San Antonio '09 Tour

 

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to San Antonio. I went down for a seminar but had the pleasure of staying with good friends, Bev & Martin. I had such a great time!!!! I learned a lot about San Antonio, and got to see my friends in their element. I loved every minute of the trip and was sad to have to come back to Seattle. Here are the 3 of us on the first night of my trip. Take a peek at the pics below.

Lighting Fixture

 

Silly, I know, but I like this lighting fixture. The lights are suspended in wine bottles and then arranged in a chandelier like fashion.

Il Sogno

 

This was one of the best Italian restaurants I've been to. The food was divine...the right blend of flavors. The antipasti was great (especially the pureed pea mint dip, and the roasted eggplant with lemon caviar), the pastas were perfect (pumpkin ravioli and pesto pasta) and the entrees were excellent - especially Martin's truffle french fries. Yeah...big night.Here's a shot of Bev and I.

San Antonio River Walk

 

Bev was so nice and spent lunch with me on the conference days. On the second day of the conference we decided to do the river walk. The pathways were well cared for, and surprisingly, not crowded at all. We meandered on the river walk and through the neighborhood. The weather was perfect and I wasn't sleepy when I went back to class. :)

 

Big houses...lots of them...

 

One of the highlights of the walk around the neighborhood was the houses...many of them state landmarks. The homes were large and many had servants' quarters. Here are a couple of the houses we passed.

 

Cactus Bowl

 

On our walk through the King William area of San Antonio, we came across these cactus bowls sitting at the entrance of a house.

 

Queen Anne's Lace

 

Bev pointed out this vine to me. Very pretty pink flowers and this vine has just gone wild.

Art Museum

 

Bev and I came across an art museum on a lunch walk that we took near the river. The museum is in a small house, but the sculptures outside were inviting. I loved this sculpture: pterodactyl. Did I spell that right?

My heart bent, but not broken

 

That's the title of this sculpture. Love the name of the work.

Stallion

 

This is an interesting piece. I like the metal and the way the horse is on it's hind legs.

 

I love this piece...very simple and the kanji is clear.

Doe, a deer...well, it's actually a male...

 

Bev and Martin live in a lovely neighbor frequented by deer - hundreds of them. Every night when we came home, Bev would drive around the neighborhood so we could see the deer. Very cool. Here's a big boy we came across just sitting in front of a neighbor's house.

 

 

Flight Helmet

 

Martin has an area of the house for his collectibles. There some sports memorabilia (see below) but also his flight helmet when he was a flight surgeon! The helmet looks a bit scary (well, to me) but studly at the same time.

Here's the close up

 

Mickey Mantle???? Really????

 

One of the coolest things in Martin's collection was this baseball autographed by Mickey Mantle. Really. Apparently Martin had cared for Renee and Mantle sent the baseball in thanks. Cool. And I touched the ball that Mickey Mantle handled. I'd say that I'll never wash that hand ever again, but I'm more afraid of germs. Cool item, though.

Halloween Fun

Well, October 31st has come and gone, but I did get to see some adorable kids in costume. Eric and I went to visit goddaughter Maggie and see her costume. Here she is dressed up as a (good) witch. Her costume was absolutely a-door-uh-ball!!!! Her Aunt Kathy made the dress and hat...I wish Aunt Kathy could make me a dress and hat. Well, except that I'd look like a (wicked) witch. Hmph. Scratch that. We had a good time catching up with John, Cindy, and John's parents. Maggie surprised me with a cool skill - apparently she estimates very well. We spilled all her candy out on the floor and we each took a guess at how many candies were there. I guessed 47. Maggie guessed 89. Would you believe that Maggie was exactly right? I sense a trip to Vegas coming up for Maggie.

Visiting the Sounders

After seeing Maggie, Eric and I headed down south to see Sophia and little brother, Van. This year, the two dressed up as Sounders soccer players. Very cute. Here they are posing for the camera. Sophia ended up having a lot of fun trick-or-treating around the neighborhood as long as she didn't run into big kids (read: teens) with scary costumes.

Sibling fun

Autumnal Check-In

How in the world did it get to be October 24th? I feel so behind on everything...argh. But there is good news. There's always good news. My nephew, Conner, celebrated his 3rd birthday this month with a (Romanian) birthday party - it felt that way since I was the only other Japanese person there - well, besides my brother, and I guess, Conner.

The next good thing is that I get to travel to San Antonio for a grant writing conference where I'll learn lots about free money...I'm trying to be optimistic. To help with cost, I'll be staying with Bev & Martin!! Woo hoo!!! I'll get to combine those things that I love - learning + meeting up with good friends. Can't go wrong.

My only goal this season: don't get sick. I wish my hands religiously, but admit I fail on drinking enough water. Must. get. more. water.

I'll be posting photos of Halloween pics if I can track down Maggie and Sophia. I can't wait to see what they dress up as.

