The best food from our Alaska trip

I have 800+ photos from Alaska, so, I have no idea when I’ll get through them all. However, I did want to start by showcasing some of the amazing food we had on this trip. Not all the cruise food was excellent, but, a lot of it was above and beyond anything we could have expected. Our best meals, however, were the Alaskan King Crab from Tracy’s Crab Shack and the Smoked Salmon that we randomly got during our kayaking trip inKetchikan.

Smoked Salmon eaten on crackers with cucumber, capers, and cream cheese at the end of our kayaking trip in Ketchikan.

The salmon plate

Brunch at "The Fish House" in Vancouver. I had a crab omelette. My favorite part were my buttery potatoes.

Kevin's corn flake encrusted french toast at the Fish House

Huge, and I mean HUGE Alaskan King Crab legs. For only $20, Kevin and I shared three small crab cakes, crab bisque and one of these beautiful crab legs in Juneau.

The leg is bigger than my face!

CRUISE FOOD:

Beet and Goat Cheese Appetizer

Baked Alaska Dessert (which I must admit to having about 4 times in various flavors)

Lobster on formal dress night!

Dessert of white chocolate surrounding chocolate mouse, a brownie and “macerated” berries

Brie with brown sugar and berries wrapped in Philo

Kevin's beef tenderloin entree on our last night.

Would you believe that both Kevin and I didn’t gain any weight on this cruise? We tried to restrain our eating to the times when there was GOOD food. And, there was a good amount of it.

Back from cruising Alaska

Kevin and I arrived late last night at the San Francisco from a week cruising Alaska that started in Vancouver last Sunday.  I was hoping to upload pictures to my blog and chronicle our daily adventures for the one or two of you who actually follow me. However, there was no free internet on the Holland America ship. Instead, they had internet access for 0.75/minute. Ah!!! Therefore, Kevin’s new netbook that both of us hoped to use on the trip never left his back pack.

Since, I don’t want to bore you with pages and pages detailing each of our seven days, I’ll bring up the highlights.

Day 1-2: Vancouver

1) We walked along the sea wall. This really displayed how beautiful Vancouver was. We saw some new buildings that were built for the 2010 Winter Olympics and watched the float planes and ships along the various marinas.

2) We ate brunch at the “Fish House” near Stanley Park. I highly recommend this place. I found it as one of the top 3 places on tripadvisor. But, I was a little scared seeing how they showed it on tourist maps. I thought it would be a cheesy tourist trap, but, it ended up being a very pleasnt restaurant where we didn’t have to wait to get a seat outside overlooking the park. The apple muffins and the rest of our food were delicious. (Average dish price was only about $10-15).

3) We had dinner with Kevin’s mom and her husband at a Gastro Pub near Gastown. Again, this area has tons of tourists, but, this pub, “The Irish Heather” was recommended in a book that Phil had. It was delicious! Kevin and I shared a salad with candied ginger and poached pears and a unique grilled cheese sandwich.

4) On Sunday, we toured Vancouver for 3 hours in a bus. The driver was a native and did an entertaining narration of the city. We had excellent chinese pastries in Chinatown. Again, the Chinatown is a bit of a tourist trap, but, this bakery was fantastic! We also went all around Stanley Park and took in the beautiful views.

5) Once we boarded the ship, we were really happy with the size of our room with a view. We expected it to be much smaller, but, it was really nice and included an area with a couch, small table and TV.

Day 3 – Sailing on the high seas from Vancouver to Alaska.

1) This was a full day on the water. We tried to discover all there was to do on the cruise by taking a very bad yoga class (:p), attending a mediocre class on the health benefits of tea. However, we did enjoy some down time of just reading our books and planning for our adventures in the upcoming port cities.

Day 4 – Ketchikan

1) We went kayaking with SouthEast Sea Kayaks. Again, I got them as a recommendation from tripadvisor and it was loads of fun.

2) On our trip (of only 2 other people and our guide), we saw sea stars, clams, crabs, mussels, bald eagles, a seal (just a foot from our kayak) and some other jellyfish and birds.

3) I had my first taste of fillet smoked salmon that we snacked on with cream cheese, crackers and capers. This was one of the tastiest things of the entire trip. I’ll remember the meal forever! Seriously! We ended up buying several jars of smoked salmon fillets. I hope they are close to as good as the fillets we had on the kayak trip.

Day 5 – Juneau

1) We went on a whale watching tour with Orca Enterprises. I wanted to get on a tour with “Harv and Marv” who was recommended by our Ketchikan Kayak guide, but, they were full for the day   We saw lots of humpback whales on this trip. However, the nature guide’s sour attitude sort of ruined my impressions of this adventure. I would probably have chosen to do something else that day.

