New Local Eats

So last Friday was the day of finding new eateries in the Bay area. In the afternoon, my new visiting teaching companion, Mary, introduced me to Red Mango in Palo Alto. Red Mango is one in the latest trend of natural frozen yogurt- meaning just unflavored yogurt. I got mine with granola, just in case it was super sour and then the sweetened granola would neutralize it out. However, it actually wasn't very tart at all. It just had a fresh, non-puckering taste to it. I was definitely impressed- and so I'm sure that you will hear me rave more about it in the future (but Cold Stone is still No.1).

That evening, we went with William's longtime friend Ben and his wife Bev to one of their favorite Bay area bbq places- Sam's in San Jose. William and Ben grew up together in Texas and so they definitely love and appreciate good bbq. You know its going to be a good place when they have a toy train running up around the dining room. And, they bring your table your own bottle of their special housemade bbq sauce. And boy was this sauce GREAT! Especially with their fries- these giant steak ones. The other item to rave about is their hushpuppies. AMAZING- with a savory taste to them complimented by the honey butter. That was our appetizer and after having those, I could have just left and gone home happy.

For dessert, they took us to another one of their favorite places- and a frozen yogurt place- called Frozos. It is in Santa Clara and I HIGHLY recommend it. And how can you not love their adorable penguin icon.
This place is a self serve frozen yogurt place where YOU decide what kinds and how much yogurt you want as well as which of the myriad of toppings you can pick from. They had the tart original yogurt (I tried it- not quite as good as Red Mango, but not too tart either) and 4 other kinds- vanilla (with sugar), butterpecan, strawberry, and chocolate. And here's William getting serious with their peanut butter gun- yes, they put their peanut butter topping within a calking gun.
You can't really see behind him the vast array of toppings that they had- pretty much anything you could think of to put on ice cream, they had- fresh fruit, cereal, candy bars, cheesecake, brownies (just to name a few). And then they determine your price by the little weight machine- here are all four of our creations- YUM.
I admit that I am a HUGE fan of this place because they just have so many options that you can custom make and decide for yourself what you want to do. If you want to be "healthy" and get the tart yogurt and fruit, you can do that or you can get the vanilla with 10 different toppings (like Ben did in the upper right corner).

We then headed back to our place for a little Tiger Woods Wii Golf. Ben had just gotten the game and shared it with us. The great thing about the Wii is that it makes you feel like you can play any sport, when in reality, I'm pretty much not super coordinated. I mean, I even had a few holes in one (given that I was on easy mode with the helper trajectory).

All in all, it was a great day when we discovered some new local eats. We have been through a bad spell with some not so great places, but this has definitely restored our confidence.

Utah Reunions

If traveling to Boston and reuniting with colleagues and old friends wasn't enough, only two weeks later, I headed back to Utah for a few more reunions- particularly, my 10 year high school reunion. Dadahdan. Yikes- I still can't believe that I've been graduated for 10 years- and I still don't have my PhD YET (and I stress the yet- its on the way).

But before the reunion, I met up with several of my old roomies from BYU who I have known for 10 years now. We were luckily all in Utah at the same time (we did miss some of you- aka Lianne, Melanie, Amanda- to name a few) and we had a great time looking through Sarah's scrapbook of our freshman year. We all lived in Deseret Towers, which is sadly no more, U Hall, the 2nd floor. The U-2 floor- named after my favorite band, and I didn't even have to pay extra money to live there :-) And obviously we are still on the same wavelength as we all wore shades of red/pink without coordinating with each other.
We went to Chili's and had some lunch- and the white chocolate molten cake- while talking and laughing up a storm. Sarah is getting her PhD in history at University of Toronto and Leslie is pregnant and going to have a baby girl! I am so thrilled and proud of both of them. It truly was so great to get together in that while some times has past, we are still great friends.

