Road Trip - Day 6 - Arizona to SD - Tuesday, September 7th

Less than 48 hours in Arizona, and it was time to sit in the car again for another LONG drive. This time to San Diego! One of my favorite cities! The nice thing about driving from Arizona to San Diego is the speed limit is 75 most of the way and no one is on the road. It took us a little less than 7 hours, and we stopped twice, not bad! Eliana was pretty good. Thanks again to the Aguilars for letting us borrow their DVD player!!! Total life saver!!!

We were so excited when we got to San Diego! The place we were staying at was just off the freeway in the Gaslamp District in downtown SD, seemed like a great location. Turns out, we were one block from the homeless mecca of California. Wow! We quickly realized we didn't want to be walking around after dark. Jeff even took off his watch on our walk to dinner. Pluses - the place was great, friendly staff, nice room, parking lot, can walk downtown, work out facility, close to Balboa Park. Minuses - not the best location.

Once we were settled in the room, we walked to 5th Avenue, where all the action is. There were lots of restaurants in a row, each with an attractive woman at the front who would try to get you to go to their restaurant by explaining the menu and specials. Kind of like a European vibe, but totally different. The Gaslamp District has a young-beachy-going-out feel to it. It's one step above Pacific Beach in San Diego, which is one step above Isla Vista. And I love it!

After looking at a few different menus, we settled on Panevino, an Italian restaurant that makes their own pasta. I'm a sucker for homemade pasta!
http://www.osteriapanevino.com/

Our server was great. He was from Italy and has a daughter named Eliana. Crazy! He was very helpful and friendly, and immediately brought out bread and avocado for Eliana so she could start her dinner. When I went to put Eliana into her high chair, I bonked her head on the table. She started screaming. This set the mood for the rest of our meal.

Even though almost every appetizer contained mozzarella, Jeff elected for us to share the Bruschetta con Pomodoro - bruschetta with tomatoes and capers. I wasn't impressed. Instead of being done on crustinis, it was done on a grilled flatbread. The bruschetta mixture didn't have a lot of flavor. As bruschetta usually is, it was messy, but because of the large flatbread pieces, it was messier than usual. Why didn't we get a mozzarella appetizer??? Those sounded great.

For my entree, I had Papperdelle con Speck. Speck is a type of pig product, mostly like prosciutto but harder. At least, that's how it was in this dish. There were also artichokes and peas, and it was done in a cream sauce. My dish was good, but it was WAY TOO RICH for me. I ate a third of it, and physically couldn't eat anymore.

Jeff ordered the Lasagna Bolognese. When it came out, it was very plain - just a small piece of lasagna on an otherwise empty plate. It wasn't as thick as I was expecting. I didn't try any, but Jeff thought it was good, much lighter than a traditional lasagna. He unfortunately had to quickly finish his dinner (again) because Eliana was sick and tired of sitting. This actually ended up being our worst night out at dinner for her :(  Lots of crying and fussing. I think after the long car ride, she was done.

After dinner, we decided to go to Ghirardelli to give Eliana a treat after all her hard work (and we needed a treat too!!!). Now, we were talking the right language! An unsuccessful dinner turned into a very successful dessert :)  When we walked in, they gave me their new flavor of salted caramel chocolate square to try. I recommend it. For ice cream, I had vanilla with dark chocolate fudge - Yum! Eliana had plain vanilla - Yum! Jeff had Rocky Road - Yum! Good ice cream can make everything better. The women who weren't working there weren't overly friendly, but we didn't care. Our evening had taken a turn for the better.

Road Trip - Day 5 - Giants-D'backs and Tommy Bahamas - Monday, September 6th

This morning when Jeff woke up at 6:30 to work out in Arizona, it was already 90 degrees out! Woo-eee!!! Once Eliana and I were up, we took her swimming in the salt water pool for the first time.



She was unsure at first, but ended up loving it. I think her favorite part was having both parents' undivided attention the whole time. She was great. I want to sign her up for real swim lessons soon so she gets used to the pool.

This day was our trip to Chase Field. I was worried about the heat and Eliana's fair skin. She easily gets heat rash :(  But, Guess What??? Chase Field has a retractable roof! I'd never been in a stadium like that and was looking forward to it. We didn't have tickets to this game and were planning on getting the best available when we arrived.

