Category: Travel

“Change of Plans”

After all the weather excitement last week we were ready to relax and enjoy some warmer weather at home.  But, like the best laid plans, that all changed and we made a last minute trip to San Francisco on Monday.  I needed to help Finn get back on a good life path and Diana flew with me and spent the week with her Mom and family.

We landed at SFO in the afternoon, stopped in to visit Adamo and family (including the now completely mobile Francesca), and then enjoyed a yummy dinner of chicken, rice, spinach and mushrooms from Chef Alicia who had driven up from San Luis Obispo.

Will and I went to collect Finn on Tuesday and stopped at Oyo in downtown Pleasanton for lunch in the sun on their patio.  What a great tapas lunch.  Here’s what their website says about the chef and her inspirations: “Her credo embodies the diverse heritage of Guyanese cuisine with its eclectic mix of flavors emanating from the ancestral homelands of the Guyanese people. Curries and Lo-Mein from Eastern Asian, Jerk Chicken and Rundown Fish from the Caribbean, Pepper Pot from West Africa and South American Paella all find a home here at Oyo.”  We started with street food “Doubles” – chickpea stew, tamarind drizzle, coconut, cucumber and mango chutneys over bara pockets – the combination of flavours was outstanding.  I followed that with the goat curry while Will had oxtail stew – the two dishes that the waitress recommended we try if we were only going to visit the restaurant once.

Oops – almost forgot to share a highlight from earlier in the day.  I met my new “grandson” when I picked up Will in the morning.  Ollie the golden-doodle (inaccurately described as a labra-doodle last week) is so cute and laid back – seems like a perfect dog for Will and Christine to practice parenting.  They have him on a serious training program and are recording and monitoring just about every movement.

Ollie has a play area that most babies would envy.  He’s sleeping in the corner with his favourite blue pillow.

He does manage to get excited sometimes:

Finn and I checked into an Airbnb house in San Mateo (about 10 minutes from Will’s apartment) that I had rented for us for the week.  The place was great – comfy with lots of space, good wifi, and just as advertised.  We enjoyed the care package of a host of great Trader Joe’s snacks that Alicia had put together for us.

Will visited us throughout the week and often worked a bit while he was with us.  What a kick I got out of listening to him coordinate and facilitate meetings – so much energy and moving so fast from topic to topic – exhausting.  He forgot his laptop multiple times and had to come back and retrieve it.  Too many things running through his head at the same time – I’m not sure he ever slows down.

Finn wanted to do some laundry and Will “helped” see if he could remove some coins that seemed to be rattling around.  He was able to remove something called the “bellows” on the front of the washer and had no idea how to put them back together.  I found a YouTube video that looked pretty complex but we decided to have Christine bring over some tools and give it a try – complete no go – way too finicky and complicated.  A Russian appliance repairman took the better part of an hour to complete the task the next day – not sure how the guy on the YouTube video got so expert, as it took him about 5 minutes.

While we’re on the topic of Will, I can’t believe how much food he can still consume – an extra large Philly cheesesteak sandwich with extra bacon from Jersey Mike’s was inhaled in a few minutes, and he was still looking for a follow up snack.  He was most upset that, after specifically asking for rosemary bread, he unwrapped regular bread at home.

Finn and I enjoyed a Peet’s coffee on Wednesday morning – reminding me of my regular walks to the local Peet’s with Zumie in Los Gatos.  It’s funny to see Finn with his very particular coffee order.  Dinner that evening came from Village hummus just across the street from Peet’s – a tasty chicken, hummus, turmeric rice, salad and mushroom plate that we share.

I continued to enjoy extended one on one time with Finn on Thursday – we started with a walk to Peet’s, enjoying the beautiful morning sun, and then stocked up on some supplies for breakfasts and lunches at the Whole Foods next door.

Will joined us at lunchtime and brought the leftover A5 wagyu beef stroganoff that he had forgotten the day before.  Not sure I’ve ever had or even heard of that specific wagyu classification but it was the most tender, melt in your mouth beef that I’ve tasted.  Here are the steps followed in cooking this delicacy and the finished product (including a crunchy superfood Moroccan salad – Will’s specific description) from his photo stream:

Diana enjoyed dinner with Marco and crew at Grammie’s house.  How would you like to have that dinner time view every night?

I cooked up some of my special breakfast tacos on Friday morning and it was great to see Finn enjoying them and having a healthy appetite again.  Later that afternoon he surprised me by offering to add my dirty clothes to laundry he was doing – in the newly repaired washer.  What have you done with my Finn?

I got a text from Anne letting me know that Jack and Mason’s team had won the Louisiana state high school soccer championship.  What an achievement.  There’s a video in this article that features great plays by both Ogan twins – you can pick them out by their long curly locks.

https://wgno.com/sports/lusher-boys-soccer-team-defeats-e-d-white-in-division-iii-title-game/

I got an email on Friday night inviting me to schedule a COVID vaccine shot.  It didn’t come from my regular doctor, but from the folks that did my surgery to repair my broken leg – weird, but why not go for it?  I logged on and scheduled an appointment for next Thursday morning.  It will be nice to get that behind me.

Will and Christine came over on Friday evening with some yummy Thai food.  Finn and I thought the green curry sauce was too watery but really enjoyed everything else.  The new parents were nervous about Ollie alone in their apartment – checking the “baby cam” frequently – and so didn’t stay too long.

