The Baylands
May. 28th, 2011 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tulokynShamus and I went out early this morning, and ate breakfast with a couple of his friends in Menlo Park. The restaurant was called Stacks, and we were not warned about the size of the pancakes we would be served, so we foolishly did not specify a "short stack" when we ordered. I only ate about half of my Lumberjack Pancakes (ordered with no walnuts), despite them being quite tasty and them having been slathered in hot blueberry compote. So tasty. It's within biking distance, so we could go again if we wanted to.
We came back to the room and digested for a while, and then I finally managed to coerce Shamus into going on a bike ride with me. We stopped at CVS first to get batteries and Gatorade, to discover that CVS doesn't have bike racks in its back parking lot. Shamus went into the store while I stood around looking after the bikes, and making my pannier bag stop harassing me when I was pedaling. I have had a soft spot for grape Gatorade since I was sick one year, and that was the flavour of drink that my Mom got for me to rehydrate with. It was The BEST GATORADE EVER. Must be Gatorade, not Powerade, and not this "fierce grape" crap they've been pedalling lately. Just plain grape. Anyway...
We pedaled off to the Palo Alto Baylands park, and it must have been the slightly different route from the CVS, but today I noticed that there was a giant brass hippopotamus statue in someone's front yard. Regrettably, I did not stop to take a picture, and then I couldn't find it on the way back. I called ahead, asking why we had never noticed it before, and Shamus hadn't noticed it then either, so he might just think it's a figment of my imagination. I swear there was a giant brass hippo though. I am baffled.
We had no interesting encounters with wildlife today. I have some photos of the Canada geese, and some other little wildlife, but we saw no snakes or particularly interesting birds. I tried to get photos of some goslings, but I had some severe issues with figuring out where my camera was aimed, so all you can see are the parent geese. We were out a little later than we were last weekend, so that might've had something to do with the lack of wildlife, as well as the difference in tide levels.
We had planned to go to "the most amazing coffeeshop" on our ride today, since it wasn't terribly out of the way (and it actually ended up being shorter than our usual route!) from the turning back point of our ride. We only got mildly lost, and then Shamus's phone was dead so we couldn't check the map, but we did actually make it there safely. There were no bike racks there either. We ended up locking one bike to itself (lock through and around the back tire and frame), and then on the other side of a lamp post, we locked the other bike to the first bike. Then we proceeded to be completely paranoid about people stealing our bikes for the duration of our coffee visit. The coffee was incredible though, and we've probably found our go-to local coffee to buy instead of the great Nova Scotian Just Us! coffee. I also got a pumpkin muffin, but promptly lost my appetite, and decided to save it for later. It's sitting to the left of my computer as I type. If the water heater ever finishes boiling, I might have it with some tea.
So we pedaled back to the room we're staying in, and I marveled at how novel it was to have the motorists not actively try to kill us while we biked on the road. They were mostly extremely respectful of our space and our right to be on the road, and those that weren't giving us a super-wide berth or slowing to stay behind us were at least not speeding by closely, or honking at us or anything.
Our new apartment has a pool and hot tub for community use, and so I decided last night that I should buy a bathing suit before we move down there. I might want to soak in the hot tub the evening that we move. I had also been looking at bedsheets and cookware on the Macy's website last night, and I wanted to go do those errands this afternoon. I was tired from the bike ride, but I am SO sick of this room that I just wanted to go out and shop for a while, since it was more interesting than lying on a crappy bed trying to level up the characters in my gameboy game or playing spider solitaire on my computer. It took some convincing, and my decision to go by myself before Shamus got off the bed and put his shoes on to come with me, but we ended up going together.
We wandered through the terribly organized swimsuit section for a while, before I selected a few suits that I felt were alright, and I tried them on while Shamus stood around feeling awkward outside the dressing room. I wasn't thrilled with any of them, but I settled on a fairly simple grey one piece suit with a purple top hem and straps. We then wandered up to the third floor and stared at various cookware sets, before deciding that what we should do was go down to the fancy kitchen store we'd gotten trapped in the week before, and check out their open stock pots. We ended up getting a 10 piece AllClad stainless steel set, that came with a bonus gift of a cookbook, a pair of red oven mitts, and a lasagna pan (supposedly a $150 value). We ended up spending more than anticipated on the set, but we had kind of decided that nice cookware was an okay thing to spend on. We don't like to get temporary things, if we can avoid it, and if we're getting a nice new kitchen as an upgrade from our last apartment (or this one, for that matter), we should do the stovetop some justice and get nice pots. Besides, these are probably lifetime pots, and we won't be looking at getting more for a long time (except maybe a small nonstick pan for making Japanese scrambled eggs in). My Mom has told me to not spend a lot of money on things that we'll just end up giving away out here, but I'm pretty sure that we're going to move back to Canada properly whenever we move, and we'll probably be out here for a minimum of three years or so, and it could be much longer! Who wants to deal with crappy kitchenware that long?
