the special exhibition, I instead present to you this sketch by Wayne Thiebaud. A great example of his geometric cityscapes, the sketch depicts his distinctive style without the vibrant color that you see in his paintings (which I've shown in previous blog entries).
Inspired by a picture we took during our trip to the City, the birthday girl painted this lovely work of art of Nicolette, me and Babu. Thanks Margie for capturing my likeness and transferring it faithfully to the canvas!
On a somewhat overcast Memorial day, I got treated to a trio of brilliant activities that began with a pretty delicious a la carte Dim Sum experience from Mong Kok Bakery in SF's Chinatown. Not quite equal to HK in my estimation, and it felt odd to "takeaway" Dim Sum, but it tasted better than expected (even given that I had high expectations from the stellar Yelp reviews) and cost an insignificant amount (i.e. < $10) for more food than two hungry people could eat.
Second up, after lunch, the Asian Art Museum's last day of the Chinese Terracotta warriors exhibition. While very cool to see up close, the traveling collection of soldiers lacked the awesomeness you experience when you see them as a whole in Xi'an. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the exhibit and came away learning a little bit more about these famous artifacts. Anyways, coming to the three postcards pictured above, I think the best thing I saw had to be the Proximities contemporary art exhibition, which had the theme of Asian influences on US culture. In the case of the postcards, the artist (Elisheva Biernoff) adopted the style of Japanese postcards with extinct native animals to depict the beauty and tragedy of capturing nature (so to speak). Anyways, there will be two other rotations of artwork to be featured as a part of the Proximities installation and, as a newly minted member of the museum, I look forward to seeing them throughout the year.
Finally, a trip to Half Moon Bay and another attempt at checking out the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve tidepools. Unfortunately, yet again, we ended up at Pillar Point at a time that didn't coincide with low tide and our efforts kinda came to naught. At least we got to walk around a bit, see the ocean and enjoy the breeze. As evidence of our journey, I present you this consolation picture of the sand with neat patterns left by the ebbing sea.
Alright, so here we've come to this past weekend when I had the privilege of joining Daniel and company on a bike ride out in Livermore. There may have also been some wine tasting mixed in with the bicycling (though, thankfully not drinking and cycling at the same time). I liked the look of the El Sol Winery's stained glass contrasting against the dry hills and clear blue sky. Bonus points for the bee hive which they used to make honey.
While the thirsty cyclists imbibed comfortably within the air conditioned building, the trusty bicycles waited patiently in the shade outside.
We ended the day with a hearty sushi meal. After an initial round of a few rolls, Daniel, Dan and myself still had a bit of an appetite left. So we ordered this sushi boat. The three of us (with a bit of help from Karen) cleaned out the boat in 5.5 minutes or so. No worries, we rode for ~30 miles that day and needed to replenish our bodies...
So that does it for this update (which, now that I think about it, fully covers May). Keep an eye out for some more exciting adventures! Until then...
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