We started Saturday with a trip over to Pacifica to meet Alicia and Diana at Soul Grind for coffee and breakfast.  Finn thought his Vietnamese coffee and ham and burrata quiche were the best he’d tasted.  We walked along the beach path after breakfast and enjoyed the great weather.

After our walk, I made a stop at the local Pacifica bookstore to see if they had a book I was hoping to pick up and take to Clorinda.  They were out of it and so I’ll have to ship it to her.  I did have “The Paris Library” to share with her – more on that below.  We had a nice visit with Clorinda, and Alicia made us some sandwiches for lunch.  Some luggage for Finn’s trip to Texas next week was picked up at Target on the way back to the Airbnb.  We also picked up a meal kit and cooked up some delicious lemon zest burrata raviolis with shredded chicken and pesto sauce – it turned out really well as we improvised a bit with the kitchenware we had available.

Here are a couple of pictures that I like from Saturday night on Gypsy Hill in Pacifica.  Jude (Clorinda’s neighbour) snapped the picture of Diana and Alicia laughing about something as the sun sets behind them.  Grammie and Francesca have a special bond.

Will picked up Finn on Sunday morning for a special car show in San Francisco.  They seem to have had an amazing time.

This week we said goodbye to Beat poet, publisher and bookseller Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died in San Francisco at the glorious age of 101.

Ferlinghetti was famous for — among other things — publishing the first edition of his friend Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem Howl, which got him arrested on obscenity charges. (A long federal trial eventually determined that the poem had redeeming social importance and was therefore not obscene.)

“I really believe that art is capable of the total transformation of the world, and of life itself,” he said in a 1994 interview. “And nothing less is really acceptable. So I mean if art is going to have any excuse for — beyond being a leisure-class plaything — it has to transform life itself.”

Ferlinghetti also founded the famous City Lights bookstore in the North Beach (Italian) section of San Francisco.  I’ve always enjoyed browsing there and find their recommendations very helpful.

In addition to all of that, Ferlinghetti was the father-in-law of Joe Sasser – a very interesting character who worked for both Diana and me over the years.  Guessing Sasser doesn’t have to work another day.

I read “The Paris Library” by Janet Skeslien Charles and am a bit nervous to say that I’m really enjoying it.  Why nervous? – it reads a bit like a girly romance novel – but I’m ok with some of that while I enjoy the descriptions of Paris and what sounds like an amazing institution – The American Library in Paris (ALP).

The book oscillates between Paris at the beginning of World War II and 1980s Montana – in a town called Froid.  I smiled since Diana and I talk about retirement destinations that often include debates about Paris and Montana – the cold in winter being a negative check against Montana.

“”The best thing about Paris?  It’s a city of readers,” our neighbor said.

She said that in friends’ homes, books were as important as the furniture.  She spent her summers reading in the city’s lush parks, then like potted palmettos in the Tuileries Garden, sent to the greenhouse at the first sign of frost, she spent winters at the library, curled up near the window with a book in her lap.”

Here’s a paragraph that made me think about how much Diana loves Paris:

“”Champagne!” the consul’s wife cried out.  “More champagne.”

Fantastique!  The last time I’d had a glass was at New Year’s.  Popping corks – the sign of celebration, my favorite sound in the whole world – heralded servants who swirled around the room, proffering flutes.  Everything was held out to me on a silver tray.  Bubbles glistened in my glass, icy rivulets slid down my throat.  I was so dazzled, I forgot Lawrence’s boorish behavior, forgot the diplomat.”

Odile, one of the two main characters, gets a job at the ALP and is responsible for writing a regular column about her work for the Herald:

“I know.  You’re not that girl any longer.  You’ve grown up and are doing a marvelous job.  Everyone loves your column in the Herald, and your newsletter is delightful, especially your “What kind of reader are you?” interviews.  It’s wonderful to get to know someone by the books they love.”

On discussion about whether the library should remain open as German occupation of Paris becomes imminent:

“She needed to convince them that the ALP must remain open.  “Libraries are lungs,” she scrawled, her pen barely able to keep up with her ideas.  “Books the fresh air breathed in to keep the heart beating, to keep the brain imagining, to keep hope alive.  Subscribers depend on us for news, for community.  Soldiers need books, need to know their friends at the Library care.  Our work is too important to stop now.””

Lily, the second main character, living in Froid in 1980, reflecting on the death of her mother and dealing with her father’s new pregnant wife, Eleanor:

“When she stayed in bed all day like Mom, I remained at Eleanor’s side.  I remembered a line from Bridge to Terabithia: “Life was as delicate as a dandelion.  One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.”  As a kid, I thought only old people died.  Now I knew differently.  Why hadn’t I been nicer to Eleanor.”

An interesting exchange between Miss Reeder, Directress of the ALP, and the German officer sent to censor libraries (how great a word is Bibliotheksschutz?):

“”I was going to tell the Bibliotheksschutz that a library without members is a cemetery of books,” Miss Reeder said.  “Books are like people; without contact, they cease to exist.”

“Beautifully said,” he replied.

” I was ready to humbly beg to keep the Library open.  How could I have guessed that it would be you?”

“You must know I would never allow the Library to be close.  However…””

One of my favourite simile’s in the book:

“Inside the Haussmannian building, the staircase curved like an escargot’s shell.”

