Friday in Vancouver

The loooong weekend in Vancouver was pretty packed with people to see and with food and beverage to consume, so let's take this day by day, shall we?  Agreed?  Good!

Last Friday I visited a place I hadn't been in a couple of months, curiously enough:  LAX.  My first flights of 2026, and it took me until February to do so.  Without a midwinter conference to attend, there was no travel by plane in January.  But last Friday brought me back to the familiar sights from the United Club at Terminal 7

and then the familiar feeling of an exit row aisle seat.  

I dozed off, then read, and I was on the ground in Vancouver by noon.  Canada Line to Waterfront, a block or so to walk to the hotel, and - happily! - there was a room ready for me. 

I checked in, dropped my bags, headed to the club for a not-too-late and not-too-large lunch, then came back to unpack.  And nap.  Yep, nap.  The nice thing about getting away is doing things like that, and since I had a king bed

all to myself for four nights, I took advantage!

Friday evening rolled around, and I freshened up.  It was a mile or so to walk over to Yaletown to meet up with Steven and Jenny for dinner at Capo and the Spritz. 

So good to see them again!  It had been much longer than I realized - over two years! - and I missed out on the last opportunity because I was sick in the hotel room.  We had a great time catching up over a couple of drinks (I had a negroni variation called The Alpine Fire that was tasty enough for a second one) and a special Restaurant Week menu.  I liked the food there - it didn't blow me away, but it was good, and the special price for three courses was terrific.  Especially when you check out how generous a portion that lamb shank was!

They drove me back to the hotel, and I forewent any sort of nightcap.  Night closed over the city, and I turned in at an entirely decent hour. 

Jungle Bird

A quick post here on my lunch break before I head down to the desk on this rainy Thursday.  It wasn't raining when I came home this morning and then went for a walk alone and then with Conrad.  But the forecast proved true, and here we are, getting a decent soaking.  It's been a good winter for rain here in terms of overall volume, and things are cold enough that the mountains will get some snow.  Still, it makes for a more tense drive, and we perhaps could have had the same rain spread out a little more rather than in a few short bursts.  Ah well.

But happier things:  a cocktail last night.  Van was so taken with his cocktail at Mirate last week (and he's heading there tonight with a former colleague) that he's taken to drinking the Jungle Bird since.  So it was that he made us a pair last night.  Not bad.  I think the balance was a little off, and it needed a touch of sweetening.  But it was nice enough!  Cheers! 

I was up in Vancouver

So lately when I am out of town without my laptop, I have been unable to post photos to my blog, and that has put a damper on my vacation blogging whilst I am in the middle of the vacation.  I didn't have time after I arrived home yesterday evening, and this evening I have plans with Van.  I'm dashing off a quick check-in on my lunch break today for posting this evening, and when I have time free tomorrow night and on the weekend, I'll really catch up on things.

So, for now, I was in Vancouver for an extended weekend of visiting with friends and family.  Much more to come!  And hello again! 

Blech. Sigh.

I really need to swim more often than I do.  Don't let the smile fool you:  that was an awful, lumbering effort.

Sigh.

Better than zero, right?  Sometimes, it feels, it barely is. 

Wednesday dinner in

A brief post on a Wednesday after dinner.  I made a standby tonight:  pork tenderloin.  Alongside I put a wedge of cabbage roasted and with prosciutto inserted between leaves.  Some farro to complete the plate along with coarse mustard. 

Not a bad Wednesday dinner.

And beforehand, it was nice to chat with Conrad while we sipped daiquiris. 

No, none of the frozen slop that so many bars give you.  The real thing.

Tomorrow is my Friday.  Hooray for a long weekend ahead! 

Mírate

A Monday night dinner out for us last night, and not in Pasadena!  Will wonders never cease?!

Because of his work schedule, our friend Denny finds it easier to meet up with us midweek (today is his Saturday) rather than on weekends.  Not impossible on weekends, but he has to be mindful of work the next day if we do get together.  He's in WeHo, we're in Pasadena, so we sometimes try to meet halfway-ish.  Last night that meant heading over to the Los Feliz neighbourhood and dining together at a restaurant Van had suggested for all of us:   Mírate.

