Sunday, November 27, 2011
Brief visit to Crete, in Opera format
I saw Idomeneo, a Mozart opera, that takes place in Crete, at the San Jose opera this fall season. The staging was fantastic-they had gotten some extra money and it showed. They used Minoan art to inspire the set design. See the bull vaulting fresco for a great example. Now, I still want to visit actual Crete, but this was a nice way to get a taste.
Work trip to Europe October 2011, second half
No photos since this was so work focused.
Lazy weekend in Budapest. Dinner at Nobu (yes, that Nobu-he has 20 restaurants around the world) with the sake tasting menu. All the fish is amazing, but OMG the wagu beef cubes-like butter! Wine tasting with friends. 12 Hungarian wines, 6 white, 6 red, tasted by 13 people, basically a bottle a person except for the post-tasting bottles, call it a bottle and a half. Now I definitely need the next day to be lazy and recover. Ate a chocolate covered cottage cheese stick. It was a firm cottage cheese, not the liquidy stuff on salad bars, almost a mozzarella stick, but with the hint of sour-surprisingly good for something with such a bad description.
Trip to Sweden! As we land in Stockholm, it is damp and grey, the same as Budapest. But the Arlanda airport makes me want to move to Sweden. Hardwood floors, all glass windows, clean, organized, and welcoming. The drive to the outskirts also feels friendly to me because it looks just like the best of the midwest, rolling hills, cut away rocks, evergreens and birch.
Our transportation for the evening is a cruise ship! We hop onto the Gabriella and sail into the Baltic Sea. For the first hour or so we are going out past the shore and it is incredibly picturesque. Cute homes along a well manicured shore-all propped up with stone walls, green grasses and trees all over the place. On the cruise there is of course the buffet-but we are cleverer than that, we opt for NOT the buffet so that we don’t overeat. So clever…we order an appetizer each and a main entre to share. And since we are sharing we go a little extragavant and order the seafood platter, with lobster…except there is confusion and we get the platter for two-oh well, the best laid plans! The first part of the journey is relatively choppy and we fall asleep to the rocking of the boat. In the morning though it is completely calm and I spend a little time on our balcony watching the little waves. There are 2 other cruise ships, 3 non cruise ships and an oil drilling rig-spiffy! Pulling into the port of Helsinki was much faster, it is right on the sea edge and the view is more rugged-little islands run right into the water.
In the port of Helsinki we spend a few hours in the lobby of the Grand Mariner hotel for a little coffee and internet access. The countryside is lovely and green, but we are barely here and then off to Sweden again by more conventional plane-Molndal outside of Goteburg.
By train from Goteburg to Copenhagen-it is worth an extra $20 to get the first class seats where there are fewer people and it is quiet. 4 hours of green countryside….I nap! The best part is the bridge over the water to Denmark-a whole line of the windmills we have been seeing, but in the water. There is a capsizing boat-oh no! but then the guy in a nearby seat says it has been there for awhile.
Copenhagen-hotel on the doorstep of the train station and Tivoli. Tivoli is decorated for Halloween and there is a line to pay and go in, so we don’t and instead walk along the pedestrian walkway to the habor. Lovely theater building overlooking the water. Wander around the area looking for a wine bar or Italian restaurant but they are not quite right until we find THE spot. It is clear it is the place to be-it is a busy oasis in a quiet desert! Mojito and a cider, mussels and a burger. M has been putting up with my American-style eating, so I practice being European and eat it all with a knife and fork-it is impossible to get a bite of everything at once, but I must admit it is neater.
Manchester-all these tiny little roads with no shoulder to speak of, no visibility because of all the high green hedges and just a bit disconcerting to be on the wrong side of the road. But the pub food is good-sweet potato fries!
Off to a little vacation after the worldwind work travel!
Off to a little vacation after the worldwind work travel!
Work trip to Europe October 2011, first half
I've been in Europe with a coworker M for two weeks and was able to visit quite a few new-to-me places.
Non-stop SFO to Frankfurt, I realize that I have been flying Singapore Air recently, and standard economy is…less good…wow is that seat in front of me close! But our row of five has two empty seats-bonus! I get my vegetarian meal super quick and am falling asleep before most others are finished eating. Quick flight to Catania airport in Sicily, but we arrive late and the luggage is slow and I have missed all the shuttles-most expensive cab ride ever. But when I arrive M and I get dinner. The beachside restaurant is barely open-we are the only ones there. But they let us order pizza and prosseco which we eat by candlelight while listening to the waves-nice!
