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30 June Golden Gate Park and RideAnd now for the closing of my California trip travelogue:
A late night of Sushi and sake did not prevent an early morning on Sunday - we were up and ambitious as we had a big day ahead of us. I had been told in advance that I was going to 'get the opportunity' to join my sister and Chris for "Lindy in the Park" which apparently happens every Sunday in Golden Gate Park. They've been involved with Lindy Hop classes for some months now andit seems they're really getting into the scene. It's really pretty cool. Golden Gate Park is a wonderful urban park and the beautiful weather of a Sunday morning meant the park was busy: people biking, walking, running, skating, picnicking, singing, panhandling, playing. It was a busy Sunday at the park and that was really cool - I love seeing people out and about.
So... Lindy in the Park. For 30 minutes, I got to take public lessons swing dancing with about 100 new friends. It's really amazing - people just show up and start taking a lesson. As Leah put it so succinctly, it's the way that the dance teachers drum up new audiences - get 'em started for free - if they like it, they'll come to the classes. It's amazing how skilled some of the people were there - I really enjoyed watching them and their complicated dance routines -I was also amazed at how a skilled leading partner could guide the couple in their routine - it was almost as though the subtle communication between partners was enough to inform the other of what was coming next. Any good Sunday-in-the-park always involves a lot of walking and walk we did. We wandered around a neat little lake and through different events that were going on that particular Sunday - art work, statuaries, gardens, paths, bleh. Lots of stuff :)
Another plan for the day was to visit the botanical conservatory - a special exhibit on edible plants was the reason we went, but there were so many other wonderful and interesting plants that we spent 2/3rds of our time in the greenhouses checking out the well-maintained variety. A tropical area, with at least 90 degree temperature and super high humidity was filled with an impressive selection of carnivorous plants, including some 8-10 different types of pitcher plants, among others. It was unbelievably hot and uncomfortable in there (reminds me of our trip to Playa Del Carmen last year!) but the diversity of plants made enduring it more than worth it. We considered trying to take a picture with Leah's camera, but humidity was so high that all it did was fog up and get dripping wet. Hee.
Following this, we were hungry again (view, eat, walk, repeat) and decided to take trip to a local café which Chris was familiar with - cappuccinos and lattes matched with a some special baked treats (have you recognized a pattern yet?) and sitting out in the warm sun, soaking it in. Probably the closest I've done to sun bathing in a year or more. We took a long walk back though the park and spent a little while in the afternoon hanging out back at their place, knowing we had a birthday party to attend in the early evening.
One of Leah's colleagues-at-SFSU (not in her department, but a friend)'s husband, also a friend of Leah and Chris', was hosting a birthday event at his place that evening and we were to be in attendance. It was a nice party and was a great opportunity to talk with a bunch of new people. One of the themes of this particular party was the Birthday Boy's interest in photographing his guests (he's quite the photography fan). He set up an impromptu outdoor studio with backdrop and synched flashes and we each got to go up and model for the camera. It was fun to do, but got sillier and sillier as people in the party had had more to drink and, by late in the evening, it was quite the opportunity for people to express and be coaxed into their wild sides. Really.. what a creative idea for a party - and seriously if you're the birthday boy, shouldn't you get to make your guests do humiliating things? Though, to be fair, I make my guests do humiliating things even when it's not my birthday... or anyone's birthday, really.
The last day of my stay in San-Fran (I will take this opportunity to reiterate a favorite mantra: I absolutely hate city abbreviations and am generally not a fan of any abbreviations where they are optional - so... I said that for effect, I suppose) was pretty quiet. Leah and I spent a little while in Japan-town and walked around the Japanese-themed mall and restaurants and stores. It's kinda touristy Japanese, but it's also really Japanesey - a lot of the writing is in Japanese and there are many stores that definitely are catering to Japanese consumers. It was really a good backdrop for her and I sharing some additional discussion and made for nice scenery, me being the Japan-o-phile that I am.