We wandered around and looked at a few things more (like the fancy kitchen knives), and then moved on up to the counter, only to discover that the box containing our new pots was ENORMOUS. Like, seriously, I don't know how much it weighed, but it was about hip height on us, with no handles to speak of. We were not getting this thing home without a cab. The cashier suggested that she could print out a claim tag, and then we could just pick it up when it was more convenient for us to get it home, so we went with that suggestion. She also asked us if we had any nice cooking utensils to use with out new cookware, only to discover that we had nothing! She suggested that she could show us some of what she would recommend for it, and we let her. We ended up with two very basic (but very nice) necessities, a (handcrafted!) wooden spatula, and a lovely stainless steel serving spoon. Sure, we could have gotten something super cheap elsewhere, but I think we were a little brain fried and easily swayed. This kitchen store is pretty amazing. We ended up leaving the pots and bonus gift there under our claim tag, and we took the tools home (since they'll be easy to move come Wednesday).
This was about when we realized that we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, and I started to get my "so hungry I'm nauseated" feeling, so we went up to the Creamery to eat. My feeling sick didn't pass when I started to eat, so I only ended up eating a few fries and half of my French Dip sandwich, and taking the rest to go. Shamus had... I don't even know what he had. I think I wasn't paying too much attention. I know he had a bottle of cream soda, while I had a vanilla Coke. Hm, actually, we ate just after Macy's, but before the kitchen store. Whatever, I don't feel like editing it. After the kitchen store we ended up standing outside of Bose for 5 minutes, while Shamus decided if he wanted to go in and look at headphones (which he's done about three times this month). We did go in, and I stood around blankly while he tried stuff on and listened to it. He finally decided to go with the noise cancelling headphones (which I am admittedly jealous of), and he is now across the room barely able to hear a thing. Interestingly, the noise cancellation doesn't cancel out voices, so he can actually hear me better than he usually can while wearing headphones which is SO GOOD.
Anyway, that was the day. Nothing really terribly interesting happened, and it also wasn't terribly boring. I'm hoping to drag Shamus out for another long bike ride tomorrow, and maybe I'll figure the camera out a bit better for taking better pictures. Most of what I have came out too dark today. I suppose I should also go and link this place to the interested parties so they can take a look and keep updated with the "California Adventure."
We came back to the room and digested for a while, and then I finally managed to coerce Shamus into going on a bike ride with me. We stopped at CVS first to get batteries and Gatorade, to discover that CVS doesn't have bike racks in its back parking lot. Shamus went into the store while I stood around looking after the bikes, and making my pannier bag stop harassing me when I was pedaling. I have had a soft spot for grape Gatorade since I was sick one year, and that was the flavour of drink that my Mom got for me to rehydrate with. It was The BEST GATORADE EVER. Must be Gatorade, not Powerade, and not this "fierce grape" crap they've been pedalling lately. Just plain grape. Anyway...
We pedaled off to the Palo Alto Baylands park, and it must have been the slightly different route from the CVS, but today I noticed that there was a giant brass hippopotamus statue in someone's front yard. Regrettably, I did not stop to take a picture, and then I couldn't find it on the way back. I called ahead, asking why we had never noticed it before, and Shamus hadn't noticed it then either, so he might just think it's a figment of my imagination. I swear there was a giant brass hippo though. I am baffled.
We had no interesting encounters with wildlife today. I have some photos of the Canada geese, and some other little wildlife, but we saw no snakes or particularly interesting birds. I tried to get photos of some goslings, but I had some severe issues with figuring out where my camera was aimed, so all you can see are the parent geese. We were out a little later than we were last weekend, so that might've had something to do with the lack of wildlife, as well as the difference in tide levels.
We had planned to go to "the most amazing coffeeshop" on our ride today, since it wasn't terribly out of the way (and it actually ended up being shorter than our usual route!) from the turning back point of our ride. We only got mildly lost, and then Shamus's phone was dead so we couldn't check the map, but we did actually make it there safely. There were no bike racks there either. We ended up locking one bike to itself (lock through and around the back tire and frame), and then on the other side of a lamp post, we locked the other bike to the first bike. Then we proceeded to be completely paranoid about people stealing our bikes for the duration of our coffee visit. The coffee was incredible though, and we've probably found our go-to local coffee to buy instead of the great Nova Scotian Just Us! coffee. I also got a pumpkin muffin, but promptly lost my appetite, and decided to save it for later. It's sitting to the left of my computer as I type. If the water heater ever finishes boiling, I might have it with some tea.