2) We took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier. Our guide, Sonny, was fantastic! He is an Alaska native from the Tlinket tribe. We were also amazed at the beauty of the glacier and the HUGE waterfall that came down next to it. I’m not sure I’ve seen such a powerful waterfall before. We also heard the glacier caving, which was pretty neat.

3) We had our best meal of the trip at Tracy’s King Crab Shack which I would recommend to everyone going to Juneau. It is just a small stall with some plastic seats set up next to it. But, for $20, Kevin and I shared a bowl of crab bisque, a couple of small crab cakes and a huge king crab leg. It was so delicious. I had no idea crab could be so good. Kevin’s mom also agreed that this was our best meal of the trip. Three of us ended up buying more of the bisque because it was so delicious. Each crab leg as at least a foot long. I’ve got photos to prove it!

2) That evening, we watched a Filipino Crew Show on the boat. The crew of the boat is 50% filipino and they ended up putting together a cultural dance show that I thought was great. It was great to see some of your waiters, front desk staff, and bartenders showing off their singing and dancing talents.

Day 6) Skagway

1) We took the historic train up through the “White Pass”. This is pretty much what everyone does in Skagway. Lucky for us, the day was beautiful and sunny. So, I think my pictures will be great. The scenery was stupendous.

2) We spent the evening listening to Piano Man James who Phil had discovered a few nights before. He was a great entertainer and could play almost anything you requested on his piano.

Day 7 – Glacier Bay

1) The boat drove into Glacier Bay which was freezing, but, absolutely beautiful. We spent most of the morning taking in the view and looking for wildlife. The tour through Glacier Bay was narrated by a park ranger. This was great. He often pointed out wildlife like sea otters, puffin birds and seal.

2) We also attended a talk from a native Tlinket. He gave background on their culture and history in that area. This was one of the best programs of the cruise.

Day 8 – Sailing to Anchorage and College Fjord.

1) Most of this day was uneventful. It was a sea day. Kevin did a 5K walk with his mom to support the Susan B. Komen foundation. I thought this was great for the boat to promote this. I went to a fun towel folding workshop taught by some of our room stewards who had been leaving us towel animal creations throughout the cruise.

2) The chef’s dinner that final night was very fun. The staff at the dining room sang and did some dances while presenting our food. It was a really fun experience that I haven’t done while dining. The food was also really good. I took pictures of everything!

Throughout the trip, Holland America did a great job. Other than missed room service once and the poor fitness classes, we loved the experience! The crew which is about 1 for every 2 passengers is amazing. We got to know quite a few of them including our waiter, Jay, our wine stewards, Elmer and Charlie, the woman at the coffee stand and the Ocean Bar, Daye, as well as our room attendants Rio and Buddy. They were all top notch. Kevin and I came back relaxed and with great memories.

Off to Alaska!

We’re off to Alaska for a cruise! We fly to Vancouver, then, head to Ketchikan, Skagway and Juneau! I’ll try to blog or post pictures during our trip.

Playing tourist on Father’s Day

Last Sunday was Father’s Day and my parents came up to visit for the weekend. After trying to think of the best things to do with them, I finally just asked my mom what she wanted to do. What she and my dad really wanted was just to eat clam chowder in bread bowls and crabs down in Fisherman’s Wharf! This is definitely one of the most touristy things you can do in San Francisco. But, I guess its somehow popular because people love to do it… over and over again. My parents do this every time they come and visit us.

So, on Sunday morning, we went down to the Wharf (which is only a 15 min. walk from our apt.) and my parents ordered up an array of crab, clam chowder and calamari for all of us. The bad thing is that if you order from the sidewalk vendors, you have few choices on places to sit. If you eat in a restaurant, you’ll be paying a premium for seafood that may not be as fresh. Anyways, we did the sidewalk vendors and I found a large cement block that we sat on to eat. Some benches would have been nicer, but, we all seemed to enjoy ourselves anyways. I love crab, so, this was great. The clam chowder is not that great though, in my opinion. There was hardly any clams in it. It is just a creamy mess where you occasionally find a potato, piece of celery and a clam part (if you are lucky).

I actually had the best clam chowder that I’ve ever eaten last Tuesday at the Hog Island Oyster Company. Here, you just get a seafood broth and a bunch of clams (still in the shells), so, you really taste the clam. The broth isn’t thick, so, it doesn’t really feel like a heavy chowder.

Anyways, after our feast on the wharf, we walked down to look at the sea lions that my parents had never seen on all their visits to our city. I always find this fun. Apparently, the male sea lions grow to as much as 800 lbs! The females only get up to 300 lbs.

At 3:00 PM, we took them on Mr. Toad’s Tour of the city. This is a tour on an antique car that takes you through various parts of the city including North Beach, Pacific Heights, the Presidio and right next to the GG Bridge. This was pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn as much city history as I had hoped. My parents seemed to enjoy it though. Their favorite part was the drive through the multi-million dollar homes in Pacific Heights where the likes of Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi and Larry Ellison all own homes.

