Cabo

Last week we had the opportunity to visit Mexico, specifically Los Cabos, for a week. We were invited along by Sam's parents, who said basically, "We are going, whoever can come is welcome," so we got ourselves there and there you are.

Unfortunately, as people who are not big drinkers or surfers, Los Cabos is not exactly a dream destination for us, but we found enough to do and had lots of sunshine and relaxing and delicious food, so it worked out. The Los Cabos area is actually two cities: Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. We stayed in SJdC, which is more "local" and quite a bit less touristy (meaning fewer bars and clubs and more of other things to do), so that worked out well in our favor.

We flew down on Saturday and arrived at our hotel. The hotel people basically told us up front that they were encouraging people not to check in, and to either go home or find somewhere else to stay. The air was very still and hazy and the ocean was all riled up. All signs pointed to...Hurricane Blanca.

It's funny to me because I had been checking the weather in the days leading up to our trip, and it had just started saying "90% chance of rain" etc, but never anything about a HURRICANE. So I was clueless about it until we got to the airport.

Stormy skies

Some of the windows were boarded up in anticipation

It was kind of crazy on Sunday, especially by the afternoon/evening. Everywhere in town was closed and power in the city was limited, so we ate dinner at the hotel's one functioning restaurant, and it really made me feel bad. The security guys were trying to barricade the doors with sandbags because the insane winds kept blowing them open and blowing things in there. Whatever food they were bringing to the patrons they had to bring from another kitchen (which was running on their emergency generator), and everyone was harried and/or worried. On top of that, a number of other guests were complaining about how their drink was too watery or something else was too blah blah blah. I commend the staff for getting through it like they did, because if it were me, I would've punched somebody in the face and gone home and hidden myself.

A hurricane (Sam wants me to point out that his face is a bit exaggerated)

Unhappy waters

The palms got even more bent and blown than pictured here

The wind was picking up sand and spitting it on us on our way back up to the room. That night I found all kinds of sand in my hair. When it was dark, Sam and I stood out on the walkway and looked out over the city and all you could see were a couple of red emergency lights on top of an adjacent hotel. All you could hear was the eerie sound of the incessant wind and rain, whipping some debris somewhere nearby.

The darkness that night in the city

And for comparison, the night view on a night we had power

By late the next morning, the wind had died down significantly and the rain had stopped. There were palm fronds in the pool and leaves and styrofoam all over everything, but the staff was already out there sweeping up and wiping everything down. Again, I was impressed by them.

That day we drove into the foothills and went for a hike called Sol de Mayo that went to a little water fall that poured into what was supposed to be a blue-green swimming hole. Unfortunately, because of Blanca, the water was thick with mud and chocolatey brown, so we didn't feel good about swimming in it, but the hike was still fun, and easy enough that I don't think anybody felt like we had wasted our time. The proprietors of the trail area had several freaky hairless dogs (friendly though), and one adorable, wobbly little puppy. They had lots of other animals too-- turtles, donkeys, goats-- and it was over all just a quiet, peaceful little place. The desert was all green and a-bloom from the rain and it was very pretty.

On the trail

The waterfall and swimming hole

The pup

After the hike, we drove back through the little town of Santiago to look at the mission there. We found a dog sleeping in a patch of sun, and he was the only sign of life in that part of town.

Finally, we drove back to San José, found that nearly every restaurant was still closed from the storm, and finally got a recommendation for a place called Sardina Cantina. We had a (very) late lunch there, which everyone in the group except me thought was one of the best places we ate the whole trip, but I think it was 4th or 5th on the ranks. We were just starving. Bonus: we were moved to a new room, with an ocean view, and it was great.

The next day, after a delicious homemade breakfast from Sam's parents, we all went for a walk down at the estuary. It was incredibly hot and humid that morning, and Hurricane Odile (from November) had destroyed most of the pathway, but we saw lots of fun animals, like cormorants, osprey, loons, turtles, and even horses grazing on or near the paths. Cami even found some stinging fire ants (ha ha).

