California All the Way

Life in the Commonwealth

2009-10-31T11:27:00.001-07:00

I still haven't figured out what to do with this blog -- a blog about California can't be written in Massachusetts, about Massachusetts -- but as I've been figuring things out, I've let things lapse completely and the next thing I knew, six months (more than six months!) had passed. So here are a few pictures to show you what our lives have been like since we moved.

Spring was beautiful. This is strange, I guess, because we'd already started spring in California, and yet it was early enough on in Massachusetts that it still felt exciting. Before all the rain hit in June, we had a very nice April and May.

I traveled to upstate New York with my family to attend my cousin Kathleen's wedding.

And at the end of May, I turned 31 and we closed on our house. Thus began the long process of unpacking, which is still going on today.

We enjoyed getting reunited with Boston, New England, and our local friends and family. Here are some pictures from a trip up to Ipswich, MA, to eat fried clams and pick strawberries. The clams were great but the strawberries had suffered in all the rain.

Brendan and Barb at Russell Orchards

In July, we drove down to New Jersey for O'Malley Family Track Day at Monmouth Park.

We spent part of the next morning on my brother-in-law's boat in the Atlantic and on the Navesink River with my inlaws, below.

I had high hopes for gardening but had to put it off, for the most part, until next year, when I will be finished with school and should have a bit more time. Fortunately there were already a lot of beautiful perennials in the yard, so things looked pretty good without much effort...although eventually "not much effort" meant that the yard started looking like a jungle. I did get some tomato and cherry pepper plants in the ground, and we had some great cherry tomatoes for a while. Stacey pickled and canned some of our cherry peppers, and with the rest we made hot sauce. I'm planning on a lot more veggies next year!

We flew down to Florida just before Labor Day for the wedding of my good friend from college, Jennie, and her husband Eric. The wedding was a lot of fun and got me excited for my 10 Year College Reunion coming up next May!

Then off to Palm Coast for some R&R with the O'Malleys, including a trip to the fort in St. Augustine, below.

Stacey and I both love fall, so it's been exciting to experience a "real" New England fall after missing out on them when we were in California. However, we were not expecting to get snow -- twice! -- in October!

I took the picture below on my way to work. While stopped in Kendall Square near MIT, the operator on the subway train I was riding announced a "brief delay" due to "police action." After fifteen minutes I gave up and decided to walk the rest of the way. It was a bit chilly on the Longfellow Bridge, but the views were nice! Later I found out that President Obama was speaking at MIT that day. I think I have him to thank for holding up my commute!

Almost every year since I was a baby, my family has spent a weekend in the fall with friends in Maine, making apple cider and stuffing ourselves full of all sorts of good eats. This was my first Cider Weekend since 2006, and although the first day was pretty miserably rainy, we did get a head start on the good eats. Luckily Day 2 was gorgeous -- perfect weather for picking, crushing, and pressing apples into cider.

Here's a shot of Hancock Pond:

And the view from the orchard:

Lucy "helping" us pick:

Becky and puppies

Susy getting down to business

Lucy relaxes while the rest of us work.

First, you wash the apples...

Then you crush them in the crusher...

Then you press the apples into cider in the press:

Crushed apple, waiting to be pressed

Et voila -- cider!

Susy and Becky are an efficient bottling team.

Some of the final product

Lucy relaxing again...I sense a theme.

The next few months should be busy. I need to finish my independent study so that I can complete my degree and we have a lot of walls to paint, carpet to rip up, boxes to unpack and cabinets and closets to organize. I'll try to report back soon.

Safe and sound.

2009-04-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

I apologize for taking so long to post that we have arrived in Massachusetts! It's been a hairy couple of days. As many of you know, Stacey and I are buying the house I grew up in from my father. He and my stepmother are renovating a house she bought before they met, but it's not finished yet. So in the meantime, we had to find a way to fit all of our stuff into a house that is already pretty full of their stuff. Yesterday our movers (who were great) dropped off our belongings and we managed to fit everything, though some rooms are packed to the gills! Yesterday Stacey's father and stepmother arrived after driving our second car across the country (thanks Bill and Susan!) and we went to our beloved Blue Room with both families to celebrate our triumphant return! I am happy to be in Massachusetts, but already getting a bit tired of living out of boxes/suitcases and of cat-and-dog negotiations (my father's golden retriever, Lucy, wants to be Scout's friend; Scout would prefer that she drop dead). The weekend will be full of errands and school work and then it's back to the grind on Monday. Wish us luck!

Days 4 & 5: Lincoln to Buffalo

2009-04-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

We left Lincoln on Tuesday and drove through Iowa and into Illinois. See, Iowa is just a little bit less flat than Nebraska:

Illinois was flat again. Not so exciting, either.

Today we drove through Indiana, Ohio, and a small chunk of Pennsylvania, then up into New York, where we found...vineyards! All this way from California, and still we find the grapevines:

It's a bit colder here, though! When we arrived at our hotel in Buffalo, it was 39 degrees with cold winds. We're not in California anymore, folks.

What's that you say? Is that a picture of the Anchor Bar, the legendary spot where the Buffalo chicken wing was invented? Why yes it is!

Stacey loves buffalo wings, so she was excited by the idea of trying out the originals. I have been to Buffalo many times, but have never been to the Anchor Bar. I worried about being disappointed. I'm not particularly a buffalo wing fan. I eat them, but I don't get that excited by them. And there are buffalo wings available everywhere these days. Would the Anchor Bar's wings stand out?

Yes! Stacey and I both have declared the Anchor Bar's buffalo wings the best we've ever had. The keys are the super crispy skin and the sauce-to-wing ratio. But mostly the super crispy skin. I'm a sucker for crispy chicken skin. We also ordered beef on weck, a western New York specialty consisting of sliced roast beef on what is called a kimmelweck roll, a kind of kaiser roll covered in salt and caraway seeds. I grew up eating this, courtesy of my upstate-New York-native mother, but Stacey had never had it. It was also a big hit. Top it all off with Genesee Cream Ale and Yuengling, and you have two happy travelers.

You know what else makes us happy? Tomorrow we will reach our destination!

Day 2, er, 3: Salt Lake to Lincoln, Nebraska

2009-04-07T06:14:00.001-07:00

Since leaving California, we'd been following weather reports of blizzards in Wyoming and Nebraska that had closed parts of I-80, the road we are taking most of the way across the country. When we woke up in Salt Lake on Sunday morning, the interstate was still closed from Rock Springs, Wyoming, East through the rest of the state. I had slept poorly due to a bad cough, and was consequently feeling worse. We decided to wait things out for a day in Salt Lake City.

We had forgotten it was Sunday, and not much is open in Salt Lake on Sunday. I didn't have the energy to do much anyway, and spent most of the day in bed. Scout enjoyed an extra day's reprieve from the dreaded carrier. Below is a picture of Scout chillaxing on the sofa in our hotel room.

Salt Lake City is surrounded by beautiful mountains. They were quite spectacular but I couldn't get any pictures that didn't have a Wal-Mart in the foreground, so didn't bother.

Monday morning we set out early, driving through the mountains as the sun was rising. This is probably somewhere around Park City.

From the snowy mountains, I-80 winds into an area that looks kind of like the Old Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disney World...

From Utah, we drove into Wyoming -- and little sign of the blizzard that had closed the road. There were a few inches of snow in some places, but just a dusting in others, and the roads were clear.

At a rest stop, I saw at least six little critters that I think were prairie dogs -- except they seemed kind of smaller than I expected. What do you think?

One of the snowier areas, below. That's Elk Mountain, part of the Medicine Bow mountain range.

Wyoming was long, but not as long as our next state: Nebraska. We remembered from our drive in the other direction that Nebraska is very flat and very, very long. It seems to go on forever, and is the first state we've gone through so far where there really isn't anything to look at.

There was a nice sunset behind us, which I tried to capture in our rearview mirror:

We arrived at our hotel in Lincoln without incident, and feeling only a little stir-crazy. We were pleased to find a Runza Restaurant just around the corner. While preparing for this trip, I had researched some of our stopping points on the Road Food website, which indicated that when in Nebraska, one has to try the regional phenomenon that is the Runza sandwich. It's a soft bread pocket into which is stuffed a mixture of ground beef, onions and spices. We wisely bought the kind with cheese.

Well...the Runza is not bad. The ground meat and onion mixture is sort of pasty, but it tastes good. The bread is good. But I won't go running back to Nebraska just to get one.

Perhaps due to our Runzas, we slept well last night and are getting ready to head out for our third leg of the trip. It is only 22 degrees here in Lincoln -- the coldest weather I've experienced since the winter before we moved to California! We'll be glad to get out of Nebraska. Fortunately, the Iowa border is less than an hour away.

Rewind: Day 1, San Jose to Salt Lake City

2009-04-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

Stacey and I left San Jose this morning and drove about twelve hours to Salt Lake City, Utah. This is one of the longest days of our trip and was uneventful. Good weather, no traffic (although we did see the aftermath of this fatal bus accident). Here are some pictures from our trip (all taken from the moving car, so nothing fancy).

Sierra Nevadas, possibly near Truckee, California. Scout did not enjoy the mountains, howling the whole way through. Otherwise she was fine and slept the rest of the way. We remembered today that she was unhappy the last time we drove through the Sierra Nevadas, and realized it might be an altitude thing. Can cats' ears pop?

Nevada, somewhere east of Elko. I didn't remember northern Nevada having so many mountains. Maybe they stood out this time because they still have snow on them!

You can see all the snow here:

You know you're approaching Utah when you drive over a hill and suddenly, instead of desert brush, you see a white strip on the horizon: salt flats!

Looks like snow, but it's salt.

Pink mountains in the sunset, about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City.

We're getting ready for a good night's sleep (we hope) in preparation for another long day tomorrow. We'll try to keep you posted!

Homeward bound.

2009-03-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already heard, we are moving back to Massachusetts! I could spend all day writing about our reasons -- to many people, it is virtually incomprehensible that we would want to return to the land of snow, ice and humidity, so I have spent a fair amount of time honing my argument -- but this should suffice: there are many wonderful and beautiful things to recommend California, and we will surely be back to visit, but in the end, it is not our home.