Wander the town, eat gelato. Visit the Greek theater, but it closed 5 minutes ago-eat gelato to console ourselves. Visit the public gardens just in time for sunset. The plant variety is almost exactly that of northern California-fancy that since they have a similar Mediterranean climate ;)
One more drink at a little café before heading back to dinner at the hotel. The beach restaurant is closed for a private party so we are in the fancy restaurant, and in the middle of my anchovy appetizer (fresh, not salty) we see the fireworks from their party-festive.
The best thing about my hotel room is that it has an ocean view and I sleep with the balcony door open to listen to the ocean while sleeping. In the mornings I often saw the cruise ship of the day, and sometimes at breakfast a horde of folks due to be on the cruise ship later that day. During the week we encountered more memorable waiters. At O’Neils the head waiter had a penchant for singing as he dashed back and forth and as he set you plate in front of you ‘and especial for you’. I even try a whole local fish-lovely.
Within the conference we get an afternoon tour of Mt. Etna. So, imagine you have a major tourist destination. It is so impressive that 50 bus loads of tourists come every day. Obviously you think-lets make the buses drive through the narrow ancient streets that have 4 consecutive 90 degree turns. Obviously! I understand, it can be difficult to build a new road in hilly ancient towns, but if ever you are going to do it, 50 buses per day sounds like the time! The Mt. Etna tour itself if fun, but not thrilling as we do not get to go near any molten lava. After the easy stroll around the edge of the accessible crater I join the folks who want to climb to the top of the nearby, less accessible crater. Ugg, worse than a stair-climber, but a view that can't be beat!
We have a little time before the conference gets going so we hang out at the beach. This is my first ‘European’ beach experience. Basically there are lines of deck chairs for the folks staying at the hotel. The women love bikinis, and love to lie with the straps off to avoid tan lines. It feels very eighties to me, aren’t we all about sunblock now? The beach is not sand but little rocks making the waves sound lovely. I visit the water briefly, but the rocks are not super comfortable and the temperature is between northern and southern California-nice, but not long term nice.
We visit Taoromina, touristy seaside town on the hill. First stop is the Wunderbar, to drink Campari and orange while overlooking the ocean on one side and the tourists on the plaza on the other. Classic Italian waiters charm their way into our photo.
We visit Taoromina, touristy seaside town on the hill. First stop is the Wunderbar, to drink Campari and orange while overlooking the ocean on one side and the tourists on the plaza on the other. Classic Italian waiters charm their way into our photo.
Wander the town, eat gelato. Visit the Greek theater, but it closed 5 minutes ago-eat gelato to console ourselves. Visit the public gardens just in time for sunset. The plant variety is almost exactly that of northern California-fancy that since they have a similar Mediterranean climate ;)
One more drink at a little café before heading back to dinner at the hotel. The beach restaurant is closed for a private party so we are in the fancy restaurant, and in the middle of my anchovy appetizer (fresh, not salty) we see the fireworks from their party-festive.
One more set of drinks and snacks at the more casual beach bar before the conference begins.
The best thing about my hotel room is that it has an ocean view and I sleep with the balcony door open to listen to the ocean while sleeping. In the mornings I often saw the cruise ship of the day, and sometimes at breakfast a horde of folks due to be on the cruise ship later that day. During the week we encountered more memorable waiters. At O’Neils the head waiter had a penchant for singing as he dashed back and forth and as he set you plate in front of you ‘and especial for you’. I even try a whole local fish-lovely.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Essen Game Fair 2011 Day 4, the purchasing
We have put off most of our purchasing till the end so that we don't end up having to ship stuff home :) But there is interesting stuff happening again and we get in a fair number of games as well.
The interesting
You are curating a dinosaur exhibit for a museum and have to dig up the different bones and gems and put them together. Interesting because the publisher is a game component company, and the game was the winner of a competition to use a given set of pieces. Cute, but not worthy of space.