Finally, to end the day, we took them to our favorite pizza in the city, Little Star Pizza. Its Chicago style pizza which my parents have never tried. They really enjoyed it! My dad also liked that it seemed like a good value   All in all…this was a very successful visit!

Midnight Yoga

Last Friday, Kevin and I decided to try something a bit new. We went to a two hour yoga class at “Laughing Lotus” in the Mission district from 10 PM – midnight. Normally, I am getting into my pajamas by 10 and asleep by midnight, but, we thought we’d see what this scene was like. The teacher was someone that I had taken before at our gym. I liked her. She wasn’t my favorite instructor, but, I definitely learned a couple of new techniques from her.

The class had about 20 people and was pretty interesting. It was a beautiful, dark space with a live band playing during our yoga. There was a little more singing then usual, but, I sort of enjoyed this on a Friday night. On a normal weeknight, I’d probably prefer to skip the singing to save time. But, here, I enjoyed it. Most of the yoga was pretty standard. We did do a “Bird of Paradise” move that I had heard about, but, never tried, so, that was fun. Here is a demonstration of the Bird of Paradise:

I couldn’t pull this off with a straight leg, but, at least I was able to get my leg up in the air along with the arm bind.

We also practiced some poses like Firefly and handstands which Kevin enjoyed. He’s really into the strength moves/arm balances which I’m usually not good at. But, he seems to be able to do them after a few tries.

By the end of the two hours, the time seemed to fly by, which was a nice feeling. We felt great afterwards and has some tea and animal crackers along with the other yogis.

On Saturday morning at 9 AM, we ended up going to another yoga class, “Forest Yoga”, at Aha Yoga, a studio that Kevin went to the previous week. This class was really great. It was challenging, hot and sweaty, but, the flow of it was really good.

Yes… two yoga classes with 9 hours. That’s what happens when Kevin gets obsessed with something… But, I’m thinking being obsessed with fitness is a good thing. Other obsessions could be a lot worse.

Many Milestones – weddings, babies, houses and graduations!

I’ve been absent from my personal blog for quite a while now. I think its because I’ve been doing a lot of work related activities (including my first speaking engagements … woo hoo!) as well as keeping up with all of our friends’ milestones. Here are just a few things we helped people celebrate:

1. Our friends Josh and Libby got married in May, so, we attended the rehearsal dinner and wedding in Cupertino!

2. Kevin and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary! We dined at Absinthe in SF and had a grand time sipping their cocktails and munching on some of the best fries in the city.  We both agree that anniversaries should be celebrated in a more festive way than birthdays. You’ll have a birthday no matter what…but, you have to really work for the the anniversaries

3. Our friends Ellis and Barbara had a baby girl, Zara! Yay! We visited them last weekend and hopefully brought over a small bit of relief for the tired parents.

4. Our friend Amy got her PsyD after five years in graduate school! We went to dinner with a couple of her friends and her parents last night at Le Colonial. To think that we knew her when she was still wondering what she was going to do with her life…. now, five years of grad school are done! Unfortunately, we’ve lost her to NY.

5.  We started looking for a house again. Ok, you never know how serious we are about buying since we always seem to be looking for a house. But, we have several friends who have bought recently and the lower mortgage rates seemed to have us thinking again…

Here are a couple of the houses that we really liked from this weekend. Unfortunately, we didn’t think either of them were a good enough deal to make us take a plunge. They were quite lovely though.

239 Duncan St.

60 Buena Vista Place

I think life is finally slowing down a little bit. My work is less hectic and we are off on a vacation to Alaska in a couple of weeks!

Speaking at Flex 360 in Indianapolis

May is one busy, busy month. I don’t write on my personal blog about work very much because… hey…. I have a work blog too. But, work seems to be the main driving force in May. We are running on empty at work preparing for a public Beta that is coming up in June. Plus, in the next 20 mins I’m leaving for the airport to head to Indianapolis for a Flex conference where I’m doing my first big presentation. Ahhh! Luckily, I’m not doing it alone. I’ll be doing a presentation on Custom Itemrenderers (very, very exciting) with my co-worker Ryan. We are getting in late Sat. night so that we are available on Sunday for a full day event called a “Bugquash” where customers will come join us at the Crown Plaza in Indy to fix bugs in our product. It will be a long day from 10 AM – 7 PM. Then, the conference starts on Monday…. that is when our presentation is. I’ve also signed up to do a quick 15 min. talk at Flash Camp on May 29. Unfortunately, I got stuck doing the last presentation at 9:30 PM. With free beer at this Friday night event, I’m not sure who will be coherent enough to pay attention to my preso! Oh well… its less pressure, I suppose.

