GinohnNews

J: Apologies for our belatedly updated old news. We'll be back next week (two weeks from this post's date) with another installment; in the meantime here's a big vacation report, a lot of pictures, and a little rant.

G: Well, John and I took another vacation courtesy of AirTran and their remarkable ability to screw up flights. Last year around this time we were tortured by them but as a result we just cashed in some free flights and went to the left coast to see people, places, things, and thoughts.

We got into San Francisco airport late Tuesday night and drove to Dave and Sandy's house, where Kory lives in their guest cottage. They have a lovely large house and minimal stuff, and it was freshly remodeled and painted. Very nice. They also have two golden retrievers, Cody and Jackie, who were huge love muffins. They were crazy about us. Cody licks and licks your face, and Jackie carries around a ball and wiggles her whole body and whines at you. They were so cute the way they constantly play-fought too. John stayed up most of the night with Kory.

The next day Kory took us to some place where we could see pretty things and nature and hike around. We were hiking on a path that was steep at times, and I'd stop to rest, breathing heavily, and Kory would not be breathing hard at all. And I go jogging and he never exercises! I guess it doesn't take much energy to move his small self up the hill. We went to lunch at a Thai restaurant in a cute little town, then walked around the streets. We also went to Mountain View to look for a card house Kory thought he saw there once, but we couldn't find it. I went into a bead store and found some beads I'd been wanting for a project, though.

That evening we met up with Kory's brother Kyle and his dad Jim and Jim's partner Larry for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. I keep wondering when we are going to get one of these salad bar buffet chain restaurants in our area. It would be nice. We had a great time. We were talking about the Internet and Wikipedia and after a while Jim said he thought we were saying Monkeypedia. We all thought Monkeypedia was a great idea and once we got back to the house we looked it up. There was no Monkeypedia yet but I cautioned Kory to see if there was something else that was a parody of Wikipedia, and of course there was - Uncyclopdia - which is quite enjoyable. So we quickly gave up on our million dollar idea.

The next morning John and Kory wanted to go play Hold'em at a card house (Bay 101) so I had them drop me off at a nearby mall. I got there at 9:30 and as it turned out the stores didn't open until 10am, but the halls were open so I window shopped. I got about halfway through when things started to open, and I browsed many stores. I began to feel tired and I never got hungry but I ate an apple I had anyway. By the time I'd gotten through the whole open mall I was very tired so I went and sat outside to wait for John and Kory to come pick me up. John came and got me after he busted out of the tournament (20th out of 89) and Kory was out by the time we got back to the card house (8th, in the money). I just wanted to go back to bed, and that's what I did for the rest of the day. John and Kory and Dave worked on a game design all evening. I was a bit sick and tired the next day too, but better. I can't remember if we did anything that day except hang around the house with Kory and Dave until it was time to go to the Badger Gathering at the Zuckershack. We were the first to arrive at Eric and Beth's, and many more people trickled in, only one who we already knew, Elena. Once a bunch of people were there, we broke up into groups for playing games, and I played a Hold'em tourney with John, Eric, and Elena. We each put in a dollar. John won. I went to bed but he stayed up really late with everyone, playing Shaufenster and chatting.

The next day we were treated to vegan buckwheat pancakes that Beth made, and I cut up a honeydew and put raspberries on top - nice brunch. Then Eric and Beth took us to the Albany Bulb, where we saw a lot of doggies playing in the water and on the beach, saw the city through the mist, helped Eric find a geo-cache, and got rained on while we checked out the art on the Bulb. Except for not feeling too good about getting soaked, we had a great time. We headed to Santa Cruz that evening.

We drove "over the hill" in the rain and arrived safely at D-Dave's. He has a nice small apartment right in the heart of Santa Cruz, a block away from the Saturn Cafe. We went a few blocks away to La Vie, a vegetarian restaurant that features lots of raw food dishes. It took them a while to get to us, so to make up for it they gave us some hummus and crackers, which turned out to be raw. The hummus was very flavorful with garlic and tasty, much better than the raw hummus I tried to make once. I think the crackers are made by making a mash of whole grains and dehydrating it - they were really good. We ended up ordering a pesto pizza with cashew cheese which was good but a bit oily for me (I'm not eating much oil lately). The desserts were disappointing, though.

The next day was supposed to be rainy so we decided to stroll around Santa Cruz and duck onto stores as necessary. We walked up and down the street and it failed to rain on us. We had lunch at the Saturn Cafe - vegan burgers (with salads instead of fries) and a vegan chocolate milkshake. It was pretty good. We took a rest stop at the apartment then went down to the boardwalk at the shore. There were some lovely houses along the way.

The rides weren't open (Waaa! No Giant Dipper!), so we went to the arcade. We spent maybe an hour there, then walked to the pier and watched the waves and the surfers. There were shops on the pier so we eventually strolled down and checked out a few. D-Dave had said the sea lions were not going to be there or else we would be able to hear them, but as we got toward the end, we could hear some through some man hole type things. A little further down were some large square viewing holes and we could see some, but it was getting dark and I couldn't get a good picture. We had dinner at Dharma's, which had huge portions and they also make vegan milkshakes. I had a banana one that time. Two vegan milkshakes in one day!

The next day we drove south to Big Sur. We stopped at a bridge for a few minutes, and I put my camera in my pocket, so I couldn't get it out fast enough when we drove past a BOB CAT drinking by the side of the road. There wasn't anywhere to pull over either. But we saw a BOB CAT!