I was also able to have a little reunion with my family- minus my sister Cynth who was there in spirit- as we went out to dinner to celebrate my mom's and my birthday a few days earlier. We went to the Cheesecake Factory in SLC and were happy that we only had to wait 10 mintues on a Thursday night! We were pretty impressed it was such a short wait- probably because the Olympics were still on. We shared the appetizer sampler and my dad and I shared the strawberry shortcake (it is HUGE- yet, somehow my dad was able to eat a whole one before), and Mom and Sarah each got a cheesecake. It was nice to be able to spend time with my sister before she went down in San Diego to start grad school.

But, the main purpose of the trip was my 10 year high school reunion. William was willing to go, but I wanted to be able to say things that would impress my friends about my husband and I could only do that if he wasn't there correcting me :-) On Friday night, a small group of us- about 40-50 had dinner at Rodizio Grill. It was great because I was able to catch up and talk in depth with several people that I had not seen since high school (If any high school friends want the 411 on specific people- let me know).

Then, on Saturday was a big get together at Sugar House Park- and here's the sign welcoming us (sadly, I couldn't get the '98 part into the frame).
I was glad that I had gone the night before because I was able to chat with even more people this time in that there were hundreds of people there. It was crazy to learn that 3 different people from my high school already have 4 children. Well, I guess at least I am married now so that's a start. I did bring photos of William to the events so that people would believe that I was really married. I truly am SO HAPPY that I went- it was definitely worth it. I didn't realize just how many people I had formed relationships with and had funny memories/classes with and that I hadn't kept in touch with. It was great to see how much people had changed- or had not at all- (I hope that I at least look a little different now that I actually do my makeup and hair).

I was at the reunion for nearly 4 hours and then I went with my buddy from elementary school- Aaron- his adorable wife Lisa, and their cute baby boy to Iceberg for some Grasshopper ice cream therapy. They actually have an adorable condo right across the street- which would be very dangerous for me because I would probably stop there every day- and so we spent a few hours chatting at the kitchen table, catching up about friends, jobs, and life. It just made me feel so incredibly lucky that I was able to associated with such an amazing number of QUALITY individuals in high school. Friends who were "cool nerds" like I was- meaning we were smart, but we also loved to laugh, go to dinner, and hang out- but not get into major trouble. I truly loved high school so much and am so blessed to still be in touch with such amazing friends- and now our circle has expanded with their great spouses. I am definitely planning on being at the next major reunion and I hope that all fellow 1998 Colts will be able to join me

Quebec City: 400 Year Anniversary

My dad is a big French and Indian War buff and so when he heard that I would be in Boston and that I was very interested in going to visit this city, he and my sister Sarah came out and we all drove up there. The flights were quite expensive- about $500 each from Boston- so we decided it was better for us to make the 6 1/2 hour drive. We drove though very lush and green New Hampshire and Vermont and made it over the border into Canada. A few years ago, I went to sociology conferences in Montreal so I had a taste of the French aspect of Canada and was thrilled to be able to head to the capital city.

Quebec City is named after the Native Indian term "Kebek" (and how the city name shoudl be pronounced) which means "place where the river narrows." The St. Lawrence is the river the city sits on and the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site since it is the only walled city in North America. And it reminds me so much of Europe. This year is also the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec by Samuel du Champlain. This being said, it seemed like the perfect time to visit.

And the city was decorated even more for the celebration
We had a hotel in the PERFECT location- at the end of the "Champ Elysee" of the city, only a 5 minute walk from the old city and right next to the plains of Abraham. It has a rotating restaurant on top of it (shown below) but we didn't eat there. But the view was great
A gate along the plains of Abraham- the place has such a French/European air to it
We discovered that we had come at a great day because they had a big parade that evening. We watched by this quaint building with lots of flags. The parade started at 7 but has to have been one of the slowest parades we've ever been to. It wasn't until 8 that it reached us- and we were only a 5 minute walk from the start!
They started off the parade with period costumes, and also some drummers. They were really good with a great beat (and able to walk at the same time).
But the real "high"-lights of the parade were these giant statue floats. They seriously had so many- here's a few of our favorites.