Just before they dropped me off at the airport, we met Chris and stopped for a quick bite in The Haight (Haight-Ashbury District), where we ended up a great little taqueria. I was very glad to have half a burrito for when I got home to Seattle - I knew I had a long trip ahead. Plane flight went well and the bus went well enough (there was one scary moment where I was instructed to go the wrong direction to the bus stop and the bus passed me on its way to the stop, but I booked it and was able to make it to the bus (I mean really booked it - I regularly run, but I was positively panting from the extreme exertion that was necessary to run 1200 ft while rolling my suitcase and hoisting bags (about 80lbs total) in a way where it wouldn't lose balance).
Now you've heard the story. Hopefully more stories to come!
Incidentally, I just got done watching an episode of No Reservations (Anthony Bourdain's travel/food show) which covered the Pacific Northwest. It was really neat to see a totally different side of where I've been living. I know there's a wide variety of wonderful culinary delights here but really haven't had the means or opportunity to explore it as much as I'd like. I don't know where I'll end up in my life or what I'll be doing, but I do know that food and beverage will be a big part of whatever future that is - wonderful sensory experience that they provide: touch, taste, smell, sight, even sound, all. I posted a little album including a few pictures from our Friday hike. Also, a new album of pictures I took today while walking outside along Lake Washington in Magnusson Park.
27 June Playing HousySaturday. Another day in the life of Mr. Daniel Wingard
during his stay with his good friends and family (yes, both!) Chris and Leah in the Sanest of Franciscos!
As per discussion had the prior evening, Saturday's breakfast involved my solicitation for the delicate art of pancakery. I put
together a dry mix the night before and we worked out the product for
breakfast. The pancakes were strange - really quite unlike any pancakes I had
ever made before - they were spongy and cakey. There were some different
ingredients (hey.. you gotta make due with what's around) and a different
environment (they have this way-cool stove from the... I dunno.. Paleolithic era
which outputs enough heat to roast a truck, but is somewhat hard to
control).
After breakfast, there were some very specific house
buying duties to perform - a new place had opened up in south San Francisco and we
went down to check it out. It was a nice place - and there was a really funny
discussion between Chris and Leah as to the level of suburbanness the property
extolled. A careful distinction was drawn between 'old' or 'classical' suburban
- which was decidedly more urban in their opinion and newer suburban, which
would be wholly unacceptable. I just smiled along for the trip!
The house was generally pretty great - huge storage, interesting design,
good quality and tons of storage with an exceptional price. Apparently, it was
good enough that it really forced them to think about the level and type of
obligations that would go along with seriously purchasing a house. We talked it
over during lunch at a lovely Vietnamese place on the 'old South San Francisco
main street' - I had excellent noodles! Yum - superb broth and tasty
ingredients. And spicy enough to clean out all pores, noses, sinuses, and some
clogged gutters on neighboring buildings ;-0 It was a beautiful afternoon
really - truly perfect weather. We really enjoyed sitting outside having our
lunch, under a nice umbrella in the sun with a gentle breeze. I really remember
how it felt to sit out there - it was so nice!
In the end, they decided it simply wasn't the best time
for them to be looking for or buying a house (after having spend several months
looking, making offers, discussing options, and visiting dozens of properties).
I think it was hard for them to come to that decision, but if I think about the
situation as I saw it, it was probably the right one to come to for the time
being. We took a few hours of downtime (some of which was spent writing earlier
parts of this account) and took a great walk along the beach, continuing the
discussion and enjoying the sunset in the Sunset.
