Southern Spain Oct 2013 (Granada/Nerja)

Day 1

Granada / 25 Oct 2013

Travelling the South of Spain with Ana

What could be better? Getting in touch again with a great friend, add some good/free Spanish tapas and bring on lots of tinto de verano with a douse of Alhambra and Mediterranean sea.

First, let me say Free Tapas are great! Not just that they are free, but they taste great.

In the south of Spain, it’s common to give a free plate of food for every drink that you order. The food changes with every drink.  Although some restaurants allowed you to pick from a selection, some places said “it’s a gift. So be happy with it” =)

It’s simple food, nothing fancy but it truly reflects the life style of Spanish. Good food with fresh ingredients, great hospitality with a hint of playfulness. The drinks are not pricy (Typically at $2E), and to get food for that price is mind boggling.

These are some of the free tapas that we got.

Unfortunately, we both don’t drink enough to get filled up with the free tapas. So we do have to order some in order not to go hungry. Not that I didn't try, but there’s only so many tinto de verano that you can drink a night.

Granada took me by surprise, specifically Alhambra. The palaces’ grounds are breath-taking. This is a sunset view of the castle from the city area. 

The sunset is also very pretty that night, with the city of Granada below it.

Day 2

Alahambra (Granada)

We visited the castle early in the AM @ 830am. It was raining a little, so we took the bus to the castle. It was fortunate that Ana booked the tickets in advance through the hotel and we avoided the long line of 30 people that’s going slowly (priority are given for advance booking).

The castle took 7 hours at a brisk walk. There’s so much to see and I’m blown away by the architecture.

It's made up of different castle, one of them being Charles V castle that reminds me of Colosseum except that it's much nicer.






There’s water running all around the grounds and inside the castle and it’s still a mystery how that’s achieved. The fountain of lions has some explanations inscribed that apparently didn't make sense.

Anyway, the main castle is restored painstakingly and it reminds me of the Arabian nights.It is hard to capture the beauty of the castle through a camera but here are some attempts anyway. 

These are another castle/s that's part of Alhambra outside the main castle.

The gardens and the fountains are also playful and very pretty. It's surreal walking through the gardens imagining a city full of people walking through them in old times. 



We had lunch at Paradores restaurant inside Alhambra as a treat. Ana told me that Paradores is famous for building hotel and restaurants at historical sites.

http://www.parador.es/en/restaurants-eating-in-paradores

We had duck risotto and a fish dish that's really good. Together with a pasta dish that's a complimentary amuse-bouche.

Day 3

Granada/Nerja

First aim: Breakfast at Ysla.
This has piononos which is a specialty pastry in Granada. However, i can't say that i enjoy it as it's really sweet. This is all you would ever want to know about piononos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pionono



We walked around Granada city that day, visiting the cathedral

and the Arab streets

After that, we took the bus to the airport to collect our rental car before driving to Nerja.

Nerja is really lovely and touristy. It’s a typical white Spanish coastal town that’s at off-peak season in end October.

The weather reminds me San Diego, as it’s by the ocean and flanked by a desert on the other side. It’s dry with moderate temperature fluctuations.

Day 4

Frigilliana/Nerja

We knew that the hostal Don Peque provides breakfast. What we didn’t expect was a terrace roof top breakfast view, with a full Spanish breakfast brought to our table. The French couple who ran the B&B is very nice, the room is spacious and the food is great! All for 55E a night! What a steal and a delightful difference from the 119E Sant Cugat H&R Hotel.

We hit the town of Frigilliana which is another touristy white town. 

But it’s lovely roaming the streets taking pictures of striking blue doors, Spanish decorations and having a good time.






The weather is very comfortable (t shirt and shorts weather) which is amazing in end October.

After that, we went back to Nerja and spent the afternoon lazing on the beach. I even took a swim in the Mediterranean Sea, with a “refreshing” temperature of 20 C. Brrr…

Day 5

And we are off, going home

We had another lovely breakfast at the roof top, this time with homemade yoghurt.