Samuel du Champlain- founder of Quebec- look how happy he is
My dad called this one "E.T.'s Father". We don't actually know what it is a statue of, but it gave us a good laugh
Don't know who this lady is- obviously loves sunflowers
Another float we don't know who it is
We thought she looks like Mother Willow
This one looks like the Ghost of Christmas Past
And what giant float parade would be complete without going back to its religious roots with a cardinal and a father
There were probably about 20 more floats like this but it was getting kind of boring since we didn't know who any of them were supposed to represent. And we definitely saw a wide variety of the floats.

We went to this ice cream place that has delicious soft serve- very light tasting. Sarah and I each got our own vanilla chocolate swirl 2 days in a row. We wished we could have done day 3 but it was too rainy.

It was so fun to wander the streets of Old Quebec this evening- it was so quaint with scenes like this
We then went to this multimedia presentation called "The Quebec Experience. " It was mentioned in 2 different guidebooks and they had late evening English showings (9:15). Its a bad sign when you are the only 3 people in the theater. It was extremely hokey, and tried to be fairly "theatrical" when really all we wanted to learn was the real history of Quebec- not to see water falling in the room and the fake rifles. I don't recommend you going to it- save yourself. We ate at a restaurant right next to the theater and since it was a festival night, the waitress said that they didn't have any more chicken left. But, I was able to get a yummy seafood pizza. I was so happy that the menus were in French with the English translation beneath them.

On Wednesday, we awoke fairly early to a cold and chilly day- the night before had been perfect- not too hot nor cold so it was a good thing that we had seen much of the old town the night before while it was still nice. We went to the 1st English tour of the Citadel- which the British built after winning the Battle on the Plains of Abraham, yet no actual "battle" was ever fought there. The Citadel is in a star shape with grass growing on top to better camouflage it. The most exciting part was watching them practice for the changing of the guard- its similar to how the British, but in French and they have a ceremonial GOAT. Yes, an actual goat that is the descendant of the one given to them by Queen Victoria. I still don't understand exactly why she gave them a goat, but they take good care of this one.
Doesn't he look so spiffy in his blue uniformThe tour led us around the citadel and see some of the remains and artifacts. By the end, it was FREEZING and my dad and Sarah had not brought jackets because it was supposed to be "hot and humid".
We watched about 15 minutes of the changing of the guard and after seeing the goat, decided that was about as interesting as it was going to get and we left.
They even had a full band
Sarah bought an overpriced jacket in the gift shop and my dad would have bought one too but they didn't have his size. So, we went into town and found a hooded sweatshirt for him. This was a complete lifesaver for them because it later started to rain and we probably would have had to give up and go back to the hotel.

We headed down the "breakneck stairs"- that is the literal French translation and I really didn't feel that they were "breakneck" at all. I thought the RB stairs at BYU were much worse.
They have a funicular (a little cable car) to take you up the hill instead of walking them, but we didn't feel it was worth the money for such a short walk. The stairs lead you down to Vieux Quebec- the part of the city down along the shore, which is just as quaint and charming.
We walked along the water for awhile and then headed back where we took a boat tour of the St. Lawrence River. We were one of the 1st people on the boat so we got the prime indoor seats which was quite a bonus when it was raining. However, halfway through, there were these cool falls and my dad wanted all of us to go outside to check them out and get photos without the glass. I thought that I should wait at the table, but he didn't think that anyone would take our seats. Well, of course they did and the short time I was out snapping a Kodak moment, someone had taken our seats. Oh well- at least it was the same view going back to the city.
These waterfalls are pretty sweet- they are actually taller than Niagara Falls- just not as wide.
My dad with all of his French and Indian war readings had heard about these falls and really wanted to see them.
And we were able to get a panoramic view of Quebec City from the boat.
However, after our boat cruise, it just turned into a terrible downpour- just dumping buckets. I was the only one who had an umbrella so Sarah and I shared it while my dad used his hoodie. We managed to struggle up the breakneck stairs back to the city where we found an Italian restaurant where we could eat and get out of the rain. We had tried to go to this authentic Quebec cuisine place and it was completely booked with reservations. So we lucked out by finding this place. I got a yummy calzone and was able to reminsce by seeing a little bit of old school New Kids on the Block on the t.v. near by. Mainly, it was just nice to get out of the rain for awhile.