Last weekend, we were in Chicago for a wedding, next weekend is another wedding here in the bay area… May is just going to fly by!!  Plus, I turned 32 in all this madness. Alright, I’m off to the airport!

Feeling great…until the soreness sets in

Kevin’s current obsession is working out. For the past two months, he’s been trying yoga classes and various ultimate conditioning classes. He actually belongs to three gyms, at the moment. That’s right… THREE. He belongs to the Apple gym, Crunch gym (that I belong to) and 24 HR fitness which he hasn’t been to in years, but, has not been able to give up a $50/year membership.

This morning, we got up around 6:00 AM for a 7:00 AM ultimate conditioning class. I was really scared about this class, actually. Kevin went to it last week and said it was the hardest class that he’s taken. But, he was still going back because the teacher was awesome. So, this week, I sucked it up and decided to try the class. I was surprisingly resilient through the class. Taz, the instructor even gave me a compliment once.   Don’t get me wrong, I was dying when we were doing push-ups on the bosu ball and going through a series of burpies¹. But, I really did feel great after the class. Taz played 90’s hip-hop and made tons of jokes. For 7:00 AM on a Monday morning, you have to be pretty great to get a room of 16 people smiling while they are working their abdominal muscles. Taz did it! I’ll be back next Monday.

¹ burpie: To experience a burpie,start off with feet together in a wide bent over hands on the ground position, kick your legs back behind you,(so it looks like you are going to do a push up), being them back forward to your starting position, then stand up, jump and reach for the sky. Repeat

Walking in other people’s sweat

A week ago, Kevin and I took a 2 hour beginner’s yoga workshop with Janet Stone at Yoga Tree. This teacher apparently has quite the following. She has DVDs, retreats, t-shirts and teaches others how to be yoga teachers. Our class had only about 15 people (probably because it was such a beautiful day outside). This was a nice size because she was able to provide instructions and give feedback on our poses.

On Friday, we decided to go to one of her classes for all levels. We met another friend there for the 6:15 PM Friday class. I figured that a Friday couldn’t be that crowded. People would much rather be at happy hour on a Friday… not yoga, right? Boy was I wrong, this class had about 100+ people. We have this number because there were at least 10 people per row and about 10 rows. The yoga mats layed out were no more than 5-6 inches apart from each other. This was quite the scene. There were some highly experienced yogis doing all sorts of crazy moves like hand stands, heads stands that jumped to back bends, and a lot of people seemed to be meeting other friends there.  The class started with some VERY loud “Om” chants and moved on through a series of flow yoga. I didn’t actually find the practice to be too physically challenging, however, the room was so hot that everyone was sweating so much and it was hard to breathe at times. On certain poses, you were also on your neighbors mat or staring straight at their butt from behind. At least once, we smelled someone with gas added to the smell of body odor and sweat…. The practice ended with a chant sang by the teacher. Her voice was amazing, actually. But, what was more amazing was that she had the crowd join her in a three part harmony of a chant. This was very impressive. I thought it sounded great.

Once the class was over about 1.5 hours later, I was pretty glad to get out of the room. I was walking around the room bare foot and noticed that I kept walking in pools of other people’s sweat…. ugh. It was pretty gross, but, I’m actually still glad that I went for the unique experience. Kevin also realized why most men in the class had gone shirt-less. His shirt looked like he’d just come in from some pouring rain. This was a different world from my typical gym yoga practice which I returned to today.

Positive News Stories

Most of the news is filled with tragedy, bad economic news or the newest ponze scheme, but, today, I heard two very news stories that really made me smile.

#1 President Obama signed into law the bill that I wrote about in an earlier post called the “Serve America Act”. The bill will fund Americorps, tripling its size over the next eight years. The bill also provides ways for senior citizens and high school students to give back to their community for very small education grants.

I actually can’t believe that there were so many people in Congress (mostly, if not all, Republicans) who voted against this bill. The bill is perfect for our bad economic times. It gives opportunities to new college graduates who are looking at a very dismal job market. Plus, it will give us cheap labor all across America! The amount of money spent for the work that these volunteers do is equivalent to paying someone less than minimum wage… for often very skilled jobs.

There is still one bill waiting for Congress’s approval. This is the “Incentive to Serve Tax Act” giving companies tax breaks for allowing employees to volunteer their time. I could personally be affected by this one, so, I REALLY hope it passes. If it does, I’m going to try and push Adobe to give us some “Volunteer Days” as an official benefit.

#2 The second piece of news that I enjoyed today was the clip from last Sunday’s Miss America pageant. Apparently, Miss California was asked by judge Perez Hilton how she felt about gay marriage. She stumbled on her answer eventually saying that she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. The b*tch lost and a lot of people think it is because of the way she answered that question. If someone actually lost Miss America because they came out against gay marriage, then, we’ve come a long way in America. And…this makes me proud!

In case any of you missed it, here is the video: