Mini-vacation

Last week, Sheila visited me for a few days. As usual, I'm a little bit slow to document the trip.
Sheila's flight got in last Wednesday at 2. We had lunch at a pho place and then went to Sports Basement to get last minute stuff for camping. I also bought a purple rashguard top since I wanted to look as sausage-like as possible in all the pictures. We then went to a free Celtic music concert in Redwood City featuring Molly's Revenge.Although the concert was part of the same summer series as the Tempest concert a few weeks ago, and the two bands frequently play together, the vibe was totally different this tie. This time it was definitely the yuppies (of the Bay Area mid-peninsula variety) with kids scene. Seriously, it was even worse then going to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's right after work. Although, form the looks of everyone's picnics, that's where they'd just been. Anyway, it was fun but I think I prefer other venues, particularly ones with single guys over the age of 5. After the concert we had sushi and then came back to my house.
On Thursday we got up, drove to Pt. Reyes and backpacked in to the campsite. it was about a 4 mile easy hike to Arch Rock, then a harder hike to the campsite (about another four miles.) There were some great ocean views, although the fog was really rolling in. There was a deceptively long uphill stretch,and I received multiple death threats from Sheila during this portion of the trail. Eventually, the trail leveled out, and then we were greeted with a view of a valley and beach. That was our campsite. We walked down the hill and found our campsite. The camp was nice. It was about 100 yards from the beach and there were two toilets, running water, and trash bins This was not exactly backwoods camping. I began to wish I'd packed some steaks and charcoal instead of couscous and foil packs of Indian food. Although our spot was officially a group campsite, we didn't have to share it.
We unpacked our stuff, put all the food in the raccoon-proof cabinet, and went down to the beach for a walk. When we returned, we drank mojitos and cooked our dinner. At this point the fog was turning into mist which was very close to turning into rain. We went to sleep rather than tough it out. In the tent, we could hear the waves crashing, with the occasional seal barking plus a few airplanes flying out of SFO.
The next day everything was completely drenched. It didn't really rain but it really misted. The night before, we put everything away except for our matches. Yes, we both have PhD's! We had breakfast and discovered that someone had walked off with out trail mix and some of our granola. Grr... I suspect the stoners at the next camp over. If this had been a multi-day backwoods trip we would've been in serious trouble. We walked to go see a waterfall on the beach and then packed up our gear and hiked out. We took a different trail, which was shorter and easier, although it was still 6 miles.
My knee help up fine on this trip. It helped that the trail was very even. I did roll my ankle when I got distracted by some good-looking guys, but it was no big deal.
Once we got back to the car we bought sandwiches at a deli and drove north to go see Drakes Beach + the lighthouse. There was some serious fog rolling in at the lighthouse. I found some sand dollars. The lighthouse was cool but we had to climb up a hill and then do a bunch of stairs. we were pretty tired. We came back and had dinner at Fiesta del Mar.
Fiesta del Mar and its' five sister restaurants are owned by an extended family. (Side note - it's a small world. When one of my coworkers was installing some reactors at JIRSA in Mexico City, one of the chemists there told him that her cousin owned one of the restaurants.) All the restaurants serve excellent Mexican food. The enjococado sauce (aka Grandma's secret sauce!) is not to be missed. It's a creamy orange sauce that they put on chicken dishes. We did our best to chat up the waiter and find out what the secret ingredients are, but he wouldn't tell us. I wasn't surprised - I've tried before, as have a lot of other people. I found a recipe on the internet, so I'm going to test it in an upcoming edition of Recipe Geek. Stay tuned! (Hint - oranges and ground almonds...)
On Saturday we went to Angel Island. We were slow moving in the morning and then hit a lot of traffic. We parked, got lunch and then got on the 1 pm ferry from Tiburon. I've never been to Angel Island before. It's pretty cool. We hiked to the top. It was sunny but SF was covered with fog. We couldn't even see the Golden Gate Bridge for more than a few seconds at a time. Once we were done with that trail it was around 4. we decided to catch the 4:30 ferry. We drove over to Rodeo Beach but it was foggy and cold, so we didn't stay long. it was around 6 pm at that point so we drove over to Sausalito for dinner. We went to a seafood restaurant right on the bay. Sheila's new iPod was very helpful with its restaurant app. We got really lucky and got a table right away, but it then filled up immediately. If we'd gotten there just a few minutes later we would have had a 1 - 1 1/2 hour wait. We could see Angel Island and the ferries from our table. That was massively cool.
After dinner, we drove back to my place. It was too short a visit, but nonetheless I was exhausted. After I dropped Sheila of at the airport at 6:30 AM on Sunday I came back and slept until noon. Yes, I'm an old biddy.
Sheila's got a great photo blog and posted a lot of stuff from the trip. Scroll back through the photos until you get to the Point Reyes/Angel Island pictures.
Random note #1: We saw two dead seals. I wanted there to be a lot of seals for Sheila to photograph, but this was NOT what I had in mind. However, we also saw a pair of extremely feisty seals who were leaping in the water. That was really cool.
Random Note #2: The weather was very typical for this time of year. It can be gorgeous, sunny, and warm, but you get tons of fog once you're within a half mile of the Pacific Ocean.