Next, we went over to Chateau Frontenac. It is definitely the most spectacular building in the city. Its named after one of the Governor's of the city who never actually stayed there. My dad had been willing to stay there, that's how incredible it looked, but it was all booked. Even for $500 a night. But, we were able to pay much less and take a tour of it.
The tour was really fun- the guide had a specific "character" that he portrayed- being one of the bell boys who delivered notes to the guests back at the opening of the Chateau. Here's one of the secrets- the chimney doesn't work- you can see that by the window in the center of it.
Here's the crooked hallway (it really is crooked)
And the 3rd floor (there are 3 slight levels joined by these staircases)
The beautiful ballroom
And check out these amazing chandeliers
This staircase has a special story behind it- that one couple walked down that staircase on their honeymoon and then came back on their 60th anniversary and walked down the staircase again. William wasn't with me so I walked down it by myself, so I guess the 60 year thing doesn't apply :-(
On Thursday morning, we went to the Plains of Abraham and made it there right when it happened. Unfortunately, they had canceled the 10:30 am bus tour so we thought we would go at the noon one. Until them, we went out to one of the bastions where some of the soldiers lived. We got to go down to the basement where they kept the gun powder
They had an audio tour and they told that one of the punishments for disobedience for the soldiers that they were tied naked to this horse and kept out in the elements for awhile. Yikes- definitely a painful punishment
The multimedia presentation at the plains visitor center was much better- it actually gave many historical facts about the founding of the city and its 400 year history. Here's a view of the famous Plains-
And we did not end up going on the bus tour because the bus arrived late (about 12:10) and it was 40 minutes long and we needed to check out of our hotel at 1. I could see that my dad would be panicked about making it back in time so we told him that we didn't care if we went. Instead, we went to McDonald's where I was trying to talk in French, but with a Spanish accent, yet to my embarrassment, and my sister's amusement, he replied to me in English. I was just trying to be respectful but ended up sounding really lame. Oops- at least I tried.

All in all, despite the yucky weather on Wed. and Thurs., we quite enjoyed our time in "Kebek". And the celebration continues for the rest of the year if you are able to make it up there

San Jose Weekend

Much of our Labor Day weekend was spent in San Jose. On Friday night, we went out to Santana Row where we went to dinner at Straits- a Singapore restaurant. We encountered it through the "sniff test" where walking by, it smelled really good. And it was a winner- we started out with the Garlic Noodles which were HEA-VEN. We also had chicken and beef satay with this amazing peanut sauce- it was a red based sauce which I've never had before but was good and then they had this really unique lemon grass sauce for the steak. It was slightly sweet, but unlike anything we had ever had before. And they had these AMAZING garlic french fries- just the right amount of garlic. Some of the other garlic fries we have had here are just way too much with huge clumps of garlic- but these were just perfect and even served in a chinese takeout box for unique presentation. All in all, we will definitely be back :-)

Then, on Saturday we went back to Santana Row again to meet up with several of my old friends- the Maughan Family. I've know Jeremiah for 10 years now and am also good friends with his parents as well. His parents, Jeremiah, and his wife Janai met us for lunch at Pluto's. Up until this meal, I hadn't been overly impressed with Pluto's, this custom made salad restaurant. But, I just hadn't had the right dressing- this time, I got the gorgonzola dressing and it was AMAZING and really made it a super good salad, instead of just ok. It was fun to catch up with everyone and we were sad that his parents couldn't spend more time with us because they had to get the bubble in their tires taken care of. Jeremiah, Janai, William and I then spent some time walking around the shops at Santana Row. And we needed a little chocolate dessert (imagine that) and so we stopped at a chocolatier we hadn't tried before called Joseph Schmidt. William is here demonstrating that we bought their signature black and white truffle that is currently on display in their sign.

