Kenji's show, Frog Park

Some time ago, someone told me about a great children's park under the 24 freeway. I remembered vaguely where it was supposed to be, so I thought it would be fun to take Zoe there. It is in a slightly unlikely place, right next to the raised 24 freeway, and next to a vast "chiodrome" as the french call them! Despite this, it is an kid's oasis complete with a water course, well kept lawn and play structures. The centerpiece is a magnificent wood play structure, with slides, swings, giant plastic spider webs and all manner of secret kid passageways. Zoe learned how to slide down a pole, which at this point involves her swinging over to the pole, death gripping it, and then hand-over-handing down the pole while giggling maniacally. Another wonderful place that we managed to miss while we were living here, I guess.




After that, we rested before the day's main event: Kenji's show at the Triton museum in Santa Clara. We left early to avoid traffic (yes, I am back to thinking about traffic and how to avoid it again) and got into the carpool lane for most of the dismal trip down 880 to the South Bay. As we approached San Jose, I found myself looking around at signs of small tech companies, thinking that somewhere in that warren of office parks, some nerd was probably coming up with the Next Big Thing. Should it surprise me that the tech revolution was spawned in such uninspiring surroundings? I'm undecided. Anyway, after some excitement getting to the general area of the museum, we ended up at a REALLY good ramen joint called Orenchi ramen. We arrived before it was open, and since we were in a hurry, got back in the car to find somewhere else to go. Just as we loaded up, a raft of Kenji's people arrived, like some kind of Japanese adhān. They were coming in from every direction and on foot and in cars. We decided that it would be better to stay, and see what the fuss was about. By the time they opened, there was a huge line going well out the door. And this is at five thirty! The ramen was great: it tasted like there was miso in the base, and the noodles were firm and delicious. We also ordered some smaller things like grilled octopus balls (tako yaki) and fried chicken, which were also excellent. It was a fortuitous find, and I'll definitely be going back if I am in the area again. From there, it was off to the museum. The show looks amazing; one of the best that I can remember, and I have seen a lot of Kenji's shows! As usual I was running around trying to remember peoples names and corral Zoe. Zoe had a great time, and it was nice seeing a lot of Kenji's old friends. I'm proud of him and mom for putting together such a great show.

Academy of Sciences

We headed into SF to visit the Cal Academy today. It really is a fantastic museum, and Zoe loved it.






She even got to touch sea stars, which was very exciting. She was, however not a fan of the automatically flushing toilets, which scared her and were soon deemed "mechante".

From there, I picked up a borrowed bike, which has aero bars. My knees hit them when i get out of the saddle, but moving them even a little is strictly verboten. Not terribly useful. At least this one is better than the mountain bike and actually has bottle cages!

Finally, Chez Panisse! The duck confit and the caramel truffle ice cream were fantastic. Kenji's fig tart was also excellent.



Finally, climbing at the gym and seeing some climbing friends. The seeing of friends part was fun, but not the falling off moderates part. Gotta get back in shape somehow! I hope it does not involve abstaining on things like duck confit, because that's just not going to happen.

Zoo!

We went to the Oakland Zoo today with Zoe. It was the first time I had been there since I was a kid. Even when we lived in Montclair, which is about five minutes from the Zoo, we somehow managed to not bring Zoe. It turns out to be pretty good, albeit a little strange to see elephants, tigers and giraffes in the Oakland hills. The giraffes were a particularly big hit because they were "huggling"




We also took the train ride, which was nice, but very, very short.

The Sky Ride looks like a better bet, but it is only switched on during the weekends.
For dinner, we headed to the Wednesday night off the grid street food event. As it happens, I was hoping to try the much loved Five Ten Burger, and they are a regular attendee. Zoe and I very much enjoyed our burgers, even if most of hers ended up on the ground. The fried chicken and cupcakes (especially the beurre sallee) were also very good.




I went for a quick ride on my dad's old mountain bike, and it felt vaguely like cycling through cement. I wish transporting bikes was not such a huge hassle.

