Jackie and Zach and Adam and Justina visit

After our dinner party last Friday night, we had a full weekend of visitors ahead! Our friends Jackie and Zach from Cincinnati were driving down the California coast for their vacation and they came to stay with us for a night to kick off their trip. They didn't arrive til around 5:30, so Saturday afternoon we drove down to Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose and Valerie got to have a super blast riding rides, seeing animals and jumping in the bounce house since Happy Hollow was having a fall festival. She rode the merry-go-round, the kiddie swings, the mini putts (which are cars... not sure why it's called that), and of course, Danny the Dragon, which we waited maybe half an hour to ride. We watched a live drumming show, climbed on the playground, and she had a hot dog and chocolate milk for lunch. I mean, best day ever, pretty much.

waiting to ride Danny the Dragon

We came back home in time to make sangria for Jackie and Zach while Valerie took her nap, and they brought delicious farm-stand strawberries with them so we ate strawberries and drank sangria while they told us about their crazy drive up from LA and stay at Yosemite the night before.

After Valerie woke up we headed to Fiesta Vallarta in Los Altos for a Mexican dinner on their outdoor heated patio. What a great place, I'm so glad we discovered it!  We'll have to go back there. We had a pitcher of margaritas, fresh guacamole, yummy mexican food, live music and views of their fish tank. It was perfect for kids, Valerie devoured her quesadilla and checked out the fish tank. Then we came back home and sang happy birthday to Zach and had cupcakes and ice cream and crashed pretty early.

Sunday morning, Jackie and I had mimosas (apple for me, Pom for her) and we took a few pictures before they left to meet some family for brunch. We thought it was fun to take some pictures in our dual convertibles since they had rented one for their drive and how often do you have two convertibles together for a photo op?! Right?!

 Soon after they left, Rich's brother Adam and his wife Justina arrived. They had been in San Francisco for a wedding and came to stay with us Sunday night before flying back home on Monday. Perfect timing for us to get to see them, and for them to come see our house! We had leftover chili and cornbread for lunch and then took Valerie for a walk around the 3-mile loop at the Stanford Dish. It was a perfectly clear day for a walk. Valerie was a champ for the first half, running ahead of us most of the way, but then she hit a wall about halfway through, around the time we reached the dish, and was a crying, fussing hot mess for the last mile or so. We made the right move bringing a stroller this time, and plenty of water, snacks and lollipops, but she needed a nap and refused to sleep in the stroller. We weren't terribly successful calming her down and begging her to patiently wait til we got home for her nap.

When we made it back it was naptime for everyone, and then we got ready to drive up to Half Moon Bay Brewing Co for dinner (our favorite place, right by the bay)! We love the heated patio there so much. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was raining and the patio was a no-go. We sat inside, and were less than impressed by slow service since the place was packed full. It happened to be the weekend of Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival and people were everywhere. All in all, poorly planned and executed, though the truffle fries were addictive as always. We headed back home for margaritas and a short dance party with Valerie, and hung out for a bit before it was time to crash. It didn't really feel like Sunday night, too much excitement!

What a super fun, packed weekend and such a treat to spend it with family and friends who came thousands of miles (for other reasons, but also conveniently to see us! haha). We count ourselves so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends who we always enjoy seeing.

First weekend in Cali: Summer Delights

We spent 3 brutal days getting totally unpacked and situated in our new house and it was so worth it to be able to enjoy our first weekend here!

The first thing I wanted to do was check out the Palo Alto Farmer's Market which is Saturday mornings from 8-12 and we just barely made it at 11:45. I was stressing on the way there that everything would be empty and closing down and why are we even bothering.... but I was stressing for nothing! It was AMAZING, the most incredible quality and variety of fresh fruits and veggies and all sorts of foods and it wasn't picked over at all. We dashed from stand to stand buying stuff as fast as we could and in 15 minutes I was blown away by our haul.

We got lettuce, basil, mint, parsley, grapes, avocados, peaches, apples, potatoes, garlic, onion, the biggest shallots I've ever seen, walnuts, sausages and hummus - and we didn't even have time to cover the whole market!  I can't wait to go back next week ...hopefully before 11:45... and have more time to explore. As we were walking back to the car loaded down with goodies, Rich said to me, "What do you think?  Was that 5 times better than the markets in Ohio? 10 times?"

"I think maybe 10 times better," I said.

I could not wait to put together some salads for that night; we were having our first dinner guests! Rich met them back in grad school at MIT, they live about 30 minutes away and they brought their daughter, who is the exact same age as Valerie - the girls were born one day apart.

They were so excited to finally meet each other; they'd seen lots of pictures of each other but never got to meet until now, and they were so sweet and loved playing together.

As soon as they arrived, Valerie insisted on changing into a dress and hair bows so they would match. They were definitely twins at first sight. So cute. We can't believe our amazing luck at having such great friends nearby!