So we pedaled back to the room we're staying in, and I marveled at how novel it was to have the motorists not actively try to kill us while we biked on the road. They were mostly extremely respectful of our space and our right to be on the road, and those that weren't giving us a super-wide berth or slowing to stay behind us were at least not speeding by closely, or honking at us or anything.
Our new apartment has a pool and hot tub for community use, and so I decided last night that I should buy a bathing suit before we move down there. I might want to soak in the hot tub the evening that we move. I had also been looking at bedsheets and cookware on the Macy's website last night, and I wanted to go do those errands this afternoon. I was tired from the bike ride, but I am SO sick of this room that I just wanted to go out and shop for a while, since it was more interesting than lying on a crappy bed trying to level up the characters in my gameboy game or playing spider solitaire on my computer. It took some convincing, and my decision to go by myself before Shamus got off the bed and put his shoes on to come with me, but we ended up going together.
We wandered through the terribly organized swimsuit section for a while, before I selected a few suits that I felt were alright, and I tried them on while Shamus stood around feeling awkward outside the dressing room. I wasn't thrilled with any of them, but I settled on a fairly simple grey one piece suit with a purple top hem and straps. We then wandered up to the third floor and stared at various cookware sets, before deciding that what we should do was go down to the fancy kitchen store we'd gotten trapped in the week before, and check out their open stock pots. We ended up getting a 10 piece AllClad stainless steel set, that came with a bonus gift of a cookbook, a pair of red oven mitts, and a lasagna pan (supposedly a $150 value). We ended up spending more than anticipated on the set, but we had kind of decided that nice cookware was an okay thing to spend on. We don't like to get temporary things, if we can avoid it, and if we're getting a nice new kitchen as an upgrade from our last apartment (or this one, for that matter), we should do the stovetop some justice and get nice pots. Besides, these are probably lifetime pots, and we won't be looking at getting more for a long time (except maybe a small nonstick pan for making Japanese scrambled eggs in). My Mom has told me to not spend a lot of money on things that we'll just end up giving away out here, but I'm pretty sure that we're going to move back to Canada properly whenever we move, and we'll probably be out here for a minimum of three years or so, and it could be much longer! Who wants to deal with crappy kitchenware that long?
We wandered around and looked at a few things more (like the fancy kitchen knives), and then moved on up to the counter, only to discover that the box containing our new pots was ENORMOUS. Like, seriously, I don't know how much it weighed, but it was about hip height on us, with no handles to speak of. We were not getting this thing home without a cab. The cashier suggested that she could print out a claim tag, and then we could just pick it up when it was more convenient for us to get it home, so we went with that suggestion. She also asked us if we had any nice cooking utensils to use with out new cookware, only to discover that we had nothing! She suggested that she could show us some of what she would recommend for it, and we let her. We ended up with two very basic (but very nice) necessities, a (handcrafted!) wooden spatula, and a lovely stainless steel serving spoon. Sure, we could have gotten something super cheap elsewhere, but I think we were a little brain fried and easily swayed. This kitchen store is pretty amazing. We ended up leaving the pots and bonus gift there under our claim tag, and we took the tools home (since they'll be easy to move come Wednesday).
This was about when we realized that we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, and I started to get my "so hungry I'm nauseated" feeling, so we went up to the Creamery to eat. My feeling sick didn't pass when I started to eat, so I only ended up eating a few fries and half of my French Dip sandwich, and taking the rest to go. Shamus had... I don't even know what he had. I think I wasn't paying too much attention. I know he had a bottle of cream soda, while I had a vanilla Coke. Hm, actually, we ate just after Macy's, but before the kitchen store. Whatever, I don't feel like editing it. After the kitchen store we ended up standing outside of Bose for 5 minutes, while Shamus decided if he wanted to go in and look at headphones (which he's done about three times this month). We did go in, and I stood around blankly while he tried stuff on and listened to it. He finally decided to go with the noise cancelling headphones (which I am admittedly jealous of), and he is now across the room barely able to hear a thing. Interestingly, the noise cancellation doesn't cancel out voices, so he can actually hear me better than he usually can while wearing headphones which is SO GOOD.
Anyway, that was the day. Nothing really terribly interesting happened, and it also wasn't terribly boring. I'm hoping to drag Shamus out for another long bike ride tomorrow, and maybe I'll figure the camera out a bit better for taking better pictures. Most of what I have came out too dark today. I suppose I should also go and link this place to the interested parties so they can take a look and keep updated with the "California Adventure."