We have been lucky. Stacey works for an international company and I work for an international law firm, and as each one has a presence in the Boston area, we're both able to keep our jobs. We are looking forward to homeownership, being legally married (California does not recognize our marriage), Red Sox season (Stacey hasn't been able to watch games here), lower sales tax, seasons, and all the friends and family we have in the area (as well as being much closer to other family in New Jersey, New York and Florida). We will miss my aunt and cousins here and the handful of friends we have in California, but we are happy to be going home.

I'm not sure yet what will become of this blog. If nothing else changes, it will at least need a new name. I'll let you know when I decide.

Packing is a bit overwhelming but is going well. As I've been plugging along on my schoolwork, Stacey has managed to pack most of the apartment. This weekend is the final push, next week we finish up at work, and on April 4th we hit the road.

Now, if we can just figure out how to pack the cat...

Sonoma with Sam and Dena

2009-03-22T20:46:00.001-07:00

Our friends Sam and Dena just moved from Chicago to Sacramento, and we met up with them today for a sunny Sunday in Sonoma.

Highlights: Gloria Ferrer (above), amazing weather, tasting new olive oils (like jalapeno!) at The Olive Press, brunch at El Dorado Kitchen, vanilla softserve ice cream with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt at El Dorado Kitchenette (delicious), lots of good wine, and, of course, good company.

Picholine olive trees, grapevines and yellow mustard at B. R. Cohn Winery in Glen Ellen.

Olive grove at B. R. Cohn.

The weird castle/tasting room at Ledson Winery in Kenwood.

Florida Getaway

2009-01-13T16:05:00.000-08:00

Perhaps everyone should have at least one set of inlaws in Florida or some equally sunny locale, the better to facilitate recuperative trips there when the weather elsewhere is cold or wet.

Oh, I know our 50-degrees-and-misty (or, in today's case, high 60's and sunny) hardly compares to the winter weather in Boston, or Rochester, or Duluth. But it has been sort of raw and rainy lately around here, and so it was a welcome change when we arrived in sunny, breezy Palm Coast to visit Stacey's mother and stepfather.

The reward for getting up at 3:00 AM for an early flight? Watching the sun rise over the clouds.

I recently read an article in the New York Times about good choices for airport food, so I was excited to have a connection in Dallas-Forth Worth, one of the airports they reviewed. The top DFW pick, an outpost of the Fort Worth chain Cousin's Bar-B-Q, was located in neither the terminal in which we landed nor the terminal from which our second flight was departing, but priorities are priorities. After a quick call to Stacey's father, who performed some key research for us, we made a detour to Terminal B for chopped brisket sandwiches and sweet tea.

We were encouraged by the sign at Cousin's proclaiming it to be one of the Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas, which is saying something. We enjoyed our sandwiches and tea, although Stacey remains unimpressed, claiming she preferred the chopped beef sandwich she had at the Houston airport on the way to New Orleans a few months ago. We planned to hit up Dickey's Barbecue Pit on our way home for the recommended hot links, but it turned out we were too tired for BBQ detours today.

We had a good time at Stacey's mom's house, doing the kinds of things we never have time for in Real Life: watching Oprah, eating home-cooked meals, drinking pina coladas on the patio. We went shopping. We played with Benny, who resisted my repeated attempts at capturing his portrait:

We also went up to St. Augustine, which I believe is the oldest city in Florida, for lunch and shopping. You can see the fort in the background below. We didn't check it out this time around but did hear the cannons go off, which was a bit startling to say the least. They should warn people about those things!

Sadly, our time at the O'Malley Resort had to come to an end, but vacation was not over yet. We drove down to Orlando, where we met up with my father, stepmother, and sisters, who had flown in from Boston to spend a few days with us.

I finally got my shot at pirate-themed mini golf, but Stacey and Susy both beat me. Drat.

We also paid Mickey a visit or two. The whole family rode the carousel, below. It's not that comfortable anymore!

Overall, a fun trip, a nice break from work and life, and my last chance to recharge before my last semester of grad school. Tomorrow, it's back to the daily grind. Thank goodness for long weekends.

So this is Christmas?

2008-12-26T08:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of our apartment community on Christmas Eve. Kind of looks like fall in New England, right? It's been rainy in the Bay Area lately, which translates to winter weather, but for Stacey and me, it's hard to get in the holiday spirit when it looks like this outside.

We did have a merry, festive Christmas though, with lots of family and friends. My cousin Rick's brother-in-law Umberto and his family traveled from France to see their new niece/cousin Gaby, and as the only French speaker of the Americans, I spent a lot of time to trying to figure out how to say things like "cranberry" (canneberge) in French. I had to look that one up, and I'm still not sure they really have cranberries in France. Anyone know? Umberto and Rick's wife, Jessica, are originally from Peru, so there were a lot of English to Spanish to French translations. Definitely the most languages I've ever seen going on at one holiday. Never a dull moment!

Christmas morning brought a sea of presents and a make-your-own-breakfast-burrito bar at Steve and Kendra's house. Gaby doesn't really get Christmas yet, but enjoyed hanging out with her Nana, below, and many other adoring relatives.

Stacey and I both have today off, so we are having a quiet day at home, trying to relax and get organized now that the Christmas craziness is over.

New Orleans

2008-11-04T22:35:00.000-08:00

When we found out that Stacey would be going to New Orleans for a conference, I jumped at the chance to book plane tickets and join her there after the conference ended. We were excited when my cousin Steve and his wife, Kendra, agreed to join us for food, drink and Halloween fun.

First stop: Cochon. When I read this review of Cochon in the New York Times, I actually started drooling a little bit. I didn't expect I'd be going to New Orleans anytime soon, but knew it would be high on my list when and if I did. It was definitely my first thought when I heard about Stacey's conference.

For those of you who don't know, "cochon" is French for pig. "Cochon de lait," which basically translates to "milk pig," is French for suckling pig (in other words, a pig fed on milk), and figures prominently in New Orleans (particularly Cajun) cooking. A young pig is typically slow roasted so that you get very tender meat. Cochon (the restaurant) makes good use of the pig: head cheese, sausage, and pork rillettes, all of which showed up on our charcuterie platter; Louisiana cochon with turnips, cabbage and cracklins, which I ordered; a pork loin special; house-made bacon (which appeared in the fried oyster and bacon sandwich Stacey ordered). You get the picture. You are also probably getting the picture that Cochon is not a restaurant for dieters -- nor is New Orleans a city for dieters. I'm sure there are plenty of places to get low-calorie food in New Orleans, but the classic dishes and local favorites of the city -- heck, the entire region -- lean toward the fatty and the fried. I usually try to eat more healthy food than this, but I wasn't going to visit one of the food capitals of the United States and not partake of their specialties.

Everything was tasty, but I think the favorite dish at our table was the wood-fired oysters; we also enjoyed our spicy fried alligator (yup -- it does taste like chicken). Cochon is cozy, with a wood-fired oven and a barbecue joint-goes-hip vibe, and the service was excellent.

We started out my first morning in New Orleans with the typical tourist destinations: first, beignets for breakfast at Cafe du Monde...

and then a walk around Jackson Square and the French Quarter.

My extensive research sent us to Fiorella's Cafe for a lunch of fried chicken and Abita, and to Mother's for dinner. I thoroughly enjoyed Mother's, which is an old home-style cafeteria-style restaurant serving New Orleans classics -- jambalaya, crawfish etoufee, gumbo, and po' boys. I had a Ferdi Special, which is a roast beef and ham po' boy with gravy, debris (those little bits of meat that fall into the gravy), shredded cabbage, mayonnaise and pickles. It was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had.

Thanks to the insistence of Steve and Kendra, we dressed up and went out on Halloween, which I gather is a particularly beloved holiday in New Orleans, second only to Mardi Gras. We had a great time -- much better than giving out candy, which I have never enjoyed.

Please note that Steve is wearing creepy contacts in the picture above and does not normally look like that.

On Saturday we were (somewhat miraculously) up in time for brunch at the Commander's Palace, a New Orleans institution OR tourist trap depending on who you ask. Based on the fact that the food was actually quite delicious, I am going to go with New Orleans institution. The service was amazing, a jazz trio played a song for each table, and I ate more cochon de lait, this time served over cornbread buttermilk biscuits with poached eggs on top. Amazing. The piece de resistance was probably the bread pudding souffle I had for dessert.

The Commander's Palace is in the Garden District, a very pretty neighborhood of old, quirky homes and shady streets. It feels like what one thinks of when one thinks of New Orleans -- at least when one isn't thinking of Bourbon Street or, more recently, the Lower Ninth Ward. Across the street from the Commander's Palace is Lafayette Cemetery.

We went shopping on Magazine Street, including a stop in an amazing home store called Perch, then caught the famous St. Charles Streetcar, only recently back in service after damage sustained during Katrina.

We went back to the neighborhood that night for dinner at Gautreau's, a tiny restaurant with no sign on a narrow residential street. We would never have known it existed had I not read that their 27-year-old executive chef, Sue Zemanick, was recently named a 2008 Best New Chef by Food and Wine magazine. I am always excited when women -- especially women that young -- get recognition for their success in the traditionally male-dominated restaurant industry, so off we went. No regrets -- it was one of the best meals we had in a while.

On Sunday, Steve and Kendra flew back to California, and Stacey and I set off in pursuit of art. I had serendipitously read a New York Times article just before flying to New Orleans on Prospect.1 New Orleans, a massive contemporary art biennial that was scheduled to begin the very weekend we would be in town! Exhibits were set up in over a dozen sites across the city, and even with shuttle service, it wasn't easy to see all of them. We checked out one in the French Quarter and two in Treme, which sits just north of the French Quarter.

Above is the New Orleans African American Museum, an old plantation house in Treme that housed our favorite Prospect.1 exhibit, by husband-and-wife collaborators McCallum & Tarry. The show was a collection of mug shots taken from the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956, including those of Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The photographs were reprinted onto sheer silk panels, which were then stretched over paintings of the same images and framed. When you walk past them, the images shift against each other, aligning and then separating, blurring the lines. The effect is sort of haunting, and the exhibit was quite powerful. McCallum & Tarry describe the mug shot project here, but the visual effect of what we saw is more like this project.

Walking back to our hotel, I saw this sign on Governor Nicholls Street:

Not a bad thing to keep in mind. Fortunately I was not wrong about New Orleans, which earned a pretty high rating on my list of eating destinations. Did I mention the pralines?

