California Adventure Part II: Cities by the Bay

Before I get to the vacation recap, I’d like to present Dane’s nine month stats:

Head circumference: 43.9 cm (11^th percentile)

Weight: 18 lbs. 3 oz. (14^th percentile)

Length: 27.5 in (19^th percentile)

So he is a little guy. They actually measured his length twice because it appears he hadn’t grown significantly. I’m not particularly worried, though. He is a quarter Japanese, and he is quite proportional. My parents say none of us were ever even on the charts, and look how we turned out! (Short, but healthy.) I’m fine with that.

He crawls like a champ and is projected to walk well before age one. He regularly stands on his own for ten seconds at a time, and doesn’t cry that often when he falls on his bum. He has five teeth and loves to suck his breath in with a little squeal. He also likes to raise one hand and open and close it. Here he is, flashing his pearly whites:

So, back to California.

We arrived in Concord to visit my Grand Pa Tuesday afternoon. We hung out for a bit to get him acquainted with Dane and then headed off to Barney’s. Barney’s Hickory Pit is a hole-in-the-wall barbecue place that has become family legend. When my dad was growing up, they would always go to Barney’s on pay day. It has a special sauce that is unlike any other barbecue you have ever had. Joel had heard Barney’s name spoken in reverent tones many times but had never experienced it, so we were excited. Grand Pa had already eaten dinner but is always willing to have Barney’s. That is how good it is. Here we are, finally there in the flesh:

Grand Pa isn’t too keen on pictures.

Unfortunately, Joel’s allergies were acting up, so he couldn’t taste a thing! But there were plenty of leftovers, and we got him drugged up enough that he could temporarily use his sense of taste and really experience Barney’s. After that, we watched the Lakers game and called it a night (Grand Pa goes to bed pretty early.)

The next morning, we had a nice breakfast with some of Grand Pa’s home canned plum jam made with plums from his own tree. We then went on a tour of his various fruit-bearing trees:

Apples

Grapefruits

And we wanted to make sure we had some good pictures of Grand Pa with his only great-grandchild:

Grand Pa and Dane in matching plaid.

I kind of look like a man. Hopefully my posterity will not be too confused.

Whenever we interact with Grand Pa, we always wonder if he will be Talking Grand Pa or Silent Grand Pa. If he was being Silent Grand Pa, it would have been kind of strained, but he was Talking Grand Pa the whole time we were there, so it was a good time.

On our way into San Francisco that afternoon, we stopped at the Oakland temple to have a picnic on the grounds. Oakland has always been my favorite temple. It is just so beautiful there. You can go up onto the terrace and, on a clear day, you can see all the way across the bay. I have still never been inside. We would have liked to, but we had no one to watch Dane for us that long. Maybe next time.

Here is the view directly above us as we picnicked:

We got yummy sandwiches and what not at a store called Farmer Joe’s (not to be confused with Trader Joe’s). Here is Joel’s new couscous shoveling method:

‘sigh.’ It was really beautiful. We were happy to be there.

Then we got to San Francisco and checked into the Hotel Kabuki. It is a Japanese-themed hotel in the middle of Japantown. It even had a Japanese-style bath (that means extra deep). Here is Dane to give you an idea of its depth:

If you sit in it, the water goes right up to your neck. Ahhh….it was very relaxing. The minibar even had Japanese treats like Pocky, wasabi peas, and green tea.

They had the paper walls and Japanese paintings. It was cool.

We met up with Joel’s cousin Jennie, who has been living in SF the past couple of years going to the San Francisco Conservatory. She showed us around the local scene, including the opera house, city hall, and cool little restaurants that only locals know about.

We ate dinner at a little place called Frjtz. It had sweet and savory crepes, French fries, and a million different kinds of unique fry dipping sauces. We had strawberry mustard, pesto mayo, balsamic mayo, ginger orange mayo, truffle artichoke ketchup, spicy Thai peanut yogurt. The crepes were also super good (think: pear with nutella and cream). We were really glad to be able to hang out with her.

The next morning, we checked out but stayed parked at the hotel so we could have a nice, touristy day in San Francisco. We had a late start so we began by wandering around Japantown to try to decide on the best place to eat a Japanese lunch. It’s funny. Japanese restaurants are everywhere, but when they have real Japanese people running it with access to real Japanese ingredients, it is pretty different. We at at Iroha, ordering yakisoba, zaru soba, tempura, and a nigiri plate. It was yummy.

Then we headed over to the cable car station to go down to the piers. Random: on the way, we stumbled upon this sign:

That is apparently the house where Wilford Woodruff died. Crazy, eh?

We jumped on the cable car, and Joel was fascinated with the machinery.

Dane was with us, I promise. It was also the hottest day all year in San Francisco.

We got to Pier 1 (the pier, not the store) and walked around Embarcadero Center. There was this really cool fountain monument thing that you could just walk right into:

Then we checked out the shops on Pier 1. They were all fancy schmancy stores (like a fungus store with gourmet mushrooms, and two, yes two shops that exclusively sold olive oil). We bought a yummy chocolate pastry. We bought a little jar of sour cherry and rhubarb jam at a little supermarket, and Joel wanted to try a red banana:

Just so you know, red bananas are gross.

We thought about going to Fisherman’s Wharf, but we ran out of time. Is a trip to San Francisco pointless without going to Fisherman’s Wharf? I don’t think so. We had a great time.

Here we are on the cable car ride back:

I was feeling disappointed that we didn’t have a nice souvenir, but when we got back to Japantown to get our car, we found a little shop selling dishes. So I got new rice bowls and a nice soy sauce dispenser and an ear cleaner. I thought those were nice souvenirs. And here we are in Japantown:

We dropped by Grand Pa’s house again so he could get some more quality time with Dane. Here’s a link to a video if you’d like to see it. We picked a bunch of grapefruit from his tree and said goodbye. We are glad that we were able to see him and that he is in good health. Hopefully we will see him again soon.

We then drove out to Yuba City, near Sacramento, to visit my aunt and uncle, Steve and Jolene. They were really nice to put us up for the night and feed us dinner. It was nice to chat with them and to give Dane a chance to play before the drive back. I realized I haven’t really talked to them in a non wedding setting, so it was nice to just lounge. We had a great time. Here is Jolene enjoying Dane:

And then the two of them with Katie before we hit the road:

Haha, they look so good. Katie is so tall.

We ate at In-N-Out Burger in Reno, and then we drove across the wide expanse of nothing that is Nevada. We both got really tired, so we pulled over and slept a bit. We made it home early Saturday morning. And I was sick. Probably because Dane was sick and was up all the time so I had gotten little sleep. But I was happy. We had a great trip, and I don’t think I’d change anything about it (except Dane being sick). It made Joel realize he doesn’t have to hate California, and it made me even more grateful for my family.

Final thought:

Joel didn’t shave during the whole trip. When we got back, he decided to play with his facial hair. He usually does a moustache, but he decided to change it up this time:

What do you think? John Taylor? Mose? I’m sure Joel would love your thoughts.