Sunday, March 20, 2011

SLO travels

I'm back! 
Last night we rolled in to Chico-- our poor little Honda Civic, Lulu, Rattling and putsing away, but graciously  still in one solid peace. Although sickness did catch up to us, we are feeling pretty well rested, refreshed by the ocean, one shade tanner, and thankful for all the great people we got to catch up with. 

Since, I do have a plethora of pictures from our trip, I decided just to make little collages for you, hopefully giving you a fuller, but not as cumbersome, snapshot of our trip. 


1st stop: Walnut Creek
We were lucky enough to get to see Mom and Bethany on the way down to SLO, and like any fabulous family they lovingly took us last-minute nomads in. 
As a belated birthday celebration, Ry & I cooked dindins for her: we decided on twice baked potatoes an well-adorned spinach salad and cobbler for dessert. It's been my favorite as of lately~ we even made it a few days later down in SLO! That delish. 
After we bid our sweet farewells we headed an hour and 1/2 down the road to..





Santa Cruz
In Santa Cruz is my dear cousin Philip~ eldest of the Baker family. He was in the midst of his finals, so we got a quick tour of the B-e-a-utiful campus(it even tops Chico, I'll even admit), ate lunch in his apartment/dorm, stopped from some ice cream and continued on our way...




Morro Bay
On our roadtrips ry drives, and I navigate-- it uses our giftings to their fullest and steers us away from bickery fights-- but you can't expect one person to drive hours upon end. So as we neared slo, and as Ryan's eyelids began to get heavy, I took over for the last hour--- which of course was the windiest~ but the most beautiful.. and as we ventured over the mountains, we saw the beach.. the place where Ry proposed on Oct 09. 

  

Pismo Beach
The first day at Pismo, we put down our Thai picnic mat, took  out our books, read for half a moment, then crashed for an hour. Despite the online weather predictions for rainy, dreary depression, we had a sunny day the first day and a semi overcast 2nd day. 
Day two I persuaded ry to surf, but once we stepped in I regretted my efforts to do so. I think I let out a prolonged groan that lasted probably 5 minutes. I can't believe how long it takes your feet to numb. too long. I lasted about an hour, being tossed and flipped and punched in the face by mother  nature. It was actually quite fun. I semi got up on my board a few times, but what got to me eventually was the cold. 
Ry looked at me as we were going in and started laughing at me because my cheeks were purple.. my response: "Why are you laughing at me, this is serious! My cheeks could fall off!".. 
Which they did... not really, but really, it was so cold!




 Cas & Ian
The night before we headed out we got to hang with my old roomie Cas, and her husband Ian, who actually got married the same day Ry and I did!



They are so creative, spunky, welcoming and "snarky" (that's what they called their pose on the right top corner). Ian builds crazy homes and Cas bakes at a cozy, little cafe called Sally Loo's. Their home is bite-size-- literally the smallest, most thoughtfully  put together  home I've been in. So fun. 


The Fiesta House
Our last  night we were at Jen Ken's Fiesta House. Jen is another friend from Chico who decided to move to the beach. Each time I see her, her art projects keep getting more complicated and amazing. She just goes for it though. It's inspiring. She makes this great popcorn with coconut oil instead of veggie oil.. it's better for you and just so good. 

From there we headed up to Gilroy for a bowl of Fuh with Ry's old roomie and back to Walnut Creek a dinner-Thailand reunion, picked up this lovely thing and threw him in the back seat: 


A few games of contact, the movie game, and moki singing the ABCs out the window in the rain.. and then, we were home. :)


Delishlish Cobbler! 
( *I use all kinds of fruits-
strawberries, nectarines, apples.. not yet figs)

The streusel
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 5 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
The fruit
• 2 2/3 cups (about 12 ounces) blackberries, picked over for stems
• 8 large ripe (about 1 pound) Black Mission figs, stemmed and quartered lengthwise
• 1 medium (about 7 ounces) pear, peeled, halved, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
For the streusel:
-In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, butter, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Using your fingertips, mix the ingredients until a crumbly consistency forms that comes together when you press it between your fingers or squeeze it in your hand.
-Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°. Have ready six oversize ovenproof coffee cups (such as for café au lait), or six 8-ounce souffle or ramekin dishes.
-To prepare the fruit mixture: Combine all of the fruit in a large bowl. Sprinkle the lemon juice, then the sugar over the fruit, and gently toss fruit with a rubber spatula.
- bake for about 25-30 min.



1 comment:

  1. What a great Spring Break! You guys deserve it! I love your glasses :P

    ReplyDelete