It's a good week for babies.

2008-10-26T10:10:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to my cousin Rick and his wife, Jessica, on the birth of their daughter, Gabriella Amelia, who was born on Thursday.

Congratulations to my friend Pam and her husband, Patrick, on the birth of their daughter, Margaret Donna, who was born early this morning.

Both babies and mommas are doing great.

Eating California

2008-10-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

October is "Eat Local" month around the country, and I doubt any city in the nation has embraced the challenge quite like San Francisco. Today I went to Mixt Greens, one of my favorite places to grab a weekday lunch, and bought a salad made with locally sourced mixed greens, Asian pears, blue cheese and walnuts (plus some golden beets, apparently not local). It was delicious.

I've been eating local food in some capacity since childhood, when my father grew tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, onions, garlic, asparagus, beans, peas and herbs in our backyard. I've dug potatoes and picked (and eaten) a lot of blueberries in our friends' garden in Maine, and in Attica, New York, we used to eat corn grown on my grandfather's land. Or maybe I'm conflating different memories. Anyway, ever since I've become more tuned in to the food world, I've been thrilled to support restaurants, like Fish. and Mixt Greens, that serve locally sourced ingredients. Stacey worked at The Blue Room for several years, cooking food that was purchased, when possible, from local Massachusetts purveyors like Verrill Farm (in Concord) and Woodbury Clams (in Wellfleet), so she is no stranger to the pleasures of cooking and eating locally.

There are plenty of reasons to eat local food -- because it's delicious, because it supports local farmers, because the short distance it travels to your plate requires less gasoline -- but plenty of people have written well-researched and passionate books on the subject, so I won't try to do that here. If you're interested in local food, you might pick up Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, or Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (more about the U.S. industrial food system than about local food, but the connection is significant), both of which I've enjoyed reading in the past year, or check out The 100-Mile Diet. The term "locavore," meaning a person who seeks out locally produced food, was coined in 2005 and selected in 2007 as The New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year.

Not that we necessarily qualify. I'd be embarassed to admit the number of meals we eat at Chili's, and we don't have the space or time to buy a quarter of a locally-raised pig or grow our own salad greens. We do grow cherry tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and herbs in pots on our patio (see pictures above), and buy West coast seafood and local, free-range chicken from Race Street Market, down the street from our apartment. We buy olive oil from Stonehouse and The Olive Press, both of which use California olives; most of the wine we drink comes from Santa Cruz or Sonoma Counties. And we do get almost all of our fruits and vegetables these days from Farm Fresh To You, an organic produce delivery service that operates out of Capay, 115 miles from us (doesn't quite make the 100-mile mark, but not bad). This isn't our first experience with CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture), either. In Massachusetts, we participated in farm shares with Parker Farm in Lunenburg and The Food Project in Concord. But farm shares in the Northeast are more limited than in California: the seasons are longer here, the land supports a greater variety of plants (including fruit, which I rarely got in Massachusetts farm shares), and, in many cases, we can opt in and opt out as often as we like, rather than making a season-long commitment. Every Thursday, Farm Fresh To You delivers a box of fruits and vegetables to our apartment. Here's what we got last week, and how we used it.

2 lb Starkrimson pears

These are gorgeous. I ate one and poached the other four, using a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (a modern classic, we think). Red wine (local, from Healdsburg), sliced lemon (not quite local, from an organic orchard in San Diego county), cinnamon stick and whole cloves (emphatically not local, packaged by McCormick in Maryland and probably grown in Asia), and sugar (don't ask).

I was inspired to make them because we had some leftover mascarpone cheese (from Wisconsin -- oh well), which I happen to know makes an excellent topping for poached pears. And it did.

1 lb slicing tomatoes

A couple of these went into BATs (Bacon, Arugula and Tomato sandwiches) on Sunday with arugula left over from the previous week's delivery. We don't normally keep bacon around, so this was a rare treat.

1.5 lb butterball potatoes

Stacey boiled these until tender, then sliced about half of them to add to a pizza with Parmigiano Reggiano, truffled cheese, and chopped rosemary from our patio. It was delicious, and the leftovers made a fantastic breakfast the next day, topped with a fried egg (local and cage-free, from Ripon, the self-proclaimed Almond Capital of the World, a "small community whose Quality of Life shines like a small jewel in the . . . San Joaquin valley." I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried). You should really try to get Stacey to make you a pizza sometime. She's a master.

I decided to use the leftover potatoes to make Crash Hot Potatoes, a recipe I saw on a food blog called The Pioneer Woman Cooks (not quite as, um, historical as it sounds). We ate them with roasted Sonoma County chicken and roasted green beans left over from the previous week's delivery.

1 bunch radishes and 12 oz. baby lettuce

Salad on Wednesday, with broccoli from the previous week and the rest of this week's slicing tomatoes.

1.5 lb crimson grapes

I brought a bag of these to work with me most days to snack on. Except for Concord grapes, I had never had local grapes before we moved to California. These are great.

1 lb yellow onions

Sauteed with the previous week's peppers for pork fajitas.

1.5 lb Gala apples

I've been snacking on these all week. New England apples are better, but I'm biased.

1 pint cherry tomatoes

By Sunday these were a bit worse for the wear, so I made a cherry tomato confit using garlic from a previous delivery and rosemary from the patio. This recipe from the New York Times is really simple. We ate it over linguine.

2 acorn squashes

To be decided. Stacey wants to make them into a soup.

It's Thursday again, and more fruits and veggies have arrived. Much of the same, but we did get two kinds of pears this week, Fuji instead of Gala apples (I'm glad), some garlic and our first head of Napa cabbage. It's a long weekend, and I'm hoping I'll have some time to use that cabbage to make Mommy's Meatballs, a recipe from my friend Lisa's mother, who lives in Taiwan. I've never made it before, but I have an approximate recipe and a memory of watching Lisa make it, so I'm game.

Oh, and we got two more acorn squashes, so we better get cracking on that soup.

Date night in San Francisco

2008-10-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

The following notable things happened today:

1. It rained. I am pretty sure this is the first time it has rained in San Jose since April or May. People on the East coast -- you really don't know what that's like. It's weird. This is definitely my first rain experience since Alaska.

2. We drove into San Francisco to go to a play. On the way, we decided to visit Bi-Rite Creamery, due to a) extremely positive reviews from friends and b) a gift card wedding gift from one of those friends. After spending about twenty minutes trying to find parking (grrrr), we finally made it. Salted caramel ice cream. Yummy.

3. On the way from Bi-Rite to the American Conservatory Theater, we almost got in a car accident. I had a slo-mo moment of watching the front of the car get closer and closer to the idiot who decided to pull out of their parking space on a major street without looking. Thank you, Subaru brakes. No damage done.

4. We got to the theater just in time to make it into our seats (we were literally running up the stairs) for the opening act of Rock 'n' Roll by Tom Stoppard. It was excellent.

5. We had dinner reservations at Canteen, and it was everything I had hoped. Canteen is this tiny restaurant in a diner space that was opened several years ago by a chef who'd been working at high-end Rubicon and decided to open his own space. There are four first courses, four second courses, three desserts, and three seating times -- that's it. There are maybe 19 seats. We sat at the counter. They sent out an amuse bouche of thinned goat cheese -- sort of a goat cheese soup -- with chopped raw apple. Then we got amazing fresh-baked melt-in-your-mouth brioche rolls (and by "fresh" I mean we had watched them pull them out of the oven about five minutes earlier). I had a salad of raw fall vegetables (wild mushrooms, celery, fennel, celeriac with pomegranate seeds, herbs and vinaigrette), and Stacey had pork tenderloin with figs. I had sole with tarragon; Stacey had steak tartare with a poached egg. I had their signature vanilla bean souffle, and it was perfect. Stacey had a pear and roquefort tart, which was perfect for her, since she always wants a cheese course for dessert (fool).

6. It is a Saturday night at 9:15 PM, and we are going to bed. Yes, we are that lame.

September

2008-09-28T07:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Stacey and I celebrated the end of the summer with a trip to Santa Cruz. Our first stop was Bonny Doon Winery. We have been buying their excellent wines for a while, so we were excited to finally make it to their tasting room in the mountains above Santa Cruz. We tasted, among other things, a very interesting dry Orange Muscat and an amazing dessert wine called Le Vol des Anges. Our visit might have been perfect had a bus full of screaming drunk winery-hoppers not arrived while we were there. One woman stumbled across the floor, lost her shoe, and then ran out of the tasting room, stealing a bottle of Viognier Doux on the way. Classy.

Next stop: Santa Cruz Boardwalk, which just celebrated its 100th birthday. Santa Cruz has plenty to offer, including some great beaches and the beautiful campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz, but my wife is from the Jersey Shore, after all, so she does enjoy a good boardwalk. We had fun riding the Logger's Revenge and playing pinball. We also thought it would be fun to ride the Sky Gliders, below. They moved slowly and looked tame. Too bad we are both afraid of heights! I think we hyperventilated the whole way. They're higher than they look.

We also attempted a round of mini golf in the pirate-themed Neptune's Kingdom, which is delightfully tacky (see below. That volcano "erupts" periodically, and cannons shoot smoke rings into the course). But it was incredibly busy, and after waiting...and waiting...after the first two holes, we finally cut our losses and went to dinner. Aaarrr!

Two weeks ago, I helped Loa, my cousin Jeff's wife, throw a baby shower for Jessica, my cousin Rick's wife. Their daughter is due on October 20th. I'm looking forward to meeting her!

At work, we are participating in a department-wide photo journal this month. Since we work in seven different offices across the country, it gives us a chance to see what everyone else's work life looks like. I thought I'd include a picture of the view from our library, below. That's the Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge in the distance.

Labor Day in Marin County

2008-09-01T16:50:00.001-07:00

For Stacey and me, Marin County has served mostly as a gateway to Sonoma County, its neighbor to the north and oenological superior. However, for our Labor Day outing, we wanted something slightly closer to home. So we headed up to San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Marin, with its million-dollar views and multi-million-dollar homes.

