Category: night out

Barb loves the great blue herron. We always keep on the lookout when on our walks, looking for the ever elusive and always alone, great blue herron. When I saw this one on my Saturday ride I decided to take some video. Used the video feature on my handy dandy hp photosmart R927 and uploaded to YouTube. Panning from left to right, you can see a gaggle of wading pelicans behind the great blue. Clear morning shows the Penninsula hills across the bay.  This one’s for you Barb!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other (some would say better) concert we went to this week. Rick Springfield performed at the Saratoga Mountain Winery on Sunday night.  With all the crappy summer weather we have been having we were lucky enough to have a great night under the stars.   Met up with Marie and Ron and had a little parking lot picnic before the show. Great views of the Almaden and Coyote Valleys of San Jose. Ron had prepared a picnic dinner fit for a king! And feast like kings we did. Food and drink all around while electricity filled the air with Springfield mania. Well not really, but it sure was a nice night. Sat down right as the show was starting.   I must say, Rick Springfield did put on a good show. The intimate setting of the winery seemed to surprise him cuz he said “my living room is bigger than this”.  He played all his hits.  “Jessie’s Girl”, “I’ve done everything for you, you’ve done nothing for me”, and “Don’t talk to strangers” were the ones I recognized.  After 30 years in the business, Rick knows how to work a crowd, and work it he did.  Not that he had to win anyone over.  Everyone that was there was there for a good time and a good time was had by all.  By the time Rick was playing his encore, Ron and I were up and getting a couple of Jessie’s Girls T-shirts for the Girls.

The best of times….. Faith Hill and Tim McGraw were in town for the Soul2Soul tour.  We saw this concert when they were in town last year. Staci got hooked so when they extended the tour and added a couple of shows in California at the tail end of the tour,  Staci joined the Faith Hill fan club so she could get premium seats for the show in Sacramento. She asked if we wanted her to get us tickets for the San Jose show. Even though we had seen them just 12 short month ago, they are so good that we decided it was worth it to see them again.    Kelly and Kate came along.  A family outing! YEA!

Of course the show was great.  Check out some of the pictures here.

Barb and I traveled  to Napa for dinner yesterday evening. Staci had given us a “special dinner out” for Christmas and made reservations for us at the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant in the Culinary Institute of America, St Helena, in the heart of the Napa valley wine country. Grey Sky in Fremont made way to blue Sky in Napa. We arrived a bit early so we stopped at V. Sattui winery for a quick wine tasting before we headed to dinner. A drink on the outside patio while we waited for our table. Sunny spring day in Napa. Seated at a table for two inside, we settled in for a great meal. We shared most everything and ordered the Heirloom Apple Salad with mesclun greens, gorgonzola dolce.  Grilled Angus Hanger Steak with  porcini mushroom-mizuna salad, toasted brioche, sauce Poivrade. Barb ordered the Pan Seared Day Boat Scallops with housemade gnocchi, Jerusalem artichokes, chanterelles, porcini foam. Capped things off with the Molten Chocolate Lava Cake, Pineapple Tart with coconut ice cream, coffee and cappuccino.  What a fantastic meal! Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING!) was great. Thanks Staci!

In all our years together, Barb and I have only spent a couple of weekends doing our “own thing”.  I was off  to El Dorado Hills on Friday for a bike trip with Camello and Vandenbusch on Saturday.  Barb over to Diane’s in Felton for a “girl’s night out” on Saturday Night.

I left Fremont around 2pm Friday and picked up Kate in Sacramento before heading to dinner with the Kahuna and family. Ann and Mike have a great new house in gold country.  Had a great dinner of BBQ chicken with pineapple, spinach salad with strawberries, roasted red potato, and a real good chilled broccoli salad.  Drinks by the backyard fire pit and pie and ice cream for desert. ALL GOOD!!! Thought I was going to pop.

I had brought up some old photo albums from our Disneyland trip in 1999 and the famous Maui trip of Easter 2000. Had a great time re-living all the great great memories of days gone by. We all agreed that although it didn’t seem like the time had passed so quickly, the girls (who all looked like babies in the pictures) were all grown up in the eight years we have all known eachother.

Saturday morning it was up early to get ready for the ride. Although earlier weather predictions called for possible showers, and then passing showers, it rained pretty much all day. Vandenbusch made the drive up early morning and was in the driveway when we all woke up. Kahuna’s cousin’s husband, also named Steve, was along for the ride too. We decided to go out and get some breakfast and hope the rain would pass.  Scarfed four orders of steak and eggs at a local joint called the Purple Place and we were ready to ride!