After that we spent most of the day swimming and hanging around. For lunch we ate at a delicious fish taco place called Blue Fish. Honestly, I am not a huge fan of fish tacos, but these were very tasty, and I think Blue Fish made my spot for 2nd best place we ate on this trip.

Birds at the estuary

That night for dinner (which we thought we were having pretty late, just before 8 o'clock, but were apparently still very early), we went to my favorite restaurant from the trip, Las Cazuelas del Don.

It was a quiet little local place on a covered patio, and the proprietor/owner/cooks talked with us and told us the story of how they started the restaurant, and it was kind of a fun story, which is a little too long for me to relate here.

Aside from the conversation and company, they also had the best taco soup I think I've ever tasted, and the main course, of course, was the cazuela dish. A cazuela is a clay pot, and after par-cooking the meat (we got beef) on a grill, they stew it for a couple of hours with spices and vegetables. Then they fish the meat out and put it in another clay pot (smaller) with a ton of cheese and other things and cover it with foil, heating it on the grill until it's bubbly like a mini volcano. Then you put that stuff on a fresh little tortilla and top it with lime, because "In Mexico, we put límon on everything, we believe it counteracts the grease." Also because lime is delicious.

The next day, Wednesday, we all drove over to Cabo San Lucas and took a boat ride out around the tip of the peninsula to see El Arco and the other rock formations, plus pelicans and sea lions. I love being in boats, so I had a really great time.

Toursits

Land's End and a debatably animatronic pelican

After the boat ride, we were going to head over to the Natural History Museum, but when we arrived there, we discovered they had never gotten their power back after the weekend, and they weren't letting anybody in. I would've been happy to go through with flashlights or even using phones as lights, but they refused. I was pretty upset, because that was one thing we planned that I was really looking forward to (yeah, okay, I'm a dork, whatever).

That night, we went over to a restaurant recommended by Carlos, one of the guys at the front desk, who I liked because he was sarcastic and sassy, and still friendly. He sent us to this place for free drinks with our meal, which I thought was pretty cool. It was called El Herradero, and I almost wish we had gone here a different day, because the signature dishes, served in molcajetes, were pretty similar to the cazuela dishes from the night before. But El Herradero was little more commercialized, or at least more used to crowds, so it was fun in a different way, and they specialized in guacamole and salsas, so that was different. But the main dishes were pretty similar (though I got a different meat, and the molcajetes came with cactus and avocado as well, and were stewed in salsa). This place was probably my 3rd favorite.

Sam's molcajete (with shrimp)

And mine (chicken, cactus, onion, etc)

On Thursday we went to a fancy lunch place that every list had recommended and we had to get reservations for. While Flora's Field Kitchen (at Flora Farms) had a great setting and atmosphere (on a farm where they grow their own food for the restaurant), the food was rather meh. I mean, it was good, but it wasn't very special, and it was all pizza and salads and burgers-- nothing you can't get in the US. I think we all generally agreed on this one, that we probably wouldn't recommended the restaurant there to anyone, though it was kind of neat to walk through the little growing fields (and would've been even more so if it hadn't been about a billion degrees).

The extent of their little market in the summer (but pretty)

Sam, making fun of my entire childhood

Lovebirdz 4 lief

Later that evening, we went to downtown San José for the famed Art Walk. It wasn't very crowded because June is the off season in Los Cabos, but there were some interesting artists and craftmakers, so that was cool. We also checked out the Mission there in the town square.

It got too hot to be out, so we took refuge again in nearby El Herradero, and gorged ourselves on guacamole for a while (and they gave us free drinks again because we came back!). Eventually, it was cool enough to be out, so we walked around town and got souvenirs and looked at the art. It was pretty peaceful that evening.

The next day, Friday, Sam and I went for a long walk on the beach, past the sad little surf competition (no waves since the storm), and walked around some cliff/pseudo-cave stuff. We found loads of shells and coral.

Later, Sam and Peter and their dad went back to Cabo San Lucas to go snorkeling. Personally, I prefer SCUBA, and the area they went was pretty crowded, so I didn't go. No one else was really interested either, so we kind of sat around and waited for them to return. When they got back, Sam said he got stung by a jellyfish (ouch!) and that they spent a lot of time jumping off rocks and swimming.

