Postcards from the Trail

What a wonderful time. I'll post-date some posts on what we did but I wanted to get some thoughts down now.

E and I got along great. She really knows her way around NYC since she has two brothers who have lived there for 20 years or so and she has been visiting them. It was great to be able to let her show me the ropes. We also traveled very well together. Of course, it was pretty easy this time since so much was familiar to her and we had events planned for most of the nights. It may have been much harder if we would have had to decide where to eat all the nights. We are also both pretty easy going and we able to go with the flow.

I also got to see a very different side of NYC than the average tourist because we stayed with family and friends. It was great to be able to stay at the different areas of NYC, the upper West side, Soho and East Village. So much less personal than a hotel room. It also helped me to get a good feeling for the energy of Manahattan. So much is happening all the time.

G did very well. He really appreciated having the prepared meals. Now I have to make enchiladas again because he loved them so much. That is what is on tap for dinner tonight. I might make a few up in advance and put them in the freezer so he can have them and I can have something else. They are too much fat for me to eat that often.

I feel like I'm in a revolving door. You know the kind in NYC. You go in one side and pop out somewhere else. I'm leaving again. This time for California.

We are going to CA partially as a Mother's Day visit but also for plant shopping. The annual plant sale at Cabrillo College is going on and we need to go down and buy more salvias for the business. The winter was a bit rough on them and we lost quite a few so it is time to go buy some more. We'll also make a stop at Sierra Azul nursery in Watsonville and maybe a trip up to the arboretum at UC Santa Cruz.

We took it for granted that G's mom would be home. We were kinda shocked when we phoned a couple of weeks ago and found out that they were going to Philly and wouldn't be back until the evening we arrive. So much for an extra day to visit with mom. But we'll put it to good use. We'll spend the day in Berkeley doing more plant shopping. I get my share in also and I'm planning on a little bit of food and wine shopping. We'll probably go up to Solano Avenue for some yummy Mexican Food at Cactus. While we are in the neighborhood, I plan to drop in to A.G Ferrari and pick up some Italian goodies to take to Stockton. Then we will check out a wine store near by. Probably Solano Cellars although Vino! is right next door. And maybe a stop at Kermit Lynch.

On the way over, we'll pick up some breakfast in Sacramento. 33rd Street Bistro looked interesting as did Cafe Bernardo. I love the web. Just a few googles and I have ideas on where to eat. No more Denny's or Lyons at the interchange. After that we'll head on over to Berkeley. There's a couple of other gardens we might check out if we have time.

We have to get our hard luggage. We have an interesting way of bringing back the plants. We will take them out of their pots, remove most of the soil, wrap them in plastic and pack them like sardines in an old Samsonite suitcase. We can bring back around 25 plants which is just about right. G will have to spend most of a day preparing the plants but we're coming back late so that will be fine.

It will be good to see our grand niece also. She'll be around 2 years old.

The journey started out with an early alarm to make our 7am flight to Sacramento. It was delayed a bit with some mechanical problems but soon we were in flight. We got our car in Sacramento. What a surprise. The agent asked if we wanted to upgrade and we said "No". We walked out to the lot and looked for the car in U25. What!!! It was a Chrysler PT Cruiser. We ordered a compact and expected to get something like a Neon. Oh well. We never seem to get what we order in CA. It was okay. Sucked gas big time and drove like a van. Actually it was kinda stressful in the traffic because I wanted a small car.

We decided on breakfast at 33rd Street Bistro which was very good. G had the smoked salmon and eggs and I had a tasty scramble with smoked trout, eggs and potatoes. Yummm. The only thing I didn't like a lot was the toast. Way too thick. But I'd love to go back.

The trip over I-80 was typically; fast and speedy. We headed to our first nursery, Magic Gardens in Richmond. They had an okay selection but nothing new. We ended up getting a black succulent for G's Mom. Next up was Berkeley Horticulture. Always a great place to visit. Unfortunately, they hadn't gotten all their deliveries yet for Mother's Day and the selection of Salvias wasn't great. We were hoping to pick up a couple of different greggi hybrids but nothing much available.

