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After Kelly put some sparkly Christmas stuff in the bathroom, we enjoyed an absolutely splendid afternoon in Jack London Square. We wish you all a wonderful holiday.
What are you thankful for this year?
On the second day of Matt & Kerry’s visit, we drove down past the scenic Bixby Bridge through Big Sur and on to our destination – lunch at the Post Ranch Inn. The overcast skies didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for this teriffic lunch. I’m getting hungry thinking about that pork chop.
Bailey and Oscar tied the knot this weekend at a lovely ceremony. Luckily, they hired a professional photographer, which left me free to concentrate on the fun and the pretty girls!
See the rest of the pictures here, or if you would like an easy way to download them to your computer or have photographic prints made, view them in my Picasa web album. (Hint, for best results, install Picasa on your machine.)
Andrew and I tasted a dozen Whisky’s last night at a nice event sponsored by the Whisky Shop. The tasting was held at the swanky E & O Trading Company, which means that in addition to the delicious spirits, we had fabulous food as well.
If you get the chance, I highly recommend you attend a whisky tasting next time you see one. I’ve been to three now, and they are always fun and informative.
thedude and Kelly celebrated the day with a non-traditional Easter brunch at the Claremont Hotel. We raised a toast to the U.S. Navy for rescuing Captain Phillips unharmed.
This was also a chance to experiment with my new Canon G10, which so far is wonderful to shoot with, and produces amazing images for a camera of its size. I think I’ll be using this new camera a lot.
It’s official! Last night over dinner with a group of friends who have all been to Burma several times, we decided that we’re really gonna do it. We’re planning a November trip to Burma! Everyone in the group is very excited – and even a bit jealous of our budding travel plans. Their enthusiasm has a lot to do with why we decided to do it. But the main reason we feel comfortable about the idea is because we have now had dinner twice with our guide-to-be on the trip – William Myatwunna. William totally charmed us with his warm smile and polite good-nature. He is also the best tour guide in all of Burma. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Conde Nast magazine recently picked William’s Good News Travels as one of of the top 128 travel specialists in the world!
Interested in traveling to Burma? I’d suggest you book with William soon. He’s about to become very busy!
The gang enjoys free beer on Friday at the Linden Street Brewery. I’d say you should check it out, but it’s already become too popular.
UPDATE: I just checked the web site, and it seems this will be the last free Friday for a while. Sorry you missed it!
There was a small fire early this morning in our building’s new restaurant. It looks like a bucket of kitchen rags smoldered for hours before creating just enough heat to cause a sprinkler head to blow in the kitchen area of our favorite eatery.
The fire and smoke caused far less damage than the deluge of water from the sprinkler head. The restaurant will be closed for a few days while they replace a water-damaged wall.
I was extremely sleepy at 5:30 this morning when I took these, which probably explains why I didn’t shoot more of them.
I saw Eloisa this afternoon, and she seemed to be in pretty good spirits. We look forward to seeing MoNO open again soon!
This photos-for-food-and-drinks deal we have with our friends at MoNO is working out very nicely for us. Yum!
The Grand Opening at our favorite new restaurant appeared to be a smashing success. Lots of delicious food, wine and a few of our favorite neighbors. Thanks, Todd and Eloisa!
BTW, I went “old school” when I shot these. Just to see what kind of results I could get, I mounted an older Nikkor 50 mm 1.4 lens and focused manually! It was a lot of fun, and when I got the focus right, the results are very pleasing. This old lens looks great at 4.0! The only bad part is that it takes two hands to do this, so I couldn’t easily carry a glass of wine while shooting.
View the rest of the images from the Grand Opening here or here.
I was asked at the very last moment to shoot a few pictures of the new restaurant for an upcoming issue of Bon Appétit. With the deadline literally hours away, I went downstairs to see what I could do. The funny thing is that I was apologizing for the photos all the while I was shooting them, fearing that I’d get lousy results in the less-than-ideal lighting.
Shots like these are simply not possible without the Nikon D3 and the its spectacular 14-24 mm lens.