Saturday night was also a big treat: sushi! Now, if you don't know already, there is probably
nothing in this world I enjoy more than sitting back to a slow, rich, relaxing
meal that involves fresh fish, beer, and good sake. <- I felt so relaxed just
saying that. I love sushi so much it's not healthy, really. I make a point of
saving it for special occasions and when I have it, I savor every moment. This
was a wonderful meal too - wonderful selection of sashimi and some superb sake
to accompany. Truly deep, pervasive bliss. <satisfied sigh, maybe eyes
rolling gently back into my head> 26 June Not a pony. Day 3 will be delayed. I'm too tired to put it up tonight. Sorry. On the plus side, I've had a nice time reading some of my own older entries - I sure am an interesting guy, aren't I? Planning on a Tacoma trip tomorrow to visit the tea shop and buy some things. Mr. Danny desperately needs to get out of the house. Fun fact: I leaned forward while typing this and realized I could see not only 4 speakers from my surround system from the vantage, but 3 different sets of headphones (two happen to be in a currently unusable state (repair pending) and the third is actually a headset). Yeah... that and my wall is frighteningly blank and plain. Sure it's a room, but it ain't home. Creepy eggplant carpet can only get you so far (I actually made eggplant last night - roasted with sweet potatoes and onions). Night night. 24 June Hike can see you.That title is totally straight from a punchline to some elementary school joke - make one up, it's okay, I won't judge. Friday, Chris had to leave quite early to head into work, so breakfast happened nice and early (for them) - I waited a bit and just had some plain cereal with milk along with some coffee. The plan for the day was a nice long hike up in Mt. Tamalais (I think that's the name), the lovely state park located North of the Golden Gate Bridge. We knew we were in for a little trouble as when we first crossed the bridge and it started raining and a good amount of fog made sure we couldn't enjoy any views from the beautiful mountain road that lead up to the park. Either way, the road was stunning - thickly forested over, green, winding roads (I like driving and I like winding roads - but then you knew that.) I love the tall trees and rich green foliage along a twisty road - to me that's adventure. You really never know what's going to be around the next corner. Needless to say, it was a fabulous road and the thick ominous fog made it that much better. Something wonderful about the mystery of thick fog around you - you could be at the edge of a cliff or sitting in the middle of a huge green field and you never know. This reminds me of the drive I enjoyed coming up to Washington last year - if you remember those pictures of my car against the beautiful scenery covered in thick fog (see Phlargo Space, circa January 2008). The fog was that much better on the hike when we were walking on a steep hillside, covered in fog, knowing full well that were it clear the view would have been spectacular. Kinda cool, really. But I'm getting ahead of myself - the winding road brought us about 7 miles away from the the highway and it really felt nice and rural and pristine.
The terrain was somewhat arid like Southern California and started at about 2200 ft. We found the hike in a guide that my sister has about bay area hiking (I have one back home for Washington hikes that my mother bought when they came up to visit me in March) - there were two hikes in the Mt. Tamalais park that we considered, but the one we eventually decided on was rated 4/5 difficulty, ~6 miles and was supposed to take between 4-5 hours. We had a nice little pack of snacks (including that fantastic charcuterie acquired from Lucca (the Italian market) the day before - Chris doesn't do beef or pork, Leah really enjoys a fellow carnivore when I'm in town)
So, the hike: it was really awesome and we were basically alone on the trail - we saw a few others, but really only 1 or 2 during our 3.5 hours of hiking. The plants were so great (if you can't tell from my photography, I'm a big fan of natural beauty in plants and small things as much as I'm a fan of bigger, more grand things). There were literally dozens of plants out there I'd never seen before and even though I had my camera along, it was really a hiking hike, not a photography hike, so I didn't get much of a photographic record. It's almost like a collection for me - finding and remembering new shapes and sizes and colors of unique plants. I don't really care about names or relationships of plants and animals, but I absolutely adore variety and uniqueness. Even a special example can be a wonderful addition to my collection.
There were these great trees that were not only covered with moss, but they had splits down the middle so they looked they had been damaged, but it was all the trees of that type. Those tree were also interesting because their skin (under the bark which was peeling) had a very human-skin like quality - a gorgeous mahogany color and were super smooth. Another interesting part of the hike was the constant crossing of several little streams that were weaving across the trails during various declines and inclines along the mountainside. There were pretty rocks too. It was really something. On my own, despite what everyone may think, I don't think I'm a huge long-hike guy. Truthfully, I almost always end up enjoying them when someone forces me along. I find that I am more of a 1-2 hour hike person - I love the strenuous activity that a good hike can provide, but I also enjoy a slower more deliberate walk where I can take a close look at everything that I see (and take pictures). I think in my mind, there is something wonderful about paying close attention to small things - we spend so much time traveling so fast and dealing with things in larger scale that it's super easy to ignore tiny things which can be equally as magical and interesting. I'm a big fan of textures and subtle color changes.
The hike was a good challenge but not too difficult and by the end of it, the fog had really cleared up and we were able to start to enjoy the amazing view from up there.