I was pretty excited about the menu, based on all our fresh produce purchases. For appetizers we had jalapeno cilantro hummus and guacamole with chips and veggies, and for dinner I made an heirloom tomato salad with basil and truffle flavored oil, mint and lemon infused water, watermelon mojitos, and a dinner salad, which was definitely the highlight: a mix of greens, fresh peaches, blue cheese and walnuts, and a lemon shallot dressing which was so easy to throw together. I stole this recipe from Vogue , used white wine vinegar since I didn't have any red wine vinegar, and added lemon juice:

1 tsp. Dijon mustard
½ tsp. honey
1 T red wine vinegar (preferably Banyuls)
½ small shallot, finely minced
2½ oz. extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

From left: guacamole, mint lemon water, so much fruit, heirloom tomatoes, peach walnut salad

OMG... I will toot my own horn.  The salad was RIDICULOUS. So good. Of course, the credit really goes to the incredible fresh ingredients from California and not to me. I am in absolute salad heaven here. I have been making salads every day since we got here and it's pretty impossible to go wrong. Everything is just.... so... GOOD.

Rich made sausages for the protein portion of dinner, and we also had tortellini and red sauce for the girls.  Valerie doesn't eat any kind of lettuce yet... I can't wait for that day! Life is going to be so easy when I can make a big salad for dinner and she will eat it too. I still need to make something separate for her most of the time.

 We had a lovely meal on our back patio, and then took a walk to the park down the street so the girls could play. They had so much fun, Valerie insisted she was going home with them, and kept asking for one more minute, one more minute. She finally conceded to a hug and our friends had to go home. So hard to say goodbye!

Sunday we decided to drive to the coast and check out the beaches.

We packed lunches and left first thing in the morning for Half Moon Bay, where we found Lemos Farm, which was hopping with parents and kids around 10 am. It was cool and overcast in the morning, too chilly for the beach, so we decided to stop and check it out. Valerie has been talking a lot about riding horses lately and we saw that they had pony rides, along with a hay ride, train rides, playground, petting zoo and bounce house. All of her favorite things!!

feeding the goat

waiting for the hay ride

The pony ride was her dream come true.... if only the pony had been pink. It was adorable. She sat so still on the pony as it walked around and around for close to 20 minutes and we finally had to get her down. She wanted to go again and still talks about riding the pony. She is well on her way to becoming the cliche little girl who wants a pony, in this case, a pink pony. What is it about little girls and horses?? I don't think I was ever into horses and now I'm really not a fan. But I will admit it's sweet how much Valerie loves her some horses and ponies, and farms in general.

She loved feeding and petting the baby goats. She loved riding the train. The playground and bounce house were hits and the hay ride was just okay, but we definitely got our money's worth between the pony and train rides. This place was seriously toddler heaven. We were so glad we found it; it was the perfect morning activity while we waited for the sun to come out.

From there we went on to Pescadero to get the famous artichoke heart bread from Arcangeli grocery / Norm's Market, which our friends had recommended the night before. While we were there we got some giant pastries to tide us over til lunch... yum!!!

Then we stopped at San Gregorio beach for our picnic lunch. It was lovely but there was a big lagoon blocking the beach access so we just ate there and headed back to Pescadero beach.

We weren't sure what to expect of these Pacific beaches; I had low expectations of cold water and lots of rocks. I wasn't wrong; the water is ice cold and we definitely saw some cliffs and driftwood and rocks.  But wow, my expectations were blown away... the beaches are absolutely gorgeous!  And the weather got so perfect in the afternoon, it didn't even matter that the water is ice cold. Between warm sun and cool breeze it was perfectly comfortable hanging out on the sand, no need to even go near the water, although Valerie enjoyed sticking her legs in and shouting, "It's too much, it's too much!!!"

We had the loveliest afternoon hanging out on the beach, flying the kite, playing in the sand, tossing the frisbee... and yes, there was also some bad behavior, sand throwing and time out... we'll skip over that part. Overall it was a delightful day and none of us wanted to go home. We stopped at a farm market on the way back through Half Moon Bay and bought a huge box of local strawberries that are utterly to die for.

When we got home we sat on the back porch and gorged on strawberries, peaches, grapes and artichoke bread with butter. So many carbs.... I died and went to carb heaven, between the luscious peaches, the candy strawberries and the warm buttery bread....... heaven.

It was our first California adventure. We discovered that there are amazing beaches less than an hour's drive from our house, cute Pacific towns, farms, wineries, and stunning views of the hills and valleys along the way. So beautiful. What an incredible place to get to spend this year. I still can't believe we're really here living this opportunity. I can tell it's going to fly by so fast and be over before I even realize it's begun. What an awesome first weekend!