Entries from November 26th, 2011

Ferries, Trains and Cable Cars

November 30th, 2011 · No Comments


Ferry


Damien, Rachelle


Looking back at Sausalito


Another view from the ferry


…. and we’re off!

After hanging out in Sausalito, Dallas and Billy drove home while Ging, Damien and I took the ferry to San Francisco. Damien loves all forms of transportation – train, boat, airplane, cable car – probably because his mom specializes in transportation and traffic management! Oh, except the car. He hates his car seat (“Ouchie, too tight!” haha).


Golden Gate Bridge


Golden Gate Bridge


Golden Gate Bridge


San Francisco


Alcatraz Island


Pulling into the Port of San Francisco


Bay Bridge

The ferry is a passenger ferry (no cars like the ferries I took around Seattle and Maine) and goes from Sausalito across the bay to San Francisco. Damien was super excited to ride on “the big boat”! Ging said they’d never taken the ferry before, so I was glad to do something they hadn’t done 100 times.


Ferry Building


Boccalone – I liked their tagline, “Tasty Salted Pig Parts”


Blue Bottle Coffee


Latte from Blue Bottle Coffee

The ferry we took is also a commuter ferry on weekdays for people who live in Sausalito and work in San Francisco, or vice versa. On the San Francisco side you get out by the Ferry Building, which has an awesome high-end marketplace. It would be so nice to get out here and grab dinner or flowers or coffee or whatever every day. So nice, and so broke. I happened to see Blue Bottle Coffee, which I knew from Steve is all the rage in San Francisco these days. The line was obnoxious, but Ging wanted to get Damien some Caio Bella sorbet anyway, so I gave it a whirl. I got a latte and a decaf latte for Ging (and the baby!). They were so delicious! I also grabbed 2 bags of whole-bean coffee for home.


The Embarcadero


Ferry Building


Occupy San Francisco

Ging and I had a loose plan to walk up to Telegraph Hill to check out the wild parrots, but it was getting late.. and dark. We ended up just walking along The Embarcadero for a bit then taking the cable car (Damien’s favorite after airplanes) back to the Ferry Building where we got on the BART train (Damien’s favorite after cable cars) back out to the East Bay. Oh, and before the BART ride we passed through Occupy San Francisco, which Ging said has been very peaceful, organized, self-sustaining and clean. No run-ins with police like in other cities.

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Hanging Out in Sausalito

November 29th, 2011 · No Comments

Dallas and I have each travelled around the Bay Area for work and have done all of the standard touristy things and have seen many of the sights. For something different one day Billy & Ging took us to Sausalito, which is just north of San Francisco. Sausalito is an area I always wanted to check out anyway, so it worked out good.

For lunch we went to Bar Bocce, a place that Billy and Ging had been with friends before. The weather was a little chilly, but Bar Bocce’s great outside space had a lot of heaters, so that was not a problem. I had the shrimp po’boy made with Bay shrimp and Dallas had some New England-style clam chowder. Dallas had leftover Thanksgiving kalbi and katsu for breakfast and wasn’t that hungry so he only had garlic bread with his soup. Oh, I also had some salt cod fritters with aioli.

I thought all the food was good. And the view of the piers with the sailboats docked was awesome. The cool thing about Bar Bocce is that you can play bocce while you wait for your food. So we did. Except Dallas. Party pooper. I discovered a secret bocce skill, though, and won 3 of 4 games against Billy & Ging.

After lunch Ging stayed with Damien to nap in the car, but Billy, Dallas and I went for a walk around Sausalito. What a charming little waterfront town with the houses all built up onto a hill and a nice little commercial area that attracts a lot of tourists.. like us.

Yee Tock Chee Park is a cute little area with great views of Angel Island and San Francisco. The last time that Ging and Billy were in Sausalito they kayaked from the shore to Angel Island. Sounds like something fun to do.

