After a hectic month between Thanksgiving and XMas, seeing family in both San Francisco and Chicago, we opted for a relatively chill evening with Chuck and Katy at their place in Chicago. This was Keira's first NYE (well, second if you count being on the "inside" in Oaxaca MX last year) so even though it was going to be relatively calm and civilized compared to years past, we were still going to bring it in with style.
For 30-something foodie (yuppie) types, this meant good food, good wine, good champagne, and of course, good company.
We came together and prepared a 5 course meal: * Hor Dourves - Cheese Plate with Pepper Jelly and Prosciutto * Soup - Dungeness Crab and Carrot Soup * Salad - Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad * Main - Cornish Game Hens (1 each), with Roasted Veggies and Wild Rice * Dessert - Chocolate Lava Cake
This was all paired with 2 reds (a Cotes Du Rhone and a Napa/Sonoma Cab), 2 whites (a Stags Leap Viognier and a Vouvray Loire Valley), 2 bubblers (Mumm & Vueve), and some nice Hennesey Cognac to top of the evening (and start the next morning with a headache).
Some Wines
Dungeness Crab and Carrot Soup
Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with crushed Pistachios
Game Hens with Roasted Winter Vegetables and Wild Rice Pilaf
Chocolate Lava Cake
Some Vueve
A perfect evening to ring in the new year and close out the decade.
We had a wonderful time being back home for the holidays. This Christmas was extra special for many reasons. We got to meet the newest little member of our family, Colten Michael Garcia. Keira celebrated her first Christmas, discovering that the paper, ribbons and bows are lots of fun to play with. Naveen celebrated his first Christmas with my family and helped me to make a fantastic Christmas dinner consisting of roasted vegetables, garlic mashed potatoes and a tri-tip roast. And.... we got to play in the SNOW. Keira seemed to really enjoy her first ride on a sled. The time home went by way too fast but we certainly had a very MERRY Christmas. Play slideshow - 58 View photos individually
A few years ago it seemed like everyone we knew was getting married... now everyone is having kids! Keira is certainly enjoying all the extra playdates. We spent a lovely evening with the Figenholtz family while we were back for the holidays. Stella is a couple of months older than Keira but the girls had a great time playing together. Not to mention that the parents had fun too. If only we lived a little closer!
A few years ago we started a Holiday Dinner tradition with several of our closest friends. Although many of the original group has moved on (Greg & Ale are in CO... Gautham & Lara are in MO), we have still tried to take some time to celebrate together. This year our group was small but we had a great time. We changed things up and decided to do all the cooking together. Great idea, however, we were obviously having too much fun to remember to take pictures! Thanks to my wonderful husband we do have a few pictures of the food, I mean festivities. :) Play slideshow - 16 View photos individually
Keira and Soraya did great on their first visit to the big guy. No tears and we actually got a few cute pics of the four of us. Happy Holidays! Play slideshow - 9 View photos individually
This year we were extra thankful for the +1 in our family. It is hard to even imagine our lives without Keira! She certainly is loved.
Although everyone was a bit under the weather, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving in San Francisco. Naveen's parents came out for the holiday and had lots of fun playing with Keira while Naveen and I cooked up a pretty impressive (1st) turkey dinner. Naveen was the real chef as he was in charge of the bird, but I definitely helped. The dinner consisted of a carrot fennel soup, parsnip potato puree, wild rice stuffing, some fancy green beans and turkey with cider sage gravy. Everything was super yummy.
Naveen and I snuck out one evening to pick out our Christmas tree and grab a pint. Not sure Keira enjoyed trimming the tree this year but she was certainly fascinated by the lights and all the pretty ornaments. What a great start to our holiday season. Play slideshow - 31 View photos individually
Mary flew out to San Francisco to spend some time with Keira. Her timing was perfect since Naveen was out of town for the first time and I was trying out the single parent act. The extra set of hands was much appreciated especially since Keira decided to perfect her speed crawling technique. I think she might actually catch the cat soon - watch out Nip!
Mary also had fun teaching Keira how to play, "Sooooo big" and encouraged her to begin climbing the stairs and pulling herself up on the furniture. Long gone are the days where she would just stay where you put her. Sigh.
To celebrate the upcoming arrival of the newest member of our extended family, Keira and I flew back to Chicago for a Baby Shower the first weekend in November. Naveen had been out of town all week for work so he met us in Chicago and surprised everyone with his visit. Just like when she was pregnant with Aiden, Jessie looked beautiful. The evening went by way too fast but a good time was had by all. Play slideshow - 51 View photos individually
Keira had a fun filled Halloween. On Thursday afternoon she came to school with me to walk in our Annual Halloween Parade. The children in the Galapagos Village had given us a cute penguin costume last year before she was born and it fit perfectly!
