Epic NorCal Trip

With 3 weekends left before Nikki and I move to Vietnam, my buddy Mahoney and I decided that it was high time for a trip of epic proportions on the North Coast of California - abalone diving, surfing, and an outdoor concert were on the docket. I flew into SFO last Friday night, and after throwing a few things in the Land Rover, we were off to Salt Point State Park on the Sonoma Coast. After checking out a couple less than epic campgrounds, we found a perfect spot at Salt Point and were up early the next morning to grab some abalone.

For those of you who have not experienced the awesomeness of swimming through a gently bobbing kelp forest, sneaking up on giant snails and avoiding urchins, seals, and sharks, you are missing out on ab diving! Considering this was my second time and Mahoney's first, we fared pretty well with 5 abs in the 7 and 8 inch size range. With Mahoney dipping into a pre-hypothermic state, we made fire and cooked them with salt/pepper/garlic, wrapped in bacon, sauteed in butter, etc. We had a ton and Mahoney proceeded to offer the extras to everyone within earshot. We spent the rest of the day hiking, eating, and drinking the 5 gallons of home-made hefeweizen that one of Mahoney's friends gave him.

The next day we got up and drove south to Salmon Creek for a little surfing. The rest of the coast was dead calm, so we made use of what little swell there was and tore it up before jumping in the car and heading to San Francisco for the concert. Ditching the car at Mahoney's house in the sunset, we hoofed it a few blocks to Golden Gate Park where the Outside Lands concert was on. We were there to see Social D (who were awesome), but had fun watching The Temper Trap, Janelle Monae, Al Green, Slightly Stoopid, Phoenix, and Kings of Leon. We left just in time to get me to the airport for an 11PM flight, with the sound of KOL echoing through the sunset as we made our way back to Mahoney's house.

What an awesome weekend. We're already trying to figure out how to get to the Lost Coast and add a backpacking component at some point. The above pictures should give you a sense of things and I've uploaded a few more to Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/evanwfox/EpicNorCalTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCJy9x9LI_KDiOA#

Two weekends left!!

10 Year High School Reunion

Whew! I think I'm finally caught up on our blogging. It's August now (crazy how fast the summer has gone by!) and we've only got 3 weekends left before we start our move to Vietnam (which will take 2 weeks, with stops in SF and Maui). Last weekend I headed to San Diego for my 10 year west hills high school reunion. Nikki really wanted to be able to make it, but given she has to pass her Vietnamese language test in a couple weeks (and she has way less time than any of her classmates), we just couldn't make it happen.

I headed off on Friday night and had an awesome plane flight. On my first flight, it turned out they were serving free drinks as a promotion, so I had fun drinking cocktails and chatting with a couple of really interesting people next to me. On my second leg (from Chicago to SD), I got a free upgrade to first class! Needless to say, I loved sipping on more free drinks in my comfy seat and watching the new Disney Oceans movie. I got to catch up with my parents a bit on Friday night (it's been a long time!) and see some friends afterwards in North Park - Madhu, Keshav, David, etc.

The event didn't start until 7:30 on Saturday, so I spent the morning with my parents. We had a ton of fun and I'm really glad that we could make it happen. We took a mountain bike ride out in east county out past Jamul with gorgeous views of the unique chaparral, granite-boulder topped mountains out that way. Turns out my parents are keeping in great shape mountain-biking around the county! After an unsuccessful attempt to get into a restaurant dominated by bikers in Barrett's Junction, we got sandwiches and enjoyed them on the back porch at home. The old house is looking great and my parents have done a fantastic job of putting in some cool desert plants (I like the kangaroo paws the best!). I took a quick spin on the motorcycle that Nikki and I are keeping at my parents house and we went out to coffee before I headed out to the reunion.

I met up with my buddies Nick, Tanner, Madhu, and Keshav to catch up before heading to the Catamaran in PB for the event. While I wish more people had attended, I had a really great time catching up with everyone!! It's just so interesting to see what people are doing after 10 yrs. We stayed out super late and Keshav dropped me at the airport at 3AM so I could catch my early-morning flight back to DC (you're the man Keshav!). The trip was only a little more that 24 hrs, but it felt totally worthwhile to get back home however briefly before we head to southeast asia.

Well, we've only got 3 weekends left and are keeping super busy!!! Before long, we'll be in Ho Chi Minh City setting in for our 2 yr stay...

Surprise Visit from Amy/Ant!