Next it was off to the Berkeley Botanical Garden. Time flew by as we explored the areas. The California area was not readily accessible so we investigated the South America and Mexico areas. We were so surprised to see the xxx in bloom in the Chile area. These are plants that are in the bromelia family and we did not get to see any when we were in Chile. But here they were in full bloom and they we wild. One of the blooms was chartruse in color. The other one was a strange aqua-ish blue color. It was so weird it looked plastic. We were running out of time so we rushed off to see what we could in the Mexico plants and saw several great salvias in bloom.

We were getting hungry so it was off to Solano Avenue. First stop Solano Cellars to get a couple of bottles of wine. I picked up a St. Clair Sauvignon Blanc from NZ and an interesting Riesling from Germany. Then off to Cactus for some Mexican food. G had the Chile Rellenos, his favorite, and I had the rock shrimp enchiladas which had a great green mole for the sauce. We were in heaven. Then off to fight the traffic and a two hour drive to the Valley.

Thursday was a day to spend with the family. Our grand-niece was dropped off at 7:30. G's mom is day care. A very amazing woman. She is mid-70's and is taking care of her great granddaughter. She loves it. It has revitalized them even though it is very hard work.

Cierra is a great kid. She is just about 2 years old and helps out. She was helping with the dishes and making her own breakfast. Of course, she could have been on her best behavior.

Mom made a great enchilada dinner and G's sister and other neice came by for dinner. We also got to see our grand nephew. There is a little rivalry between the two.

Friday was the big day. We left early to drive to Santa Cruz which is about a 2 hour drive. We went down I-5 and over Pacheco Pass to Gilroy and then over Heckler Pass into Watsonville. Here we stopped at Sierra Azul Nursery. Great plants and picked up several salvias. Then we headed into downtown Watsonville for some more Mexican food. We decided to try Las Islitas which was recommended on Chowhound. It was a real experience. The waitress didn't speak english so it took us a while to switch into our Spanish tourist mode. But it was great. I had the Shrimp Rancheras which was shrimp with tomatoes, onion and chile and G had Shrimp Cucharachas which was shrimp sauted with Chilpote chiles. Yummm..

We still had a bit of time before the sale so we cruised over to Aptos and went to a couple of nurseries. We made it to the sale at 2:45 so we could snag a wagon.

G gave me the list and off I went. I could find everything and soon the wagon was overflowing. I finally gave up and found a place to sit with the wagon and left G to go searching. After about 1 hour, we had almost 2 dozen plants. It was time to back to the Valley. Unfortunately the traffic was pretty heavy and it took us almost three hours to get back.

"Suitcase full of.... " What is that old saying? Is it a "Suitcase full of Dreams?" I googled it and found everyone seems to say a suitcase full of xxx. But we actually do have a suitcase full of plants.

So how does one bring back 40 plants from California to Washington by plane? Especially since over half are in gallon pots. It is actually very easy but it does take a bit of work.

You take the plant out of the pot and remove about 1/2 or so of the soil. Wrap the rootball in plastic wrap. Trim the plant so that it is about a foot or so high. Then wrap the whole plant in newspaper so that it is in a tube and fold up the bottom. Tape with clear mylar tape. There you have a plant-to-go!

We take along two hardsided old Samsonite pieces of luggage and can get about 24 or plants in the a case. Once you get to your destination, then just unwrap and pot. Very similar to how you might receive plants in the mail from a mail order nursery.

It too us about 3 hours or so to wrap up all the plants. Meanwhile sister and families dropped by and we had a great visit. As usual it goes way to fast.

Soon it was time for our quick trip to the airport. We got to finally drop off the Cruiser and wave good bye again to the Valley.