After that, we got cleaned up and drove back to Cabo San Lucas for dinner. We went to a place called Mi Casa, that had amazing tamales, but those were just the appetizers. My main dish was not that special, though it was tasty. We walked around town for a bit, then drove home.

On Saturday, we flew home, and that was that! I'll probably never exert myself to visit Los Cabos ever again, but we ate some delicious food and had a good time trying to find off-the-beaten-path activities. I was also very impressed with the way people handled the impending storm, even if it blew itself mostly out before it hit us, and I was very happy at how kind and friendly every person (with maybe one or two exceptions) we met was to us. Overall, a good break.  And the night after we got home and were lying quietly in bed in the dark, Sam said to me, "You know, I already miss the sound of the ocean."

Blue Apron

Partly because I've been wanting to try it for a long, long time, partly because I got a 2-of-3-meals-free-for-your-first-time thing, and partly because I was using my birthday as an excuse, we decided to try Blue Apron.

Blue Apron is the classiest of the meal-planning-type companies. You pay them to surprise you with mystery recipes, perfectly-portioned ingredients, and the promise to repeat next week. They use new and unusual ingredients often, and all their packaging is recyclable.

When you're on the website, you'll see there aren't a lot of options. You can pick 2- or 4-person meals. With the 2-person plan, you get 3 meals, and with the 4-person plan, you can choose either 2 or 4 meals. 

From there, they ask if you are vegetarian, and then ask you to list (from their limited options) the things you don't eat (which are all meats). I found that a little strange. There were no options for dairy, gluten, nut allergies, that kind of thing. For example, Sam is allergic to mint, and 2 of the 3 meals they sent us contained mint! Fortunately, we could just omit it and move on with our lives, and were lucky an allergen didn't play a more central part to the dish. It would be better if you were allowed to be more specific about dietary restrictions (like legitimate ones, not like "I think X is icky").

After ordering, we waited til delivery day, and it arrived (an hour before dinner time, cutting it close) in a refrigerated box.

The instructions said to cook any seafood dishes first, for optimal freshness, so we did the hake that night. Oh, we said we were not vegetarian, and I did leave all the meats except I think shellfish, lamb, and maybe one other, so they sent us one fish dish, one turkey dish, and one vegetarian dish. I was glad, because I was worried all 3 would be meat and I can't do meat that often.

So, Night One:

Rice-Flake Crusted Hake with Sautéed Daikon Radish & Yuzu-Soy Sauce

Yeah. First of all, hake is basically cod. It was a good fish, not a really fishy fish, and our apartment didn't smell like fried fish after (I don't think). Also, Sam and I both hate mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms were basically the most prominent ingredient after the fish. We ended up eating some of them though (the flavor was good but the texture was too gummy), and I think we both deserve major points for that. The radish was interesting, I actually liked it. There was yu choy in there too, and it also was pretty good. The rice flakes though seemed like a good idea in theory, but they fried up hard and crunchy in a not-good way, and that was again a texture mistake. And the yuzu sauce was tasty, but the soy a little too much.

Right off the bat here, I have to say a couple of things. First of all, Blue Apron claims that all their meals (or at least the ones we got) can be done in half an hour. This is a big fat lie. With two of us working feverishly on each meal, we were still never done in under an hour, while the recipes claimed the would take 25-30 minutes or 15-25. Ha!

Second of all, the portions were all over the place, while claiming to be just right for two. In the first one, we had tons of fish and hardly any vegetables. Also, there was no way a toddler was going to eat mushrooms for dinner. She had macaroni and cheese that night. The second meal was right on for portion size (we even made a bit extra for Ros), and the last meal had tons extra. I'm ok with extra if it's good, but when I think about how many mushrooms... Anyway.

