Sunny SoCal

We had a great time visiting Tulin in Santa Monica/LA. Got to visit some places I'd always wanted to go to - Griffith Park Observatory, Venice along the canals, walk Venice and Santa Monica beaches. Tulin was a great tour guide and made sure the Turk and I saw lots of things and ate well. You can see the Monster Burrito below. 

I noticed a new trend in California that didnt yet exist when we left the state 3 years ago - tea menus.  I had a meeting in Palo Alto at a coffee shop, and I ordered green tea which I thought was specific enough. Not! I was presented a tea menu. MENU!!!  Listed like fine wines were pages of loose teas, complete with country of origin, ingredients and flavor descriptions including undertones and essences.  When the tea arrived, it came in a pot, with a cup, on a tray.     Then, when I ordered green tea in a small Santa Monica diner, I was shown a tea menu on the wall.  I was presented with a cute tea pot with loose tea leaves and my cup.  I just dont see that happening here in Dunedin...but ya never know.

Another food finding - in 'food cities' like NYC, SF, Santa Monica there are traveling food trucks - those silver trucks that have been popular at lunch time to construction workers, serving cheap eats. Well, now they serve gourmet foods in well healed neighborhoods.  The one we saw, Cool Haus, created customized ice cream sandwiches.  You pick the cookie flavor (oatmeal, ginger, chocolate chip, etc) and then the ice cream (cinnamon, lemon, strawberry, mint chip, etc). Now THIS i could see making it big in Dunedin!!

Bikers in San Francisco

A sunny, warm day in San Francisco...and its not even September!  The Turk and I wanted to take advantage of all of this, so we rented bikes and rode around the city staying close to the water.

Of course, the Turk finds fishermen where ever he goes these days, and San Francisco was no exception.  He learned that catching crab near Crissy Field will cost you $40 each.  Apparently, crabs spawn in the area so you have to wait for them to go out to sea to catch them.

We loved the changes to Crissy Field. Gone are the acres of cement and blacktop pavement (where Tulin learned to ride her bike many years ago). the old wooden barracks (which i remember they destroyed for a Nash Bridges episode), the rusting warehouses (that I used to skate by). Now there are dunes with local plants, small lakes, trails and wooden bridges, and lots of beach front. it was beautiful, and fun to ride around.

We decided to ride into the Presidio to say 'hi' to Yoda and check out the changes to the area. The buildings are being renovated, people are living in the homes, the grounds are groomed, and the old Officers Club is now the visitors center.

The night before, we met friends for dinner on Russian Hill. After a wonderful time, we walked outside to see a clear night sky with a full moon lighting up Coit Tower. It was stunning.  Mark and I jumped in the car and off to Coit Tower we went. We walked around the tower to see the sparkling lights of the city and bridges with the full moon shining down.  What a site!

Ferry Building on Saturday-YUM

I've been wanting to get to the Ferry Building on Saturdays since they opened the farmer's market there. Finally, we got to go! We walked into a bustling crowd of people who's focus was all about the food. We found brilliantly colored fruits and vegetables, aromatic herbs and cheeses, fresh baked breads and cookies, bundles of spring flowers, and the smells from dozens of restaurant booths where cooking was done along the sidewalk.
We tasted cheeses, local olive oils, chocolates and tasty cookies. Mark weeped over the heirloom tomatoes and I pondered the 'Tasty Salted Pig Parts' store. But not enough to taste any!!

Happy Day at Half Moon Bay

The Turk and I spent a cool, windy, sunny afternoon at Half Moon Bay on Friday just to compare Florida with northern California beaches. How do they compare?

We were bundled in layers - not in shorts and t-shirts, We viewed beautiful landscape of wild flowers and mountains - not sandy, flat terrain with lots of palms, scrub bushes and wild flowers, We ate cioppino - not grouper sandwiches at 1/5 the price, We saw an assortment of funky as well as high end items to buy - not piles of t-shirts and beer drinking hats (for spring break), We saw some attempts at fishing - not catching, We saw people dressed as sea lions (wet suits) - not bathing suited humans playing amongst dolphins and manatees with ospreys flying over head.

So - each beach town compares favorably with the other, depending on what you are looking for!!!
Diversity is good.

Mark's Bean Smiling

The Turk is a happy guy these days with his abundant bean crop. He was out this morning picking 'some' of the ripe ones.

I think he was motivated to pick some this morning because he was woken up by squirrels dashing up and around his vegetable planter.  Squirrels don't really eat beans, but Mark was taking no chances.  He jumped out of bed (he can see the beans from the bedroom window of course) and ran outside in a crazed Turk sort of way...oddly a bit similar to the crazed squirrels.  This was enough to scare not only the squirrels, but most of the wildlife on the northern Pinellas County coastline.

Beans are safe and the day can begin.

A Brilliant and Loud Early Morning

We headed over to the Space Coast (Cape Kennedy on east coast of Florida) on Easter evening to prepare for the early morning launch of the final night shuttle launch - Discovery STS-131.  Marco and Katrinka eventually welcomed us to their home in Merritt Island (long story that included me and Mark drinking wine with neighbors).  After not many hours of sleep, we headed out to the Cape Canaveral Hospital parking garage, 7th floor. This location was 'inside' information from Dr. Marco and we found ourselves standing directly across the launch pad...8 miles away.

Precisely at 6:21am we saw the glowing explosion of lift off that looked like a new sun had risen in the east. The ship appeared to rise slowly in the sky, creating a brilliant reflection on the Banana River below.

Soon the ship started to arch in the sky as the booster rockets jettisoned and began to enter space. About this time, we heard the ROAR of the launch.  It took that long for the sound waves to reach us - much later than the light waves that allowed us to see the launch.   The contrail initially was dark, but started to glow as the sun approached the horizon, like a long pointer showing where the ship had been.   By then, their orbiting had already started.

Hanging Out with the Strawberries

Read the last sign carefully

The Turk and I road tripped to Plant City to the Strawberry Festival!! This area is considered to have the largest production of winter strawberries in the world.  So of course we had to check it out.  I went with the intention of eating...alot.  Mark wanted to see farm animals since the festival is similiar to a county fair complete with all the Future Farmers of America (FFA) clubs competing with their cattle, rabbits and chickens as well as plants.  Oh, and fair rides - which didn't impact us because Mark is afraid of rides that have speed or height...which I think accounts for EVERY ride ever invented.

I wanted to take photos of the foods BEFORE I ate them, however this intention was lost the moment I was handed any food. After the first bite, I would remember. This will explain the missing chunks out of each food item photographed.  We made our own strawberry shortcake with the help of the strawberry shortcake maiden, ate chocolate covered strawberries, and I tried a deep fried snickers bar which looked alot like a small corndog.  I'm glad I tried it, but fried funnel cake batter isn't very delectable to me.

Of course there were other food items I just didnt try, like strawberry pizza, or bacon dipped in chocolate (no idea how this one ties to strawberries).   There are even strawberry carnival rides!