Coast to coast travel in October

As October began, I knew it would be a crazy, busy month. It started with my trip to LA for Adobe’s yearly MAX conference from Oct. 4-7. Including this year, I’ve now been to the conference five times, however, I usually am just attending or acting as a teacher’s assistant for one or two labs. This year, I was asked to speak. Oh my! I was pretty scared to do this talk on my own. I did a talk earlier this year with my coworker to a smaller audience which went well, but, I wasn’t sure if I could pull this off on my own. But, seeing as few people were asked to speak, I felt that it was an honor and a challenge that would help me with career growth. Plus, there are so few women who speak at any developer conference, so, I always feel this nagging thought that I need to step up and act as a role model for more women to get involved in our developer communities. Anyways, the talk which was on moving from version 3 to version 4 of my product, Adobe Flex went really well. I gave the talk twice and it was definitely smoother the second time. I also did an online interview with a tech website about the same subject. The interview should be released sometime early next year… very strange to have a camera video taping me. By the end of the conference, I was exhausted. I returned home on Wednesday, took a day of rest on Thursday and then returned to work Friday.

That next Saturday, I flew off to New York to visit some friends since Adobe has this entire week off (another forced shut down). I was hoping this would be a really relaxing vacation, but, I am not sure I was all that relaxed although I did REALLY enjoy running with my buddy in Central Park and sitting around Bryant park listening to music and reading my book. But, I think that all this travel and sleeping on couches for four nights had me really exhausted. I was glad to return home to SF and just get stuff done around the house. Yesterday, I folded 8 loads of laundry. Yes… eight! Kevin and I have obviously fallen behind, so, he did four loads right before I came back and then four more yesterday. My job is to fold it all. While I was really tired afterwards, its great to see the bottom of the laundry hamper!

Now that I’ve been home for less than 48 hours, another big event is coming. My 10 year college reunion is tomorrow. So, friends arrive today! We’ve got three friends sleeping in our living room and then we will all be down in Santa Clara tomorrow night for some receptions on campus, a visit to our old watering hole, maybe mass and then a big reunion party. It should be a lot of fun. I’m not sure how I’ll pick myself up to return to work on Monday

A summer celebration

Kevin and I have a list of goals to accomplish in 2009. We come up with these lists every year. I think we just love checking things off lists. So, #14 on this list was to throw a party with more than just my co-workers. The last party at our house was a holiday party in December that I threw for work. So, we haven’t really had friends over for nine months now! So, yesterday, we had about 25 people over for food and karaoke.

I was a bit ambitious with the menu. I planned on making individual Mac N Cheese cups, cantaloupe salsa, bacon wrapped hot dogs, asian cole slaw, watermelon lemondade, sangria and crackers with Alaskan smoked salmon, cream cheese, cucumbers and capers.  Unfortunately, a couple of those items (the Mac N Cheese and the salmon crackers) never happened. I even have all the ingredients for the smoked salmon cracker concoctions. Oh well! In my rush of shopping and cooking for the past two days, I didn’t even take any food pictures (one of my favorite things to do). The asian coleslaw and cantaloupe salsa were particularly beautiful with their variety in colors. The cantaloupe salsa was made from a recipe off of smittenkitchen (again!) while the asian coleslaw was a recipe from a Food and Wine cookbook that someone left in our laundry room with a “Free” sign.   Some else’s garbage is my treasure, I suppose.

Friends brought some yummy desserts including Rodney and John’s Rice Pudding, Ryan’s Flourless Chocolate Cake (sorry, i don’t actually like chocolate cake, but, others LOVED it), and Joann’s cream puffs which Kevin continued to rave about this morning. Other folks brought wine, beer and salami!

Overall, we got a few folks singing including our youngest ever singer: Mr. Rex Hall (under 1 year old). He’ll probably be a star someday!

Channeling my inner Julia Child

Last weekend we watched “Julie & Julia” at the theatre. The first time Kevin saw the movie preview, he knew that this would be right up my alley. And… well…. it was. I loved this movie. Watching all of the food and the scenes in New York and Paris (two of my favorite cities) was a lot of fun! I never liked Julia Child very much, but, the movie gave me a new respect for her. The movie also inspired me to do a bit of baking and cooking over the weekend. So, I went to my favorite food blog “smitten kitchen” (also written by a female cook in New York who previously had no dishwasher, just like Julie Powell, in the movie) and I picked out some blueberry bars and a pizza to make for Sunday dinner.

I shopped at the Saturday Ferry Building Farmer’s Market to get the freshest blueberries, but, unfortunately, they aren’t in season anymore with the local farms. Instead, I decided to substitute blackberries. I also substituted the fresh lemon and lemon zest in the recipe for some lemon extract that our friends Sara and Steve gifted us with, years ago. I am always worried when substituting during baking, but, in this instance, the Blackberry Bars turned out phenominal. Here are a couple of fun pictures:

Blackberries and the butter, lemon crumble mixture

The finished product, just out of the oven

Blackberry Bars

After all of this baking, I didn’t think I’d have the energy for making dinner, but, I did it anyways. I had already purchased ingredients for a provolone, grilled eggplant and olive pizza, so, I made it. It was pretty easy. I just grilled the eggplant on a grill pan with garlic and olive oil. Then, I topped the pizza with the eggplant along with provolone cheese, green olives and some parsley.