Swim Class Update

My swim class is almost halfway done. I was mistaken in my original blog - it meets three times a week, not two. So far, we've covered freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. With each stroke, we learn the individual components, and then put it together. I've learned a lot. Backstroke took about two classes before it sank in. Breaststroke is a lot harder. It's different now than when I learned it, and I've had to relearn it. I'm hoping it gets easier soon.
It's interesting to learn a new sport or physical activity as an adult. It's very different than it was as a kid.
In any case, it's a buttkicking one-hour workout each class. I'm in a lot better shape now, even though it's only been a few weeks. Much to my annoyment but not to my surprise, I've gained two pounds. My midsection is trimmer but my arms and shoulders have bulked up. This is pretty typical for me - I build muscle very quickly.
We start learning butterfly next week. The one good thing is that I've never learned it so at least I won't have any pre-existing bad habits that I'll have to break.

Recipe Geek Extreme Edition: Chocolate Almond Pie, aka Vomit Pie

Sometimes I go overboard when I try new recipes, and make stuff that just doesn't work out. Usually this happens when I am trying to cook something extra nice for a special occasion, like the Valentine's Day Steak Disaster. Last weekend I made chocolate-almond pie in honor of my mom's birthday. It sounded so good - the filling was supposed to taste like cannolli filling, and contained ground almonds, ground chocolate, mascarpone and ricotta cheese, and whipping cream. The filling was put inside a cookie crumb crust and chilled. I improvised and made a crust out of some leftover biscotti. That part worked well, at least.
The proportions and order of addition for the filling seemed a bit off, but since i don't make a lot of pie fillings I ignored my instincts. Making matters worse, I messed around with the recipe and scaled it up slightly non-proportionately. It tasted great, but had the color and texture of vomit. It was kind of curdled, rather than smooth and creamy I filled the pie crust and chilled it. It firmed up but still looked nasty.

I covered it with grated chocolate. It looked slightly better but was still disappointing.

It tasted ok, but even the combination of cannolli-filling and biscotti flavors couldn't offset the weird texture.

Tempest Concert, Redwood City "Music on the Square"

Last Friday, T and I met up in Redwood City for the Tempest concert at the "Music on the Square" series in downtown Redwood City. A lot of local cities have similar programs during the Summer. The formula is simple - a free outdoor concert in the early evening to get people to come downtown and spend money. Redwood City takes it a step further and has movies, dance, plays, etc on the other nights, as well as lunchtime concerts.
In many ways, Redwood City is a typical of the towns along the San Francisco peninsula, which sprouted in the last 100 years. There is a downtown that is bordered by El Camino Real and on the other side by the Caltrain tracks. During the 70's and 80's, the downtowns were pretty stagnant. My own town, Sunnyvale, actively changed its downtown by building a mall in the middle of it. (What can I say - the Sunnyvale City Council has a long record of stupidity regarding the downtown area.) Most other cities, including Redwood City, just ignored their downtowns. T still calls it Deadwood City* - old nicknames die hard. Lately there's been a bit of a Renaissance.
The concert was at the Courthouse Square from 6-8 PM. I had swim class from 5:30-6:30, so there was no way for me to get there before 7. I didn't want to drive all the way up there if they were going to be done by the time I got there. Fortunately, through Facebook I was able to verify that they would play until 8. I got there around 7:15. T had gotten a good seat by the fountain. I couldn't look up the fiddler's kilt like i normally do, but it was a prime spot for hanging out and people watching.
There were a couple of thousand people there. The whole square was packed. A lot of people had brought food and wine and were picnicking. It was a more diverse crowd than is typical for a Tempest concert. Afterwards, I bought a Tempest T-shirt and T and I went for dinner. It was a pleasant way to spend an evening.

