Wednesday, May 16, 2012

California and McIntosh Lake...


Last evening my husband and I flew home from our weekend trip to California. We had a wonderful time drinking in the beauty of one of our favorite states...



The first day we got there our son took us to a favorite spot in Pescadero. Pescadero is a tiny town in San Mateo County -- south of Half Moon Bay and north of Santa Cruz. It's located about 2 miles east of Highway 1...


The reason for our venture to this unassuming little town is their talent of making anything artichoke. We dined on fresh-out-of-the-oven warm Artichoke Garlic Herb Bread from Norm's Market. It was carbohydrate heaven...


Then we walked down the street to Duarte's and sampled their artichoke soup and artichoke ravioli. Can one ever get too many artichokes? The answer is simple: No.

Another day we went to Santana Row in San Jose. It's worth it to go there just to enjoy the beautiful container plants, but the shopping is wonderful too...


While there we went to a new (to us) restaurant called Pizza Antica and had some fabulous pizza and desserts!


Later that night we went to another fabulous restaurant in Sunnyvale called Dish Dash.  It's a Middle Eastern Restaurant tucked into the downtown area. I had a incredible dish called Mansaf -- tender chunks of lamb, cooked in aged yogurt and served with rice and toasted almonds. I want more. Right now. We also shared a Baklava sundae for dessert -- rich, vanilla ice cream with yummy Baklava crumbled on top. I want more. Right now.

We enjoyed Mother's Day with my mother and sister. My mother is 89 years old. Although she says she's "slowing down", she seems as spry as ever to me. Here's a photo of some of her beautiful roses...


Sometimes when we fly home from California, we fly right over Longmont as we make our descent into Denver. Last night we easily spotted our house and a lake near our home. After all that fine dining in California, we feel the need to exercise a bit a lot. In a month we are boarding a cruise ship to Alaska. My husband and I have a goal to loose 10 pounds each in the next month, so we can eat anything on the cruise and not feel guilty. {Kind of pathetic, I know!} In an effort to begin that weight loss, this morning we biked around McIntosh Lake -- the one we spotted as we flew over our home last night...


As much as we love traveling and going "home" to California {we were both raised there}, it's good to be in our home in Colorado.

This week will be filled with "catching up." I've traveled three out of the last four weeks, so there is tons of yard work to be done and a Sunday lesson to plan for church. Blogging will fall by the wayside -- some weeks are like that. Have a good one!