The drive was fairly easy, and we all arrived on time.  We had a quieter corner upstairs, which I appreciated for Conrad's sake.  Handsome space as well, I have to say.  And I liked the menu.  It's a simple menu for the most part with only a few large plates (which we didn't order - we stuck to smaller plates).  They take pride in having a bar that is stocked with only Mexican spirits and wines, and while that constrains them in terms of making some classic drinks, that constraint can also lead to some very good things, some creative beverages.  As was the case with my first one, the El Pulquero. 

Made from pulque and featuring some savoury flavours and a pickled onion and cilantro garnish, the drink was meant to spin off from a Gibson.  I liked it, simple as that.  It was not an obvious or sweet drink, and each sip made me pause and think a moment.

That said, the clear winner of the cocktails last night was the one that Van ordered and that Denny and I ordered as our second drinks (he and Conrad each had a Cadillac margarita to start with):  the El Caminante. 

An excellent drink that was modeled on the classic tiki cocktail the Jungle Bird, but served up in a Nick and Nora glass.  Tasty.  I also had a digestif with dessert, the Fernet Vallet.  It was like Fernet Branca but less body.

The food was good, too.  We shared some smashed avocado and queso fundido

and the mole and turon. 

Each were tasty.  Simple, which was fine.  My sense of the food last night was that it put a focus on the ingredients and didn't hide them under lots of sauce or fat or frou-frou.  After the shared plates, we opted for tacos, and I had a shrimp taco and (this will shock some) a mushroom taco. 

I actually preferred the latter.  And yes, I do sometimes eat certain mushrooms, just never those revolting button mushrooms.  My rule of thumb for restaurants is that if they identify the type of mushroom, then it's probably a safe bet, but if they simply say "wild mushrooms", they're using a blend that will include button mushrooms or some disgusting variant thereof.

We did share two desserts. 

The cheesecake was fine, but I didn't get any hint of tamarind from it.  The pan de elote, a blue corn cornbread with banana ice cream, was far better.

All in all a nice evening to catch up with Denny.  He's a great guy, and he likes a good cocktail, so his company is very welcome! 

first (full) weekend in February

The year feels like it's flying by already, weirdly enough.  A week into February?  Wow.  I was doing some travel planning for later this year tonight, and in some ways, that travel will be upon us before we know it.  There won't be as much travel this year, by the way, but there will be some,

It's soon bedtime here, tomorrow is the first day of the semester (though I have a light schedule tomorrow).  Before I head upstairs, let me recap the weekend that was.  The weekend that should have been would have been in Seattle, visiting Natasha and a few other friends.  What with Conrad's shoulder still bothering him, it was a pretty low key time of it here.  And that was good!

We skipped Maestro this weekend and stayed in.  Conrad's shoulder affects things that much, and I know that he would have been uncomfortable in restaurant chairs or bar stools.  At his request, I whipped up some pasta with a homemade tomato sauce and some pork meatballs I put together.  We started out with Vespers and sat outside,

eventually having dinner and some red wine with it.  An easy evening.

Saturday morning we got in a modest walk then made our way over to Amara Cafe for breakfast.  A bit of a change from our usuals yesterday morning, and we ended up sharing a breakfast burrito. 

Much of the day was spent on household things - I did a few batches of laundry, and then Conrad folded the laundered items.  But I did break out the iron and ironing board and began work on the assorted napkins.  It's always nice to have crisp, pressed napkins when we eat dinner, and we have a small dinner party planned for later in the month, so it will be good to have some on hand.

Last night we were over at Van's for dinner, but not for overnight - again, Conrad's shoulder.  Poor guy.  He really is low-level (and occasionally high level) miserable from it all, and it's going to take time and therapy on it.  Anyway, we got to Van's late afternoon with the plan for him to grill us burgers.   Conrad had picked up some cobbler from a place near his barber's shop, and I made us cocktails to start with.  Last Words for the two of them, but I was in the mood for something not citrusy, at least not at first, and I ended up trying a drink called the Sun Stealer. 

Not bad.  I'll try that one again.  Anyway, it was a satisfying dinner, and then we watched an episode of Drag Race with Van (and Olive!) before returning home.