God we have been in such a rut. It is so tough when it is spring and G is busy with plant sales and working in the nursery. Plus there is so much to do ourselves in the yard. It has been ages since we have been out to dinner or even ventured together to downtown Seattle. But the plant sales are done so I suggested that we go to dinner.

E-Gullet has been highlighting a thread on their board about a new restaurant called Union. It is at the south end of the Pike Market near the Seattle Art Museum. It sounded very interesting. I was torn between going to Rays for some good Copper River or trying something new. It is somewhat hard with G because he doesn't eat meat, only fish, when we go out. So it is important to have a good selection of fish or vegetarian on the menu. He hates it when we go out and there is one fish dish and it has some type of meat in it.

After reviewing the thread, I was definitely intrigued and G seemed to be game for trying something new. So I made a reservation on OpenTable and we planned a nice night out. We gave ourselves an hour to drive into downtown Seattle since it was the Friday of Memorial day. It wasn't bad until we got off on Stewart. It took me almost as long to get from the Freeway to 1st and Union as it did to drive down to the exit. We parked next to the Wild Ginger and we there a bit early for our 5:30 reservation.

We were one of the first for the evening. It used to bug us to be alone in a restaurant but no longer. It is actually kinda nice. The server explained the restaurant concept. Instead of the typical appetizer, salad, entree, there were three courses groupings on the menu. The plates are small so you are able to taste several different items. A person with a good appetite can easily eat three courses. Or there is the tasting menu which has 7 courses and is an exceptional deal for $45.00. But as usual, it included meat so it wasn't an option for us.

We decided to have all three courses and ordered a bottle of french Sancerre. The server brought by an amuse bouche of a bite of poached Cooper River Salmon. It was just cooked to lightly and was very tasty. G started with the Mixed salad with goat cheese and hazelnuts. It arrived in a tower of greens on top of the goat cheese and hazelnuts. Very good. I had an outstanding crab and avocado salad. It was crab and avocado mixed together into a circle topped with miners lettuce and accented with an herb oil. For our second course. G had the softshelled crab. It was lightly floured and fried. It was accented with sauted porcini and saba. I couldn't remember what Saba was until we asked, basically a basalmic like vinegar made from grape juice mosto. Excellent! I had the morel ravioli with favas. The favas were great and the ravioli very good but I didn't get a strong taste of morels.

For third course, I had the beef loin with shallot sauce and grilled young red onions. Perfect. G had the Copper River with morels and peas. It was just as he liked it.

I was not full so I wanted dessert. I toyed with the idea of having the cheese course but wanted something sweet. Most of the dessert menu was chocolate. There was a rhurbarb crisp but I'm not into rhurbarb so I decided on the Chocolate Espresso pot of creme. Very good. I also had a glass of dessert wine from France. G decided on a grappa.

After dinner, we decided to walk up to see the new Seattle Library. What a wonderful building. It is so Dutch in being functional and designed. The entry from 5th Avenue is stunning. It was closed and we can't wait to go back to go inside.

It was so much fun walking around and seeing the buildings. Looking at the design on the Cobb building and the lines and views. I miss not going downtown as much since G no longer works in the market. We must do this more often.

Finally, we have gotten back into training for Mt. Whitney. Two months! Just two months to get our butts in gear. We haven't been on the trail for over a month. I had also gotten out of running with the trips to NYC and CA.

So a week ago we started with the stairs again. groannnnnn. I did my 8 circuits and G did 10. The next day we did a nice hike in central Washington where we saw some wonderful wildflowers. It was also a good workout at 6 miles and 2000ft gain.

This week, I investigated the new bridge over Aurora Avenue. I can now walk from my office on Lake Union to the top of Queen Anne. I took an hour and walked to the top and then ran along Highland Drive with the gorgeous views of Seattle. I hope to be able to do it every week.

On Saturday, we did the stairs again. Boring but effective. On Sunday, we went to Teanaway Ridge. We had hoped to get out of the rain bur no luck. We got drenched a couple of times but the flowers were wonderful. The hike was short, 3 miles, 1000ft.