The last weekend in July, our friends Amy and Ant happened to be driving from their home in Ft Lauderdale to NYC with their cute english bulldog, Gordita. Of course, we had to make sure we got a chance to hang out in DC! Amy/Ant didn't arrive until late Saturday, so Nikki, my sister Darcy, Hina and I all spent the morning relaxing in various capacities. Nikki and I had a late night Friday, when we drove to Gaithersburg to try a restaurant specializing in various kinds of dumplings and caught a movie after, so we started Saturday with a leisurely brunch at one of our favorite local spots called North Side Social, which has delicious egg sandwiches using eggs from Polyface Farms (featured in the book, The Omnivores Dilemma). It was so great to catch up with my sister and hear about how well med school is going (she's a 3rd year here at Georgetown). We headed back to our place for some tennis and hanging by the pool next - gotta love the facilities at the Oakwood where we live!

Amy, Ant, and Hina got in later that afternoon and after unwinding in the pool a bit, we headed into DC for an action-packed evening. First stop was the Adams Morgan area for dinner at Mama Ayeshas - middle eastern tapas and excellent service! Next, we jetted across the city in Darcy's new Forrester to catch the 11 PM show at the Palace of Wonders, which has burlesque shows. Perched above the stage with our drinks, we watched the performers eat fire, swallow swords, and hand weights from their eyelids - yo! We weren't even close to done yet though, and walked across the street to the H Street Country Club (at ridiculous name for a dive bar featuring mini-golf) for some skee ball and shuffleboard. When the bar closed and we were starving, we hit up Julias in Dupont for their famous empanadas. Mmmmmm. I have no idea what time we got home, but Hina and Gordita had probably decided that their parents were never going to return! They actually seemed to get along ok, though Hina did initiate a few scuffles and Gordita went home with some war-wounds. The next day, everyone rallied for brunch at fishers and farmers at Washington Harbor in DC where we stuffed ourselves absolutely silly. After wishing Amy/Ant/Gordita bon voyage, Darcy, Nikki, and I relaxed with a movie (Inception - it was awesome, go see it!).

A pretty successful weekend in all, with time to catch up with Darcy and Amy/Ant before we leave. With only 4 weekends left after that one, we are starting to hit the home stretch!

Annie's Wedding in LA

Near the end of July, Nikki and I took a quick trip out to LA to attend the wedding of our friends Annie and Jason ("Buns"). The ceremony was really beautiful out at the LA River Center in Pasadena, with lots of personal touches (I personally loved the tie-dye ties!!). We are super happy for these guys and had fun dancing the night away to hits from the 90's! Upon recommendation from our friends Virgile and Sterling, Nikki and I visited Descanso Gardens that morning, which has a really good assortment of various flowers. We also had an awesome breakfast in San Marino and some Mexican food in downtown Pasadena - some of the last we may get for the next 2 yrs!! At the airport on Sunday, I got to quickly catch up with our friends David and Melanie, who just happened to be in town in between their many adventures. As always, we packed it in, arriving home late tired and happy!

Run for the Gulf 5K and Jack Johnson

With 7 weekends to go, Nikki and I took a little bit of a "break" and stuck around DC.

We had signed up for a 5k right near our house on Friday night which was organized to raise money for the oil disaster in the Gulf. Nikki did approximately 2.5 runs to prepare herself for the race and did fantastic, especially since it was crazy-hot and humid that evening. I think this could be the start of a new trend! I ended up winning the race in 16:18, which I felt pretty good about considering how long it's been since I've done competitive running (and the fact that I did a 13 mile run that morning!). Race results are here: http://www.runpacers.com/raceresults/run_for_gulf_10/index.asp, though apparently Nikki's timing chip didn't work (bummer!). There are also some pictures online at:
http://runforthegulf5k.shutterfly.com/pictures/36#20
http://runforthegulf5k.shutterfly.com/pictures/36#36
We celebrated with a great meal at Cashions Eat Place in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC - nothing like good food after a race!

Saturday I recovered by taking a fun long bike ride with my buddy Virgile and Nikki and I hit up Costco to pick up supplies for our impending move to Vietnam. In the evening continued supporting environmental-causes-via-fun-events by going to a Jack Johnson concert as part of his To the Sea CD release tour. It was at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, which is outside with a big grassy lawn and space around the edge for food and booths where Jack had invited environmental organizations to set up - great idea! Jack played with ALO and G-Love and all three were really great - it was a super-fun evening!!

Delicious Food in Philly

We've been so busy I've not been able to keep up with the blogging! The next few posts are an attempt to catch up.

With 8 weekends in DC left, we headed up to Philly in early July to focus on one thing and one thing alone - eating good food. This has been an evolving passion for me and Nikki and visiting the city of brotherly love turned out to be a great opportunity for seeing our buddy Jeff Glenn and tapping into his like-minded love of analyzing meals in excruciating detail and knowledge of the city.

Jeff actually did a much better job of taking pictures and documenting the meals than I can do, so I stole a few pics and included them here. Jeff's work is at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jglenner/PhillyFoodWeekendWNikkiEvan#. He's a great photographer and I would for sure check em out.