After we passed by not one, but two, Lappert’s Ice Cream shops (started on Kauai) and a Crazy Shirts store (based out of Honolulu), Dallas joked that he must be back home in Hawaii. We, of course, had to stop at Lappert’s. It’s not the same in California as in Hawaii, but they still had Kauai Pie ice cream, so it was fine with me!

We strolled around a bit more and then headed back to meet up with Ging and Damien, who’d just woken up from his carseat nap.

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Hawaiian Thanksgiving with Billy and Ging Ging

November 28th, 2011 · 4 Comments


Billy & Dallas


Dallas

Two Hawaiian guys, slippers, Hawaiian t-shirts, hibachi, kalbi. Yep, looks like a Hawaiian-themed Thanksgiving!


Hawaiian-Themed Thanksgiving Dinner

For the holiday we went to visit Billy and Ging Ging in the East Bay. We’d originally planned on skipping all the traditional Thanksgiving food and just ordering Hawaiian platters from L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, but whattaya know? L&L is closed on Thanksgiving. So we ended up making Thanksgiving dinner, but still tried for Hawaiian style instead of the American classics.


Hawaiian-Themed Thanksgiving Dinner

Dallas and Billy took care of the meats: Kalbi Korean short ribs and chicken katsu. Ging and I made the rest. Mostly Ging, ok at least under her supervision. We made a chinese salad with ramen crunchies, a warmed spinach/cranberry/pecan salad, tofu, mac salad (with and without wahoo/ono), mashed sweet potato, and fresh pineapple with li hing powder. For dessert we made haupia and a pumpkin mochi.


Damien & Matt

Matt and Amy joined us for dinner. Made made lemon meringue pie and they brought a couple bottles of wine as well.


Damien & Billy


Matt, Amy, Billy


Ging Ging, Damien, Dallas, Rachelle

Amy wasn’t sure what Billy and Ging meant when they said we were having Hawaiian foods for Thanksgiving but when we told her the menu she told us she was looking forward to all of that more than turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes!


Matt’s beautiful lemon meringue pie.


Lemon meringue pie, haupia, pumpkin mochi.

Ging and I prepared dessert plates for everyone. Each got a slice of Matt’s lemon meringue pie, a piece of haupia topped with chocolate pudding and freshly-whipped cream (kind of like haupia pie with no crust), and a piece of pumpkin mochi. The mochi didn’t really stand up to the sweetness of the pie or haupia, but when we ate it the next day on it’s own it was much better. The lemon mirengue pie was so delicious. I ate it for breakfast the next day too! And the haupia reminded me of Hawaii. I made it the night before. It was simple with a mix that Ging had from Lihue.


Ging (talking to her family & rubbing baby #2 due in April!), Matt, Amy, Billy, Damien, Dallas

After dinner and after Damien went to bed we watched a couple of movies: Super 8 and 50/50. I saw 50/50 in the theater and really liked it. I thought Super 8 was pretty good too.

I love turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and pecan pie, but this was a good alternative dinner and I was glad we did it! Also, remind us to tell you the story about how Billy and Ging don’t have a TV but borrowed one (+Direct TV). And then Dallas and Billy had to configure it so we could watch the football games on Thanksgiving. Craziness!

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Citibank Ditches Deposit Envelopes

November 27th, 2011 · No Comments

It’s about time, Citibank. No envelopes = no waste. Other banks are already letting you take a photo of your check to deposit it. Get with the program!

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Ricci & Company

November 26th, 2011 · No Comments

I took a photo of Ricci & Company on Superior Street on a walk around River North one day in September. The photo sat on my phone and computer for a couple months and when I finally came back to it I noticed that they had a sign on the building that says “Open to the Public.” I immediately though, “Dang! I should have gone in.” Next, I went to their website. Something seemed odd. There was only a message thanking everyone for their patronage for the last 92 years. Come to find out, the company is no longer in business. Kind of sad.

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