Victoria Half Marathon Weekend

 

What a fun, exhausting, delicious weekend!!! This is the weekend where some gals and I participated in the half marathon, ate a lot of food, gabbed and gabbed and gabbed, and went shopping (a little). It all started on Thursday when dear friends Bev & Martin flew in from San Antonio, TX. We headed to Cafe Juanita that evening for dinner (I love that place - more than I should). Early Friday morning, Bev, Martin, Susan & I headed to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Sidney, BC and then on to Victoria. We went straight to dim sum when we got to Victoria and then that night went to Cafe Brio - a lovely restaurant in Victoria. And from there, the food, fun, and festivities only escalated. You'd think that after doing a half marathon that I'd be thinnner...not so.Read on and you'll find out why.

Love this pic...

 

Leaving Cafe Brio

 

High Tea at the Empress

 

One of the highlights of the weekend was having tea with the gals. We got to have dainty food (quite a challenge for me since there's very little dainty about me) and talk and talk and talk. It was the bestest. Bunny couldn't join us since she was still enroute to Victoria. (So sad).

 

Kim & Bev

 

Suz & Andi

 

Flower bulbs

 

Here are the gals with the bulbs that Julie packed for us. Can't wait to plant them, Julie. [Note: Julie was so wonderful and packed a care package for the Victoria girls. She was so thoughtful! She included sponge candy (a specialy where she's from), rock candy (for us to savor on the trail), and flower bulbs (so we'd all be reminded of our transformations). Thank you so much, Julie!]

Sponge Candy

 

Here we are with our shots of sponge candy - compliments of Julie.

 

 

Cup 'o tea

 

My jasmine tea. We all had the same china.

The Tower

 

Here is the tower o' food. It was all good - just all in miniature pieces. The bottom tier were the savory pieces - salmon sandwich, cucumber sandwich, mushroom w/ truffle oil, and chicken curry sandwich. The middle tier was the scone with cream. The top tier were the sweets: key lime tart, short bread cookie, and lots of chocolate.

Sampling of high tea

 

We had some sweet and some savory. My favorite was the savory - especially the mushroom in truffle oil (see the little toastette on the back of the plate). The sweets were all good - chocolates were divine.

Polishing off High Tea

 

Yeah...we made short order of high tea at the Empress. I love this shot of Kim - a cute pic.

Meeting up with Bunny!

 

Bunny pulled in to Victoria around 4:30 on Saturday so the gals headed up to the room to get together. It was wonderful to see her again - the last time was at the last Victoria half.

Oh, the carnage!

 

Our pre (half) marathon meal was at the Bon Rouge restaurant in Victoria. The food was OK, service mediocre, but the company was fantabulous! It was great to get together with everyone, and know that we'd all be sharing in some great experiences, including the pain we'd all be feeling the next morning. BTW, the picture above is of Susan's bone marrow appetizer that she ordered. Never had it, so I tried some. Different. Still don't know what I think about it.

Martin, Bev & Bunny

 

Sus & Suz

 

Martin & Bev

 

Kim - we call her Changes

 

The night before the race

 

Here we are before we departed for our respective hotels and a good night's rest. These are the best women around!

Pre-race smiles

 

6:20am rolled around too early. We got up, got ready and made our way to the starting line. Ugh. Notice our smiles? Yeah...we had different expressions on the course - especially on the last 800 meters.

All pau.

 

We all crossed the finish line. The course was beautiful and it was well worth the trip to Victoria. Here we are holding up a card that a friend sent us.

 

The Tapa Bar

 

After the race, we all had a nice long nap, an even longer shower, and after a painful walk, we all made it to the Tapa Bar. The food was tasty, the service impeccable, and the walk home a very long, long, end to a somewhat painful day.

Checking out of the Executive House & Victoria

 

It was a great weekend, but we had to head back to Seattle. Here are Susan & I at check out.

The Last Supper

 

It's hard to imagine that we could top off an incredible weekend with Bev & Martin with even better food, but we did. Susan, Eric and I dined with Bev & Martin at the Wild Ginger. This is all of us - good food, even better company.

Food, food, and more food...

 

The food at the Wild Ginger is good - but Bev especially loves the chicken satay - and it really is good. So good that we had to order more. We ordered more than that, too. Let's see, there was the 7 flavor beef, fragrant duck, sichuan green beans, wild mushrooms and snow peas, mongolian noodles, beef satay, thai lettuce cups, potstickers, green papaya salad...and I think that's it. There were 5 of us. We were hungry. We ate it all...almost.

 

 

The final course...

 

Dessert - while good - was not reason why we went to the Wild Ginger. Nonetheless, we ordered 4 of them. We had an apple & tangerine tart with ginger ice cream, coconut gelato, (flourless) chocolate torte, and fixins for cookie sundaes. I loved the simplicities of the iced desserts - creamy and delicious.

The last goodbye...

What's the end to a terrific meal? A fond farewell. We promised to get back on our respective plans, diligently workout and be healthier the next time we meet. It always happen - I just can't wait to meet. :)

Babysitting on Sunday

 

I got a chance to babysit my goddaughter, Sophia, and her brother, Van. Steve & Heidi had to go out for a potluck, but they must have been d.e.s.p.e.r.a.t.e. to call me. We had fun watching Sprout TV, walking to the park, and walking back home. Then all hell broke loose. It all started with dinner - I accidently smooshed Van's finger against the table and he was NOT happy (with me, especially). I can say one thing - he has a healthy set of lungs. Sophia was a doll the whole evening and tried to assist me the best she could. But what could she do with an incompetent 43 year old watching her little brother. We still had fun. Except for Van.