Flight

Today was the big day: the day of Zoe and my flight to the states. My dad is having a show at the Triton museum in San Jose, so we thought it would fun to visit. It is pretty soon after Zoe's school year started to be taking time off, but we cleared it with her teacher before going. Anyway, we had been building up the plane flight for a while, and Zoe was very excited about it. Unfortunately, most connections via Lyon seem to involve painfully early flights out of LYS, and we ended up having to take the 5AM satobus to Lyon. I had not slept very well because after almost an hour on the phone with KLM and Air France, I still did not have a boarding pass for the Amsterdam-SFO leg of the flight (but Zoe did). I was picturing having to find our way back from Amsterdam on trains. As far as the early hour is concerned, although having children has shifted my concept of what I consider "early", I am definitely not an early morning person, and am barely functional at that hour. I guess I will never be an alpinist. The bus pulled into the furthest possible point in the terminal from the departure gate, but we made it to the plane in time, and took off as the sun was rising. I saw a terrified cat skittering across the path of the plane as the engines spun up and we took off. It was at this point that Zoe opened the first of many mini-presents, and watched the first of several movies on the iPad. After landing in Amsterdam and running to the gate, which was again almost twenty minutes away, we cleared security and found our seats. The plane was delayed in taking off because of "trouble starting" one of the engines. Whenever I hear things like that from the captain, I have an awful sense of foreboding. I imagine newspapers reporting that passengers were informed of engine troubles shortly before their doomed flight, but I suppose that's a little paranoid. Anyway, seven Zoe presents, four *disgusting* meals and three movies later, we stumbled off the plane. We were greeted with the usual highly oiled paradigm of efficiency that is US customs, and almost two hours after getting off the plane, we walked out of the arrivals door. Kenji and Gail were waiting for us, and Zoe excitedly gave them hugs and kisses. We stopped at Picante on the way home, for the requisite fish tacos. Kenji got a chili relleno, which was also fabulous. The watermelon and jamaica agua frescas were great, and very atypically not over sweetened.

Italy!

After a hot week, Chloe and I had a brief flash of inspiration and decided to drive to Italy for the day (I won't get tired of writing THAT anytime soon!). The plan was to use the Osterie d'Italia to find a good restaurant along the road to Turin, and then visit the Sacre di San Michele. The Osterie is like a Guide Michelin, but specializes in slow, regional food. In a way, it is like an entire guide devoted to Bib Gourmand restaurants. I found a restaurant called "Etable" in Bardonecchia, and made a reservation for lunch the night before, just to be sure we could get in. Knowing that we would be loading up on calories, chloe went for a run in the morning, and I went for a ride up Mt. San Martin. We left late in the morning, passing through the Maurienne valley and its legendary cols on both sides. After many tunnels, not the least of which was the fabulously long and expensive (45 euros round trip -- 65 dollars! Do you still think those bridge tolls are excessive?) Frejus tunnel. The first town outside the tunnel is Bardonecchia, and we arrived in plenty of time for lunch. The town was unremarkable, but reminded us a bit of Monetier. We went to a local patisserie, where they made absolutely wonderful fruit tarts

We bought several, and not only were the crusts perfect, but the fruit preserves that they used were excellent. Most of the time, fruit tarts are too sweet and lack any kind of texture that would remind you that what you were eating was once a fruit. The preserves that they used, however (probably home made) were just sweet enough, and retained some of the textures of the sour cherries and blackberries.

After wandering around for a while, it was time for lunch, which was fabulous. For appetizers, I ordered the thinly sliced veal and chloe ordered a vegetable flan ( sformati di verdure con formaggio fuso). Both were excellent, but chloe's was exceptional. They brought out perfectly al dente ravioli bolognese for the kids shortly afterwards, which were summarily devoured



I should also mention that this was a very kid friendly restaurant, which can be a bit hard to find around where we live. When they were taking our orders, they offered to take the kids orders first, and bring them to the kitchen immediately, so the kids could get started. Later on, they brought out a big box of toys for the kids, and would coo appropriately and say "Belissima!" or "Belissimo!".
Anyway, back to the food. I ordered a wild boar stew with polenta Concia, which were very good, but not my favorite.


Chloe ordered the pesto, which was excellent, but stolen by Alex

Finally, it was time for dessert. Chloe and I both ordered one of the specialities: "torta di nocciole e cioccolato tiepido con panna liquida e cacao". Desserts are rarely bad in my experience (except at the work cafeteria). This dessert, however, was transcendent, and very likely the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted at any restaurant (including Auberge de l'Eridan). It was a perfect balance between the hazelnuts and chocolate, and somehow magically light at the same time. I don't know how they achieved it, but it was sheer cooking magic.

The coffee was also great, as were the little cookies that came with it


After thanking our hosts and paying the bill (eighty something for everything, including wine), we loaded up the grommets and headed for the Sacre di San Michele. The road winds past two laked and some huge country estates before you find yourself in a mayhem of tiny road, crazy driving hell. Eventually, if you are lucky, you find a parking space though. From there, it is a short walk under the trees to the Abbey.








After a look around, we packed the by now very tired kids back into the car to complete our six hours (!) of driving.