We stopped at what D-Dave called the Smuggler's Cove, and watched the waves crash in to a couple of inlets. Then we went to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, had lunch among the redwoods, then walked to the waterfall overlook. The views were spectacular. John took a nap on a bench on the deck of the ruins of some old house or something. Then we hiked around some more and hung out on some more rocks and watched the waves crashing in below us.

We headed back north but stopped in to another state park where we walked through a redwood forest and hiked up to a waterfall. We took the valley view trail back, and then in went off in another direction that we followed, but missed getting to end by *that* much, we found when we finally returned to the beginning and looked at the map.

We returned to Santa Cruz and ended up having dinner at Dharma's again. The next day we went back to San Jose, hung around with Kory for a little while, then took him with us to San Francisco. We went to the Fisherman's Wharf to see it because I'd never been there. We walked around for a little then headed to China Town to look for the vegetarian restaurant that John and I had stumbled upon on our last visit. I thought I saw it on our way in, it looked right and I couldn't remember the name and The Little Garden looked right. We parked at a meter that lasted an hour and cost 25 cents for 6 or 7 minutes. We found the Little Garden but it wasn't the right place. We felt pressed for time so couldn't really decide whether to try to find it or head back to the car. I thought we had enough time and asked someone in a store if they knew where it was. They sent us on a wild goose chase but I asked at another place and they sent us there - Lucky Creation Vegetarian - it was nearby.

The food we got was not as tasty as last time, but it was good. We saw a little bit more of China Town and then went over to The Haight. We walked around there for an hour - the limit on the meter - and then decided to go find parking early for our planned dinner at The Millennium Restaurant - rated the best vegetarian restaurant in the country by Veg News 5 years in a row. We did so, then wandered around downtown SF until our reservation time. Lots more window shopping, and browsing in a few stores. We saw a guy playing buckets like drums and singing Beatle songs. He said he is going to have a cameo in the upcoming Will Smith movie The Pursuit Of Happyness.

We zipped up our coats so we didn't look too raggedy for the fancy restaurant, and got seated in a large booth (where Kory revealed his Blame Flanders shirt). We had a sweet waitress who brought us bread with a tofu squash spread which was absolutely delicious. I asked if they made mojitos there, they did, and John and I each had one. All the ingredients are supposed to be organic, and all the vegetables are supposed to be organic and locally grown. The mojito was very good, but still not as good as the first one I had that my brother made for me in Denver.

The menu wasn't huge, but since everything is vegan, it was very difficult for us to decide what to get. We agreed to share our entrees and finally ordered. The best one was the first dish I tried - an Indian spiced potato cake with all sorts of fancy things on top that I can't remember - except the caramelized onions. There was a grilled portobello piled high with stuff, and, from the menu online: Yuba (tofu skin) Roulade - stuffed chard, farro & French lentils, morel, caramelized onion & Porcini reduction, roasted chanterelles, sautéed Broccoli di Cicco with currants & pine-nuts. It was quite the meal. We all had our own desserts - Kory had creme brulee with ginger spiced sorbet on top, John had a pumpkin cheesecake, and I had chocolate almond midnight. Wow. All vegan and delicious!

From there we drove over the Bay Bridge to visit with Eric and Beth again. We played some games with them. We tried out Crazy Pineapple Holdem (the first hand with giant oversized cards, just to be even more crazy). You deal 3 cards to everyone, and whoever is still in after betting after the flop discards one. We had fun.

Stayed at Dave/Sandy/Kory's again, and took it easy that day as it seemed John was coming down with something. We did some more playtesting with Kory and headed to Berkeley again in the evening. We parked near a theater in downtown Berkeley where we later met up with Lisa Lazar and Robb Bauer. We walked around and visited the Games of Berkely Store, but John wasn't feeling well. We met up with Lisa and Robb and we went to Cha-ya, a vegan Japanese restaurant. I was very excited about it - we'd tried to eat there last time we were in town but never could quite make it. It was a very small room but we got seated at the bar right away. The food I had was good, I think I'd have to try more dishes to find the really delicious stuff.

Lisa and Robb took us to a show at the Berkeley Rep (one of the theatres Lisa does set design at) - All Wear Bowlers. It was a two man comedy show, a bit surreal and quite entertaining.

Afterwards we strolled to a gelato place called Naia. Lisa told me I could get vegan gelato there, and boy could I. They had four soy gelato and many more sorbetto (vegan fruit ones). I had some kind of chocolate and coconut. John had pistachio and coconut. Lisa and Robb had some crazy fruit that I can't remember (durian?) and mango. All yummy. As I got my little dish, I turned to Lisa and sniffed, "I love California!" I wish we had something like that near here. But maybe not too near - I'd start gaining weight again!

John was hanging in there, but felt pretty bad. He had chills that night and maybe a fever. I tried to change our flights home but couldn't, so we flew home and rested a lot.

The end.

J: It was only about 35 years ago that our health teachers told us to eat red meat at every meal, because it was packed with proteins and goodness. Now we know it raises cholesterol, and increases risks to heart disease and at least two types of Cancer. Despite the overwhelming evidence, people keep eating meat because it's damned tasty.

I wonder how many more years will go by before the evidence of health risks in dairy products comes up against the same wall of addiction? I'm guessing ten years. Ten years before the evidence is overwhelming enough to make some people think twice before they pound back that shake or hand their kid one.

I used to drink a gallon of whole milk every three to four days. It was my favorite drink. It's damned tasty.