Entries Tagged as 'billy'

Nation’s Giant Hamburgers

December 2nd, 2011 · 1 Comment

Allison and Herm live in the East Bay very close to Billy & Ging and we were looking forward to visiting them on our trip out west. Unfortunately, they were on a trip to Iceland for our whole stay! Before we came out, though, Allison told us to try the burgers at Nation’s in Orinda, not far from where Billy & Ging live. She said they were even better than In-N-Out. GASP!

On our last day in the Bay Area we finally got a chance to visit Nation’s Giant Hamburgers (Since 1952!). We ordered a cheeseburger and two bacon cheeseburgers, fries, and a side of chili. Well, two sides of fries, but the woman working the counter wasn’t the greatest at taking an order, so we only got one. Plus, it was taking a long time to get the food and the line at the counter was long, so we just stuck with the one order of fries. Which stinks, because I thought the fries were great. Definitely better than In-N-Out.

As far as the burger? The consensus was that it was just a bit too big. Billy and Ging shared one. I mean, GIANT is in their name. Also, the way it was assembled made it hard to hang on to without it sliding around. I also added grilled onions and pickles to mine, which I thought was a great addition. I hardly ever eat beef hamburgers, so I thought it was great. Everyone else enjoyed what they had, but thought that the burger itself, under all the cheese, bacon and condiments, was lacking. Good, but not better than In-N-Out?

Not a bad lunch, though. Also, it looked like they had some amazing pies, but we were all too stuffed to try them.

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West Coast Fast Food Favorites

December 1st, 2011 · No Comments

So, while we were in California we had two fast food weaknesses that we had to take care of. 1. In-N-Out Burger. Everyone knows about this one. Everyone has to make it a destination. Every time I kick myself for not going enough when I lived in San Diego. This was actually our first stop after we arrived at the airport!

2. L&L Drive Inn, which serves Hawaiian food and is based out of Honolulu. L&L is a chain scattered all over the islands and also has expanded to some areas of the mainland, but not Chicago. I actually ordered the healthy plate (gasp!) which had brown rice and a salad instead of white rice and mac salad, which is on a traditional Hawaiian plate lunch. It wasn’t as good, but at least I wasn’t feeling as guilty!

Dallas also wanted to go to Jack in the Box, but we didn’t. Can’t beat the Sourdough Jack, though. Dallas and I very rarely eat at any fast food restaurants at home, I don’t know what gets into us when we travel! We had Krispy Kreme‘s too!

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Beer! Beer! Beer!

December 1st, 2011 · No Comments

One day Billy took us to one of his favorite brew pubs, Russian River Brewing, located in Santa Rosa. Billy selected a beer that he knew he liked and suggested one for Dallas, but I went for broke and got the sampler. Little did I know that there’d be 15 beers to sample! And all for only $15. Seemed like a bargain! Especially since I liked a lot of the beers. It wasn’t like I was stuck drinking 15 gross beers. Dallas texted his friend Brian during lunch because he’d just visited the brewery a few weeks ago. Brian’s favorite beer was one of our favorites: Blind Pig IPA. Oh, and the food at Russian River Brewing was great too. Dallas and Billy had wings, I had a salad, and we all had pizza. Good stuff.

After that we went home. Just kidding. I wouldn’t call this post “Beer! Beer! Beer!” if we only had hit up one brewery!

After Russian River Brewing, we drove down to the Lagunitas brewery & taproom. We can get Lagunitas beer in Chicago, but not all of the ones that they have at the brewery. Again, I went for the sampler (only $5!) and tried 4 beers that we can’t get in Chicago. The Lagunitas SUCKS really did suck. Think sweaty armpits. That’s what it tasted like. And The Return of Ruben and the Brett’s was super boozy. But I liked the other two.

Finally, the third “beer.” Billy had a growler of Czar Jack Imperial Stout that he cracked open to try while we were visiting. This beer is made by the Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery and is aged in Jack Daniels barrels, only we didn’t tell that to Dallas because he doesn’t like beers that are aged like that. Guess what? He liked it! Me too. It was one of my favorite beers of our visit.

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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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