I can say that we had some of the best food I've eaten in my life. We made every meal count and Jeff and I took running tours of the city each morning to ensure that we maintained plenty of appetite.

Nikki and I got in on Friday night and ate at a place called Alma de Cuba - highlights of the meal were fantastic ceviche and a chocolate cigar dessert. My coconut cocktail was also damn good (if a little girly). After retracing Rocky's run through the Italian market and South St the next day, we headed to Rouge for one of the best burgers in America - I'd say it was worthy of some kind of award, though Good Stuff Eatery in DC is still my #1 fave. We took a trolley/bus tour of the city, including stops at Eastern State Penitentiary and the Art Museum, and built up an appetite for Cantonese/Peruvian fusion at Chifa. I know if sounds weird, but the tapas-style reinventions of traditional plates like bao and empanadas were delicious. The highlight was actually the free cheese-filled bread with a guava-siracha dipping sauce that we are all pretty sure had crack in it. Second dinner was at Buddakan, which had strange and wonderful modern asian concoctions like edemame ravioli and wasabi tuna carpachio pizza. Not bad drinks either - apparently yuzu is the new hot mixer these days! The bento-box dessert was sooo good - I feel like my mother would have been in heaven! We saved just enough room for pinkberry-style yogurt on the way home and called it a successful day.

The next morning, Jeff and I ran around west Philadelphia unsuccessfully looking for Will Smith while I had flashbacks of the Penn Relays. Meanwhile, Nikki got to do some quality shopping! We all built up an appetite and converged on the Continental, where the highlight was definitely a cinnamon-marscapone-stuffed waffle in bourbon syrup. Mmmmmmm. My bacon-infused vodka martini was also not bad. Of course, we had to finish our Philly trip with some cheesesteaks. With the final game of the world cup playing in the background, we cruised South Street and settled on steaks from ishkabibbles and steaks on south (SOS). After a very close taste-test competition, we decided Ishka was the winner. While Jeff hit the road, Nikki and I went back and picked up a chicken-cheesesteak for comparison (not bad) and hit up the Philly Magic Gardens, where a local artist has spent 14 years creating a huge art piece in a lot and adjacent house comprised of all kinds of junk. Pretty cool.

Riding high on our good food kick, Nikki and I continued the trend when we got back to DC and visited Eric Ripert's West End Bistro, where we made special reservations to sit at the pass between the kitchen and the restaurant. Definitely one of the coolest dining experiences we have ever had!! We got to pick the brain of the head chef and see how it gets done in a high-class restaurant first hand. I took a picture of our grilled octopus, but all the food, including grilled striped bass and shrimp and grits, was awesome. We've got a long list of places to try here in DC, so hopefully we can squeeze in a few more memorable dining experiences before we leave!

4th of July in Savannah

Nikki, Hina, and I took advantage of the long weekend to meet up with Amy, Anthony, and Gordita in Savannah, Georgia for the 4th of July. It was a long drive for sure, but totally worth it. Nikki and I did the drive over two days, munching on boiled peanuts and blueberries while blasting country music and taking a detour along the South Carolina coast to check out Myrtle Beach and Charleston (we had some of the best BBQ ever in Charleston - mmm, mustard-based sauce....). Amy found us a cool little vacation rental in the historic district of Savannah, walking distance to the river/restaurants etc. We had fun cruising around the neighborhood with huge old trees covered in spanish moss, antebellum architecture, and a park perfect for running around with the dogs.

Naturally, the highlight of the weekend was the fact that Hina and Gordita finally got to meet!! Looking back through our pictures, it appears that our activities were almost exclusively confined to posing our puppies in the most ridiculously cute positions imaginable, and snapping a photo. The two girls mostly got along by the end, though there were a couple of snarly teeth-gnashing sessions (Hina and Gordita were fairly well-behaved too). We went for walks, visited a fort, hung out at restaurants and watched the world cup, and on Sunday, went kayaking around Tybee Island. Within 5 minutes of pushing off the dock, both dogs had fallen in the river - thank goodness they were wearing adorable puppy-life-jackets! That was small consultation to Amy though, as her motherly instincts drove her to immediately dive in after her floating puppy-buoy daughter, who maintained her composure and paddled around with her tongue just peaking out through her clenched teeth - she's a natural!

On Sunday, we celebrated birthdays for both Gordita and America. Amy busted out a delicious doggie-cake and Gordita, Hina, Ant, and I all wore party hats. We all enjoyed Nikki's homemade mojito-tea on the back porch before heading out for an nice dinner at the Pink House and fireworks on the river. It was a late night and Nikki and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7 for the long drive home.

Another fantastic weekend and only eight more to go before we ship out. Next weekend we're off the Philly to meet up with Jeff Glenn and see what culinary delights the city has to offer. I think I'm going to fast until then to prepare myself.