We stopped about two-thirds of the way through our hike to have a little snack - we found a great little picnic area. Our special meats and cheeses were a wonderful reward for a good hard hike on some rustic bread and went perfectly with some fresh cherries that one of Chris's family members had given them a couple of days before I showed up. In order to enjoy the magnificent view, we decided to take an extra little drive to the top of the mountain. There's this absolutely stunning view of the bay from the top of Mt. Tam (apparently that's what the locals call it) - you can see the East Bay, the San Francisco downtown, Sausalito, and a lot of other areas around the bay, along with the coastline. It really looks like a fake model, being able to see so much from one place.
So we drove down the back side of the mountain, stopped for a little ice cream at a little roadside place and made it back to San Francisco just in time to meet Chris at home to make some homemade vegetable pizza with a whole wheat crust and four different sets of toppings (including fresh artichokes, asparagus, heirloom tomatoes, local sweet onions, heirloom garlic, and sautéed shitake mushrooms). I must be careful again not to neglect the delicious little appetizers my sis put together: rustic Russian farmer's cheese with a spicy Bulgarian red-pepper tapenade on some whole rye crisps along with one of Chris's excellent martinis (gin, of course) each. For dinner, it was German and Thai beers to start and followed with a lovely red wine. Needless to say, by the time it was time for bed, I was feeling pretty giddy and we were all a little silly.
Stay tuned - tomorrow's exposition will also clock in at 440 Hz. 23 June "Mission" accomplished. Okay okay, you all win. I give in. I can't take it any more. Email after bloody email. Text messages on my phone. Peculiar packages at my doorstep. I get it, you want me to write something. Here's the good news: I've already finished cataloging the whole trip. Here's the even better news. You don't have to read it all now! I decided daily installments were a better choice. I hate being responsible for people falling asleep at their computers, even when I can take pride in that it was my writing that accomplished it. Buh. San Francisco. So after I finished with the Southern California crew, Mom dropped me off at the airport on Wednesday evening. I didn't get in to SFO until after 11:00 as my plane was a little delayed (apparently we had to do some extra loops around central California to avoid airport congestion). Leah and Chris were, of course, waiting patiently for me at the airport. We drove home and basically went to bed. The night ended up being pretty short: the loud
municipal light rail goes right by their front door and morning came awful quick as it rumbled by starting about 5:30, waking me
bright and early.
For those who don't happen to know, my sister, Leah, is a professor of communication studies
at SFSU, so she was off for the time I was there (it turned out she was teaching a
summer school class starting the follow week). Her husband, Chris, is a
post-doc researcher at a medical research company down in Palo Alto. Since he was able to take Thursday off, we could enjoy a day out together.
After cooking a lovely breakfast (they like to cook as much or more than I do, so we tend to eat pretty well when
I'm or they're visiting), we drove to the top of Twin Peaks and enjoyed a clear
view of the city and the bay. The weather was generally warm and mostly clear during my trip. I remember how the sun and wind really felt great on top of the hills. The view up there is quite nice. We talked about some of the areas we might go during the day and during my stay and tried to figure out what various landmarks were looking at from the high vantage.
We spent several nice hours Thursday in the Mission and it was really chocked-full of experiences. Chris had an interest in seeing the mission (apparently the oldest building in San Francisco) and we scored a sweet parking place nearby, right in front of Dolores park. They wanted $5 entrance for the mission, so we sent Chris in as a scout to determine if it was worth while to follow suit (I've been to a lot of missions and I suspected it didn't look all that different). Leah and I sat on the steps to the church and talked for a nice while, watching the busy Dolores street action pass us by. We talked about the uncertainty in my life and the potential for the same in Chris's and the choices I was considering in terms of how to proceed. We both noticed while we were sitting how many people came by to capture pictures of the location - as though it were some special tourist destination. It really was just a mission, but I guess for some that's pretty important. We talked about how some people collect monuments and sights with pictures - like it was a measure of being well-travelled to have a variety of pictures from around your state or around the world (depending on exactly how well travelled you purport to be). People in cities seem to go around finding the things they think they should have pictures of - maybe because they're the things that are featured in magazines or in movies. I guess considering how I look at things, I wonder if they intrinsically more interesting or unique than anything else? Some of them are, sure.. but most are just arbitrary favorites (in my opinion). I've personally grabbed on to the model that beauty and novelty can be found and appreciated in anything and it's my job to dig it out. Oh, sorry about the little tangent there.