Back to the house to load up the bikes then over to old town Folsom and the beginning of the American River Trail. This trail goes from Folsom to old town Sacramento.  A nice paved trail with single track, off road trail,  running “parallel” to the paved trail along many parts.  We road the single track trail most of the way, occasionally coming back onto the paved trail for a short time, then hopping back onto the single track.  What a great ride!  Light rain = no people,  so we pretty much had the whole trail to ourselves.  Of course, the rain did make the trail a bit muddy.  By the time we pulled into the Natomas fish hatchery, we were all covered in mud and soaking wet. Although we had only gone 7 miles or so, it felt like more. We headed back the way we came and called it a ride after 15 miles. All in all a great great ride. The Kahuna was right when he said that it felt like being ten years old again,  plowing through the mud and riding in the rain and just having a grand old time. Then it was back to Mike’s house to hose off, shower and hit the road for home. It was such a great time that we vowed to do it again real soon. And we will!

In a city that is struggling to find a  nightlife, Fremont’s City Beach  hosted roadhouse rockers, Mr. X  friday night in what can be described as a breakout performance by the band.  After making its debute just weeks earlier at a nightclub in Sunnyvale, Mr. X hit on all cylinders friday night as they powered through a tight set with a great  mix of roadhouse rock and gin joint blues.  Barb and I arrived a few minutes before the 10pm start and found a nice little corner table in the bar.  The place was hopping with a young, albiet nerdy, diverse crowd.  Joe and the boys were really good,  Muddy Waters, Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Skynyrd, all played at near perfection, to a crowd that wasn’t even born when Hendrix was in his prime.  Not sure this band and this crowd was a good fit but it seemed that Mr. X won the crowd over. Getting more applause as the night went on, and even getting some requests from the crowd. Only the best is ahead for this group of veteran musicians as they begin to make their mark on the bay area music scene. Look for Mr. X at a venue near you!

Back in 1996 Barb and I (and the kids) had season tickets to Shoreline Amphitheater.  For a few years back then, we were going to a lot of concerts. It was a real fun time for us as a family. We saw a lot of great shows.  One of the best was Tim McGraw’s Spontaneous Combustion Tour. The tour where Tim McGraw and Faith Hill met and fell in love. By the time they came to California in late summer, word had already spread that Tim and Faith “liked each other” and were flirting big time on stage when they sang a duet. We were so lucky. Of all the concert tickets we bought through the season ticket program, the Tim and Faith tix were the best. Row E, which turned out to be 6 rows from the stage!  The entire concert was fantastic. Faith Hill has a fantastic voice. Tim McGraw puts on a rockin show! Yes, you could feel the chemistry between Tim and Faith on stage, they kissed after the duet!   There was however, a moment during the concert that is cemented in my mind forever.  We had bought the girls these little Faith Hill bandanas as a souvenir. A red girly bandana with FAITH HILL printed on it that the girls were holding up and dancing with. We were so close to the stage that Faith could easily see these cute little girls (then 8 & 9 years old) dancing and showing the bandanas they just bought. All through her set Faith waved to Kate and Kelly and smiled that dazzling, beautiful smile. Faith loved our girls!  It was totally cool.  The topper was that when Faith was singing her then #1 hit “wild One” and sang the line:

“When she was 3 years old on her daddy’s knee, He said you can be anything you want to be!”

She pointed right at Kelly and Kate and sang “you can be anything you want to be” Barb and I looked at eachother. “did that just happen?” We were excited; “she just sang to the girls!” It was THAT moment that made us Faith Hill fans forever!

Nice relaxing weekend after our busy mid-week freshman orientation. Got in a couple of 17 mile bike rides out to the end of Alameda Creek Trail on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. The weather was FANTASTIC.  Sure beats the heat wave of last weekend. Also got to check out a Steeley Dan cover band named Aja Vu.  Every summer the city of Newark hosts a handful of free “concerts in the grove” in a little grove of eucalyptus trees next to Newpark Mall.  We happenned to catch Aja Vu last year at the Fremont Festival of the Arts and really liked them. I think they sound more like Steely Dan than Steely Dan. Yesterday’s concert was great. Barb and I packed a little picnic lunch and had a great shady spot to kick back and watch the show.  Nice way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The summer of milestones continues. Kelly, who is now working almost full time, shows off her first paycheck.

CHA-CHING!!!

Legendary strongman, Magnus Magnussan displays the old world feat of strength – “chucking the wood” –  at Alameda Creek Trail this last Saturday morning. Showing fine form and using the discus style of throw, Magnus spins until dizzy then tosses the four foot piece of driftwood up into the air (note Magnus’s excellent release  form- hands up, leg out).  The still morning air  at mile marker 11 made the conditions perfect for wood chucking. Magus chucked an amazing 25.5 meters but lost points for not sticking the landing.  The spectacular splash did however make for some excitement at the usually quite and serene spot where the creek trail meets the Bay.