I think I would be a big fan of the ALP logo:

“Inside the slim volume, the “American Library in Paris Inc, 1920″ bookplate showed the sun rising over an open book, a horizon as wide as the world.  The book lay on a rifle, almost burying it – knowledge slaying violence.”

I really enjoyed this book – a relatively light and quick read with interesting insights into Paris and the library during World War II.  Reading an author who splits time between Paris and Montana is interesting – I can’t think of two more different environments.  Not much is really said about living in Montana – it’s just a neutral backdrop for the relationship between the older Odile and Lily.  I’m interested to hear Clorinda’s critique of this book – she’s always very honest about her thoughts.

After taking a break to enjoy “The Paris Library”, I returned back to “The Moth and the Mountain”.  I rejoined the story with Wilson fighting in France during World War I:

“Millions of men from both the German and the Anglo-French sides of the conflict had already died along the Western Front – a jagged stitch in northern Europe, which stretched from the English Channel to the Swiss border, whose entrenched outline had not significantly changed between the end of 1914 and the beginning of 1918, despite all the mud, rats, murder, shellfire and barbed wire there.”

Hard to imagine 4 years with no progress on either side and so many casualties.

It was interesting to read about a recruitment technique for World War I known as the Pals or Chums battalions:

“As a recruitment tactic, it was a wild success.  Battalions were formed from groups of men who shared an employer (the Glasgow Tramways Battalion) or a common heritage (the Tyneside Irish Battalions).”

An interesting mathematical commentary on the futility of the 4 years of fighting:

“In the summer of 1917, one mathematically adept British officer at the front had made a calculation:

He roughed out the area between the “front” of that date and the Rhine…and divided this by the area gained, on the average, at the battles of the Somme, Vimy and Messines.  The result he multiplied by the time taken to prepare and fight those offensives, averaged again.  The result he got was that, allowing for no setbacks, and providing the pace could be maintained, we should arrive at the Rhine in one hundred and eighty years.“

I learned a new term:

“Triskaidekaphobia – an extreme fear of the number 13 – was widely shared.”

Moving back to discussion of Everest and a funny comment:

“The British director of the survey, Andrew Waugh, eventually renamed peak XV Mount Everest after his predecessor, Sir George Everest, and proclaimed the mountain to be 29,002 feet high, to dispel the impression that he had simply chosen a round number.  Wags noted that Waugh was the first person to put two feet on the top of Everest.  Satellites have now fixed the height of the mountain at 29,035 feet.”

I’m going to kick back and enjoy some more of this adventure before making dinner.

I found a new band that I really enjoy – instrumental music combining jam and funk elements with excellent musicianship.  Here’s one from Circles Around the Sun:

It’s interesting that several of the members of Circles Around The Sun did stints in the Black Crowes – the band that I’ve been reading about over the last couple of weeks.

I joined the Tipitina’s record club a few weeks ago – as much to help the new Galactic owners of the music venue stay afloat as for the small pressings of concerts recorded at the legendary venue.  I have seen so many fantastic concerts at Tipitina’s over the years – Dr. John, Anders Osborne, Little Feat, Trombone Shorty before he made it big etc.  The first release is a recording of Professor Longhair at his home.  An unadvertised feature on joining was a Zoom meeting to coincide with the release, featuring a panel watching videos and discussing the music.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Zoom meeting with members of Galactic, Johnny Vidacovich (legendary New Orleans drummer who played with Fess), Quint Davis (Jazzfest organizer) and several others telling stories about the music and their experiences with the artist.  What a treat!

A record that I turn too for stress relief from time to time – it’s a strange album but one that I find strangely soothing – John Cale’s “Paris 1919”.  I was turned on to it by Steve Forbert in his autobiography:

I love the descending brass and bass chords on Paris 1919 and the Welsh accent from Cale.

A good reminder from Steve Forbert that just because we hope or dream for something, doesn’t mean it will happen:

And finally, here’s another soothing song from Joe Lovano – what a great saxophone and piano sound:

Stay patient (Oh, so patient), calm and kind to everyone.

“Happy Christmas”

The new TV was mounted in the “family room” (also our bedroom) at Clorinda’s house on Monday afternoon.  She was not at all happy about this activity initially, “You took down my pictures to put up a TV – ridiculous”, but soon warmed up to the idea of watching operas and even enjoyed watching the Saints game with me.  I did enjoy Adamo’s advanced contractor input on the process:  no need for a stud finder – just tap on the wall – and then his marking missed the stud; “my eyes are much better than a spirit level” – and then the TV is a little bit crooked.  Diana is not happy with the ultimate placement, remarking that it needed to be 3 inches higher up.  Some things are just much easier done by yourself.

Diana and Alicia went to visit their friend Amy Adirondack (my nickname for her – her real name is spelled something like Adamac) in Los Gatos on Monday evening.  I took advantage of the quiet to enjoy a documentary called “Antidote” on Amazon.  This is a really good film about creative ways that people and organizations are using to spread kindness in their communities.  One of the segments is about a program at Amarillo college that helps single mothers and other needy students so that they can complete degrees and find better paying jobs.

Clorinda and I shared some dumplings for dinner and then Diana returned with some Thai food – turns out it came from my favourite – Thai Spice in Los Gatos.  I miss having a great local Thai restaurant.  There is a new one in McKinney getting great reviews that I should try.