So! Back to to the hake! All in all, a good-ish meal, but it took way longer to make than advertised, and Ros was starving and I realized halfway through she wouldn't eat anything, so I started making her that Mac and cheese too, and accidentally shattered a plate. We have a tiny kitchen and will often use the unused stove burners as extra counter space, so I had the plate of cooked veg next to the pan I was frying the fish in, and had turned on the burner for the noodles to cook, and, well...it was the wrong burner. We discovered this a few minutes later when the veg plate exploded, I screamed, the baby cried, and tra la la.

Onto Night Two:

Turkey Kibbeh with Cucumber Salad & Mint-Yogurt Sauce (sans mint, actually I added some to mine and it was good)

This is the only dish of the three that we both agreed it was something we would make again. The pine nuts and dried apricots were delicious additions to the little meat patties. And while I don't much care for cucumbers (though earlier this year I decided I could tolerate them on occasion), the salad was pretty good and a great compliment to the meat.

This meal still took twice as long as advertised, but the portions were really almost perfect for the 2.5 of us, and we all enjoyed it (even Ros, but she likes anything in a patty).

Night Three:

Orecchiette Pasta with English Peas, Pecorino Cheese & Mint (sans mint)

This one was the one that was supposed to be 15 minutes, but it took 15 minutes just to shell the peas, which was actually fun, but, was it necessary...?

Also, the recipe included ricotta to make lemon-ricotta, which is the base for the sauce, but I feel like they put in the wrong cheese, because I have never seen ricotta be dry and crumbly... It still tasted fine though.

This was a tasty dish, but it included "pea tips" which is basically leaves and stems from the pea plant. Those were a little strange. The flavor was fine but it was kind of stringy and weird, so after trying it, neither of us ate those.

In any case, Blue Apron was fun and kind of exciting (mystery recipes and all that), but I don't think I'll do it again, especially not at the regular price. There's a different, similar service I'm going to try, since I got a gift card for it somewhere. Perhaps we will like that one better. I will let you guys know when we do that one how it goes!

Fun In Moab

Last weekend we were in Moab to enjoy the "warmth" and the out-of-doors. It actually ended up being rainy and sort of chilly the whole time we were down there, but we still had a great time.

Sam and I drove down with Ros on Friday afternoon, and we met up with some other family who had driven down the day before. Because of that, we missed the day they went to Arches, which was kind of a bummer, but Sam and I have both been there before (but it was like 15+ years ago for me, so I will still have to go back!).

We stayed with a very nice couple who used to babysit Sam and his sibs when they all lived in New Jersey, even though they were out of town until the morning we left! They were still very kind to let us stay, especially since there were like 2 races in Moab that weekend and hotels were basically full-up.

Anyway, so Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast and drove into town to meet up with my parents and sibs, and we decided rather simultaneously that the previously planned hike to Grand Gallery (a pictograph panel, a very cool one, look it up) was altogether too strenuous, too steep, and too difficult to get to, so we decided instead to go to Canyonlands National Park and hope we had the same amount of fun. Note: I'm still planning on hiking to Grand Gallery one day, but this was not that day. I need to be in better shape for that.

I was kind of expecting Canyonlands to be lame, if I'm being honest, but it actually turned out to be quite fun and very beautiful.

The first thing we did after the visitor's center and lunch was to drive out to Upheaval Dome (which is really a crater, by the way), which we hiked to the top of and pondered its origins. I'm still not convinced by the meteor theory, but the salt dome theory has its flaws too, in case you were wondering (again...look it up). Anyway, it was a great view. 

After the Dome, we went over to Aztec Butte. At this point, it was well into Rosalind's normal naptime, so she was quite the crank. She nearly fell asleep in the car, so we left her with my mom, whose knees needed a rest, and hiked first to the top of the shorter butte with Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi to you plebes) granaries on it. That was interesting. There was even "Anasazi Goo" aka bits of food from way back in the day left in the pantry to get hard as a rock.

After the shorter butte, we grabbed dad (who was sitting in the shade on the cyanobiotic soil crust) and hiked the taller butte, which I think is the real Aztec Butte. The hike was hot and pretty strenuous (ie you actually had to be part goat because it was primarily vertical) but was super fun to do. Finally we reached the butte-top and holy cow, it was an amazing view!