Then on Saturday we drove down to hang out with the Cristina Clan in Willow Glenn. Keira was wearing Maya's ladybug costume from many years ago.
She certainly was a cute little bug, we hope you enjoy the other pictures.
We signed Keira up for swimming classes down at the YMCA. Her classification is a shrimp! Keira had a great time splashing around in the pool with her daddy.
So it's actually been more than a week since we've been back at home and the demands of work-life had taken over and delayed us in posting this the obligatory "conclusion" post. I can tell you that after more than a week of driving with the family, it was very, very hard to get the head back into the work mode :( But all is good now and we are back in the daily rhythm of our life in SF (although Keira's sleep cycle sometimes seems to still be on vacation mode).
The Grand Autumn Ramble came to an end, and we have many miles and many memories o remember, not to mention Keira's first experience with the freedom of the open road.
Here are some things to remember, especially for those of you with little ones on the way: * Multiply your trip time by a factor of 1.5 or 2, the extra time is needed buffer for "stuff". We could probably have done all of this in 7 days, but we planned for 15 and actually got done in about 12. * Baby will fall out of any routine very quickly, especially when driving a lot during the day and being in new places each night - Expect the party to go past midnight * Don't expect to get the routine back quickly when you return. We are now learning this lesson * Plan for down time - days where you do nothing, and times during the day where nothing is planned. This is good with a baby and even without. * Expect meltdowns, especially at dinner and especially at the nice restaurant; you can't expect to tour all day and have a 9pm dinner w/o something giving...well you can, but the baby will keep you honest * Traveling during the fall is awesome. You get great deals no matter where you go and no crowds * Yellowstone is awesome * Tetons are awesome * Jackson Hole is awesome * Avoid staying in casinos - We found a great deal on expedia for our night in Reno, but it was at Harras. We thought nothing of it until we went to check in, and we realized that we were staying in a Casino. There's something just not right about staying in a Casino (especially in Reno) w/ your baby. You'll know this when you go down to eat at the Casino restaurant and see who else is there on a Sunday night at 8pm. * Truckee is awesome * Unless you're eating at the Ahwahnee, the 'nice' food at National Parks is typically not so nice. You pay 4-star prices for 2-star food and 1-star service, not worth it. Check out the lower end places or even the bar/pub for more reasonable price to quality parity. * 2 weeks off with the family is all sorts of awesome
Some notable places to remember (and forget) for next time: * Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone - Great experience staying in this historic lodge (the first to be built in the US) in such a geyser basin in Yellowstone. Old Faithful and a bunch of other geothermal points of interest right out the door, and not to mention, tons of wildlife. Most of the buffalo pics we took were right outside the door here.
* Salt Lake City - Surprisingly great food, this coming from two SF'ers. Great Himalayan/Nepalese food at Himalayan Kitchen (order all the Nepalese dishes). Even more surprising was the sushi at Takashi's. Many of the reviews were from Californian's being surprised by the quality, and we were having a sushi craving so we decided to try it and were not disapointed. The Strawberry Fields Maki was out of this world, never tasted anything like this before. We went to Blue Iguana to sample some Mole after reading about it in the New York Times. It was just an OK experience, I wouldn't go back. Verde Mole was great, my traditional mole was so-so, and service and ambiance were meh. If you want good mole, go to Oaxaca, or the Red Iguana (which I had tried years earlier).
* Jackson Hole - Just simply an awesome town. Being a resort town, you will have to deal with some kitsch factor, but there is a thriving local community which gives it much of it's charm and character, especially during the fall shoulder season. It also has an impressive lineup of restaurants which we were pleasantly surprised by. Thai Me Up is ridiculously great thai food for a mountain town. Plus they had a great beer selection and we learned that they're actually planning on opening a brewery on-premise. We also had great asian fusion/sushi at Nikai Sushi which I also highly recommend. I was disappointed not to find a good (non-tourist-trap) stakehouse around the town square (I was told that you'd have to drive just a bit to get to a couple of good options, but we didn't want to drive). What is funny is how so many tourists praise the Teton Stakehouse, which is actually just a resurfaced Sizzler in disguise.
All in all, it was a great trip. I recoomend it to anyone who wants to see this part of the country by road, especially up by Jackson, the Tetons, and Yellowstone. No final pics to post, but we do have this one of Nip greeting Keira when we got back home:
After such a wonderful trip to Yellowstone we couldn't just sit around at home, so we piled back into the car and drove down to Half Moon Bay for some pumpkin picking!
By now Keira was an old pro in the car and was surprised to be at our destination after only 30 minutes. We were also surprised how many other families were out picking pumpkins on a random Thursday afternoon.
