Gamble House

The Gamble House, designed by Green & Greene, has been on my "To see" list for years and we finally got there!



Of course they have that silly rule about not taking pictures inside, so outdoor (and construction detail)photos will have to suffice.

Spring in the desert.

For months we had been planning a trip to see the desert (Anza-Borrego Desert State Park) bloom with Uncle Tim. Well, the time came and Tim suggested inviting some friends. How close these friends were when he suggested it, well we're not sure, but not nearly as close as they were when we got to the desert...Tim invited Leona and her boys. On the first night of the trip, he proposed, she accepted and the excitement began!

The camp....



Cooking on the back of the Baja...



Education...



The flowers!...



The hikes...





And the family.

Southern California here we come!

A few days after the date in the park, Suzanne headed for Canada on a business trip to the DIRTT factory (read all about it on her professional blog) and Bob went south to look in on the Smiths. When he got there, they invited him to stay as their new business was keeping them busy. The unemployed entrepreneur, Mr. Business himself, was a bit jealous and wanted to have some fun too! He felt it wouldn't be fair to leave Suzanne out, so he went back to SF to pick her up (and some extra clothes). Sure glad she didn't miss out on this!



Kat insisted that she take Daddy to Chucke E. Cheese for his birthday!



It looks like Kat wasn't the only one having fun...







And Suzanne got a new place to work remotely - make that number 5.

Back to the park!

Golden Gate Park is 1017 acres and no, we haven't seen them all - it does make for a good "date". This time we went to check out the Dutch Windmill & Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden on the west side, Mallard Lake (hence the ducks along with Suzanne's favorite flowers - Calla Lillies) and the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum, in the middle of the park (also close to 9th and Irving, a favorite place to find a meal). We still haven't checked out the lawn bowling, pétanque or the fly fishing ponds.


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the Stairs of San Francisco, round 2 - the "Sunset"

Back to the Sunset - this place grows on a person. We're beginning to learn about the number of "hidden" stairs - this is the 2nd set we found, the first was in North Beach. This particular set, at 16th Ave & Moraga St, we had some help finding - we learned there's an entire book devoted to walking tours of stairs in San Francisco and these were on the cover. We're looking forward to searching out more. There's an interesting story about the neighborhood working together on the tile art.



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Blue Bottle - the follow up

As you might remember our previous post about the Kiosk, this is the coffeehouse by the same name - we just had to find this place. We didn't find the location as creatively done, but we were kinda floored by what we found inside. Some crazy contraption called a coffee siphon that is sponsored by some university. Unfortunately, when we asked for a demonstration, the siphon guy was gone for the day and that's all the information we got. Guess we'll just have to go back another day. In any case, we got ourselves a couple of drips and a ceramic filter cone. After looking all over town for the ceramic cone filter holder without success, we decided to give in and treat ourselves to an aniversary gift. I can hardly wait to see how this "cone" goes over with fellow coffee drinkers!



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What's it? an "It's-it" ...who's on first?

A San Francisco treat! Our friends, Ben & Kristin are responsible for the introduction to the "It's-it", which explained the random signs on east side of 101, south of the city, near the plane station. The corporate offices are visible from the freeway, so after we had 'em we had to see the place...so you know us, just wandered around with our maps...

San Francisco is hailed as the home of Oysters Kirkpatrick, sourdough French bread and Green Goddess dressing, but there's one local gastronomic adventure
that has never been guarded so tenaciously by natives that only recently, when announcement came that it's birthplace would be razed, did any of us latecomers have an inkling of the wonder.

The "It's-it" has emanated for 45 years from one of the once exotic refreshment stands of San Francisco's historic Playland at the Beach. It was born in 1928 and delivered by amusement park owner, George Whitney. Today the very mention of its name sets off the salivary glands in a legion of protectors whose childhood Sundays meant a trip to the "it" stand...

- American Home Magazine

What is it? "...a scoop of vanilla ice cream between two large old-fashioned oatmeal cookies and then dipped the sandwich into dark chocolate. On that very day, the It's It Ice Cream Sandwich..."



It comes in 4 flavors: vanilla, chocolate, cappuccino & mint.



Of course, there is more humor behind this post as it was published 3 months after it was conceived. Bob has been saving the boxes in the picture and some of the wrappers, which Suzanne kept throwing away. Right up to the point of going out to get a fresh It's-it, as pictured, she wanted to derail the effort and go to Borders to get some cards.