Sam kept disappearing ahead to find the next cairns, and eventually from the butte top we heard "found it!" There were other AP structures up there on the opposite cliffside, so we climbed back down part of the other side to get there. Unfortunately, the trail was closed from rockfall, so we had to turn around (except Eric and Sam went ahead a little ways and we got appropriately mad at them). There was actually another structure up there that we could get to, but I think we all decided it was fake (or at least modern, hiker-built).

We then hiked down (oh the knees!) and met up with my mom and Rosalind, who were meeting us at the trailhead (Ros had apparently not slept at all, the stinker).

After that, we were all pretty beat, and drove over to the Green River Overlook (no hiking involved, fortunately). The view was almost literally breathtaking. I remember when I got up to the edge and looked out I found myself saying "Wow!" under my breath. It was truly a gorgeous view.

After the view, we went over to Mesa Arch. It was another hike, so I was basically like, "Nope," and only hiked as far as I needed to to get the arch in my view, then sat down and waited for everyone else (well, Sam waited too). Oh, we also got attacked by a dust devil, which, in case you're wondering, stings like the dickens and really pushes you around!

After all this, we went back to Moab and got dinner at Milt's, which took way too long but was still delicious. After dinner, we drove over to the really awesome Rotary Park that had a bunch of giant instruments for everyone to play. That was pretty fun. I took a bunch of video snippets of everyone playing, hoping to splice them into a montage, but I couldn't get it to work even though I downloaded like 3 different apps ARGH.

Sunday morning we got up and chatted with the Dickersons for a bit before we had to leave, then went down to help everyone else get out of the hotel room. We then piled into our cars and drove north to Green River (which is a sad remnant of whatever glory it used to be many years ago). There, we filled up on gas and bought sandwiches for lunch, then headed out to Goblin Valley State Park.

We ate lunch once we got there and spent a couple hours wandering 'round amongst the goblins. It was pretty fun. We found "an actual little cave" and a goblin that looked like a turtle, and lots of other interesting things. There were some jokes made about Ros being the Goblin Queen, and we even found her a throne.

After Goblin Valley, Ros was again in anti-naptime-meltdown but still refused to sleep in the car, so after calming her down a bit, I made her comfortable carrying her on my front and we all went hiking up Little Wildhorse Canyon.

It was pretty difficult to hike carrying Ros on the front, but I managed it. She actually slept off and on, which was very nice.  The canyon was seriously awesome and got incredibly narrow at parts, like the trail was just a line on the ground almost, just big enough for your feet, and the canyon walls only a couple feet apart!

We hiked in a couple of miles almost, right to where the slot sort of turns back into regular canyon, had a snack, then turned around and hiked out. The boys of course decided to prove their worth again and hiked up some rubbly-cliff thing, and Sam almost died when he slipped and landed on Ian (or maybe Ian almost died). It was kind of funny though. We took some "slot selfies" sans Dad, because he hiked ahead so that if there was a flash flood he would "be the last to die." In his defense, it had been raining...

After that we piled back in the car and, after a brief stop at the South Temple Wash Panel (of pictographs), drove back home (we stopped in Price for dinner-- a hopping town, let me tell you). All in all, it was a pretty fun trip, and it was great to get outside for fresh air and hiking!

Pick Up Every Pebble

I have started several blog posts in the past few months but haven't completed any of them-- I'm sort of stuck in a rut where I'm worried everything I write is annoyingly baby-related or an opinion I haven't fully formed and therefore am not entirely prepared to defend should people rise up in arms against me. Add that to the fact that I have hardly any pictures on my phone to share (since I quit it for lent and all that), and I'm a boring blogger.

In any case, Rosalind has hit another "milestone" with 15 months (um...a month ago), so I figured I would do a little update on here so that the 2 of you who read this and don't see her on the reg can be in the know. 