Tuesday started with a walk for me, run for Diana, up and down Gyspy Hill a couple of times.  We weren’t stealthy enough and were intercepted by Luciano and Massimo and some friends as we reached the top of the hill – it was really Phoebe the dog who gave us away.  A side trip to the downtown Post Office ended up being fortuitous as my gift from Damon was waiting there – no mail on the hill.   I could tell Damon was very proud of his gift and so we FaceTimed with him as I opened it.  What an amazing piece of art he had commissioned one of our coworkers to create (with quite a bit of collusion from Diana).

Isn’t that just great?  I love all the details she captured.  This all started with a photo that Diana took on the day when I picked up Penelope several years ago.  I really enjoyed seeing these pictures of the work in progress that Marcella shared with Damon to make sure she was on the right track:

I enjoyed another beautiful sunset from Clorinda’s deck:

Wednesday evening at Will and Christine’s new apartment had been planned for a while.  We pushed the start time back to 5pm as Campbell worked a full day from their guest bedroom.  They have so much more space in their new place and the high ceilings make a big difference in how large the space feels.  Christine did a great job with interesting appetizers while Will created a smoke infused Manhattan for me with his new equipment.

Diana and Alicia look positively tiny amidst my boys.  Will and I went for a drive in his race car to pick up a Neapolitan dinner from Terun in Palo Alto.  The drive was just long enough for Will to demonstrate all the different exhaust sound and engine modes he has available, that and the multiple Bluetooth and WIFI connections with radar detectors and the like.  I felt like I was ready for a massage after that.  We had a lovely meal and lots of fun exchanging presents.  I really love the pictures that Campbell put together in a guitar body frame:

Then we took some pictures of our own to commemorate what might be a new tradition – Christmas meal and gift exchange at Will and Christine’s place.

Hopefully vaccines will be widespread soon and we can all get together much more often.

Marco and kids arrived on Thursday afternoon to exchange gifts with Alicia before she left early on Friday to spend Christmas day with her Dad and brothers.  Alicia’s gift to Marco was a Dopp kit (toilet bag where I’m from) that was hilariously filled with tiny bottles of different liquors.  “Dopp” is such a weird word for a toilet bag that I did some research:  the name derives from the early 20th century leather craftsman Charles Doppelt, whose company designed the case in 1926.

After Marco and family left, we exchanged our own gifts.  Diana had run out of time for clever tags and so we presented each gift with a “talk track” to give a small hint about the contents.  Here’s Diana presenting an album to Alicia and then Alicia opening her big gift – the very sizeable mixer.

Christmas Eve dinner featured the traditional “Feast of the Seven Fishes”.  Here’s some research on what that’s all about:

“While the tradition of enjoying a large meatless Christmas Eve meal was (and remains) common across Italy—as well as many other Roman Catholic-dominated countries—the origins of the Feast of the Seven Fishes has its roots in southern Italy. The area, which is surrounded by bountiful coastline, has been known for its seafood for generations. It’s also historically poorer than the rest of Italy, with locals preferring fish because of its relative affordability.”

Diana did all the shopping and then we prepped the scallops, shrimp, salmon, smoked salmon, dover sole and anchovy pasta for dinner with Adamo and crew.  Wait, I hear you say, that’s only six fishes.  Adamo to the rescue with a tee-shirt featuring a fish picture.

That seemed like an awful lot of scallops but only two were left after dinner.  Adamo did a great job of cooking up all the fishes and then Alicia was a huge help with the clean up.  Alicia and Diana exhibited some superior team work putting together the requisite meat and cheese platter.

Here’s Adamo and Amy’s crew all ready for bed on Christmas Eve.  I’m not sure if you can see the antlers on Francesca’s onesie – she’s a deer which led to all kinds of punny comments on Christmas morning.

Christmas Day started with a photo shoot so that we had some pictures of Diana and Alicia together.  I think I did a passable job as the official photographer.  We had to start early as the angry red sunrise foretold bad weather coming.

Next was a visit to Adamo’s home to exchange gifts.  Amy and Adamo were so excited about their gift for us – they adopted a penguin in our names from the World Wildlife Fund.  Amy was jumping up and down and so excited.  Frankie was very gentle with the new adoptee – subsequently named Parker.

Here’s the official adoption certificate:

We had a brief respite in the early afternoon when Clorinda and I enjoyed the Saints football game, and then Marco and family arrived for Christmas dinner.  We had a delicious honey ham with green beans and mashed potatoes – successfully avoiding all the turkey work for the first time in ages.  One of the funniest parts of the week was when Clorinda opened the singing llama present from Marco.  Olivia told the story of him in the store setting off 5 or 6 of them so that they were all singing “in the round”.

Adamo and Amy cooked up some fantastic lamp chop lollipops for dinner on Boxing Day.  I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed a “Halo Moon” before  – Adamo pointed this one out.

Sunday marked the start of the long drive home to McKinney.  We hit the road in the late morning and arrived at Aria in Las Vegas in time for dinner and a drink before bed.  A different but very enjoyable Christmas holiday in the books.

We listened to “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles on the drive.  This has been made into a new film starring Tom Hanks and it’s amazing how clearly you can see him in the role of “Captain” and hear him speaking the lines.

