Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Fine dining.

Last night we put Michael on a plane back to the east coast. I then ate my sorrow.
And today we trekked to the coast again to eat at Duarte's Tavern.
Not quite figuring out how to draw/scribble but loving the experience nonetheless.
It'll be good for my waistline to get back to a more normal diet but it sure won't be as delicious as our days on vacation. It's been so nice to be "home" and visit all these favorite places and restaurants, as well as spend time with family and friends, obviously. Little babe is handling the crazy days pretty well though we miss her papa and it will be nice to get us all back on a normal schedule.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

A taste of home.

I was running errands in Virginia today and started to feel a scratchy throat. Despite the 90 degrees weather I just wanted Pho.

There are tons of great restaurants in DC {so I hear, we're pretty frugal/too lazy to go out} but there aren't as many hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants as we had in San Jose. Or it could be we just don't know about them?

Anyway, there's one pho place that we know of but it's a hike from where we live but luckily I was smack dab in the middle of a Vietnamese shopping center; it looked and felt like home.
 
And tasted it too.

 San Jose has a huge Vietnamese population and the food is something I've grown up around, as well as the people, obviously, so I was really happy to poke around this huge shopping center and enjoy a steaming bowl of pho {in the air conditioning}.

I hope that your Saturday was nice too! Tomorrow? Off to apple picking in more hot and humid weather {what is up with that October?}.

xoxo, natty ♥

Monday, May 9, 2011

(I know what you did) Last weekend...Part II

First off...Happy Mothers Day to the lovely and loved mothers in  my life ♥♥♥. Mike's parents are visiting this weekend and I've been such a naughty blogger, having taken zero pictures of the fun things that we did...and that stuff will have to wait anyway since I need to finish last weekend...

On Saturday afternoon I cajoled Mikey to go to the Eureka Woman's Group's craft fair which made my day. Hand made stuff causes my heart to sing especially if it's knit or sewn. This fair even included some man made carvings and these glorious "dining room centerpieces".  I love how it's labeled (though I failed to get the whole label in my picture) and that it's a VULTURE (this one's for you, Dad)...who wants a vulture with a beak made out of a crab claw for their dining room table? I admit, I just might because a) it's obviously made with love b) it uses found materials (sea detritus) and c) it's so unique.
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Regrets that I didn't buy this...

That night we drove across a bridge into the town of Samoa to eat at the Samoa Cookhouse, the last running logger/cookhouse of it's kind in North America (I think that's correct, forgive me if it's not, it's just beyond me to do the correct research right now {I'm tired}). 
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I didn't know that it's "ok" to name your chainsaw...I'll have to think of one for ours now.
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Old logging tools...
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I LOVE this sort of Americana especially if it's California related and includes cooking.I also love how in the pictures Mike and I took of each other in front of the sign, we are technically both in the shot since you can see the other's shadow (did even that make sense?).

We woke early to drive to the race the next morning. It was beautiful running weather, mid 50s and sunny and FULL of ancient, looming, beautiful and strong redwood trees. Not to sound too tree-huggy, but it was pretty inspiring to be running under them. So much so that I kicked out a pretty good time for me. If only I could maintain that for a full marathon and qualify for Boston ;). Mike ran a good race too, though his legs were bugging him a bit. We were ready to hit the road soon after finishing, picking up lunch on the way out, stopping a few times for breaks and buying early-season cherries on the side of the road, and we made it home before dinner.
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I was stoked to see these; I love cherries and they mean summer!
We also had fun making Guinness make these sounds on the way home. He's recently been obsessed with invisible things on the ceiling and walls. We do nothing to help this early onset dog-insanity by encouraging and recording said behavior. Oh well, it's kind of...unique.

The week flew by and our weekend with M's parents and my family flew by even quicker. I still need to post about Easter and now about what we did this weekend, which happened to involve a lot of eating, but it's time for sleep and to begin counting down the three weeks left of school and until I can really focus on wedding planning (YAY!)!
Good night y'all and here's to a good week!
xoxo, natty ♥

Monday, April 18, 2011

Happy Birthday!

***Disclaimer...someone's having a bit too much fun with the "instamatic" application on her phone, which explains the funny color tones and blurred edges on the pictures (aren't they cool though?1? Huh?!? Yes???!), so please be patient with me.. Soon enough I'll grow bored of this ability and just post normal pictures. Thanks!***
My lovely grandmother celebrated her birthday this past weekend. To start off the festivities (and the commencement of my spring break), Mr. Mike and I indulged in some fish burritos.


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I love their marquee; it changes often and is clever.


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We got the heart card...