Mmmm- look at that chocolatey goodness. The center was too rich for me to enjoy too much of it. We also tried their chocolate caramel bar which had a unique taste since the caramel was seasoned with fleur de sal.

Jeremiah and William were fascinated by the luxury cars on display- William mainly was checking out that they had horrible MPG and that even though they were super expensive, they also had huge additional gas tax fees. And then we saw some cars actually being used to chauffer a wedding couple and the rest of the party around- you can even barely see the bride in the back seat.

On Sunday, we went and attended the baby blessing of Elle, daugher of Ben (Jeremiah's brother) and his wife Deb, who are now living in San Jose while Ben works for Cisco. And look at just how precious she is
It was so fun to be able to catch up with so many old friends for this special event and we are thrilled that we will be able to spend some more time with Ben, Deb, and this adorable little one.

Santa Cruz Beach

On Friday, the mother's group and me went to Twin Lakes State Beach in Santa Cruz. 

The beach was beautiful and not very crowded- I loved the little lighthouse. 

The waves were fun- and not too cold. 
My buddy Tyler's mom had his new little brother so I got to take him around the beach. He was excited to go into the water- up until a big wave hit him in the face. Then, he was scared of the water. But absolutely LOVED the beach. He walked up and down nearly every inch of the beach. Here he is enjoying a little yogurt that he was able to feed himself- and most of it made it into his mouth :-) 
Here's a picture of all of the beach babies 

It was little Noah's 1st year birthday and Dyan was kind enough to bring some yummy treats- what a great way to spend the day!

Festival Saturday

Last year, William and I went for the first time to the Ghiradelli Chocolate Festival and so we definitely needed to go there again this year. We learned several lessons from last year- the first is that 30 tastes (2 full cards) is way too much for both of us and secondly, its better to go earlier in the day. So we only bought one 15 taste card and came at around 1 pm and it was a smart choice. 

Well, somehow we finally made it there with these traffic signs. 
Pretty amazing that we were able to figure this out and made it there. 

One of the weakest aspects of the festival was that there was way too much toffee- for a place that had about 30 different chocolate vendors, about 6 of them were offering toffee. So we decided not to "waste" our tastes on small pieces of toffee, but go for the good stuff- the ice cream. 

We shared 3 chocolate milkshakes- they had these cute little straws

I had 3 little Ghiradelli Chocolate mini sundaes and William had 2 which is still one of our all-time favorites. But, our personal favorite was the White Chocolate Gelatto- it was so good. William and I shared 3 of them and I wanted another one and even waited in the line, but when I got to the front, they had run out :-( So at least I enjoyed several- and we were super glad that we came early. And the lines were much shorter than last year coming earlier. Our other tastes involved a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie, a caramel, a peanut butter chocolate pizza (which was so rich- we can't even imagine eating an 8 in. one). The upstairs booths were definitely better than the ones on the floor. And they had this jammin electic violin player- he was really getting into it. 
After all that chocolate deliciousness, we definitely needed some salt. So we both had the idea of going to Rainforest Cafe to get our favorite Crab Dip. However, after we had been seated, we found out that they have REMOVED the crab dip from the menu :-( We were so devastastated and the spinach and article dip was ok- but not nearly as stellar. So sad that we have lost yet another one of our most favorite dishes. We might return again for the Volcano dessert but won't make it too much of a habit. We think it is so sad that as soon as we find something truly delicious, they always take it off the menu (the steak and cheese pizza is still the ultimate tragedy). 

We then headed back to Mountain View where we caught some of the last hour of the Art and Wine Festival. I have never been to such a large art festival- it completely filled up Castro Street for about 7 blocks, with 2 sides of booths. We didn't manage to make it through all the booths before they closed- but it was probably better since we really do not have any more room in our new apartment. All in all, it was full day of festivals :-)