The story revolves around the Captain’s exploits in transporting a young girl, rescued from an Indian tribe, from Wichita Falls to San Antonio.  Along the way he stops in towns to read the news from various east coast and overseas newspapers for the townspeople – this being the only way they get news from afar.  It’s amazing to think about how long a trip like this took in the early 1800s – several months, and with all kinds of dangers along the way.  The girl, Johanna, was captured by Indians around age 6 and spent 4 or 5 years with them – speaking their language and practicing their customs.  The Captain has a lot of patience as he teaches her acceptable manners and tries to get her to remember the English she learned at a younger age.  An interesting listen.

I finally finished reading “Utopia Avenue” by David Mitchell this week.  I really enjoyed parts of the book and found other parts just silly and a bit nonsensical.

The musical details are typically well described:

“Griff started with a tom-tom and came in with a minute’s solo in the style of Cozy Cole.  Then he grabbed his sticks and played a solo, heavy on backbeats and rimshots, with a snare interlude.  Elf watched his hands with a faraway smile on her face.  Griff showed off an Art Blakey press-roll; a skipping run of ostinato; an Elvin Jones rolling triplet pulse; some swing-era cymbal playing; and a glorious free-form crescendo as Elf’s hand slowly rose…and…fell.”

This paragraph reminded me of Alicia explaining what a “cacophony” sounds like:

“Beneath the party chatter and Sam Cooke singing “Lost and Lookin'” lies a composite hum of engines, cars, trains, lifts, horns, sirens, dogs…everything.  Doors, locks, drains, kitchens, robberies, lovers. “It’s like an orchestra tuning up,” says Elf, “except it’s the main show.  A cacophony symphony.”

“She says things like that,” says Dean to Lenny.”

Lenny is Leonard Cohen who the band members meet at a rooftop party at the Chelsea hotel in New York, hosted by Janis Joplin.

I’m going to skip the music section this week as I’m running out of time.

A very Happy New Year to all when it rolls around in a few days.

“1,950 miles later”

The drive from Las Vegas to Pacifica was pleasantly uneventful.  The border checkpoint from Nevada into California wasn’t even manned as we made the crossing.  I continue to turn into a “grumpy old man” – night driving with oncoming traffic not separated by a median is getting pretty difficult.  I struggle to see where I’m going with the oncoming glare.  So, the Pacheco Pass at night wasn’t really much fun.  It’s very twisty and ill lit.  That whining aside, we arrived at the hotel in Pacifica around 9pm.  1,950 miles in the books.  I should have about 10 days now with no lengthy drives.

Once in our hotel room, Diana went on a mission to install the Amazon Firestick so that we could watch all our normal TV and streaming shows.  She was so tired that it was easy to see her brain working but not easy to interpret what was (or wasn’t) being said.  Problem one was that in order to connect to the hotel WiFi one needed to check the “Accept Terms and Conditions” box, but the remote wouldn’t go to the box.  An hour later Diana noticed the “cursor mode” option and that problem was solved.  Problem two – the firestick was installed and working fine but the remote wouldn’t control the TV volume and power, even after a bunch of fancy settings updates by McD.  I looked at some YouTube videos of how to fix the issue and tried a number of things.  An hour later, Diana finally gave up and sat down at her computer.  I decided to try the regular TV remote that we had thought only controlled the Dish satellite system.  Whaddaya know?  Controlled volume perfectly.  Two hours lost, but all TV and streaming options fully installed for our hotel stay.  I wish I had some of that escapade on video.  Funnily enough the firestick remote started controlling the volume just fine the next day with no changes.

We decided to be very safe and get a COVID test before visiting with Diana’s Mom.  Another late hour of work showed that “Project Baseline” was the best option.  After 30 minutes of data entry the site told us that we could make appointments for the Half Moon Bay location on Wednesday morning.  We assumed we could walk in on Tuesday morning and planned that as our early morning activity.

The drive down to Half Moon Bay was quick and pleasant but there was no evidence of any testing activity at the church, other than a couple of tents set up in the parking lot.  I tried to search for related testing locations and came up with a county run drive through site in Daly city – just south of San Francisco.  We finally found the location and 30 minutes later had completed our tests with a 1 to 3 day waiting period for results.

After that interesting activity we were ready for some lunch.  I spotted the City Kebabs and Gyros shop as we approached a traffic light and we decided to give it a try.  The Mediterranean food was delicious with all my favourites – humus, falafels, dolmas, chicken and lamb.  We were able to eat at the little table outside – one day before even patio dining was shut down.

We met Will and Christine for dinner at Town in San Carlos on Tuesday evening.  The street was closed off and the restaurants had made some big investments in building outdoor dining.  We were warm with the heaters and shades even though the temperature was in the forties.  It was funny to listen to Diana and Will deciding on which steak and preparation they were going to share.  I loved my sea bass and had some leftovers for lunch on Wednesday.  It was a real treat to hang out and have a meal with Will and Christine.  We had debated which night to meet and it was fortuitous that we chose Tuesday as all onsite dining shut down in California on Wednesday.

Wednesday began with a walk from Rockaway beach over to Lindamar Beach.  This involves zig-zagging up a decent sized hill.

I enjoyed a good macchiato at Soul Grind at the mid-point of the walk while Diana ran back for a work call.

The surf was the biggest that I’ve seen in Pacifica – the waves cresting at 15 to 20 feet.  There were a few brave surfers at Rockaway and you could tell they certainly knew what they were doing.  I really enjoyed sitting on the balcony and watching the sea and surfers.  Listening to the surfers in the Soul Grind parking lot sharing their experiences was hilarious – they really do have that whole special slang that you see in movies.