When we got to the ballpark, a sketchy scalper offered us two tickets for $30 each, the "best tickets in the house", regularly $50. After a little chat, Jeff agreed to the tickets. When we walked into the stadium, I was very impressed. The roof was closed, and it was a nice 75ish degrees (the kids who ended up sitting behind us were complaining it was too cold). This place was gorgeous. It looked brand-new and felt like a night game. I was immediately in love. You walk into the stadium above the lower section of seats, so we had to walk down to our seats. The sketchy scalper guy was right, they were great seats! Especially for $30! I was a happy girl. The guy sitting two rows behind us said the stadium is even nicer when the roof is open. We'll have to go back some year in April.

I had a meatball sandwich for lunch, and Jeff had sausage with onions. Great ballpark food. It reminded me of a recent episode of Top Chef :)

This ended up being a great game: 0-0 through 10 innings. Some people may find that boring, but I love a good pitching duel. Eliana was getting worried.

Finally, in the 11th, Schierholtz hit a two-run triple. Woo hoo! The Giants were up 2-0! Brian Wilson came in a finished it up for a Giants win!!! We were now 1-1 on our road trip.

Eliana and I were pretty excited about the win.

For dinner, we decided to go to Tommy Bahama. We'd never been there before, but thought it would be adult enough to make us happy but also family-friendly. We were right!
http://www.tommybahama.com/TBG/Stores_Restaurants/Restaurants.jsp

Tommy Bahama restaurant is at a fancy outdoor mall. It felt a little like Santana Row with nice shops and apartments over the stores. The downstairs of the restaurant is a bar and patio area. Upstairs has a large bar and the dining area. We were seated upstairs. It was a little dark, which could have made it feel romantic, but we already had a fussy baby on our hands. There were palapa ceiling fans to give the restaurant a tropical feel. Usually, Eliana is impressed with ceiling fans, but not this night.

We started our meal with regular bread and butter, but the butter was amazing! It was blended with brown sugar and honey and tasted like something you would have at Sunday brunch. I loved it! We ordered Coconut Shrimp and Chicken Wings for appetizers. The wings were pretty good, but a little on the spicy side. The coconut shrimp were ok. I like different textures in my coconut shrimp, but all this had was a dense mushy texture, like it had been fried earlier in the day and had simply been heated up before being served. The papaya-mango chutney dipping sauce was great, but I wouldn't order the dish again.

Jeff ordered the flat-iron steak with mashed potatoes for his entree. Both he and Eliana were very happy. The meat was prepared perfectly, raw... I mean, rare. And the garlic mashed potatoes were chunky and delicious. I had the ahi tuna with bok choy and Island rice. Wow, incredible! I would eat this dish again! Instead of feeling like we were in 95 degree Arizona, I felt like we were in 85 degree Hawaii. I was happy with my little family.

Eliana wasn't so happy. She had stopped eating baby food a few days earlier in our trip and only wanted our food. This was fine, we were willing to share. But, once she finished eating her dinner, she was done. She did not want to sit at the table anymore. Since Jeff is a much faster eater than I am, he finished his food and walked around with her while I was able to finish my dinner in silence. What a great guy :)

Road Trip - Day 4 - Long Beach to Scottsdale - Sunday, September 5

This was the longest driving day of our whole trip - Long Beach to Scottsdale. The navigation said it was 7.5 hours. Ugh! Eliana had been miserable in the car even on drives less than an hour. We were worried. Thankfully, the wonderful and beautiful Aguilars let us borrow their car DVD player. We strapped it around the back of the headrest, and Eliana was able to watch Horton Hears a Who over and over. It cut down on her unhappiness by at least 75%. Yay!!!

I started off driving and made it to Indio, where we stopped to feed Eliana and for lunch. We stopped at what seemed to be an authentic Mexican restaurant. We went south off the Monroe exit off Highway 10. It was about a block down. After doing a search on Google, I believe the restaurant was El Mexicali Cafe II. Everything in the restaurant was in Spanish, and we were the only people I heard speaking English.
http://elmexicalicafe.com/default.aspx

I had a traditional American chicken burrito - chicken, rice, beans, cheese, sour cream, avocado. Jeff made fun of me for ordering it. That's ok, I liked it. So did Eliana. The beans were refried, which I normally wouldn't order, but I didn't have an option, and they tasted good. Jeff ordered the tacos al pastor (his favorite thing to order at a Mexican restaurant). He said they were delicious, even better than the ones from Carmelita's the night before. It was a great quick place to stop.