Our first stop was Muir Woods National Monument, so Stacey could finally see some redwood trees. I have been to Muir Woods before, and as I recalled, the drive there is as good as the destination. From the peninsula, you drive through San Francisco and over the bridge. On a clear day like today, the view is stunning. Once in Marin, the road winds through eucalyptus trees, the scent of which finds its way into your car even with the windows closed. Eventually, you are driving along the edge of a valley with views of the Pacific Ocean (you can barely see it in the picture below).

Muir Woods is lovely but tends to be crowded. Of course, today was no exception -- but it was a nice walk nonetheless.

And we saw deer! Three of them were eating along the banks of a stream with no concern for the hoard of tourists snapping photos a few feet away from them.

When we'd had our fill of nature, we drove into the town of Sausalito. Sausalito, with its ferry from San Francisco, its views of the city, and its downtown shopping, is a major tourist destination. Somehow we managed to spend the afternoon there without getting anywhere near the crowds -- even though the Sausalito Art Festival was going on this weekend.

Our primary destination was Fish., a small restaurant on the docks that's run by a former fine-dining chef with a staunch commitment to sustainable seafood. It was worth the wait in line for our food: a Miyagi oyster po' boy with a spicy chili-lime slaw, and a crab roll with fresh-cut shoestring fries. The po' boy was delicious, but the crab roll, below, stole the show. This may be the West coast's best answer to New England's lobster rolls: a buttered and grilled roll (from local bakery Acme Bread Company) filled with a pile of Dungeness crab, dressed in just a bit of butter and some chives. Better than a lobster roll? I'm not telling.

After lunch, our path back to the parking lot just happened to lead past the Heath Ceramics Factory Store. Heath is a local ceramics manufacturer that's been making simple, beautiful tableware for sixty years. They aren't cheap, but the pieces are timeless and sturdy -- and luckily, you can buy discounted seconds and discontinued items at the factory store. I picked out the vases below. I love them.

Happy fall, everyone! OK, I know it doesn't start until September 22nd, but it might as well be fall once we're past Labor Day. My first week of school went well: one down, fourteen to go!

Ketchikan, Alaska and Victoria, British Columbia

2008-08-24T12:03:00.001-07:00

Ketchikan was our last Alaskan stop on the cruise. Despite being one of the rainiest towns in Alaska, it was ultimately our sunniest destination.

The picture above is of Ketchikan's harbor. Below is a picture of Creek Street, which used to be Ketchikan's Red Light District. Now it is made up of tourist shops selling t-shirts, reindeer sausage, Native art and salmon. You can't see it in the picture, but the creek is literally teeming with salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

We took an early morning boat ride to the Misty Fjords National Monument, which is pretty much what it sounds like. It was beautiful.

I've included our trip to Victoria, British Columbia on this post because -- well, it just wasn't interesting enough to merit its own. For a while, I have wanted to travel to Vancouver Island (where Victoria is located) to visit Sooke Harbour House, an inn about an hour from Victoria whose restaurant is internationally renowned both for the quality of its food and its commitment to local ingredients. Almost all of the food served there is grown on Vancouver Island (much of it in Sooke Harbour House's kitchen garden), or caught in the waters nearby. Alas, our ship was only docked in Victoria for a short time, and a two-hour round-trip drive plus four-course meal was not in the cards. Instead, we took a leisurely horse-drawn trolley tour of the city. That's the legislative building, below.

We have now been back in California for a week and have settled back into real life. My fall semester begins tomorrow, so I am trying to get myself organized and mentally prepared for the new school year, which will be my last. I hope you've all enjoyed your summers and have interesting plans for the fall. We probably won't be up to much beyond work and school, but we'll try to keep you posted.

Glacier Bay National Park

2008-08-20T12:34:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, we cruised through Glacier Bay National Park. It was pretty mind-blowing. First of all, glaciers. Big, blue, jagged glaciers making spooky creaking noises and sending showers of ice down into the water now and then. That's Margerie Glacier, above, behind me, and below, in all her glory. She puts Mendenhall -- or at least the view of him I had -- to shame.

Second of all, the air smelled amazing -- the way it smells when you've just walked outside after a big snow. I guess I miss that smell! New Englanders probably got sick of it this winter, but I'm deprived.

There were snow-capped mountains everywhere, dark clouds and light breaking through dramatically. Ice floating in the water, just in case you forgot where you were. The best part? Since we had balcony rooms on the ship, we could see everything drift by from the comfort of our bed, if so desired. Laziness without missing a single scenic view. Perfect!

Skagway, Alaska

2008-08-18T20:08:00.001-07:00

Our next port was Skagway, Alaska (pop. 850, I think I heard). Supposedly the little town hasn't changed much since the Gold Rush. It might look the same on the outside, but the shops in Skagway are mostly tourist junk: Eskimo ornaments, t-shirts, knick-knacks, fudge. I might have enjoyed it more had it not been pouring rain. Or maybe not.

However, it was in Skagway that we boarded the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, which climbs almost 3,000 feet to the border of British Columbia, along the same route thousands of gold-seekers traveled on foot in the 1890's (the tracks would eventually lead you into the Yukon). I was a little worried that the train trip would be lame. I was wrong.

Photographs (my photographs, anyway) cannot quite capture the experience of being in a train on the side of a mountain, with the Class 6 rapids of the Skagway River churning in the bottom of the ravine far below you and an even taller mountain rising out of the fog on the either side of the chasm. It was beautiful.

At one point, we could see the actual trail on which the miners walked. It was probably not more than two feet wide.

Becky spent most of the train ride out in the platform, taking pictures. Hers are better than mine -- oh well.

Juneau, Alaska

2008-08-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

After sailing out of Seattle, we spent the first full day of our cruise at sea, occupying ourselves with spa treatments, cocktails, hot tubs, bowling, naps, and, of course, food (it was also Stacey's and my one-year anniversary!). It was nice to offset our outdoorsy plans and the rainy forecast with some total relaxation.

Our ship pulled into Juneau on Tuesday afternoon. It was a little surreal -- for almost two days, we'd seen nothing but open ocean and distant islands, and then suddenly we opened the door to our balcony and we were in a little harbor. The mountains rise right up out of the ocean, and since the weather in southeastern Alaska is usually very rainy, everything was misty and foggy. But we could smell pine trees and rain, which we miss after almost a year in dry, sunny California.

Susy disembarked for her Mendenhall Glacier hike, and Becky for her photography tour. Stacey and I had booked a sea kayak trip, but it was cancelled due to white caps. Instead, we went to Mendenhall Lake for a raft trip down the Mendenhall River. Although it was a pretty tame raft trip, we had a good time. It was particularly exciting because Mendenhall Lake is home to -- you guessed it -- Mendenhall Glacier, and at this point we had never seen a glacier before (more on that later). You can see Mendenhall Glacier below -- it's the blue thing to the left of the big mountain. The blue color has something to do with the ice reflecting every color except blue -- or something like that.

Below, the view from the raft looking back toward the glacier.

Further down the Mendenhall River:

We saw a bald eagle in a tree and a few Arctic terns, but other than that, not much in the way of wildlife. The trip down the river confirmed the fact that Alaska smells amazing! Maybe an affinity for crisp weather and pine forests (not to mention 37 degree water, which is VERY cold when it splashes into the raft and onto your hand) is ingrained in me by my New England childhood, but it felt somehow familiar -- something like Maine, writ very, very large.

Seattle

2008-08-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

Stacey and I met our sisters in Seattle today. We'll only be here about a day before our cruise leaves for Alaska. Stacey and I were able to meet my friends Courtney and Tracy for lunch at Etta's, where we had a delicious Dungeness crab cocktail with green papaya and mint. We tried to spend some time in Pike's Place Market, but it was hideously crowded. I will be happy as long as I make it to Piroshky Piroshky before we leave. It's a favorite from my last trip to Seattle -- even Anthony Bourdain stopped there for a sausage piroshky on a recent episode of No Reservations. I don't know if it is authentic, but I know it is tasty.

Tonight we have dinner reservations at Brasa. Tomorrow, after brunch at our hotel, we're off to the ship!

Tourist In My Own Town: Winchester Mystery House

2008-07-20T16:48:00.001-07:00

Our dear friend Emily reported recently that she and some friends had begun making an effort to visit new places and see new things close to home, an initiative known as TIMOT, or Tourist In My Own Town. Stacey and I, as relatively new transplants to this area, have made plenty of pilgrimages to San Francisco and points north, but have spent very little time sampling tourist destinations in San Jose itself. One of the most famous is the Winchester Mystery House, which is less than four miles from our home. We drive past it often when we go shopping, but neither of us had ever visited it until today. With a clean apartment, a clear schedule, and a two-for-one coupon, we decided to go check it out.

Though I do not think I would have gladly paid full price for admission, the house is admittedly sort of fascinating. The story is bizarre: Sarah Winchester, wealthy widow and Winchester Rifle heiress, began building the house in 1884 and did not stop until she died thirty-eight years later. This means that the house is enormous, but also that rooms were constantly renovated (over 600 times, according to our tour guide). It's a convoluted warren of staircases (the most famous of which leads straight into a ceiling), hallways, strange nooks and closets, and doors -- some of which open into walls, or into open air (see first picture above). Supposedly Sarah Winchester consulted a psychic in Boston who told her that the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles would seek vengeance, and her strange building plans were intended to keep them at bay, confuse them, or appease them, depending on what you read. It's basically a 160-room testimony to mental illness.

It's also rumored to be haunted, but we neither saw nor felt anything. Our tour guide told us a story about his cell phone dialing the number 13 (Sarah Winchester's favorite number, repeated superstitiously throughout the house in ceiling panels, drain holes, coat hooks, and windows) by itself, but it sounded pretty bogus to me.

New England Adventures

2008-07-06T07:51:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, we spent the last nine days in New England, visiting friends and family. Despite the often oppressive humidity, to which we are no longer accustomed, and a pretty intense schedule, we had a wonderful time.

First stop: a visit with our friends Rebecca and Dan and their baby boys, Chase (first picture below) and Austin (second picture), who are adorable.

On Saturday, June 28th, my dear friends Lisa and Daniel were married in a beautiful ceremony in a beautiful Italian garden at the Codman Estate in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Excellent food (including a fantastic cake from Flour Bakery in Boston) and a chance to see some of my favorite people. Here's Lisa and Daniel, below -- the zoom on my camera isn't very good, so they are a bit small...