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and we were excited to eat.
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We were patient waiting for our food...
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but this is what someone looks like when you get in between him and his tilapia burrito.
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The long awaited burrito.
We then had cake at my aunt and uncle's house. I failed at taking pictures of the beautiful spread they had set up but I did snap one of the red velvet bundt cake I was so excited to add to the mix; it had bumble bees and that giant flower in the center...♥
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The next night we ventured out to this restaurant:
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It's on Skyline Boulevard and has a lover-ly view of the bay area, as well as some yummy food. I feel a bit sheepish taking pictures of food, but oh well! We had some yummy hors d'ouevres and then dessert was soufflé which they're quite good at making there. M and I had the gran marnier sauce on ours but there was an extra raspberry one floating around that was not too shabby. Fun fun and a great birthday!
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We had stuffed mushrooms which were divine and didn't go too fast since the younger kids thought they were snails; ha!
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I love when you get sorbet in between courses; it's like extra dessert!
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Soufflé!
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YUM!
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Happy with those "snails" ☺


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Me and the birthday gal...♥
It was a great weekend and I'm so lucky to have such an awesome grandmother; happy birthday and I hope you had as much fun as we did!
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Petroglyph

The scene: my aunt and uncle's house.
The time: late afternoon.
The season: middle of winter.
The reason: Superbowl Sunday, 2010.
The crime: I was eating wings, or a burger, or something of that nature. I had taken a plate from the cabinet, because we're casual like that. I had finished eating, presumably, or could have been going up for seconds, who knows. I was definitely, however, scraping stuff from my plate into the garbage. My hands slipped- the plate fell. Tears ensued. It just so happens that my grandmother had taken my at the time 5th grade cousin G to Petroglyph and my cousin had made this plate, which I broke, which couldn't be replaced. I had actually thrown out the plate, because that's what you do with broken glass/pottery and I was trying to console my despondent cousin and saying all sorts of things and this is what I got myself into to get her to stop crying: I had to fish out all pieces of the broken plate from the garbage and then take her to Petroglyph so that she can make something else as a replacement.

Time moved on and this cousin celebrated her birthday in May. Being in the throes of end of the year panic, I arrived sans gift to her fete and told her that her gift was that she could bring a friend along to Petroglyph. So, this was all cashed in last week. The event turned into my grandmother treating my aunt along with G, her three brothers, her friend and myself to lunch. Then everyone except the memawster crossed the street to paint their hearts out.

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I took a few shots of everyone painting and then on Monday we collected our finished goods =)

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My fleur-de-lis mug without a handle!

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Last week I also had the pleasure of hanging out with Audrey and another good friend from high school who now lives on the east coast. We went to Trials one night and had a good ole time.

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The east coast friend was supposed to meet me and M at the beach on Saturday but when we all got on Highway 17 it was PACKED, worse that I'd ever seen it. We stayed on for about half an hour, which took us about 1.5 miles away from home, and then made the decision to forget the beach. It would've taken us about two hours to get there and then we would get the same traffic on the way home, so we're saving that trip for another time. Anyway, we wound up at the YMCA because we already had our suits on and, as my friend said, we needed a body of water to sit by and splash in (no bother if it's filled with mostly people 10 or under). We did exactly that, played some Boggle, chatted and had a lovely time =)

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We did our long run in the city again, I can't remember if I mentioned that already, and we met friend Z at the same taco place as last week. He lives in the LA area but was visiting up here. We also had some Indian food with him and his lovely and cute Chilean friend last night. It was a great night and especially good to use Spanish in a non-teaching context with people my age (the Chilean friend doesn't speak English). We took them to get some coffee after dinner since they were gearing up to make the trek back down to la-la-land last night. I had an awesome time and hope that they made it back awake and safely!

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I can't remember the name of this appetizer bread thing, but it was SOOO GOOD! Our mango lassis =) 

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Pals. 

I'm lounging around and need to run four at some point today. I also need to write some postcards to my new homeroom. I got some pretty pens and stickers to spice up the cards a bit, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

And then there was the Wal-Mart. I'm aware that there are more responsible shopping choices available to me but I had never been and wanted to check it out. It was an entirely overwhelming experience exacerbated, perhaps, by all of the remodeling, etc., they're going through currently. I was able to pick up a good load of back to school stuff. I'm picky about the markers my kids use. As older students it's not like they're coloring everyday or anything like that but they definitely make posters or brochures at least once a week, and being controlling like I am, I like the marker baskets I give them to be just-so. The school actually gives us supplies but they were so cheap and this way I just feel on-top-of-it. The funny thing is, it's all usually messy/sloppy within a few weeks, but starting out organized helps me out!

I captured some of my favorite images of the day, most having to do with animals, however, so feel free to skip on over them.

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This was on a sleeping bag container and begs a few questions...why is he fully dressed? What is he drinking? Does he sleep under the stars? Why is it light out still but he's in "bed"?Who gets to sleep in the tent that's in the background?

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Special!

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Ferrets and a rhyme for your ears.

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Bilingual marketing.

I'm still cleaning/organizing and need to run today and hopefully can get a head start on those postcards. We're going to Tahoe (woo hoo!) for our two weeks starting on Saturday and I'd like to get them sent out before that.

Happy hump-day all!