Chris returned fairly soon after with his review (of the mission that is: there wasn't that much to see, even though the cemetery was kinda cool and the stained glass in the chapel was quite impressive (his review)). We snuck a side glance at the cemetery through the wire fence along the side and talked about the gravestones and plant layout. Rich. Okay. The good stuff. There's this fantastic café/pastry shop called Tartine here - a wonderful almond
croissant, Mexican wedding cookies, and a 'three cheese taster sandwich' along
with a cup of coffee (shared) were 'accomplished' in short order. Now I'm a self-described baked-goods
fan. I seek out specialty bakeries everywhere and I've got a collection of favorite bakeries in most major cities I've been to around the country. In fact, I think I've developed a pretty good eye for the top stuff and Tartine was
no slouch: coarsely ground almond paste (with none of the alcohols that are
typically used to preserve almond extract that are often added to cheap
almond-based pastries, not too sweet or overwhelming, perfectly flakey layers
with gobs of buttery goodness. It may take the #1 or #2 spot on my almond
croissant ranking system, which is definitely saying something. The cheese
sandwich was delightful as well - superb cheeses (I'm a huge cheese fan!!) from
three different regions (the Spanish cheese was particularly enjoyable - I'm a
big fan of the dry, grainy Spanish cheese - few curds beat a good iberico or
manchego), rich homemade rustic loaf bread, no doubt soaked in butter and
panini-pressed. It was a day's worth of saturated fat and truly delicious. I
can't provide nearly as rich a commentary on quality of the wedding cookies - I've only been to
three weddings in my day and none have served Mexican wedding cookies (go
figure.) Sure I've had them on various occasions in the past, but my
experience is limited. I will say the cookie part was fine-grained and light
with that nutty consistency I associate with that type of cookie. I think the
powdered sugar on the outside might have been a little heavier than it needed to
be as it managed to coat a decent section of the table Chris so astutely saw and
grabbed as it opened up (this place was packed). I don't mind a light dusting
of confectioners sugar on occasion, but it was a bit much. All in all, a solid A- effort from
Tartine - I'd not only go back myself, but I'd take others too.
We walked by lots of junky shops with plasticky trinkets
and Leah was enticed, nay enthralled, by a particular shop and we ended up walking in this shop
filled with a very odd collection of cheap imported goods and unusual
novelties. I usually avoid plasticky things of all sorts (well most sorts), but specifically
those crafted from cheap foreign labor where I can, as I believe it fosters an
unhealthy attitude about consumerism and the global economy and this place was
absolutely full of them, to excess. Even still, we couldn't help but wander around and
marvel at the strange and wonderful things that plastic and unusual creativity
can provide: fake laptop computers (with artfully redesigned logos from popular programs as to avoid copyright infringment (Mycrosift Werf), virgin mary clocks with dancing LEDs,
incredibly cheap sandals. Basically more junk than anyone needs... anywhere.
One important stop in The Mission was Ritual Coffee Roasters to buy a special little coffee gift for Chris's Mom. As you all probably remember, I'm quite the coffee fan and this too was a choice destination - great roasted beans, excellent coffee ethic, nice environment = winning combo. We ordered a drink called "Gibraltar" which was a small shot-glass-style-glass (a gibraltar, if you will) with two shots of espresso and a light layer of steamed milk - it was really like a 5 ounce double latte. It was executed superbly - a really wonderful balance of sweet rich foamy milk and a superb espresso pull. It brought out the subtleties of the crema and body of the espresso and the small amount of milk permitted a little more longevity (usually espresso can't stand alone for more than 30 seconds to a minute without getting bitter... but then you knew that). There was also a cool paper/publishing shop, an Italian specialty foods store with numerous sausages (samples and small quantities of several of these were brought back home for later eatings - more on this from Friday's hiking report. It was a full experience! After an interlude looking at a prospective house (Chris and Leah were actively house-shopping) right near where
they are in the Sunset district, early evening included a walk along the beach,
followed by a homemade dinner of assorted sautéed vegetables (I think there were
three separate dishes, as is usually the case here) and vegetable and chicken
potstickers. And we can't ignore the special appetizers Leah put together
beforehand - delicious locally hot-smoked salmon from a favorite Russian market
they like with a special melon variety and some hard rye crackers with a little
sauvignon blanc. Delicious.