One Small Step...

It's almost the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, which means that it's almost time for another important anniversary. Yep, I'm talking about me starting toilet training.
On July 20, 1969, my mom was watching the Apollo 11 moon landing on tv. I was 7 months old. She was 2 months pregnant with my brother. It was a hot humid July day in the Washington DC suburb where we lived. It must've been time for me to pee or poop, and my mom decided to put me on my little baby potty and see what happened. The astronauts did their thing, and I did my thing. Mission accomplished, or at least, mission begun.
In my mind, I like to imagine that she put me on the potty right when Neil Armstrong was giving his "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" speech. I'll have to ask her. Most likely it was during one of the more boring moments.
So, of course, because of the moon landing, I get to hear this story every year. Now it's your turn. Hah hah!

Recipe Geek: Noodles with Red Curry Almond Sauce

It should come as no surprise that I enjoy reading cooking blogs. 101 recipes is one that I like. It's all vegetarian, mostly vegan, but the blog is well written and there are some interesting recipes. This week's was soba noodles with almond sauce. It sounded good and I'm a big sucker for noodles with nut based sauces, having subsisted on noodles with thai peanut sauce and tofu in my grad schools years. $2.50 bought a big portion from the food truck - it was enough for lunch and dinner. You can still get similar lunches there, although the price has risen to a whopping $4. $1.50 bought a massive slice of spinach pizza, which was my other favorite lunch. I was mostly vegetarian back then. But enough of my grad school nostalgia.
Now, one of my problems with the 101 recipes recipes is that they usually call for unusual ingredients. Believe it or not, I had most of the ingredients for this recipe*, save for the pea shoots. I decided to substitute baby spinach instead. Upon closer inspection, my soba noodles really weren't soba, but that wasn't a big deal. I cooked them up and then made the sauce, which contains almond butter, red chili paste, water and lemon juice. I wasn't paying close attention to the recipe, so I misread the amount of red curry paste to add. I added 3 tablespoons instead of two teaspoons. Ooops. Fortunately for me, my red chili paste is fairly wimpy. The sauce was very red and moderately spicy. I mixed it with the noodles and braised the tofu and spinach. It was tasty, and only a slight bit too spicy. (Disclaimer-I did eat a bowl of jello to quell the burn). If I were to do it again, I'd add less curry paste and would maybe add some ginger and sesame oil, because everything tastes better with ginger and sesame oil. I'd probably also go back to using peanut butter, since it reminds me of grad school.

*it was purely random that I had all the ingredients, but I guess it's like the proverbial monkeys typing - given enough time and they'll replicate Shakespeare's works, and given enough time I'll have all the ingredients for a 101 recipes recipe.

Swim Class

I signed up for a swim class. It starts tomorrow and is twice a week for two months. It's geared towards people like me, who want to improve their freestyle technique and learn or improve butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke . In theory, after taking this class I will be ready to participate in the Masters' Swim program at my gym, which meets practically every day, is free, and takes over the pool at prime time (6-7 PM). I've been trying to find a replacement activity now that I'm not playing soccer. Ideally, it would force me to work out harder than I do on my own, and maybe help me meet new people, and it wouldn't be hard on my knee. Masters' Swim may fit the bill. There's nothing like a little bit of competition to get me to work my ass off, and everyone seems to sit around in the hot tub for a long time afterwards and talk, so it looks pretty fun. Also, there are hot swimmer dudes for me to ogle. But even if I'm not ready for Masters' Swim once the class if over, I think it will be useful for me.