The sunsets in Pacifica are equally impressive:

We still didn’t have our test results on Wednesday evening and so stayed at the hotel for dinner with Diana picking up food at the Moonraker restaurant across the street.  This is one of the nicer places in Pacifica (not really a high bar) and has a great view of the surf when the restaurant is open.  I enjoyed my lobster BLT sandwich and clam chowder.

Thursday started the same way as Wednesday with a pleasant walk between the two beaches and a coffee at Soul Grind.  We worked most of the day from the hotel room and then joined our respective work happy hours.  Diana’s was quite entertaining with one of her colleagues playing a Christmas carol on the tuba.  We finally received our negative COVID test results on Thursday evening and were cleared to head up on Gypsy Hill and visit the family.

Diana chose to start her birthday with a run – and conquered the zig-zag path up the hill – most impressive.  She had texted a picture to Marco (the ultra-marathoner) and asked if he thought she could do it.  He coached her to stand up straight and take little strides – seemed to work.  After her run we did another walk over for coffee and then enjoyed a sandwich from Dinosaur’s – such great Vietnamese sandwiches on yummy bread.

Birthday dinner was hosted by Adamo and family at their home.  I enjoyed looking over the kid’s task lists for the day.

Massimo’s tree in his room is certainly right up there with the Charlie Brown version:

Luciano is quite proud of his ability to count to one hundred.  I liked Diana’s bobbing head encouragement:

McD likes to have surf and turf for her birthday meal and Adamo made sure she was fully taken care of:

Those are lobsters that he caught diving and they were delicious.  While the cooking was underway, Diana was reviewing her hand made cards from the boys.

After dinner Grammie and Massimo relaxed and watched Rudolph.

One other thing that I came across that I thought was worth sharing.  Look at this 4th birthday card that Andy made for Massimo – he’s so creative with his cards.  He had seen Massimo in that jacket and thought he looked like a zebra.

Saturday was a pleasant and quiet day.  We ordered dinner from Mezza Luna in Princeton (just down Highway 1 from Pacifica) and ate with Adamo and the noise making crew.  The pizza and calamari were both very good.

Sunday started with another walk across the hill for coffee and a breakfast burrito at Soul Grind.  Then we packed up and moved from the hotel to Clorinda’s house just in time to watch the Cowboys defeat the San Francisco 49ers.  The Saints played really well against the Chiefs in Drew Brees first   game back from injury but were edged out in the end.  Adamo and I are in the midst of a project to install a TV at Clorinda’s.  Our small helpers are being exceptionally helpful.

We listened to the Ann Cleeves book “Raven Black” on the second section of our drive.  This is the first in the Shetland series – I read the 4th “Blue Lighting” a year or two ago, a gift from Mum and Dad and enjoyed it.  This one was a tad formulaic with the introduction and exploration of all potential guilty parties and Diana and I enjoyed trying to figure out who we thought were the leading contenders.  Neither one of us was close.

The story is set against the local Shetland festival of Up Helly Aa which celebrates the Viking history of the island, and culminates in the burning of a long boat.  The Guizer Jarl is the leader of the squad that builds and ultimately burns the boat, and one of the characters in the book was the Guizer for that year.

I was introduced to the “Nutcracker Suite” by Duke Ellington this week and really like it a lot – terrific arrangements and playing.

This led me to Ellington’s “New Orleans Suite” which might be even better.

I came across this performance of Led Zeppelin covers by Government Mule with Jason Bonham (son of Zeppelin drummer John Bonham) on drums.  What a great job Warren Haynes does on guitar and vocals – he really is one of the most under-appreciated guitarists working today.

I’ll finish with another Christmas related song that I heard for the first time this week – “Christmas Must Be Tonight” by The Band.  Great stuff:

Stay safe and patient- there’s an end in sight.

“Feast and Famine”

After a busy Thanksgiving weekend, this week was very quiet with our only real outing to downtown McKinney for coffee today.  Diana took my picture with the Xmas display outside the coffee shop.  Not quite a Christmas card since Diana and BP didn’t make it in.

Rewinding a fortnight (remember when we used to have to rewind VHS and audio cassettes?), we experienced a quite unexpected and very boisterous rain storm on Monday night:

Thanksgiving was a much more pleasant weather day.  We passed on cooking a turkey feast for two at home and headed to Perry’s steakhouse for a late lunch/early dinner.  Champagne and lobster tails make my McD very happy.

She said several times that the grilled lobsters were perfectly cooked.  A nicely cooked sea bass makes me happy.  So we were both very happy with our meals – and had plenty of leftovers for a late dinner.  I laughed when we checked in on the chaos at Amy and Adamo’s home and heard that Adamo had said, “maybe we can go out for lobster on Thanksgiving twenty years from now.”

We drove to Austin for the weekend on Friday morning, checked into the Intercontinental downtown (changing names to a Royal Sonesta the following week), and got ready for an early dinner at Peche – why not start out at one of our favourite Austin eateries.  We started with some very decadent escargots (no lack of butter or garlic) and then I had a delicious redfish on a bed of the barley risotto that I enjoy so much.  Diana had an equally decadent foie gras on grits.