Jeff took the next leg of the drive. We had the intentions of stopping at a reststop a ways down the road, but when we got there, the reststop was closed. So, we took the next exit and made our own reststop. It was in the middle of nowhere, we both thought we may have been entering a horror movie. But we made it out safe!

Next, my turn to drive. We were hoping I could make it all the way to Scottsdale. Eliana ended up losing it just outside of Phoenix (only 20 minutes from our destination!), so we had to stop to feed her in a gas station parking lot (again!). And then, to Scottsdale!

We stayed in a friend's two bedroom condo. It was absolutely perfect for us! Two bedroom, two bath, soft carpet for Eliana to crawl on, and a saltwater pool. We took Eliana in the pool for her first swimming experience. She was unsure at first, but ended up loving it.

Because of the tough drive with Eliana, we wanted to go to a low-key dinner. We finally decided on Yard House in Scottsdale. The two hostesses in front weren't friendly, but it was perfect for what we wanted. Not too crowded. Playing the Giants game. Good food. Our server was nice and attentive (this is important to me, especially with Eliana).
http://www.yardhouse.com/default.aspx

We started with the Lobster, Crab, and Artichoke Dip and the Firecracker Wings. The dip was served with pita bread and chips. It was delicious but very heavy. We could only have a few bites of it, but they were yummy bites! The wings were on the spicy side. Good, but I could only have one. Jeff loved them and ate the rest.

After the big appetizers, we didn't want a big dinner. Jeff had the Hawaiian Poke Stack. It was delicious, just what I like with a Poke appetizer. Lots of tuna and avocado. And crispy wontons for scooping. I had the Spicy Tuna Roll. It wasn't what I was expecting. It wasn't a roll at all, there wasn't even any rice with it. It was more like a spicy tuna pie, without a crust. There was a ton of tuna and underneath it was avocado, edamame, and cucumber. Around the plate, there was a wasabi soy sauce. I would order this dish again! It would be great as an appetizer to share. Eliana had mac n cheese and fruit. It was good and she was happy.

Two interesting things (to me) about the Yard House: 1) a Yard House is opening at Santana Row in February 2011. I'm looking forward to it because it's family-friendly but still fun for adults, and 2) they use an item called Gardein as a meat substitute. It looked like they can replace any meat item on the menu with Gardein. I have no idea if it's any good, but it's worth a try.

Road Trip - Day 3 - Long Beach, Friends, Annie's b-day - September 4th, 2010

At 6:20, Jeff woke up and went to the gym. Ugh! How does he have the energy for that??? As soon as Evan heard Jeff up, and came into the living room and climbed into bed with me. I didn't know what to do with him, so I showed him how to "read" Dr. Seuss' ABCs on the iPad and hoped he would be entertained enough so I could go back to sleep. That wasn't the case, Erik and Vicky both woke up. Erik went to the gym with Jeff, and Vicky hung out with me. Oh well, there went my morning of sleeping in. At least Eliana was able to stay in bed until 9am.

We just relaxed with the kids and waited for the boys to get back from the gym with our breakfast. They brought us omelettes from Polly's in Long Beach.
http://www.pollyspies.com/pollyshomestylemenu.html

For some reason, Jeff got me a veggie omelette. I'm not really a veggie kinda girl. In fact, I mentioned to Vicky that whatever the boys brought back would be fine, as long as it didn't have mushrooms. My omelette had mushrooms, squash, and tomatoes. All which are on my Least Favorite list. There were also hash browns on the side. The whole meal ended up being delicious (but I had to pull out the mushrooms). Eliana loved the squash and the hash browns. I definitely recommend Polly's for breakfast. It was yummy!

After breakfast, we had to get ready because Gabby, Stacey, and Baby Harrison were coming over to hang out! It was great to catch up with Gabby and Stacey and to have a little playdate with the kids. Fun times! (I tried to upload a picture of all of us, but it isn't working. In the picture, it's Vicky & Evan, Stacey & Harrison, Me & Eliana, and Gabby & Liliana. Yo Gabba Gabba is on the TV in the background. I'll try to upload it again later.)

After the kids took their afternoon naps, it was time to go to Rancho Santa Margarita for Annie's birthday fiesta! First, we went to their new home. It was perfect! I loved all of their engagement and wedding photos around the house. Audrey was there, and we were able to catch up quite a bit. Then, we went to dinner at Carmelita's, a super cute and delicious Mexican restaurant, and it's right on the lake.
http://carmelitas.homestead.com/index.html
For some reason, the RSM location isn't on the website, but it's the same restaurant as the Roseville and Fair Oaks locations.