Monster fall-winner of a prize this year. A way to trick your child into practicing manual dexterity! Under a time limit, push as many monsters into the center pit by co-operating with the other player(s). If you knock him over on the way to the pit you have to start over, so it takes some care. You can see that it is compelling. In the photo below mom and dad got tired of junior knocking over the monsters and took over by themselves...really!
Puerto Rico, special edition-contains bigger barrels, metal coins and an expansion that includes new art (nice), nobles and a jewelry store. Too heavy, and we may not need the expansion....
The international Carcasonne championship, see how everyone has a country flag.
The game playing
Carre (Amigo)-Stack a nice tower with your given set of pieces-no holes allowed! Roll the dice to determine which size piece you can place or take off your opponents tower! More interesting than at first glance, but probably only medium replay value, not sure more players add anything, so it could be a good go-to for 2 people. I have to say Amigo has a great set up here-plenty of tables and nice folks to explain the rules. I like coming back to their 'booth'.
Ablaze (Mayfair)-As the fire grows you place your firefighters to make a fire break. Area control game, but no backsies, when you place it you are done, making it nice and quick. Strategy is where and when to place the pawns. There are a couple extra versions with just a few added tiles. We only played as two and I suspect it could be more interesting with four. Not worthy of space in the bag, especially as it can be purchased in the states. Sue wins!
The interesting
You are curating a dinosaur exhibit for a museum and have to dig up the different bones and gems and put them together. Interesting because the publisher is a game component company, and the game was the winner of a competition to use a given set of pieces. Cute, but not worthy of space.
Monster fall-winner of a prize this year. A way to trick your child into practicing manual dexterity! Under a time limit, push as many monsters into the center pit by co-operating with the other player(s). If you knock him over on the way to the pit you have to start over, so it takes some care. You can see that it is compelling. In the photo below mom and dad got tired of junior knocking over the monsters and took over by themselves...really!
Ghost Blitz! Would have bought this in a heartbeat but they were sold out. Contains 5 pieces and a deck of cards. The five pieces, a white ghost, a blue book, a red chair, a green bottle and a gray mouse. Each card has a picture of two of the items, the mouse on the book. But something about the color is wrong-a green mouse on the blue book. You have to be the first to grab the blue book. But there are trickier cards too-a green mouse on a white book means you grab the red chair-get it?!?
Puerto Rico, special edition-contains bigger barrels, metal coins and an expansion that includes new art (nice), nobles and a jewelry store. Too heavy, and we may not need the expansion....
The international Carcasonne championship, see how everyone has a country flag.
The game playing
Carre (Amigo)-Stack a nice tower with your given set of pieces-no holes allowed! Roll the dice to determine which size piece you can place or take off your opponents tower! More interesting than at first glance, but probably only medium replay value, not sure more players add anything, so it could be a good go-to for 2 people. I have to say Amigo has a great set up here-plenty of tables and nice folks to explain the rules. I like coming back to their 'booth'.
Let's Take a Hike-I was attracted to this on Day 1 because of the artwork which reminds me of Mary Blair of It's a Small World fame. Our photo is not very good for the art, see this entry at Board Game Geek or the artist, Troy Cummings, site. A new theme-how exciting! This is a risk tolerance game-draw and play cards to prepare yourself to take a hike (water bottle, tent, socks, etc.). When hiking, turn back when you think you can get the most points. If you encounter a bad thing, you will loose all your points, but if you can outlast everyone else, you can make it big! Basic underlying strategy as Diamante, but with added complexity. We played with a British couple and the men tied. I love this and bought multiple copies.
Old Men of the Forest-meaning orangutans :) Trees, money and transportation good, deforestation bad. From your given hand, play cards that determine if you get to pick up cards that will win you victory points. Play your hand poorly and you will only end up with deforestation. This will suffer with folks prone to analysis paralysis, but interesting enough that we pick it up. Also reminiscent of Slide 5-a theme on top of a concept, but it could be any theme.
Alba Longa-you have to decide what to do with your limited number of people twice a year. In the spring, build temples (needed for victory), make money, fight (target the player in the lead), or bring in a bonus harvest. Then again in the fall but you also need to harvest and a bigger harvest means more people (also needed for victory). A little fiddly, but quicker than most of these types. Didn't love it enough to take up space in the bag.