We also made a couple of sandwiches for lunch, from the leftover bread and enhanced it with some store-brought salami and gazpacho.

We made our way to Nerja caves which is impressive for its sheer size. The biggest column is in the Guinness book of record.

After that, we drove leisurely through a few Spanish coastal town on our way back to Granada airport. 

And here's a couple of shots of me/Ana goofing around just for grins 

San diego restaurant week 2013

Nobu and marine room

Another successful restaurant week.

We picked marine room for the bigger group celebration and Nobu for the 2 of us. Nobu is crazy crowded though, with tables side by side at elbow room. But love the quality of the ingredients and the dessert is spectacular. 

Marine room is still good but slightly lower standard than last year. It also has very similar desserts and menu as last year. Might not go back again. 

Catalina Trip Sept 2013

Day 1

Off to the next adventure. I'm WAY due for a vacation with all the stress from work.  

In all my trips to Catalina, I never had the time and chance to explore Avalon.
We all had a great time.




First off, a good start! We saw a lot of dolphins in the ferry crossing. They are jumping on both sides of the ferry and I never saw so many dolphins in my life!
B estimate the number of dolphins to be close to a thousand. Unfortunately, my attempts to capture them is spectacularly unsucessful, as seen by the pictures =)

We found a vacation home in Avalon in VRBO.

http://www.vrbo.com/308563

It's really nice and roomy and the golf cart that came with the apartment was put to good use.

I really like the view from the apartment patio.

The first thing i noticed about Catalina is all the vehicles are miniature size. Golf carts are the top transportation choice. And the other vehicles (vans and trucks) are usually not that much bigger than a golf cart. It felt like we are being dropped into a miniature world!

We are able to leave our baggage in the apartment, after arriving at 1130 am. Our first stop is the Botanical Garden/Wriggley memorial.

After the garden, we went to the Sand Trap for $1 tacos happy hour. They are pretty decent.
http://www.catalinasandtrap.com/home1.shtml

After a light taco lunch, we did a store run and made a delicious steak dinner.

Day 2
We had breakfast at The Inn @ Mt Ada. It's a B&B that has been converted from the Wriggley mansion. The view/setting is fantastic, the price is reasonable and the breakfast is exquisite, with endless mimosas.

After that, we went for the Casino tour. I learned that the word "casino" really means a place for gathering. Vegas used the word Casino as a place for gathering and in the long run, associated the word with gambling. The Casino in Catalina has no gambling. Instead, it has a dance floor and a movie theater.  The whole building is very interesting. The theater has great sound system with natural amplification and the dance floor is huge! Trivial: The walnut wooden paneling in the casino is priced at ~30 million. And it conforms with current building code (earthquake etc) due to its box in a box design.



























After the tour, we roam the streets of Avalon, first in a buggy and then by walking.
Then we head to Bluewater grill for dinner. Great food at reasonable price, not a tourist trap.

Day 3
We checked out of the apartment after having spam sandwiches for breakfast. We also topped up the fuel for the buggy. It came to a surprise to all of us that we used less than 1 gallon of gas. That is 10 hours of driving in the buggy, 4 passengers and climbing mountains.

We did a submersible tour and saw a lot of big fishes @ the Lovers Cove Marine preserve

All in all.. a great Avalon trip 

San Francisco/Napa valley April 2013

Another adventure!
Thursday - San Ramon
I'm headed to San Ramon for ACB band convention. The coastal community concert band was one of the 6 bands (out of 300), picked to play for the convention. My conductor is ecstatic needless to say, which means there's a ton of conflict/stress prepping for the concert.

