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.

Thrifting through San Jose

Today I hit up some of my very favorite places in San Jose, where I did my undergrad, with some of my very favorite college pals. On the list: coffee, thrifting, and a used book store near my old apartment, and then some delicious falafels and gyros and more thrifting on one of the best desolate/commercial strips ever, San Carlos. I found some ridiculously good stuff, ate some ridiculously good food, and got to catch up with some ridiculously lovely ladies.

San Carlos at dusk! Used car dealerships, strip clubs, and antique and second hand stores as far as the eye can see!

At Black and Brown's new location on the Alameda. I know it might bum you out to know this, but I didn't end up getting this fur-and-tale-bedazzled cardigan. Oops. However, I did get a beautiful white stole and a warm maroon knitted skirt.

On to Recycle Books--a great collection, mostly great prices, and lots of cats running around! Recipe for success.

A painterly photograph of Marisa!

Steinbeck, my hero!

No trip down San Carlos would be complete without a pitstop at Falafel's Drive In. A San Jose staple.

Marisa's exceptionally stealable fries.

Theresa's yummy baba ghanoush.

My gyro!

Marisa's tasseled and my penny loafers.

Theresa!

And the finally on to Savers, where most items of clothing are around $4 or $5. And, if you carefully sift through your size, you're bound to find something great.

Bridget and me amongst endless racks of clothing.

It's almost time for me to say goodbye again to the West Coast. I'm gonna miss ya!

Boiling Crab!

One of my favorite places for seafood in the Bay Area isn't right on the coast, and isn't a Mom & Pop joint...it's the Boiling Crab! Eating there is an experience--the table is covered in waxed paper, writing things in ketchup is encouraged, patrons are bedecked in bibs, and your food comes to you in a big bag of sauce. My friend Pia (we've known each other since we were 9!) took me on my maiden Boiling Crab experience last year, and it's delicious, so it's only fitting that it was the first place we went once I got to town.

Pia's classic denim and converse...

...and festive nail polish!

Another lovely thing about the Boiling Crab is that most locations are in these super-Californian giant beige mega shopping centers, which are nothing but massive retails space and parking lots. After cramped Manhattan, this sprawling commercial wasteland is most welcome.

We each got: a half pound of shrimp with a piece of corn, medium spicy, with the whole shebang (which means with all three kinds of sauce: Cajun, Lemon Pepper, and Garlic Butter), plus an order of sweet potato fries to split.

The waitstaff bring out a bucket of lime wedges which they strew on the table, as well as little cups of salt and pepper for mixing with the lime juice. An extra dipping sauce for your shellfish!

My bag of delicious shrimp!

The aftermath.

This is just a single snapshot of the ubiquitousness of Vietnamese food in my hometown area. So far I've had two or three banh mi, and that number is only going to increase.

Endless freeways! Another bit of home I missed while underground and gridlocked in the city.