A Day in San Jose

There are good bits to every city, and we hit up some of my favorite parts of San Jose, CA the other day. They included the San Jose Rose Garden, where we attempted to smell every rose in order to catalogue the most delicious ones.

There were also plenty of neat bugs huddling in the petals. I envy them their houses.

Redwoods!

Rose hips! Someday I'll have my own garden, and I'll be able to steep my own rose hips for tea.

Bee bumbling about.

A green thing!

Afterwards we grabbed lunch at The Poor House Bistro near the Shark Tank. When one gets cajun food, plenty of iced tea with lemon is required.

Devin got a grilled chicken sandwich and fries...

And I got the spicy shrimp po' boy.

For dessert, I had my first beignets! I like how light they are, and barely sweet...but of course, they're smothered in mountains of powdered sugar.

Another San Jose gem: Babyland on San Carlos! So creepy.

Big sky, I've missed you.

City by the Bay

Spending some time in the city definitely confirmed that I left my heart in San Francisco. My friend Pia (we've known each other since we were 9!) and I did some fun, faux touristy things today...ate some delicious seafood and pastries at the Ferry Building, drove around the Presidio, and took a stroll about Crissy Field to get close to the Golden Gate.

The San Francisco skyline from Crissy Field.

Pia and I, plus the best bridge!

City birds.
Hello, Pacific Ocean!




Crissy Field used to be a naval base, and a lot of the old officer's quarters are now part of a marine life sanctuary project!





The base's naval past.

On to delicious eats! We stopped by the Ferry Building at the pier, and could not resist the call of good seafood at the San Francisco Fish Co. outpost. Pia got the crab cake sandwich and a cup of New England clam chowder...

And I got the crab leg po boy and a cup of Manhattan clam chowder! Delicious. It warmed me right up.

Slaw + the red chowder.

The store across the way was devoted entirely to selling various kinds of fungus! A mushroom sampler.

A diagram of potentially poisonous varieties!

After the shellfish-fest we picked up some macarons from Miette and headed out to the bay.

This one is chocolate and orange. Great texture and chew!

And this one is geranium and rose. It was the best! Flavored with rosewater, it had the sweet, perfume-y flavor of Persian ice cream. And the cream filling was smooth, rich, and perfect. Pia and I agreed that we liked these natural colored cookies better than other food-color laden varieties.

Boot buddies! My trusty Beans are on the left, and Pia's cool lace-ups on the right!