We sat outside. It was really HOT out, but was great. There were over 20 of us, and the service was perfect. We had guacamole to start. It was a little spicy and had big chunks of avocado. Yummy! Eliana loved it also. I ordered the chile relleno special stuffed with lobster and shrimp. It was amazing. Instead of the pepper being stuffed and fried, like a traditional chile relleno, it was an "open-face" chile relleno. It was cut open and the lobster and shrimp were on top. Absolutely delicious! Jeff had tacos al pastor. He liked them, but said he had had better.

Halfway through dinner, Eliana was dancing on the table and eating baby cheetos. She shoved one too far into her mouth and started choking! Jeff started patting her back, and my infant CPR instruction kicked in. I immediately laid her facedown on my left arm and started pounding on her back. Within a few seconds, she was screaming. It was music to my ears. We walked around a bit to calm her down. Lesson learned: No dancing and eating cheetos at the same time!

Unfortunately, we had to leave dinner early because Eliana started getting fussy. We did stop at the lake to watch the ducks, geese, turtles, and fish. It's a cool little place. Eliana especially liked the ducks. I wasn't expecting such a pleasant night in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Happy Birthday, Annie!

Road Trip - Day 2 - Beachside Cafe, SB-LA, and Dodgers game - September 3

When we got up this morning, we were all exhausted, at least Jeff and I were. Eliana seemed fine. She was ready to crawl around and explore. She got to play with her Cousin Jake and Aunt Karen. She showed them all her tricks: Touchdown, High-Five, Kisses, Meow, and Kissie Face. After being awake for 1 hour, she was ready to go back to bed. She napped for an hour and a half, and then it was time to go meet Marianne for lunch at Beachside in Goleta.
http://www.beachside-barcafe.com/

This is the "fancy" restaurant we used to go to in college. It's right next to UCSB, but not in Isla Vista. It's on the water and has outdoor seating for beautiful views of the ocean. As we took the freeway exit for the restaurant, the fish smell of the ocean was overwhelming. We were ready for a stinky lunch. Somehow, the smell was totally gone by the time we reached the restaurant, even though we were closer to the ocean. Marianne was already there, and we were able to get a perfect table outside.

I ordered the Chowder Boat, New England clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. It was good, really good. But not excellent. Jeff had the fish tacos, made with dorado. Very tasty. Marianne had the crab and shrimp pasta with sundried tomatoes and artichokes. It looked and smelled delicious. The service was slow, really slow, and our server forgot to bring out my order, but this was made up for with good food, a great atmosphere, and catching up with an old friend.

After lunch, we had to head back to my aunt's so Eliana could have another nap before our drive down to Simi Valley and then to the Dodgers game. We left for Simi at 3:45 and got there at 5:30. There was a little Friday holiday traffic, but it wasn't too bad. We went to Simi to meet Jim, Leanna, and Lucas before the Dodgers game. We were greeted by all three of them dressed in Dodger blue. Yuck! They have a cute house in Simi that they just finished revamping. Nice work!

Then, it was off to the Dodgers-Giants game. I was ready for the LA traffic we always hear about. And also ready for the slow drive into Chavez Ravine. It took us 45 minutes total. Awesome! That's better than the drive to AT&T Park! Turns out, LA isn't that bad.

I was nervous to wear my Giants gear. I'd heard too many stories about Dodger fans. None good. Jeff wore a Giants shirt and Eliana wore her black and orange beads. When we got closer to the stadium, I put on my Giants visor. Although there were a few hecklers, the Dodger fans were much calmer than I had prepared for. We had great seats, Section 130 Loge. We were between home and first, in the second level, 7 rows up. Within an inning of sitting down, top of the second, a foul ball off Buster Posey's bat came our way! Jim and Jeff stood up. Leanna and I stayed seated and protected our babies' heads and bodies. The ball bounced out of Jim's right hand, off my left arm, and then we couldn't find it! Jeff finally found it sitting in Eliana's bag, just as a little boy saw it. But Jeff was quicker. Eliana's first foul ball! From Buster Posey! Nice work, Booskie!!!

The rest of the game was fairly uneventful. Eliana blew a lot of kisses to the little boy sitting behind us and a Giants fan next to him. Jeff and I both had Dodger Dogs for dinner. Kruk and Kuip always talk about how good the Dodger Dogs are, and I have to agree. Not as good as a Sheboygan, but better than a regular hot dog.