We had a great concert at San Ramon, with 200 to 300 audience that gave a spontaneous standing ovation. I think we are all so stressed up that we just decide to play and have a good time and ignored the bad ju ju .. Works well =)

The drama of the trip: Yours truly has forgotten that this band has switched to black shoes. I took a 6 months sabbatical and completely forgotten the "important stuff". So 30 mins before the concert, i happily took out my white shoes and saw my roommate Suzy's jaw drop! Her first comment : "one of us is in trouble, as i brought black shoes".

Gray Teva + black socks saved the day! Nobody noticed anything amiss but it would be a while before i forget again!


Friday - San Francisco
The next day, i took the band bus and went to SF with them for a few hours.
We headed to golden gate bridge for a walk, before going to Pier 39 for 3 hours.
Instead of being part of the thousands of tourists at Pier 39, I decide to walk to Chinatown instead to get egg tarts, before heading for pizza at north shore.
http://www.goldenboypizza.com/
This place has very good pizza sold by the slice. It's not thin crust pizza though, but their crust is tasty and soft. I ordered a slice of garlic/clam and a slice of combination pizza.

And sat in the park to eat my lunch, while watching Tony pizza's crew play soccer and riling up a small dog =)
After that, dessert - ice cream from Ghiradelli ice cream store at Ghiradelli square. It's still crowded and still yummy.

I saw the Americas Cup boat sail by, while crossing the bay bridge. Pretty cool !
And cute little soft toys at hard rock cafe !






Sat - Napa Valley
First stop: Buchon bakery 
tsk tsk.. no drinking on an empty stomach and what better than a french bakery to kick start an American wine tasting!
http://bouchonbakery.com/
We ordered a leek and Gorgonzola quiche and it is very good. Custard is nice and smooth, good yet not overpowering flavor of Gorgonzola. Superb balance and execution.
The whole wheat baguette is tasty but might be more than a day old. Works well to mop up the quiche though.
I never leave a french bakery without buying their macaron. I saved it for dessert later, of course. Their macarons are not cheap @$3.95 a piece, although they are twice the size of a typical macaron.


After that ,we stop at Napa Style and packed a sandwich for lunch at the deli inside the store.

2nd stop: Chandon winery

Very beautiful grounds and good champagne. Tasting @ $20 but they are generous with the pour and you keep the glass after that.
The tasting room is decorated like a modern high end bar which I like, a lot.

3rd stop: Jessup winery
This is a very good winery and arguably the best wines that we tasted for the whole day.
They specialize in white wines, especially chardonnay, to give it a buttery yet oak-y taste that's well balanced.

4th stop : Peju winery
I heard of this place on Yelp and decide to try out a small local winery. The tasting room has stain glass decor, very pretty. And we had a fun bartender that's very entertaining.. Tasting is also at $20 per person, but we find the wine isn't too great. Probably won't go back there.

5th stop: Sattui winery
Came highly recommended by a few friends, especially their deli. So we decide to check it out.
It's like Disneyland on booze..
While the deli is absolutely ooommmppphhh (i want to buy everything on sight), the grounds are super crowded, especially with families and kids. I will definitely plan on another place for picnic lunch next time.

Tasting is very good deal at $10 for 6 wines and i love the Angelica. It's a brandy with Moscat juice.Their wines are ok and we got a bottle of Reisling for lunch.

This is lunch, 2 delish sandwiches (one from Sattui Deli and one from Napa Style Deli) with a pasta salad. And the macaron for dessert, all washed down wtih the bottle of Reisling.



After that we had an easy afternoon stroll around downtown Napa before heading back to hotel and ordered Indian food for dinner. It's very tasty and a good deal @ 20 bucks total for all the food.


Sun 
Driving around visiting Bill's family. Didn't hit traffic but it's a chilly day.. Brrr.. isn't it spring already??

Anyway, nothing too adventurous except for the huge plates of Scend (a soul food restuarant) that we found at Oakland.
Their plate is bigger than my body and their pork chops are bigger than my face. A week supply of fried food.. all yummy.. but who can eat so much food in one seating??