Tobago-where on the island is the treasure? You get to figure it out by placing clues that limit the possibilities, on the largest mountain chain, with a view of the ocean. It is Clue in reverse. This is super stylish and new-it will be purchased later :) We didn't get to finish because it is practically the end of the day, and people are purchasing the demo copies for super cheap and we get approached by 2 different people for ours, no worries, we got the gist.
The purchasing
Final count, 23 items purchases, but most are tiny or flat, many are card games, and only 4 large boxes!
Will we be coming back? For sure! This was AWESOME!
Essen Game Fair 2011 Day 3
As promised the weekend is more crowded. As it turns out this is a good day for people watching. There is a whole other feel to the RPG room-soldiers, elves, dark elves, medieval folks and anime characters are common. Some are here for the costume/talent contest.
This is also a big day for competitions. Speed chess where the two players have one minute to complete ALL their turns, as in the whole game takes two minutes, if they use all the time. Okay you say. Then you read the note that says these same two guys will be doing this ALL DAY with only 3 breaks. When we saw them after lunch they had already played some 250 games.
Also a Rubick's cube competition.
And Gemblo.
And yet the craziest thing was running into an old coworker that I haven't seen for over a year. She now lives in Germany and in this giant convention we just happened to walk past each other-small world!
We did get in a couple of games though. First Trias from Doris and Frank. We love Doris and Frank! Trias is dinosaurs on Pangea, which then breaks apart and you want your dinosaurs to rule the larger islands. It has some strategy points that will take more playing. So we buy it and some other games...and a t-shirt....we really like Doris and Frank :)
We randomly try Paperclip Railways. Indeed paperclips form your rail line. The guy got his idea from String Railways, which was very popular last year, but this is a more detailed game. It may be a better game than the feeling we got because our game suffered from one player whose English was not good and took LONG turns. Usually it is the non-Germans speakers can be at a slight disadvantage if the game is not printed in English, but this developer was British. This seems to me to lack replay value as the most interesting parts are the clever names but it really loses for us as the box is large and our suitcases are not infinite. But I do love the flexibility of paperclips as rails.
This is also a big day for competitions. Speed chess where the two players have one minute to complete ALL their turns, as in the whole game takes two minutes, if they use all the time. Okay you say. Then you read the note that says these same two guys will be doing this ALL DAY with only 3 breaks. When we saw them after lunch they had already played some 250 games.
Also a Rubick's cube competition.
And Gemblo.
We did get in a couple of games though. First Trias from Doris and Frank. We love Doris and Frank! Trias is dinosaurs on Pangea, which then breaks apart and you want your dinosaurs to rule the larger islands. It has some strategy points that will take more playing. So we buy it and some other games...and a t-shirt....we really like Doris and Frank :)
We randomly try Paperclip Railways. Indeed paperclips form your rail line. The guy got his idea from String Railways, which was very popular last year, but this is a more detailed game. It may be a better game than the feeling we got because our game suffered from one player whose English was not good and took LONG turns. Usually it is the non-Germans speakers can be at a slight disadvantage if the game is not printed in English, but this developer was British. This seems to me to lack replay value as the most interesting parts are the clever names but it really loses for us as the box is large and our suitcases are not infinite. But I do love the flexibility of paperclips as rails.
That is it for us today-people watching is more tiring than game playing!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Essen Game Fair 2011
So we planned to go to the Essen game fair because we knew it is the biggest game convention in the world for strategy board games. Most people haven’t played these, much less heard of them, even though they keep threatening to break out in the states. You can even buy Settles of Catan (Spiel de Jahr, Game of the Year 1998) at Target. If you like these type of games, you probably are in a dedicated group or get together with specific people to play them or you maybe even go to GenCon. So the idea of going to the biggest convention in the world was appealing. .