Today we had a lazy start to things and not much of a walk.  It's fine.  I know I need the exercise and more, but I also need days where I take it a little more easy.  We made our coffees, we did some things on line, then I barreled through the ironing most of the rest of the day.  Oh, we took a nice amount of time in the afternoon to catch up with Courtney and Robert online, but by gosh I got those napkins done. 

Whew!  All afternoon long I also had a chicken slowly roasting in the oven,

and it made for a nice, simple dinner served with some broccoli.  Lots of leftovers for Conrad on Tuesday as well!

After dinner, some travel planning, as I mentioned.  The kitchen is tidied up, Conrad is upstairs, and I shall trek up to join him shortly.  Monday will soon be here, but at least it's a short week at work! 

steak

It's been an odd thing in the past year or so:  I've started cooking steaks at home from time to time.  I seldom had steak at restaurants for years, and I never cooked them at home.  More recently, though, I've come to appreciate the relative simplicity of cooking them.  So, given a date night at Van's last night (we watch television that Conrad won't, American Idol being the current show), I opted for some larger than realized steaks.  Seasoned well and left to sit, seared in a skillet, served atop spinach with baby carrots on the side and a blue cheese vinaigrette overtop.  Not bad.

I haven't posted much of my own cooking lately because I think my cooking has become mostly functional, utilitarian, not anything to be proud of.  But last night, you know?  The steak tasted good.  A small pat on the back to me. 

San Diego jaunt - the other parts

It wasn't all food and cocktails in San Diego, weirdly enough.  I know, I know - travel based around what we can eat and drink is a common thing for us, but in this instance I built in one other activity (which was sort of food related, but not a real culinary experience).  Not to mention the train trips!

The train to and from San Diego is a lovely experience through a nice swath of the southern half of the route.  Rolling through the LA

and its suburbs and into Orange County is not especially scenic as you head to San Diego, but then you hit San Juan Capistrano,

and the coast after that, and it's lovely.  There was a thick haziness to the day along the coast, and that gave the sun a dreamy, ghostly quality over the ocean. 

It's a three-hour trip, and I dozed and read next to Conrad.

The Santa Fe Depot,

San Diego's train station, is located very conveniently downtown, and our hotel was a short few blocks away.  We got to our room, unpacked, then headed to the second floor terrace bar for an afternoon drink. 

The hotel was nice enough, but I don't think I'd stay again.  What they called a suite was a large corner room with seating,

and that meant when Conrad was snoring up a storm each night, I couldn't escape to a sofa bed or other room.  Other than the spacious bathroom, where I set up a bed on the floor with couch cushions.  It actually wasn't too bad a night of sleep in there.  But I shouldn't have had to sleep in there.  Shame on me for not looking at the photos of the room more closely when I booked it.  Ah well.  The views from the room were not much,

and the club room was really only available for breakfast.  It wasn't an inexpensive stay, and I didn't feel it was entirely worth it beyond a very convenient location.  Lesson learned for the next trip down there!

On Thursday we did a morning walk,

had breakfast, then got ourselves ready to take the trolley a few stops away to the Old Town San Diego stop.  I had booked us spots on a walking tour of the historic area.  Tacos, tombstones, and tequila made up the tagline for the tour promo, and I thought it would be fun.  It was!  The weather was warmer and sunnier than we had expected, and I wish I had brought along a tshirt or very light layers.  But we had caps and sunglasses and sunscreen, so that was fine.  We ended up being with 8 other people who were all together as part of a corporate retreat.  They were nice enough, though.  And we did like Benedict, our tour guide.

The tour focused on some of the buildings

in the state historical park

as well as nearby structures,

like the beautiful 100-year old church. 

Benedict had great details to share, like stories about the old cemetery

and why there are grave markers in the street (they paved over the cemetery rather than relocate bodies). 

There were also stops for tacos at two places (both of them fine enough, but neither taco was a fish one, which is something San Diego is known for) with accompanying margaritas (the tacos were far far better), street corn at another place (also fine), and a churro (also fine).  I liked the tour and the information, I thought the food part was alright but unexceptional.  We had a great time of it, though, well worth it.

We poked in a shop or two after that, and then it was back to the hotel to relax and get ready for dinner.  The next morning we had a walk,

got breakfast, packed, and then it was the reverse train trip home. 

A short getaway, but a really lovely one.  I'm glad I got to give Conrad that gift.