Okay. So like I said, Ros is about 16 months old now. She babbles nonsense all day long and is ALWAYS moving. She carries things from room to room and puts things where they don't belong. For instance, my earplugs in the trash and her rabbit in the dryer right as I started it-- but she knows they don't go in there, because if she put something where it's not supposed to be, and I don't notice, she will alert me so I can fix it. Also, if something is out of the ordinary...oh boy. I viciously cut my finger on the blender yesterday and she keeps making noises of worry and trying to remove my bandage (ow).

She is very good at following basic directions, like "go put those in your hamper" or "go put that in the trash" or "go find your bunny." Once, Sam was showering and I asked her "where's Daddy?" and she took me by the hand and led me into the bathroom. That was unexpected.

Ros recognizes letters and when she sees them she will start to "recite" them. She mostly goes "A, C, D, E, D, E, D, E, Beh, D" which I think is funny. She also know several body parts and will point to them when you ask where they are, but still calls everything "eyes" --although she says "ah" for head and hair (which I think is actually "hat"), and sometimes "mo" for mouth or mole (and she will find every blemish on your body and call it a mole; it really makes you feel good about yourself). OH and she calls belly buttons "billy-billy" which I think is adorable.

We are trying to teach her to call herself "Ros" instead of "baby" because technically she's a toddler now and therefore a big girl, but I think mostly it's just confusing her so far. She calls Sam "Didi" and I still don't really get called anything, but she does know who I am if she's asked. She knows a bunch of other words too, and will try things out if you tell her to say them: cheese, go, spot, sit, up, down, no, yes, all done, please, bib, hat, ball, koala, etc. Koala is my favorite-- she says, enthusiastically, "KOHL!" or sometimes, "goll" or "golla-kohl" or similar (she has a little bandana with koalas on it that she likes to put on her head and walk around in, I think that's the only reason she knows that word). Oh, and she says thank you. The way she says it changes, right now it's "die!" which I don't have to tell you is humorous when she goes around saying it all the time. She's starting to put words/phrases together too. On our trip, she was sick of being in the car, and Sam was grabbing her some dinner, so I was with her in the car reading her a book as a distraction, and as soon as I finished, she said "ah da, go-go?" (All done, can we go?). I was impressed.

She used to tell me when she was about to poop, but she doesn't anymore. She actually pooped on the toilet twice when she was doing that, but I wasn't anticipating it would become a regular thing. We are just in the subliminal messaging phase of potty training, and I don't think I'll start actively introducing it for at least another year. She can take her time (for now), she's still super young.

She's doing better with a fork and spoon, and somewhat better with a regular cup (we are starting with smoothies since they're thick), and is sort of learning how to pour-- when I give her the chance.

A couple funny random things: when she bathes, she loves it, but she hates having water poured on her head (understandably). But every time I pour it on her head, she splutters, drops everything, and immediately tries to evacuate the tub. Like pulling up in the edge and lifting her leg to get out within a split second. It's hilarious. Also, we've had the side off of her crib for a few months now, and while she pretty much has stayed in bed since day 2, she will sometimes (when she's not super sleepy), get out of bed and come to her door and bang on it. Then as soon as you open it, she will waddle back to her bed and lie down so you can tuck her in again, smiling all the while. I totally can't be mad about that, even on days she does it twice.

She also loves animals and gets very excited at birds, fish, cats, rabbits, geese, dogs, etc. Every dog she sees she calls "Spot" (Sam's parents' dog) now, and will tell it to sit, or tell it no (apparently we boss Spot around a lot...). We seriously need a pet.

She also loves to be outside. She loves exploring and chasing after balls (at a snail's pace) and putting sticks, leaves and dirt all over herself. Sometimes she will wander through the yard and pick up every minuscule dead leaf or pebble and hand them to me. We must clean up the yard!!

Things I wish she would learn: 

-How to get dressed

-How to blow her nose

-How to change her own messy diapers

-How to tell me why she's unhappy

Also looking forward to:

-Yogurt not being an ordeal

-Sending her to nursery in a couple more months

Anyway, I think that's about all. She's really quite a delight to be around when she's not starving or has missed a nap. She always makes us laugh.