After Peche, we walked across the street to the Parker Jazz Club (capacity reduced from over 100 to 30) and enjoyed our first live music in 9 months with 12 other folks.  Kris and the team are trying really hard to keep the place going with very limited seating weekend shows and live-streaming.  The house band was excellent as always – although the new drummer over plays too much for my liking.  Kris might have played almost all of his 8 or 9 instruments – going from bass flute to multiple saxophones and a flugelhorn.

Saturday was a rain day – light drizzle all day long.  That meant we couldn’t do our walk/run along the river and had to settle for the ellipticals in the hotel gym – surprised to find it open and we had it to ourselves.  We did walk down Congress Avenue for coffee and a TacoDeli treat before the workout.

Brunch was at the Odd Duck – one of my top three Austin brunch spots.  The shrimp and grits with a perfectly cooked deep fried egg were fabulous, as was the ceviche with green curry sauce.  It’s always so hard to choose from all the options – and the menu is new every time we go.  Diana loved their take on the Paloma cocktail.  I’m now expected to try and replicate that – oops, maybe she’d forgotten already and I just reminded her.

After lunch we made a visit to the office to drop off an old laptop that I’d been hanging on to for a while and then visited the Yeti flagship store next to our old apartment.  Diana was determined to purchase one of the ludicrously priced coolers that keep ice solid for several days.  Then a trip to Warby Parker to get our glasses adjusted.  What a productive afternoon.

I hadn’t made any plans for Saturday night and we decided we should revisit the Parker jazz club and make another donation towards trying to keep the joint open.  This time we had dinner as well, splitting a yummy burger.  There was a slightly larger audience but still nowhere near the reduced capacity.  Kris was in a New Orleans mood – which suited me just fine.  I was interested to hear him share that he and Ryan Davis (piano) had been playing together for over 20 years, including 14 as the house band at Eddie V’s steakhouse.

Sunday was a dry day and so we were able to execute a 4 mile circuit around the river trail, culminating with another snack at TacoDeli.  Then another excellent brunch at Suerte – my top ranked Mexican restaurant.  The masa that they make all the corn tortillas and tostadas from is ridiculously good.  Diana had a smoked salmon tostada and I tried the bacon and sweet potato tetela (like a corn based pie with bacon and sweet potato puree inside).  They were both perfect – particularly the mornay sauce, which I learned is a classic béchamel sauce enriched with a blend of Gruyère and Parmesan cheeses.  We have really missed the creative food that is so readily available in Austin.  And the great live music.

Diana was still a bit hungry after her tostada and so we had an excuse to get an order of the best tacos ever – the suaderos, and a side of sweet kolache.  Yum yum yum.  My tummy is wishing it was living back in Austin after revisiting all these food pictures.

After brunch we met our friend Neffie at Fixe – a new place she introduced us to that specializes in southern comfort food – supposedly the best biscuits (scones) in Austin.

We passed this sign on the walk to Fixe – so nice to be able to walk everywhere again.  My Mum had just been telling us the story of the Battle of Bannockburn where the English tried to sneak up on the Scots at night, taking their boots off for stealth, but were foiled by the thistles that made them yelp and awake the sleeping Scots.  And like a responsible Scotsman who payed attention in History class, I do indeed remember that happened in 1314.

Neffie kept us laughing until it was time for our concert at the Austin City Limits Moody theater.  It’s always fun to browse the pictures of the musical greats that have played there – from Edie Brickell to Ray Charles and everything in between.

Nicki Bluhm opened the show for the Band of Heathens (BoH) and had a much more impressive voice in person than we hear her on the Tuesday night livestreams.  She was able to effectively fill the theater with just her voice and acoustic guitar.  Here she is with her husband Jesse, the bass player for the BoH, performing the first song that Sonny and Cher ever did together:

This was the BoH 15th anniversary show in their hometown and they didn’t disappoint at all, with a great mixture of songs from their new album and classics.  “Miss Ohio” was an early favourite:

“Call Me Gilded” is a highlight from the new album and the harmonies are on good display:

And I’ll finish the reprise of this outstanding show with “Hurricane” transitioning into “LA County Blues”:

Three nights of fantastic live music.  What a long overdue treat.

We started Monday with another workout at the hotel and then made the drive back to boring old McKinney.  The rest of this week was our normal work from home routine, culminating with the aforementioned trip for coffee.  Our only other excitement was a trip to “Run-On” after coffee to get runner D fitted for some new shoes.  She’s been complaining of cold and numb toes and we’re trying to fix that with some new shoes and socks.  45 minutes later and I think she’s all fixed up – it’s nice that the store encourage you to go outside and run in the shoes they recommend.

I’ve been enjoying “Utopia Avenue” by David Mitchell (best known for “Cloud Atlas”).  The book is about a group of musicians who form a band in the late 60s and early 70s.  It started really well and is dragging a bit in the middle.  At almost 500 pages with 200 or so to go, I’m hoping it grabs my interest a bit more soon.  Although a work of fiction, famous musicians and other characters from real life make appearances in the book – sometimes entertaining and other times feeling pretty contrived – particularly in their dialogue.

I’ve come across a decent amount of music that is new to me over the last couple of weeks and I’ll save some for the upcoming posts.

I’ve always loved the song “Gypsy Blood” by Mason Ruffner and was interested to sample a more laid back recent offering.  Here’s what a review said: “If you were waiting for Mark Knopfler to score a Sundance entry set in Grand Isle, this is your lucky day.”  That caught my interest as I love Knopfler’s scores and Grand Isle is an area where Denny and the crew go fishing annually.