While we were waiting to go into the reception, four goats from a farm down the road decided to pay us a visit. This was amusing until they tried to storm the tent. Somehow, we managed to keep them out, but I did have the opportunity to get a few pictures.

On Sunday we threw my father a surprise 60th birthday brunch at The Blue Room, one of our favorite Boston-area restaurants (of course, we are a bit biased -- Stacey used to be the sous chef there). The food was fantastic as usual, and as usual we ate way too much. We also got the chance to see some old friends there, including our friend and wedding photographer Wayne, who was our server, and whose photographs are currently on display in the restaurant. And my father was definitely surprised.

On Sunday evening, the three lovely Pearl Street Princesses (Emily, Leah and Julie) took us to dinner at TW Food in Cambridge. We are still trying to decide which of the eight courses (and two amuse bouches) we liked the best -- right now, I think the buttery garlic scape soup with parmigiano reggiano is our front-runner. I really, really wanted seconds.

Monday brought lunch with the ladies of the Boston library at Nixon Peabody and dinner with Brendan, Melodie and Wayne.

On Tuesday, we drove up to Maine to spend the rest of the week at my father's new summer house in Denmark. Stacey and I made a slight detour to Ogunquit for massages at the Cliff House Spa and lunch at MC Perkins Cove. We have wanted to eat at MCPC ever since it opened a few years ago, because the owners are known for running Arrows Restaurant, the local-food mecca of Maine (Bostonians, take note -- they have also recently opened a restaurant called Summer Winter, in the Burlington Marriott). The food is great, and the view, below, is just as good, if not better.

My father's house in Denmark is every bit as relaxing as we had hoped, and we spent days doing nothing more than cooking, chatting, sleeping and drinking (with the exception of one very taxing game of miniature golf). The weather was amazing -- mostly sunny, warm, and breezy. It was pretty rough. Here's the view of Hancock Pond from the lawn.

And here is the all-important hammock.

My father and Bernice used the proceeds from a yard sale last year to buy a little sailboat (aptly named Yard Sail) and this was the week to put it in the water. Below, Susy and our friend Rick tie it to the dock after Susy gave it a test-row. The mast and sail are obviously not yet in place.

Yard Sail at twilight.

The next day, it was time for its maiden voyage. Bernice and our friends Rule and Elayne hoisted the sail...

...prepared for take-off...

...and sailed away!

Dad and Lucy (and I) watched from the dock.

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

2008-06-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

In the fall, native and veteran Californians warned me that, although Bay Area winters may not be as cold as I'm used to, and although I would never see snow or ice in San Jose, I should prepare for frequent and unpleasant winter rains. We had a few intense rain storms -- you may remember that we spent one of those in Sonoma -- but overall, it didn't seem that rainy. Turns out it was a dry and mild winter, and now Northern California is paying the price. East Bay communities, facing a dwindling water supply, started water rationing over a month ago. And everything is so dry that fire has become a serious threat in many parts of the state. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, there are currently fires burning in Amador, Butte, Santa Cruz, Tehama, and Monterey Counties. Fires in Sonoma, Tuolumne, Sacramento, Madera, El Dorado, and Kern Counties have been contained within the last week.

Last night, as my train headed south from San Francisco, I noticed that what had been a sunny day was turning dark earlier than normal. It appeared that we were driving toward a very dense, very large storm cloud. This may not seem strange to those of you in other parts of the country. In fact, it looked a lot like one of those summer thunderstorms that can blacken the sky in a matter of minutes, particularly common in upstate New York. However, it does not rain in California after March or so. Certainly not in June. Not ever. I had read online about some new fires in Santa Cruz county, south of San Jose, but I didn't think they could produce that amount of smoke. The effect was creepy -- the picture above, taken from our patio at about 8:00 PM last night, gives you an idea, but it doesn't really do it justice.

According to the San Jose Mercury-News, the cloud was smoke from the fire in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County, about 90 miles south of here. This is the largest fire burning now, covering 23,575 acres -- approximately the size of Worcester, Massachusetts.

I don't think we'll ever be in any danger here, near downtown San Jose -- there's hardly enough vegetation to sustain that kind of fire. But it's sobering to step outside and smell the fire, or see a sky of smoke.

Hot dogs, meet haute cuisine

2008-05-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

For Stacey's birthday back in March, I gave her tickets to the Red Sox-A's game on Friday. My cousins Rick and Steve and their wives Jessica and Kendra joined us for a night at the Oakland Coliseum, which I had been led to believe would be an easy Red Sox win. Not so -- but we had fun anyway.

Yesterday was my birthday, so we spent the morning relaxing at a nearby spa. For dinner, we had made reservations to eat at Manresa, one of the most talked-about restaurants in the Bay Area. It has earned two Michelin stars and four Mobil stars, and has been included on Gourmet Magazine's list of the Top 50 Restaurants in America, Gayot's Top 40, and Restaurant Magazine's best 50 restaurants in the world for two years running. It is also about twenty minutes from our house, in ritzy Los Gatos. Of course, we had to try it.

The meal was one of the best we've had in years -- impeccable service, surprising flavors, and perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked dishes. To start, we were treated to a succession of three amuse bouches: an olive-sized spring pea and garden lettuce croquette, crispy on the outside with a hot, liquid center; a Pemaquid oyster in a briny sea-water gelee; and a Manresa staple, an egg yolk poached with sea salt and chives, dressed with a sherry vinegar cream and a bit of maple syrup, and served in its own shell. The egg was my favorite part of the meal, and easily one of the most delicious things I've eaten in years. Salty, sweet, acidic and creamy -- I scraped the last little bits out of my shell and wished for more.

We ordered the four-course menu, which for Stacey consisted of crispy mussels perfumed with nasturtium flowers and served with vegetables and curry spices; Monterey Bay abalone with leeks, oysters, wine and walnuts; poached and roasted farm poularde with pea porridge, cepes and ramps; and spring carrot pudding cakes with fromage blanc fritters, pistachio praline, carrot sorbet and pansy flower consomme. I had fennel bulb soup with duck confit, cranberry bread croquant and mustard cream; Atlantic hake with braised fava beans and sorrel, served in oxtail consomme; roast lamb with cauliflower cream, salted Meyer lemon, purslane and garden roots; and rhubarb granita with reine de pres (an herb, known in English as meadowsweet) ice cream, bunuelos, sweet and sour strawberries and tapioca. I tried everything Stacey ordered and it was all delicious. The carrot dessert was perhaps more notable for creativity than deliciousness. It showcased how sweet carrots are, how many ways you might serve them, but ultimately wasn't what I'd want for dessert. I did love the contrasts in my own dessert: the icy, slightly bitter granita, the sweet-sour strawberries, the rich-creamy tapioca, herbal-creamy ice cream, and light, sweet, fried bunuelos. I also particularly loved my creamy fennel soup and the hake and oxtail consomme -- I am a sucker for oxtails. After dinner, we were offered coffee or an exceptionally beautiful array of Chinese teas, hand-sewn into intricate shapes that unfurl just so in hot water. The sunset oolong I chose entered my glass teapot as a dry, dusty-green ball with a pink sunburst on it, and slowly transformed into what looked like a water lily floating on the surface of a very delicate tea. We were given handmade chocolate-armagnac truffles, and on our way out we were met by a maitre d' holding a large glass jar full of wrapped candies. They turned out to be rich, soft, buttery housemade caramels, flecked with vanilla beans and slightly crunchy with sea salt crystals. They put every other sea salt caramel I've ever had to shame.

The rest of the weekend promises to be low-key. I am perfectly happy to do a little laundry, write a few emails, watch the last Ugly Betty, and be grateful for an extra day off work. We hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day weekends as much as we are.

Congratulations Jeff and Loa!

2008-05-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

My cousin Jeff married Loa this past Saturday at a beautiful winery up in the hills of Los Gatos. We're very happy for them. (The photo above was taken by my sister Becky. My photos of the ceremony didn't come out very well).

Becky, Kendra and Susy during the cocktail hour

Bernice, Dad and Aunt Sue

There was a digital photo booth at the reception, and we all enjoyed taking silly pictures. Actually, ours weren't so silly -- we thought they were pretty cute.

Peonies, opened.

2008-05-05T21:49:00.001-07:00

East Bay Weekend

2008-05-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

On Friday I finished the last of my spring semester school work, which means I am free from school until August 25th. Stacey and I celebrated with a weekend trip to the Berkeley area, our primary goal being dinner at Chez Panisse.

We started with a slight detour to a couple of favorite wineries in the southern part of Sonoma County. We had wine to pick up from our Gloria Ferrer wine club, so we had a few glasses of bubbly and then, needing whites for summer, bought some Viognier and Pinot Gris at Cline Cellars.

Next stop: Berkeley. Arriving early at our hotel and finding it un-air-conditioned (one of many unpleasant surprises), we walked a couple of blocks to explore Telegraph Avenue, which was admittedly kind of icky. Maybe I am too old to appreciate several blocks full of tie-dyed t-shirts, incense, hemp necklaces, used merchandise, and many hole-in-the-wall restaurants (one hole-in-the-wall is fine though! We stopped at tiny Top Dog for hot dogs. Good, but no match for Puka Dog). Next we hit the Berkeley Art Museum, which was across from our hotel. It was also not air-conditioned (what is the deal with Berkeley?) and the art was, well, not very good. We ended up watching TV in our stuffy hotel room until it was time for dinner.

I've wanted to eat at Chez Panisse for a long time, but Berkeley is about an hour's drive for us and reservations need to be made a month in advance. My first weekend of freedom seemed like a proper occasion. I was a bit nervous that I would be disappointed; the Chez Panisse name carries such weight that it seemed likely that our dinner wouldn't live up to our high expectations. In the end, everything was delicious: the bread, the butter, my little gem lettuce with green goddess dressing and roasted beets and Stacey's brandade toasts with frisee. For an entree, I had spaghetti with Hog Island clams and marjoram (simple but delicious, which is the Chez Panisse MO). But what really blew us away was Stacey's halibut. We have both had plenty of halibut in our time, but I have never had anything this tender and pure-tasting. It was served with snap peas, mushrooms and chervil butter. Yum.