Can you tell that food might be a focus
here? Enough for now. More bites later. 20 June Update Coming Soon - I promiseThe story of my trip is almost readied - I just need to do some editing and formatting and I'll be posting about San Francisco within the next few days. Hang in their, faithful. Expect segments - there's a fair amount of it.
-The Managment 03 June Halfway through Most of the people who read this already know where I am. For those who don't, I've taken a trip down to Southern California for a little over a week to enjoy a special event. My good friends Kara and Jason got married on Sunday and I had the pleasure of being invited and involved in the wedding. The surrounding days have been chock-full of spending time with my friends down here: dinners, outings, parties, and more! It's been pretty nuts, really and I've had a total blast. It's so great to come back to all your friends when you've been away and remember how much fun you have together and really the contrast is even more stark given my current situation back home. I flew in late Wednesday night and was picked up by my sister down at LAX. Thursday evening was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner with Kara and Jason's families with the 'wedding party' (this is a new phrase in my vocabulary and I'm still grasping the meaning). It was a wonderful dinner at Leila's in Oak Park hosted by Jason's mom, Lynn and her husband Dave. It was really a great time with lots of delicious food (and wine) - and since I had my camera along, I took a number of pictures of people there (they have been posted). Friday was a little Bachelor event for Jason before his day of reckoning: a trip to Magic Mountain with the guys followed by dinner in Burbank and some drinks. It was a late night as I think i finally tumbled into bed around 4:45. Saturday was an early morning (relatively - Leah brought bagels from Western Bagel and Mom brought fresh strawberries - how the hell could I sleep?). In the early afternoon I got together with MS and Jason for a little trip around Somis and the Santa Paula Valley to take some pictures and enjoy the scenery. Saturday evening was a really nice dinner with Mom, Joe, Leah, and myself of barbecued chicken and sirloin steaks. Yum. Sunday was the wedding day and it started out with saying goodbye to Leah (she drove back up to her Northern Californian locale) with a breakfast out at Country Harvest. Jason came over about 2:30 and sat and chatted for a bit and then he and I head off to the big event, after donning our fancy tuxedos and contemplating an impromptu trip to Argentina. Wedding ceremony was.. a wedding ceremony. I mean, the lot of us will certainly enjoy some inside humor based on the somewhat odd decisions in the officiant's copy but it was generally very nice. The reception was pretty awesome - very good food (Mom said it was some of the best catered food she'd ever had), wine, dancing, and lots of happy people. I took a lot of pictures on Jason's camera (he said he'd try and post them soon - but it means I don't have them). Even though I was really tired from the aggregate lack of sleep, I had a lot of fun dancing with Jon and David and Kim and Kara and others. The dancing and reception died down around 10:00 and I drove back to Jason's place with Jason and got to sit with Jason and Kara and talk about the wedding and open wedding gifts. It was fun :) Monday was a really lazy day and I slept in until at least 11:00. I met with Jason in the afternoon so we could return our tuxes and pick up Kara's car and then Jason took Mom, Kara, and I out for a nice dinner of excellent Mexican food and talk at Yolanda's in Camarillo and some coffee back home afterwords. Tuesday night, we had a nice dinner with Michael-Scott and Ginger, Kara and Jason, and Joe and my mom of wild Copper River salmon and lots of other goodies. It was really wonderful to get to spend time with everyone. I'm glad I have such nice friends and am really appreciative that we enjoy each others' company so much. It's nice to come back home! So what's next? Tonight I start the second phase of my trip - I'm flying up to San Francisco to spend another week with Leah and Chris - which should be a ton of fun! I'll be heading back to Seattle and my job search on the 8th (I've been doing a limited job search down here too). I've posted several photo albums in the last month - so check 'em out if you haven't already - there are some nice outdoor pictures of flowers and of little drives I've taken. |
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