We arrive on the afternoon of day 1 and decide first to just walk around the edges to get a feel for it. Turns out it is a large convention hall with more than 10 large rooms and each room has 30-50 exhibitors. It took us 2 hours to walk the rooms without stopping to play or buy. Wow. Just wow. The exhibitors range from a single guy with a table or two where he will teach you his game, to the main distributors with 40 tables, all filled with people playing their games, like Quirkle or 7 Wonders, which won prizes this year. There is a room for comics, a room for miniatures and RPGs, a whole room for games for children, and some booths that sell related stuff. Everything else is games-selling games and playing games and doing business deals about games. Lots and lots and lots of people playing games. I walked around full of *SQUEE* because of all the people who were here just to play games. Special deals mean everyone buys a years worth of games at once and almost everyone is carrying around bags of purchased games. The truly prepared have hand carts…seriously. We stop for a snack and chat with a guy who has finished shopping and is leaving , he says, this is just Thursday, wait until the weekend when it is so packed you can’t move through the aisles. OMG This is awesome! We buy a couple of small items that the game makers only sell at the fair, the Settlers card for 7 Wonders, the Carcassone card for Dominion, all super cute.
Day 2, we go in with the plan to play some new games, but not anything specific. The subway is a crush, guess we all thought to get there early. Even getting off the train is a stampede as people are actually running up the stairs to the convention hall. So, how do you play a game if you don’t know anything about it? Demo teams are all around to teach the games to newbies because almost everyone comes to play games they haven’t played before, but might buy. If there is something you want to play, just lurk till a group is done because almost all the tables are continuously full. If you want more players, just invite passing folks who show a bit of an interest. In 8 hours we got in 10 games, only one was something we already love (7 Wonders) and one extension of a series (Ticket to Ride Asia). We played some by ourselves, with other folks who knew the game (the Ali-Baba German game club had matching shirts) and with other newbies.
Whew! And then after dinner with some friends we went to their hotel lobby to play more games. The whole lobby was filled with groups of people doing this till 1am. And I'm told that when it gets too crowded at the convention, it will be the same for the rest of the weekend. THIS IS AWESOME!
Details of the games we played-probably not too interesting to read :)
Infinite City: Tiles represent buildings that you play and control. Area control with special effects on the tiles. Not as good as hoped, a little to fiddly.
The City (Amigo): Cards represent buildings where players have their own cites, not interacting with other cities. Engine building for money and points, short (big plus), flexible number of players-we should buy this.
Rio d'Oro (Amigo): Best board design-build a bridge using the box itself. Also best representation at the game fair as they have a live action version for people to play. Collect gold from one side of the bridge and carry to your base camp on the other. But the bridge is dangerous! A little light, but it gets tougher as you go. Interesting twist of choosing your level of risk via green/yellow/red die. We should buy this.
Walnut Grove: Agricola light! Faster than Agricola (plus) and set with a western theme. Sue dominated. We should buy this, but the English version is sold out.
7 Wonders: Which own and love this, but I wanted to play it with other random folks. The half of the table that had played beat the half that were newbies....
Ticket to Ride, Asia: A Classic for us, but the new board has some nice additions and a team version. We got crushed by one of the group who joined us, but Erik put the hurt on everyone by playing all the yeti routes. We should buy this.
Mord in Arosa (Italian): Totally new mechanic to me. Build a 7 story tower, toss in cubes, 'investigate' the levels to find the cubes. You are supposed to listen to where the cubes fall. Sue dominated :) It was so cute I like it, not sure of the replay value.
Innovation: Card game where you are trying to dominate the ages/technologies. The theme did not hold up as well as expected, end game took too long, but it might be worth some replays to check it out further...
So you can see the problem-too many good things to buy, not enough luggage space! We will aim to only buy those games that will not get distributed in the US. Off to day 3!
Friday, September 9, 2011
Weekend near/in Sacramento Aug 2011
The whole reason to go up to Sacramento on this weekend was to do a mini Tri-for-Fun. The race was actually out at Rancho Seco Park, so we stayed in Galt, a nice enough town, though it reminds me of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Delicate Flower and I have signed up for a couple of races and this is the first, meant to kick our butts a little and do a race early in the season. We signed up because the TfF is a mini-sized triathlon, but one where people aren't so competitive. Although it turns out that many of the folks were quite competitive, but the distance is still shorter. It is actually kind of a nice set-up, this group tbf has a bunch of races at a bunch of distances, in a bunch of places. So they are well run and quite popular. Now, I am not crazy/fit/motivated enough to actually do a triathlon, even this short distance one, but they have a run-bike-run version, and DF and I were a team so neither of us had to do the whole thing.