Before - she doesn't know the camera is on

 

After - she knows the camera is on her

 

OK...he looks a little scared...

 

but it's the flash - I swear!

Van - not crying

 

Dean & Sheri Tour 2009

Dean & Sheri made it to Seattle for the UH Tour but it also included a Seahawks game, as well as a Mariners' game. We went 3/3 - it's nice when all your teams win. :) We also went to restaurants (Flo, Salty's at Alki, Olive Garden, among others). After Seattle, D&S headed to Vegas where the caught UH play UNLV.

A Reason to Smile

 

It was exciting to see UH win in Seattle. Note that across the field is where the UH section was. We were seated with the Washington State crowd.

Sibling Pic

 

Here we are after the Hawaii win!

Seahawks Game - event #2

 

Thanks to our friend, John, we got football tickets to the Seahawks' season opener. Very nice. We sat about 20 rows back on the 40 yard line Great seats, great win. Sorry you couldn't be there, John.

The Last Athletic Event in Seattle

 

The last sporting event that Dean & Sheri wanted to go to was the Mariners game. It turned out to be a great night - the M's played the White Sox and it was a win for the M's. In addition, we had Garden Terrace tickets - club section. Nice.

Safeco Field

 

Here we are after the game.

Dean & Sheri

 

I love this picture!!!

 

Tabehoudai Gang at the Indo Cafe

 

On Friday night, the JA Posse - aka Tabehoudai Gang - got together for another eating adventure. Mari recommended the Indo Cafe - my first attack at Indonesian food since leaving Shimbashi/Tokyo almost 20 years ago. We yucked it up, got disapproving glances from other tables as we laughed too loud, ate way too much, and had a good time. I love this group.

Mari, Lynn, & Dale

 

Susan & Mari

 

Mark & Me

 

This is us before the meal - notice how clean my shirt is. (I've noticed that I spill a lot more food on my clothes these days.) Mari, Mark's wife, is sitting on the other side of the table.

Bif perusing the menu

 

Appetizers

 

The food at the restaurant was all very good. It reminded me a bit of Thai food (lemongrass, peanut sauce) but also had some Filipino influence, as well (pancit). The prices were very reasonable, and the atmosphere cozy, but not too squished. Here's a shot of some of the appetizers. (No shots of entrees as we were all in full force by then).

Chicken sate - what's left of it

 

This was very good. It really reminded me of yakitori with peanut sauce.

Mmm...pancit

 

Paying the bill

 

Here's Mark making sure we have enough money to cover everything. Not only did he count it, he had to lay the bills out in order and in the same direction.

Day Trip to Leavenworth

On Sunday, Susan and I decided to take a trip to Leavenworth - about a 2 hour drive east of Seattle. The drive was fantastic, and the city was quaint and charming. We had fun walking the small town and dining at one of the restaurants. One of the more interesting shops we went to was the Cheesemonger - great cheese. I walked out with a horseradish cheese, and a garlic cheese. Susan went home with a truffle goat cheese and the horseradish cheese. Great town - I'd definitely go again.

Streets of Leavenworth

 

The streets were absolutely crowded on Sunday, but it was still a fun trip. The buildings all had a Bavarian/Swiss chalet look to them. Very nice.

The Egg Fritatta

 

I don't think I spelled that right. Anyway, when we first headed into Leavenworth, we sought out a place to have breakfast. We found a place that specialized in crepes. Susan and I both got a breakfast and then a dessert crepe - decadent I know! of course, we devoured the cherry crepe - which is why there is no picture.

Susan's Veggie Egg Wrap

 

JA Posse Strikes Again

As if it weren't enough to see the posse on Friday, we met up again this morning, Monday (Labor Day). Bif found an ad on Craigslist for a garage sale in Woodinville. We met up at 7:30 ish at a nearby Safeway and then headed to the sale. I only spent $12 so I really didn't spend as much as I thought I would. Thank goodness. We all decided to have breakfast, so we convoyed over to the Brown Bag Cafe - known for their breakfast food in huge quantities. In hind sight, this may not have been the best choice.

The Lighter Fare

 

Lynn thought she was being smart when she ordered the lighter fare - this is her order of hash browns with cheese. The brat isn't even there yet. She was overwhelmed, to say the least.

Mari

 

Mari ordered the corned beef hash and eggs. I ordered the same thing - very good - I won't need to eat it again for a year.

Dale and his breakfast choice.

 

We all cracked up when we found out that Dale and Bif had been to an all-you-can-eat sushi place the night before and that Dale had to go to brunch a mere 3 hours after this breakfast. What this man does for his friends.

This one is called the Growler...

 

Heaven knows what's on this plate, but I know there's a chicken fried steak, and biscuits and gravy at the very least. Bif & Dale both ordered this.