Some more reading provided this update on Ruffner’s activities since “Gypsy Blood” in the 80s:  “In the mid-’80s, after Sea-Saint and before The Big Easy, transplanted Fort Worth native Mason Ruffner was a welcome national focal point for the New Orleans scene, a guitar slinger equally adept at blues, country, Tex-Mex and jazz who fell in love with the Crescent City and, somewhat oddly, folded the town’s rich piano tradition into his music. He was a critic’s darling, but perhaps taking a cue from so many of his local heroes, he soon disappeared into the wilds south of Austin.”

The dobro sound on this one is perfect:

A Colin Lake song popped up on a playlist and I did some research on him also.  We saw him at the Telluride Blues Festival but I didn’t know much about him.  He’s spent the last few years sailing around Latin America.  Interesting to read this piece about Antigua – a beautiful and artsy town surrounded by volcanoes in Guatemala, where I enjoyed an afternoon right before COVID arrived to shut down travel.  “Once in Antigua, Guatemala, Colin found the change in atmosphere inspiring and picked up a few gigs around town.  While dusting off his catalog, he gleaned new and deeper meaning in the lines and melodies of his own songs, rediscovering them as though they were not his own.”

Stay safe and kind.

“Road Trip – Week 3”

It was time to head home to McKinney on Monday.  Tower 23 (named after the nearest life guard tower) served us very well for overnight accommodation on Sunday – thanks D for organizing such a great room and view.  Konos surf bar right next door fixed us up with an amazing breakfast burrito – easily enough for a family – and coffee for the road.  We took the southern border route to Flagstaff, Arizona.  This gave plenty of opportunity to observe the much touted border wall.  The VW Passat did a great job of making the climbs up to 7,000 feet and back down.

We checked into the Flagstaff Marriott Courtyard (looked more like a ski lodge) in the early evening and enjoyed some Grimaldi’s pizza and salad delivered to the hotel.

Tuesday was our long driving day.  We had one fun stop just off Interstate 40 and the old Route 66 in Winslow, Arizona.  You may have heard the Eagles/Jackson Browne song “Take it Easy”, with the third verse:

“Now I’m a-standin’ on the corner in Winslow, Arizona
With such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin’ down to have a look at me”

It turns out that corner is well celebrated with a park, statues, live music and exhibits.

They even have a flat bed Ford parked alongside (no girl inside):

The audio book of “Where the Crawdads Sing” kept us company as we traversed the mountains, mesas, and then wide, flat open spaces to Amarillo.  We were most certainly road weary on arrival at the downtown Courtyard – this one is part of the “historic” collection and is a remodeled downtown bank building.  It certainly has a lot more character than most.  Only in this kind of rural location can you stay in a corner suite with wrap around windows for $102.

With only 5.5 hours of driving left on Wednesday, we were able to enjoy a more leisurely start.  The local breakfast taco joint got us set up with breakfast and we were off on the road again.  We made it to the house around 6pm to the beeping sound of a smoke detector.  Diana located it in my office – the worst possible location as it’s 20 feet up and set back from the wall.  Thankfully she’s a lot more stable and agile at the top of the ladder than I am and soon had the battery replaced.  I think I read somewhere recently about 10 year life smoke detector batteries – but we didn’t have any of those on hand and would have gone nuts from the beeping before they arrived.

After that excitement, the only chores left were to put water in the pool and replace a broken sprinkler head – all the full joys of home ownership and leaving town for a while.

We had been looking forward to having Wash and Zoe, and their owners Brad and Jocelyn, come and visit us for a while.  They arrived on Friday evening and stayed with us overnight, leaving late Saturday afternoon.

You can see Wash and Zoe, named after characters in some sci-fi series, are a couple of gorgeous Irish Wolfhounds.  After checking out every room on arrival, they settled right in for the stay.  We took them for a walk up to Zin Zen after dinner and can see how much work it is to own such beasts – a constant stream of folks asking what kind of dogs they were.  Here’s a couple of shots to give perspective on just how large they are:

Thankfully they are a couple of very sweet and gentle giants.  It was so nice to have company for the first time in 4 months.  And I think I have clearance to order one up.

Will was busy taking pictures of his car and then “photo sphere dream weaving them” with some fancy AI software to make these great images.  Apparently he takes 5 to 10 individual pictures and weaves them together to create these.  Quite the artist.

My book on the road trip was “All Adults Here” by Emma Straub.  This is a very enjoyable ensemble family drama, set in small town Connecticut.  Three generations of Stricks play out their lives in quite different fashions, and it’s all very enjoyable and engaging.

“The older Astrid got, the more she understood that she and her parents and she and her children were as close as people could be, that generations slipped away quickly, and that the twenty-five years in between her and her mother and the thirtyish years in between  her and her children were absolutely nothing, that there were still people who had lived through the Holocaust, which had happened less than a decade before she was born, but which her children had read about in their history textbooks.  It happened before you could blink.  Her children had been children, and now they were adults; they were all adults here, now.”

Some music that I enjoyed on the trip.  First a classic Rory Gallagher blues boogie:

Then something completely different from the inimitable Muscle Shoals musicians:

And finally some classic Texas driving music:

Please remain patient and kind with everyone!