Grilled eggplant and provolone pizza (before the oven)

Dinner! (not the best photo)

This pizza ended up being enough for three meals. However, we couldn’t keep the blackberry bars at home with us for long without finishing the tray, so, I brought the majority of them to work where they were devoured within a couple of hours.

So, thank you Julie Powell and Julia Child, for a little bit of inspiration and to Deb (of Smitten Kitchen) for the wonderful recipes.

Fun Surprises at the Symphony!

On Tuesday night, Kevin told me not to make plans on Wednesday. I asked, “Why? What are we doing?”… he wouldn’t say. Apparently, there was a surprise in store for me… fun! On Wednesday morning, he tells me that we need to dress nicer than jeans. Hmm…. that is not my usual weekday uniform for work. But, I found my one pair of black slacks and a nice shirt and was ready to go. I figured we were going to dinner somewhere nice after a couple of stressful weeks. Then, at around 6 PM, Kevin called to say he’d come and pick me up from work around 7 and I should find something quick for us to eat. So, we weren’t going out to eat after all. We must be going to a show. I thought maybe we’d be going to the theatre… maybe the symphony, ballet or opera? Well, after a short dinner at the burger joint near my work, we were off toward Civic Center. So, we were going to either Herbst Theatre, the Symphony or the Opera. We ended up following the crowd to the symphony, but, even when we were already inside, I had no idea what we were watching. I saw a poster for the comedian Kathy Griffen… maybe we were watching her.

Finally, I saw someone carrying a program for Diana Krall. We were seeing Diana Krall the vocalist and pianist that I love! I have to admit, I had a couple of tears in my eyes, I was so excited. I have every one of her albums except the most recent one. Wow! I’ve wanted to see her for years, but, she rarely comes to the bay area and when she did it was ridiculously expensive.  Anyways, I found out that Kevin got these tickets from iTunes. Someone offered them up at work, so, we weren’t even paying a dime for them. When we finally found our seats, we found ourselves sitting 7th row center in the orchestra. Oh my god!!! We have never had such good seats to any show. It was quite phenominal. Diana Krall played and sang for about two hours with a bass player, drummer, electric guitarist and occasionally the SF symphony that sat behind the main performers. So, not only did I see Diana Krall, but, the SF Symphony! It was a great night!

This absolutely beat the major events of the past couple of weeks which included finding a house we loved, bidding on it and getting out bid… AGAIN! There were seven bids. Who would have thought that the housing market was still so strong in SF. Anyways, we also got some bad news about the Volvo which apparently is leaking oil over the transmission and timing belt ($$$). So, I guess this is a good time to think about a new car to replace one or both of our cars. Unfortunatly, the good ole LAFF mobile is not a clunker. It gets 21 mph instead of the required 18. :p

Trip to Angel Island

Kevin and I have a list of goals to do this year… we haven’t made too much head way on the list, but, one of them (pulled over from last year’s list) was to visit Angel Island. We finally did it last weekend after only 7+ years of living in SF. We took the Blue and Gold Ferry to Tiburon and then Angel Island. Then, we hiked around the island visiting the immigration station which was the Ellis Island of the West. Here are some photos from the trip.

That US Weekly subscription was no help

Yesterday we spent the evening with some friends and played the Pop Culture edition of Trivial Pursuit. I had only played the classic version many, many years ago which is absolutely impossibly for anyone born after 1970. With the newer Pop Culture edition, I figured that all my years of watching way too much TV, reading ‘The Daily Dish’, reading US Weekly and listening to music 24/7 would finally pay off. All of that useless knowledge would finally benefit me. Well… it didn’t. I realized that all of those bits of information came in one ear and out the other (probably because my brain was already fried from these forms of media). I couldn’t answer questions like “What was Madonna’s first top ten single?”, “What two cities did Frasier live in?”, “What clothing line of the 80’s made a comeback with their palm tree logo?”… huh? The most obscure question that I did get was “What show was once referred to as ‘The Jesus of Malibu’”… ‘Highway to Heaven’! I have to admit, I watched many of these goodie two shoes shows like “7th Heaven’ and ‘Touched By An Angel’ a while back. I had hoped for more American Idol trivia. Kevin was much better at the game. For some reason, he can’t remember any of the toys that he played with when he was a kid, but, he remembers the actress who played Wonder Woman, the face of Downtown Julie Brown, the 80’s show that the character ‘Arnold’ was on (Different Strokes). His team did much better than ours except that they screwed up and gave up a few points here and there.

One thing very good did come out of our evening last night (besides some good laughs and food). In chatting with our friends, we heard about a good triple play Comcast deal (because we apparently need to be watching more TV). This deal would get us internet, phone and cable with a year free of HBO! We are currently obsessed with the show Entourage, so, we REALLY wanted HBO.  Kevin called up Comcast this morning and somehow convinced them to give us a new customer special which includes internet, phone, and cable… plus a year of HBO for just over $100. And we get the price for a year!!! Yipee…. I can’t wait to fry my brain with more TV. This time… it will be PREMIUM TV.

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!