This morning we went to the cafe at Oliveto in Oakland for breakfast. Oliveto was founded by a Chez Panisse alum, and has the same seasonal/local food focus, so it was on my list of Bay Area restaurants to visit. Since we are not in the East Bay very often, I was glad to see the downstairs cafe is open all day, including for breakfast. After polishing off (with a great deal of my help) an excellent wood-fired breakfast pizza with pancetta and topped with two eggs, Stacey declared it the best breakfast she has had in a long time. I enjoyed a bowl of rib-sticking polenta served with milk and poached fruit.

On to Berkeley's Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory. Scharffen Berger is one of the few first-tier chocolate makers in the United States (meaning they oversee every step of the chocolate-making process, from bean to bar). We enjoyed our free tour, from the chocolate samples to the hair nets to the intoxicating chocolate smell that hits you when you walk into the factory. All of the chocolate is made in a small, hundred-year-old building with antique European machines. We picked up some bars to go.

Last stop: Fourth Street in Berkeley, mostly because I wanted to go to Sketch Ice Cream, which I read about recently in a New York Times article. In order to make room in our tummies, we did a little shopping. We bought fresh asparagus-chive ravioli to cook for dinner, browsed home boutiques, and Stacey bought me the most beautiful deep red peonies. I love peonies, but I have never seen them in this color.

We ended our trip at Sketch, with cups of cardamom and rhubarb ice cream, swirled. Success.

Counting down to summer...

2008-04-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

26 days left in my semester. I can't wait, but am swamped with papers and projects until then. Stacey and I are celebrating on May 3rd with a dinner at the legendary Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Odds are, you'll read about it here.

The weather has been beautiful. Last weekend, we planted a cherry tomato plant and a "mucho nacho" jalapeno plant in pots on our patio, as well as some herbs and flowers. I'm hoping we'll be able to keep them alive during the dry San Jose summer so that we can reap the benefits.

Below, Scout proves that even vertical blinds will not keep her from her sunbathing.

Happy Birthday Stacey!

2008-03-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Stacey's 30th birthday. We celebrated with dinner at Arcadia in San Jose and Scharffen Berger ganache cakes from Miette Patisserie in San Francisco (above). Highlights of Arcadia: foie gras sliders, an excellent gin gimlet, and tiny doughnuts in a vanilla glaze with house-made bananas foster ice cream and pecan praline. Highlights of Scharffen Berger ganache cakes: chocolate. Enough said. Miette is one of my favorite places in the Ferry Building Marketplace. Everything they make is precious and delicious, especially their Parisian macaroons. Friday my friend Daniel and I sampled some grapefruit-flavored ones. Yum.

Last week, Stacey's mom, Peggy, flew out from Florida to visit and celebrate. We took her up to Sonoma County, which was a lot of fun. Now that spring has come to California, the hills are green and yellow mustard is growing in all the vineyards (apparently it replenishes nitrogen in the soil that the grapes take out). The grapevines don't have leaves yet, but will soon. With true spring in wine country comes the crowds, which we only sort of avoided. The limos full of bachelorettes were already storming some of the cheaper wineries. I think I liked it better in the January rainstorm, though we had incredible weather this time.

Benziger Family Winery

Hills behind Gloria Ferrer Winery

Stacey and Peggy on the terrace at Gloria Ferrer

Stacey is smiling because she's getting some Mommy time, because it's warm enough to wear shorts (and she is), and because she's just taken her first sips of her glass of Gloria Ferrer's excellent Carneros Cuvee, our new favorite special occasion sparkling wine. We are smitten enough with Gloria Ferrer that on this, our second visit, we joined their wine club, which grants us, among other things, four free glasses of sparkling wine each time we visit. Who wants to come along?

On our way home, we stopped by the Golden Gate Bridge. Between its hills, bridges, and bays, San Francisco really does have better views than any other city I've been to.

Marin Headlands, looking out to the Pacific Ocean

My spring break is coming to a close this weekend and I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for two more months of schoolwork before the close of the semester and the beginning of my summer off (from school, anyway. I'll still be working). For now, I am just trying to enjoy my last day of freedom.

Wine Country Adventures

2008-01-24T21:35:00.000-08:00

I had high hopes for my end of 2007/beginning of 2008 blog post.

Inspired by the deluge of best-of-the-year lists that crop up around this time, I considered one of my own. Mostly, I was inspired by best-meal, best-restaurant, and best-eats lists, and relished the opportunity to meditate on the feasts of 2007. I soon realized that I could remember very little that I had done or eaten earlier than August, beyond the menu tasting for our wedding and some great appetizers at the Blue Room this summer (grilled calamari stuffed with braised oxtail, and a pizza with peaches and bitter greens). Now I understand why movie producers try to release their Oscar hopefuls shortly before the nominations are chosen.

There was, after all, a lot going on for us in 2007. I slogged through four more classes in library school while working full time. Stacey and I planned and orchestrated our wedding. We packed up all of our earthly belongings and managed to get them and ourselves (and our cat), no small feat, to California. We started new jobs in our companies, both with their own new challenges and benefits. We visited Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine, and upstate New York. We attended four weddings other than our own, including Stacey's sister Christine's and my father's. We welcomed a new nephew, Gavin, and two little boys, Austin and Chase, for our friends Rebecca and Dan.

The new year came along, and I had no list. But Stacey and I were headed to Sonoma on January 3rd, and I was sure our wine-and-relaxation weekend would make for good blogging.

Enter one of the worst rain storms in recent northern California history. The Golden Gate Bridge had to be closed due to high winds. Roads flooded. Thousands of Bay Area residents were without power for days. Fortunately, Stacey and I were safely installed in our hotel room by this point, ordering room service and preparing for a marathon spa day, which was unaffected by the weather.

On Saturday the rain let up a bit, and we went out, stopping first to taste olive oils at The Olive Press. They make citrus-flavored olive oils using the oils in the skins of the fruit rather than the juice; the Meyer lemon olive oil, which we bought, is incredible. I can already tell that we are going to have to have it shipped to us if and when we leave the area, and that if the company ever dissolves or the oil is discontinued, it will be a moment of profound grief for us.

Next we stopped at Gloria Ferrer Winery to taste sparkling wines. While we were there, the rain finally stopped and as I looked out over the hills and dormant grapevines, I thought about taking a picture for the blog. Too bad my camera's battery was dead.

In many ways, January is a great time to visit Sonoma. Hotels have plenty of rooms and wineries are empty. Everyone we visited was delighted to see us, offered us more wines than are usually included in the tasting fee, and had plenty of time to talk wine or recommend places to eat. A gentleman at Cline Cellars even gave us a private tour of the property and wine-making operation. I think the weather, while potentially rainy, is better in January than in the summer, when it is typically above 90 degrees. I prefer the rain and the clouds sliding in and out of misty hills -- especially when the sun tries to break through. While we were driving to one winery, we actually saw the clearest, brightest and most complete rainbow I have ever seen. You could see both ends.

We had a lot of good food in Sonoma, but I'll just highlight my favorites.

The Red Grape was a recommendation from the aesthetician who did my facial at our resort's spa. She said it was where the locals go, and it was the best pizza around. They describe their pizza as "New Haven style," which made me nostalgic for my trip with Emily to New Haven for the express purpose of sampling pizza at the Big Three: Frank Pepe's Pizza Napoletana, Modern Apizza, and Sally's Apizza. (OK, we were also going to Ikea). Our efforts were thwarted by the fact that none of these establishments serve pizza by the slice, so a scientific study such as we'd planned would have required us to order three entire pizzas in a period of about five hours. One of them -- I believe it was Sally's -- was closed. And I think we compromised our study by failing to order white clam pizza at Frank Pepe's, as that is the house specialty. In fact, white clam was on the menu at The Red Grape, and right across from our table, a black and white photograph on the wall featured the sign at none other than Frank Pepe's Pizza Napoletana in New Haven. These people knew what they were doing.

The Red Grape is exactly the kind of place we like: the food is simple, but everything was done well. The pizza (we didn't actually order the white clam -- I need to have Frank Pepe's first) was excellent, and the salad was well-dressed. But I must somewhat sheepishly admit that the biggest revelation of the meal came when we were served our order of garlic knots. Garlic knots seem to hail from the New York tri-state area, and I had never heard of them until I met Stacey. For those of you who may not yet be enlightened, they are basically a soft pizza-dough breadstick that has been tied into a little knot. The garlic is usually brushed on by way of garlic-infused oil. Herbs may or may not be included. They're good enough. When Stacey and I got our Red Grape garlic knots, we were a little skeptical. They were huge, but there were only two of them in the order. The surface looked somewhat dry, rather than oily, and there was no garlic in sight. I know what I was thinking, anyway: these Californians. They don't know what they're doing.

But the garlic was on the inside! Not minced garlic, which usually adorns garlic knots, but whole cloves of creamy roasted garlic. The knots were stuffed with them. The flavor was both stronger and less sharp than the usual flavor of garlic knots: mellow, but really garlicky. I think everyone should make them this way.

We also had good meals at The Girl and the Fig and Carneros Bistro, but my favorite meal was at El Dorado Kitchen, in the swank and stylish El Dorado Hotel. They have an amazing cocktail list -- perhaps a bit surprising in a town where it's all about the wine -- so Stacey and I had a peach jalapeno martini (her) and a kir (me) made with local pinot gris, the most delicious elderberry liqueur, and a bit of sparkling water. It was just the thing after drinking cabernets and zinfandels all day. And Stacey and I are still daydreaming about the mussels I ordered, which may have been the best I've ever had. The mussels were totally sandless and plump, and they were cooked in a creamy, buttery sauvignon blanc broth with a bit of tarragon. They arrived at the table nearly hidden by a mound of perfectly cooked french fries, which were pretty incredible dipped in the broth.

Last weekend, Stacey and I had the opportunity to spend a few hours in Napa with her friend Chris and two of his friends from Virginia, who came out to California for a whirlwind Macworld/San Francisco/Napa tour. Though I always enjoy wineries -- and Napa is beautiful -- the trip confirmed my preference for Sonoma County, which is less crowded, less pretentious, more rustic, and has less traffic and cheaper tastings.

Things are settling back to normal and busy. My spring semester has begun, and with it, the usual piles of reading. The Bay Area has finally started to settle into a typical rainy winter, and we are looking forward to an early spring.

Weekend in San Francisco

2007-12-16T14:52:00.000-08:00

At long last, Stacey and I finally got the chance to spend more than a few hours (her) or a work day (me) in San Francisco. I took Stacey to some of my favorite places and we visited a few new ones. Our room at the Hyatt Regency meant that a nap was never more than a few minutes away -- and that, I'm beginning to realize, is the key to successful sightseeing.

On Friday evening, we paid homage to the Vamvas family with dinner at Kokkari Estiatorio. I know it's going to be a good dining experience when the first thing I see upon entering is some kind of animal on a spit over a fire. In this case, they were Muscovy ducks, and there were potatoes roasting in their drippings. We were most in love with appetizers (mezethes) and desserts (glyka). More and more we have been realizing that this is what we like to eat best. We like to taste lots of things -- the better the restaurant, the more we want to try -- and an entree requires too much sustained attention to one thing -- though we always seem to order them anyway. Our duck and our lamb were good, but we loved our grilled calamari stuffed with feta and served with oranges, thinly sliced raw fennel and black olives; also our brussels sprouts roasted with bacon and lemon. We were particularly taken with a persimmon salad with manouri (a soft, Greek, sheep's-milk cheese), almonds and a drizzle of excellent olive oil. I think the persimmon gets scant attention on the East coast, but here they are very popular in the fall and winter, grown locally and very delicious -- a far cry from the first one I ever tried, in the Bryn Mawr College dining hall. It made my mouth feel fuzzy and turned me against persimmons until, well, Kokkari. For dessert, Stacey ordered baklava, which was quite good and served with some really excellent (house-made?) praline ice cream. I had galaktoboureko, long phyllo rolls filled with semolina custard and served with a rosy-tasting "quince spoon sweet" and pistachio ice cream (not that green stuff, silly).

In the morning I brought Stacey to my beloved Ferry Building. That's it, above, behind the seasonal Embarcadero Center skating rink. Seems silly to ice skate past palm trees, but then, I am from the land of the Nor'Easter. And, no, we did not skate. We ate -- Mexican breakfasts at Mijita -- and drooled up and down the aisle at blood orange olive oil, Bartlett pear jam, Constant Bliss cheese, and chocolate truffles. Then hopped on the old-fashioned F streetcar to Fisherman's Wharf. Our streetcar just happened to be chock full of Santa Clauses playing klezmer music. Occasionally klezmer Christmas carols. This seemed a little less weird -- or was it even weirder? -- when we got to Fisherman's Wharf, where our klezmer Santas were joined by many, many other Santas: trampy Mrs. Santas in fishnets, gangster Santas in dark suits and glasses, frat boy Santas, and one drag queen (Mrs?) Santa wearing an all-too-revealing little pair of red-and-white-striped panties. Santa, put it away! As far as we can tell, the Santas were boarding a ferry to Oakland. What they were doing to do there is hardly within the scope of my imagination.

Stacey and I joined hoards of tourists on the island of

, which is actually quite interesting. I had no idea that Alcatraz was home to a military prison before it was a federal penitentiary, that families of guards and wardens lived on the island, or that activist Native Americans took it over in the 60's.

We had dinner at Zuni Cafe, a San Francisco institution and inspiration for one of our favorite cookbooks. We frequently make the roast chicken with bread salad from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, and don't let the word "salad" fool you into thinking "healthy," since really we're talking about hunks of good bread toasted just slightly to avoid sogginess and dressed in a heady combination of chicken drippings and vinegar, with pine nuts for crunch and currants for sweetness. Of course we had to order it at the restaurant, and I can report that it is, in fact, the most delicious roast chicken in the world (it is possible that we have actually made a better version of the bread salad at home). Also notable: Sancerre that reminded me how and why I love Sancerre, and one of the best servers I've had in a long time. Zuni is a cozy triangle of exposed brick with a long, copper bar and the smell of a woodstove (their ovens are wood-burning, hence the amazing chicken). It's possible that I like being there even more than I like eating there, though the eating is pretty darn good.

Today we went to the jazz brunch at Anzu in the Hotel Nikko, down near Union Square. Yum. We shopped a bit (I tried on a diamond vine necklace at Tiffany, just for fun. Sigh.) and then headed home, where we are now doing some very serious loafing and ordering delivery.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-05T20:59:00.001-08:00

Now that I'm finished with all of my papers, I have time to do things like this.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1188604811

Count down to free time...

2007-12-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

As of 9 PM on Wednesday, December 5th, I will be free of school work for an entire month! Stacey and I have big plans for fun and relaxation, including a weekend in San Francisco and a weekend in Sonoma. I promise we'll post pictures and other tidbits.

Hope you are all surviving the holiday hubbub. We're almost done with our shopping, working on our holiday cards, and finally having a bit of cold(er) weather.

Road Trip to the Coast

2007-11-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

Today my father, sisters, Bernice, Stacey and I drove down to Point Lobos State Reserve, just south of Carmel (according to their website, this is "The Greatest Meeting of Land and Water in the World"). We climbed on the rocks, walked around a bit, and spotted sea lions (in the water) and a deer (on land). It was crowded, but it was a beautiful bright day.

Susy and Bernice are one (two?) with nature

Susy examines the rocks

Becky hopes for sea lion sightings

Stacey's first trip to the (continental) Pacific coast

Better weather than I am used to at Thanksgiving

Working off all the pie

Not even a little bit scared of us

From here, you can hear the sea lions

After Point Lobos, we drove up to Monterey for lunch and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which features two of my favorite marine organisms (otters and jellyfish) and one of my least favorite land organisms: Stupid People. Especially Stupid People with Strollers. I have nothing against what's in the strollers, but people seem about as proficient at driving them as they are at driving cars which, in California, is NOT VERY. Don't even ask Stacey about this unless you have some free time and an ear for cursing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

My sisters, father and stepmother flew out to California to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. We are all rubbing our bellies now after a big feast that included two turkeys: one roasted by Stacey and me...
...as well as one that my cousin Rick deep-fried:

The fried turkey definitely wins the crispy skin contest, but is more of a production in a lot of ways. Also I found it frankly a little distressing, what with all the boiling oil. I am a bit of a pansy that way.

Hope you all found many things to be thankful for today and didn't stuff yourself as much as we did (or did, and enjoyed it).

Autumn in California

2007-11-04T19:42:00.001-08:00

For those East coasters who think we don't have foliage (or fall) in California, here is a picture of the courtyard from our patio. Though most trees here do lose their leaves, for the most part they just turn brown, shrivel and drop. But some species do turn colors in this area. I have no idea what this one is, but it's a nice view from our living room.

Stacey and I are gradually finding the interesting places to eat in San Jose. We very much like Falafel's Drive-In (yes, Falafel's, as if Falafel owned the drive-in, which he does not), which is entertaining partly because of the novelty of a drive-in Middle Eastern restaurant, partly because of its flashy sign, and partly because the food is just good. They throw a little of a delicious thick chili sauce on their hummus -- yum! -- and their gyros are more like meatballs than that greasy, crusty pressed-meat weirdness you usually get (which, don't get me wrong, I love -- but this tastes more like real food).

We also like Taqueria La Victoria in downtown San Jose for their "hot sauce" or "orange sauce," which is essentially chorizo-flavored sour cream in a squeeze bottle. Don't knock it till you've tried it. But personal health necessitates that we limit our visits to Taqueria La Victoria. Sad.

I am also including a picture of the 20-foot statue that guards Babe's and Lightning Muffler Service on our street, where Stacey recently had our car serviced. Why? Because it's just weird. That's a golf club he has in his hands, by the way. I don't know what that has to do with mufflers, but when I walk by Babe on my way to the train station, it looks like he's going to whack me with it.

Earthquake!

2007-10-30T20:26:00.001-07:00

I don't have a picture of this one... We just had a 5.6 earthquake centered a few miles from our home. It's too late to call you East-coasters, but if you check this, we are all fine! They aren't reporting any injuries or damage from this one, though it was pretty scary for earthquake newbies (and for the cat). We're waiting for the aftershocks now. Stacey says she's coming back East!

Behold the Scotchmallow.

2007-10-27T21:04:00.001-07:00

Honey marshmallow + caramel + semisweet chocolate = a sweet force to be reckoned with. I grew up eating See's Candies brought by my aunt each time she visited from California, but I was not astute enough in my youth to single out the most winning confection of the box. Now I know. There is evidently a Scotchmallow bar, but research suggests that the bar, unlike the little Scotchmallow truffle thingy, is wrapped in milk chocolate, not semisweet -- a disappointment. I don't know what makes the Scotchmallow quite so good. Caramel is good. Marshmallow is good. Semisweet chocolate? Good. But somehow the Scotchmallow is more than the sum of its parts.

For those of you who don't know, See's Candies is a Bay Area institution. They are everywhere. Near our house is a See's Candies Outlet Store! As if that wasn't enough, there is a See's Candies in the office complex where I work. Oh, Mary See! Take your Scotchmallow and leave me alone!

I am not the only one to revere the Scotchmallow. I am not even the only one to blog about it! Today, I was in Williams Sonoma with my aunt, and found a cookbook (Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth by Jill O'Connor) that features a Scotchmallow sundae. Now I have Scotchmallow on the brain (but not in the belly). I will resist -- until Easter, anyway. I hear there is a Scotchmallow egg.

Congratulations Dad and Bernice!

2007-10-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

I made it home to Massachusetts last weekend to attend my father's wedding to Bernice Dziejma (now Bernice King!) at the Charles River Museum of Industry in Waltham.

Bernice and my dad actually met at Waltham High School -- class of 1966! Bernice probably didn't go for my dad at the time because he was in the Chess Club.

I got to spend some QT with my oldest friend Rebecca Couture, who is having triplets this winter!

The weekend also brought QT with my family, with Lisa "I'm going to rock my exams" Lee, with a Toscanini's Microsundae, with Emily Raine and a herb omelet on her 28th birthday, and with two of the family dogs, Lucy and Oliver, who both seem to have figured out that camera flash won't hurt their eyes if they close them. I have to guess that some people are taking too many pictures of the dogs!

In one of my library classes, we recently dicussed blogs, and how one of the drawbacks is the challenge of maintenance: you start one thinking you will post all the time, and then Life sets in. Don't I know it! I've made a vow to improve the blog, but we will all have to see how that one goes.

Withdrawal

2007-09-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

I've heard some people are disappointed that our blog has lagged. To those people, I say: if you would like to take a graduate class in management or digital libraries for me, I would be perfectly happy to blog, blog away.

Here is my current schedule:
5:30 AM: alarm!
6:53 AM: Catch train to San Francisco
9:00-5:30: Work
6:14: Catch train to San Jose
7:11: Meet wifey at train station.
7:30: Dinner
8:00-10:00: Schoolwork
10:00: Bed

You find the time!

No, I am kidding. I mean I'm not kidding about the schedule; that's real. But I'm thrilled that people are enjoying the blog.

Here are some pictures:

This is Wyoming, which I liked a lot!

Ah, open road! This is either in western Utah or Nevada. Who can tell!? Once you hit desert, it's pretty much all the same.

In Salt Lake City we happened upon some obscure regional candy at a gas station. In the name of cultural research and the preservation of regional Americana, I had to investigate. Chick-O-Stick is like a skinny Butterfinger, but there's coconut on the outside, to good effect, I thought. The Idaho Spud is a little weird but enjoyable. Big Cherry? Don't do it. Your teeth will thank you. The verdict? There's a reason these guys aren't national favorites.

California has treated us reasonably well. The weather is amazing -- in San Jose it's been warm, sunny and breezy every day. I seem to have hit San Francisco in a non-foggy stretch, or maybe that's just September, what do I know. Today our movers finally arrived and filled our wee apartment with boxes, boxes, boxes. But we finally got to unwrap our fabulous wedding presents, and tonight we get to sleep on a Real Bed. Life is good.

We've arrived...

2007-08-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

...in California! We've yet to find a free wireless Internet connection for our laptop, so for now, no pictures. But I hear some people have been monitoring this to check in and make sure we're still safe, so I wanted to post something. More later!

We made it to Omaha!

2007-08-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

We're halfway through our trip. Here is some photographic evidence to prove that Scout is a good traveler after all:

Today we traveled through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, then just into Nebraska. As you can imagine, we saw corn. Lots of corn. Here's a picture from I-80 in Illinois:

And here is a picture of sunset in Iowa:

We found Iowa pretty in a way that Ohio, Indiana and Illinois weren't. It's surprisingly wide open and not flat at all: Iowa undulates. I'm still glad I don't live here, though. More tomorrow night!

Ohio!

2007-08-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

We have completed leg 1 of 4 in the great cross-country trip of 2007. Here's Scout testing the bed at the Boston Heights, Ohio Comfort Inn. (For the record, she only spent an hour and a half complaining in the car).

Jungle Waterfalls and Puka Dogs (or, Why We Love Kauai)

2007-08-21T03:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome from the O'Hare Airport Admiral's Club, where I will attempt (despite sleep-induced delirium) to finish up the honeymoon portion of this blog once and for all!

We spent our second day on Maui at Wailea Beach. Nothing much to report except that the Four Seasons Maui at Wailea has a very fine poolside restaurant with very fine mojitos. This is as close as we will get to staying there, since for the rooms overlooking the parking lot they charge a respectable $440 a night.

The following day we went on a Kona/Big Island farm tour. First we visited a Kona coffee farm, where Stacey geeked out on coffee production and I tried to pet a wily little dog. This is a coffee tree with coffee cherries on it:

Then we went to a chocolate farm. And THEN, after a sweltering two-hour drive, we arrived at this strange and wonderful little family-run vanilla farm in Paauilo. Aside from growing and selling vanilla and various vanilla products, the family produces a vanilla luncheon served on the premises. The wife cooks everything, the children (ages 5-13) serve and sing and the father/farmer talks about the farm. The food was amazing: subtle vanilla lemonade, a salad with vanilla cornbread, Hawaiian beef braised in local ale and vanilla, served with noodles in a vanilla cream sauce and vegetables from their own garden. For dessert we were served house-made vanilla ice cream with a vanilla brownie, vanilla caramel sauce and a toasted vanilla marshmallow. Totally worth the two hour drive, even with the weirdest and most boring tour guide in the world.

The next day we docked in Kauai, which quickly became our favorite island. It is smaller, greener, lusher and less commercialized than the other islands we visited. On our first day, we went on a kayak tour down the Nawiliwili Stream, past mangroves and ancient burial caves and a fish pond stalked by mythical Hawaiian menehune (dwarves).

Then we hiked (somewhat treacherously, I might add) through the jungle to two waterfalls. One for photographs:

And one for swimming:

There was fruit everywhere: mangoes were dropping from trees, and our guide picked lilikoi (passionfruit) and taught us how to bite off the ends and suck out the seeds, warm from the sun.

On our second day in Kauai, Stacey and drove to Poipu for a swim at what turned out to be a very overrated beach. Tired of the crowds, we headed to a nearby shopping center to buy souvenirs, and happened upon one of the best finds of our trip: the amazing Puka Dog. Essentially, this is the best hot dog stand in the world, as far as I am concerned. A hole ("puka") is pierced into a freshly baked bun-sized loaf of bread, into which go a freshly grilled Polish sausage, a creamy spicy garlic-lemon sauce, your choice of tropical fruit relishes (I chose pineapple, Stacey chose mango), and mustard (we had to go for the lilikoi mustard). The whole thing is sweet, salty, savory, creamy, spicy, and tangy. I am a little glad there is only one Puka Dog, because if I could I would probably eat there every day.

From Kauai, our ship sailed back to Honolulu, passing Kauai's northern Na Pali Coast on the way:

Oh, and hey! We've been married over a week! Here's a picture of us on our week anniversary, halfway through a bottle of champagne:

It is just before 6 AM Chicago time, and we are getting on our final flight to Boston soon. Wednesday we plan on heading out to California, exhausted but ready to get it over with. We'll keep you posted!

In Which Stacey Loses Her Cool

2007-08-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

If you've driven the Road to Hana, you'll understand. On our first day off the ship, Stacey drove us along sea cliffs, over one-lane bridges, and around hair pin turns in the rain.

Our reward (besides natural beauty): lunch at the Hotel Hana Maui on an open air patio overlooking the ocean. I had an open-faced braised Kalua pork sandwich on grilled sweet bread with spiced papaya and garlic aioli. Oh, yes, and we visited a black sand beach at Waianapanapa State Park.

Yup, it's really black.

Back in civilization, we drove to Iao Valley State Park...

...where we received a phone call from my dad saying that our movers don't have a driver for our truck. Trouble in paradise!

Malasada Madness!

2007-08-20T16:32:00.001-07:00

We know you've missed us. Turns out the overpriced wireless Internet access on the Pride of Hawaii is (like many things on the Pride of Hawaii) not all it's cracked up to be. Since the connection was too slow to handle complicated tasks like uploading, the blog has had to wait. But we're back in the Admiral's Club (Honolulu Airport) with a honeymoon update.

We began our first morning in Hawaii early, when Stacey woke up at 4 AM (10 AM Boston time). This enabled us to get to Leonard's Bakery by the time it opened at 6 AM.

For those who aren't in the know, Leonard's is known for their malasadas: deep-fried, sugar-dusted balls of Portuguese sweet bread brought to Hawaii in the 19th century with Portuguese laborers. My limited research indicates they are also popular in New Bedford, MA and on Cape Cod (where they are called "flippers") but I have not been able to verify these facts. At Leonard's, malasadas are available plain or filled with custards: chocolate, coconut, plain, or a special flavor of the month. We bought a half dozen: two each of the chocolate, coconut and plain custard filled. They were still warm, and Stacey made me wait until we got back to the hotel to eat them, where we ran to our balcony and dug in. You know we ate the whole box.

When we recovered from our sugar coma, we noticed our cruise ship coming into port:

Then walked off the calories on Waikiki Beach, which is much more tolerable when the tourists are still asleep.

This is Stacey on Waikiki Beach. The pink hotel in the background is the famous Royal Hawaiian. Please note the rainbow in the sky: this is Homoakela, the Hawaiian god of the gays.

After a trip to the mall (as my suitcase was making a tour of the continental US) and a very long line, we boarded the Pride of Hawaii and went to the buffet lunch. Insanity. Imagine most of the ship's 3,000 passengers knocking each other out for the next shot at the soft-serve machine. Lesson learned: just because nacho cheese sauce is readily available, does not mean it is an appropriate all-purpose condiment.

Many of you may have heard about a little storm called Hurricane Flossie. Between Flossie and an earthquake, the Port of Hilo was closed and we spent our first day of the cruise at sea instead. We novice cruisers enjoyed the seven to twelve foot swells on the open ocean, which we attempted to soothe with alcohol and sleep. Since we were also suffering from massive jet lag, sleep was the more effective option.

Upside: we sailed past the eerie, beautiful, mist-shrouded cliffs on the northern coast of the Hawaiian island of Molokai.

Stay tuned for our trip to Maui...

We make it to Hawaii; digital photos roll in...

2007-08-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

Two flights and seventeen hours of travel later, we've arrived in Honolulu. Waikiki Beach is a noisy, crowded zoo of tourists. There is ukelele music everywhere and it smells like fried food. However, we did get upgraded from a Ford Focus to an Audi A4 Cabriolet at Hertz, and then were upgraded at the Marriott from a city view to an ocean view. We arrived in our room just in time for the sunset:

I was hoping to see Dog the Bounty Hunter out nabbing criminals, but so far we haven't spotted him. I did see April from America's Next Top Model (Cycle 2?) at LAX. She was unremarkable. I suppose, when it comes down to it, most people are.

Here we are leaving for the airport many, many hours ago:

And a photo from the wedding:

Newlyweds!

2007-08-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

I've created this blog to keep family and friends posted on Stacey's and my journey to and new life on the West coast. It's a journey that begins with our wedding last night, which was a darn lot of fun for both of us (I don't think we were the only ones enjoying ourselves, especially once Stacey's brother John made it to the dance floor). Pretty amazing to have all your favorite people in one room at once, and then to be hugged and kissed and complimented and generally treated like a rock star for six hours. The brownie sundaes didn't hurt. Oh, and there's that marriage thing, too: wife and wife are legal now, currently lounging in the Admiral's Club in the American Airlines terminal at Logan Airport (Dave: "Be frivolous") en route to Honolulu. Flossie or no Flossie, we've got massages booked for tomorrow morning and a hankering for tropical libations and Hawaiian doughnuts. Check in later for pictures and updates...