California Summary / Preview
Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. This will be a relatively brief update for now, as iIt’s been a few weeks since I last wrote. No reason to worry - I’ve been on vacation and it may take a while to write a proper journal / update, which I haven’t started. This post is more of a preview than a full blown update. If you’re interested in the trip journal, I’ll post something with a lot more images and travel stories in a week or so.
In terms of my health, I think there has been some incremental improvements. No breakthroughs, but no real setbacks either. I’ve maintained my weight and perhaps put on (only) a pound or two, despite my efforts to eat as many of my favorite foods in California. I have been able to test the waters a little more with respect to spicy foods. I can eat some items, which causes more irritation than pain, so that’s progress. My dry mouth is a little better. While I still wake up with stickiness and dryness, I can now go several hours without needing to drink water constantly.
I have follow up appointments with the doctors this upcoming week, so I should have more of an update in a few days.
The trip to California was really good. Aiday and I were able to enjoy a great mix of family, friends, sightseeing, activity, and of course, food and eating. I certainly do not have a shortage of pictures from which to choose. This post will include a few of the favorites.
The first part of the itinerary was filled sightseeing and activity. It was good to be in cleaner air, as we drove south to spend a few days in Carmel, Monterey, and Big Sur. Highlights of these days included a 4-5 mile hike (half in sand) to see elephant seals at Ano Nuevo State Park; a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium; and driving along Highway 1 in Big Sur. The scenery along the drive is simply stunning. We would stop every 15 minutes or so to take pictures.
In Big Sur, we stayed at a place called Treebones Resort. It fits into the “glamping” category, as they have a number of yurts and campsites. Yurts are traditional in the nomadic cultures of Central Asia, so Aiday felt right at home. We stayed in a yurt, but also enjoyed some of the other structures onsite, like the Nest. The yurts have only a sink and no bathroom. Thus, I got to try a new experience - putting on a jacket in preparation for the midnight sprint to the bathroom, which was 100 steps away.
After coming back to the Bay Area, we did some more sightseeing in both the East Bay and San Francisco (particularly after the air quality improved). The Behind-the-Scenes Tour at Alcatraz was really good. I’ve been to The Rock before, but this was a different experience. The views of San Francisco at night was something new. We also got great views of the city from the top of Coit Tower (different day). In the East Bay, we saw a bit of Tilden Regional Park and took in a sunset from Indian Rock.
As usual, a highlight of going to California is eating. We returned to a few favorite places, tried new restaurants, taste tested several bakeries and ate some excellent home meals. There were three standout highlights in terms of food. First, while dining at Chez Panisse, which served my single favorite course of the trip, we briefly met a culinary legend. Alice Waters happened to be eating in the kitchen that night, so we stopped by and took a picture with her. On the menu that night was a Magruder Ranch beef loin with anchovy-thyme butter. It was simply incredible. Second, Liholiho Yacht Club is a new favorite restaurant in the city. We liked the place so much that we went back twice in a week. It’s a Hawaiian-themed restaurant, with big, bold flavors. I could eat most things and the spicier courses were worth the mouth irritation. Third, we ended up going to the Rare Barrel, a sour beer microbrewery in Berkeley, several times. I became an “Ambassador” (i.e. member) of their beer club a year ago. I was able to spread the joy, as it turns out that my family really enjoy these beers. We went to the tasting room and also took home some growlers to have with the home cooked dinners.
Even though I can’t eat bread and pastries the way I normally would, it didn’t stop me from testing 5 different bakeries. In addition to Tartine, Acme Bread and La Farine, which we’ve been to a lot, we went to b. patisserie (SF) and Fournee Bakery (Berkeley). Both are excellent and the canele at Fournee was the best I’ve had in years.
In addition to old favorites like dim sum and Chinese places, Din Tai Fung, In-N-Out, Cheeseboard Pizza and Gioia Pizzeria, other restaurant highlights include a return to Swan Oyster Depot (with <20 minute wait this year vs. 3 hours last year); Olivetto’s Truffle Dinner, which was plagued a bit by service issues; Camino, started by a former Chez-Panisse chef but one that will close this month; August 1Five, an Indian place in SF that was very flavorful but a little too much for me right now. A surprisingly good meal came from the sushi omakase at Treebones, which was excellent and fun, with interaction with other diners and a superb sound track. The fish was fresh and the flavor combinations were really nice, even if I left out the wasabi. Cultura, a Mexican restaurant in Carmel, had both great flavors and one of the best servers. She brought out a salsa to see how much spice I could handle and then based recommendations off of that. The food was spot on and I didn’t have to worry about accidentally eating something really painful.
Besides Acme and The Rare Barrel, the place we went to the most was Jin’s, an eyeglass store in Union Square. They have some well-made, interesting, and affordable frames. It was fun to try on a few pairs.
My potential “artistic” or Harry Potter look…
That’s it for this post. I’ll plan to provide full food reviews in a subsequent update for those of you who are interested. The next update will probably be after I have my follow up appointments.