We left in the middle of the 8th. The Giants were losing and didn't end up coming back for a win :(  After the game, we drove to Long Beach to stay two nights with the Aguilars. The drive only took 25 minutes, and again, no traffic. Vicky and I were roommates for two years in college, and I couldn't wait to spend the weekend with her, her husband, and two cutie patootey kids. Evan, 2-years-old, and Liliana, 5-months-old.

We were all tired when we got there. Eliana went to bed in Lili's crib, and Jeff and I slept on an Aerobed in the living room. After the late night the night before, I was looking forward to a good night of sleep!

Road Trip - Day 1 - September 2 - SJ-SB

Our road trip has begun! We're following the Giants to LA, Phoenix, and San Diego. We'll see a game at each stop.

We left San Jose at 5:30pm to spend the night in Santa Barbara before going to a Giants-Dodgers game in LA. My aunt lives in SB, so it's a perfect place to stop - I can visit my old stomping grounds and see family in one shot.

Eliana screamed for the first hour of the trip and cried for the next half hour. Jeff sat with her in the backseat and tried to feed her dinner. She refused to eat anything except baby cheetos and would cry if Jeff didn't feed her them. Any toy she had, she immediately threw between the door and her car seat. Wow, what a way to start the trip!

We stopped at a gas station in Gonzalez and she happily finished her dinner while crawling around the backseat. As soon as she was back in her car seat, she started screaming again. Initially, Jeff wanted to eat on the road, but at this point, he decided that stopping at the Taco Bell in King City wasn't a bad idea. Anything to get the baby out of the car! For the next 12 miles to King City, Eliana was still unhappy :(  In case you're wondering, the Taco Bell in King City is just as good as it's always been! And, it's been remodeled, so it's clean and kinda fancy. Way to go, King City! At this point, it was 7:30, so we gave Eliana her bedtime bottle in the parking lot of Taco Bell and hoped the rest of the drive would go smoother.

Once we started driving again, she fell asleep after 30 minutes. At least there wasn't any screaming this time!!! At ~10:15, Jeff decided he was too tired to keep driving, so we pulled over at a rest stop and quickly switched seats. Eliana woke up and squawked the rest of the 20 minutes of the drive. Poor thing.

My aunt lives at the top of a hill in Goleta. It's an absolutely beautiful property. When we got there, everyone was already in bed. At this point, Eliana had no desire to go to bed. She was wired after her nap. We let her play for a little while. It was probably 11:30 by now. When she started rubbing her eyes, we decided it was time for bed. She didn't agree. Every time we put her in her pack n play, she'd scream, like someone was trying to hurt her. After numerous attempts to try to calm her down, we brought her into bed with us. Into my cousin's double bed. Jeff, Eliana, and me, in a double bed. Awesome! At least, Eliana thought it was awesome. She'd kick Jeff and then reach over, pull my hair and laugh. Both Jeff and I pretended to be asleep. She didn't care. She thought the whole thing was hilarious.

Finally, she calmed down enough for me to move her back into the pack n play, but I had to bring it next to the bed, and keep my hand on her for her to not scream. It was after 1am. Ugh! What a night! At least, once she fell asleep, she stayed in bed until 9am. Yay!

Vegas, Baby, Vegas - Day 3, Going Home - Sunday, August 22nd

When we woke up Sunday morning, I knew I had to eat. As soon as possible. I was starving and wanted a yummy Sunday brunch. This was the first time all weekend I was disappointed by our food. We went to Tintoretto at the Venetian. The service was quick, although it seemed our server was also the hostess and busser. She was busy. Maybe she also cooked the food.

I ordered Eggs Benedict. One of my all time favorites. My eggs weren't cooked right, one was overcooked and the other had a funny texture. The sauce was ok, but there wasn't enough to smear over my side of hashbrowns. The English muffin was thin and dry. I was bummed out by this.

Jeff ordered eggs and sausage. Nothing fancy. Nothing delicious. He didn't finish it.

Other than the speedy service, I really don't have anything good to say :(  We should have gone to a buffet.

I'm guessing some people didn't show up to work that day. The restaurant was packed, and everyone who was working was racing around like crazy. The restaurant is usually only a bakery. Maybe that explains the bad eggs...

At the airport, I got a pretzel from Auntie Anne's. Regular pretzel and a side of cheese. It was also disappointing. The pretzel was too buttery (?). And the cheese was cold. It was a tough food day.

When we got home, we had Willow Street Pizza and everything was better :)