There were plenty of pumpkins to choose from and Keira enjoyed exploring the sea of orange. As you will see from the pictures she took the outing very serious and after much debate found her perfect pumpkin (which she promptly put in her mouth!)
On Tuesday morning we hit the road early as this would be another long day of driving. On the way out we stayed in Reno, but we were hoping to get a little further today and spend the evening in Truckee, CA. Keira was a good sport and slept for much of the morning. While she slept we listened to, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. As we got closer to the CA border we were hit by some pretty heavy rain. I think that the pitter patter of raindrops on the car roof and lack of sunshine helped Keira to sleep. We made great time and were in Truckee by about 5pm. After checking in at the Best Western (nicest Best Western I have ever been to), we let Keira stretch out and play. The rain stopped and we had dinner at Drunken Monkey for some sushi, tapas, and sake. It was good to be back in California.
No pictures but check out this cute video, Keira Attack!
It was back in the car on Sunday morning... of course we stopped to grab a latte on our way out of Jackson Hole. I think we had coffee at all three of the town's coffee shops during our visit. :) It was a bit snowy so we took our time and enjoyed each others company. As new parents we spend most waking moments talking, playing, and taking care of Keira so adult conversation in the car (while Keira is asleep) is a must. We arrived in Salt Lake City early in the afternoon, hung out and then had dinner at the Blue Iguana, not to be confused with the Red Iguana (which Naveen decided had the better mole).
Monday was spent walking around Salt Lake City (even though all the locals that we were nuts, apparently this is a driving city). We had breakfast at Bay Leaf Cafe, enjoyed touring Temple Square where Keira was a big hit with all the Sisters, and then ate lunch at Vesuvio. Took an afternoon drive up to Park City to check out the ski resorts. Hopefully the next time we are in Salt Lake City it will be for some time on the slopes! For dinner we really wanted to try out Takashi which had amazing reviews from other SF tourists. While the employees were super nice the restaurant itself did not appear to be kid-friendly so we ordered take-out and had a picnic in our hotel room. All in all I would have to say we had a great experience in Salt Lake City. The people were nice and the food was better than expected.
With six days on the road, we thought it might be nice for Keira to have an entire day with no driving. She certainly earned it. After sleeping in and eating a yummy breakfast, we spent the morning walking around Jackson Hole.
It seemed like there was a good mix of touristy shops as well as a local community. We even stumbled upon a Leeds Certified elementary school, which means the school has a focus on being environmentally friendly as well as being technology driven. Very cool. We had a late lunch at the Wort Hotel and picked up a pizza for a quiet evening in our hotel room. Jackson Hole is definitely a place worth visiting if you are ever in WY. There are not many mountain towns where the food and coffee experience meet the expectations of people from San Francisco.
Snow came in again overnight and closed up all the high roads in Yellowstone. This was not good considering that we were planning on heading back down to Jackson to the south over these now closed exists. The only road that was open was the west exist out of Yellowstone that would take us into Montana and then south towards Jackson around the backside of the Tetons. It would add about an hour to our trip, but we're not in a rush so we figured it would be a good option to try something new.
Now they sure have very liberal road controls in Montana and Idaho as you can see by the 'open' road below that looks like it's barely been plowed.
Not to fret, we took our time driving through some amazing country side with occasional snow as well as beautiful sunshine breaking through the clouds.
We got back to Jackson at a descent hour and it begin to snow again so we figured it might be a good time to take Keira for a dip in the heated indoor pool.
On the way, Keira got to witness her first snowfall and was mesmerized by the flakes as the fell from the sky.
We had the whole pool to ourselves and Keira got a chance to stretch out and swim around like a little tadpole.
We spent the day in Yellowstone seeing all that the park had to offer. Unlike some National Parks, where you have to venture out beyond the road on a hike or a backpack, most all of the major regions of Yellowstone are accessible by car thanks to the two large loops that wind through the park.
We wanted to head out early to see some morning wildlife, but were met with a 'Road Closed' sign right as we were leaving the Old Faithful basin. Evidently, the gaper factor is pretty high in Yellowstone so they have to close the mountain passes even with only a couple inches of snow on the ground. We made the best of it by filling up on a fatty breakfast and hanging out until they plowed the road.
Once that was done, we were well on our way to see some spectacular stuff. Here are some quick teasers with full set of photos at the bottom.
Geysers on the shore of Lake Yellowstone
Geothermal funness in B&W
Yellowstone Elk
Small town of Mammoth Hot Springs on the northern end of Yellowstone, where few people go. The sweeping vistas and deep valleys up in this end of the park remind me of Montana Big Sky country. Super cute place, and we wished we could have stayed here a night...maybe next time.
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