We can argue about whose bright idea it was, but we are in it together! In retrospect, it turned out astonishing well-neither of us completed our training plans, we both changed our morning routine by eating a larger, more greasy breakfast than usual (thanks hotel buffet breakfast!), DF's back had gone out a bit, and it was way hotter than what I usually train at...and yet....we didn't come in last, we were faster than we expected we would be, and we felt almost non-broken afterwards! It is true that we were last in our division, female relay teams, but there were only two teams in the division! The first place finisher was 1:30, last was 2:36 and we were 2:24. So yes, room for improvement, but I was seriously worried they would be taking down the finish line before we crossed and that was not at all the case.
The really odd thing was we did not realize that this lake used to be for the cooling towers....so all of the race was in view of the following...
Of course part of the fun of a race is to go someplace else and see the sights! After the race we went into Sacramento to have an amazing lunch at Cafe Rolle. It has made it onto at least one of the Food Network spots, and there is good reason. Of course the food is fantastic-desserts, pate, salads and sandwiches...we ate them all. Bread. People always talk about good crusty bread and I always thought I knew because I have eaten a lot of crusty breads. But my breads somehow have too much crust. This bread you can actually bite into without the whole thing cracking up, sharding, and cutting into your mouth. Darn, now I am ruined. And the atmosphere is not to be missed. It was an all French staff and they were busy busy busy...and super happy about serving you at the same time. They are adorable. Go eat here. I dug in so quickly I forgot to even take photos, but he has some on his web site and it looked exactly like it.
Then we went to see the capitol building. This is something that I think everyone should do-doesn't everyone have to go in like 4th grade? I didn't grow up here and I have felt bad that I have not been to see it yet. Much of it is pretty standard, but there are a couple items of note. The assembly color is green, while the senate color is red but they have similar patterns. It is a lot of the color, very loud, not sure I could work here. Then in the rotunda, there is both green and red, and then shades of red, meaning pink. It is weird, but whatever! They were showing an exhibit on WWI. Some of the poster propaganda was hard-core. You must buy bonds to support the war effort! The message is pushed by a lot of bloody knives and sub-human Germans. Fear is not just for the 21st century. Turns out that California sent most of the engineers-even back in the day CA was an engineering haven. But then they have letters...these basically made us bawl and we had to leave before running out of tissues.
The best part of the capitol is the exhibit of the counties. Each county gets large display case to show themselves off. The huge difference in approaches in interesting and we graded them. If you just make a big poster, F-. If you try to use technology, like a rotating billboard or computer screen, and it is broken, F (LA county I'm speaking to you!). If you rely only on history, even if you have some photos, C (Santa Clara county, really, nothing past 1880?). If you go with some representative art, even if it is from the children, B (good job Napa). Any time you add in a useful calendar of events, or a map with common highways, you go up a grade (nice job Alameda). But the only way to get an A is to do a full on diorama. Who doesn't love a diorama! Dioramas with waterfalls, kayakers, hay bales, whatever-woo hoo! Very fun to look at-very nice job Glenn, Siskiyou and Inyo!
So then we go off to a movie...cause we are really tired of moving around. And we end up in the sad downtown mall which is nothing at all special...except for one store that is not a store, but a display. For a guy named Steve who is trying to collect enough elephants to beat the current world record holder. This was amazing and completely whackadoodle. There were hundreds-cards, posters, stuffed, carved, inflated, tiny, huge, flat, oversized....just everything! I thought I would be able to track down an online presence easily, but all I can find is someone who got actual photos from inside and with Steve. I love that there are passionate people in the world!
We can argue about whose bright idea it was, but we are in it together! In retrospect, it turned out astonishing well-neither of us completed our training plans, we both changed our morning routine by eating a larger, more greasy breakfast than usual (thanks hotel buffet breakfast!), DF's back had gone out a bit, and it was way hotter than what I usually train at...and yet....we didn't come in last, we were faster than we expected we would be, and we felt almost non-broken afterwards! It is true that we were last in our division, female relay teams, but there were only two teams in the division! The first place finisher was 1:30, last was 2:36 and we were 2:24. So yes, room for improvement, but I was seriously worried they would be taking down the finish line before we crossed and that was not at all the case.
The really odd thing was we did not realize that this lake used to be for the cooling towers....so all of the race was in view of the following...
Of course part of the fun of a race is to go someplace else and see the sights! After the race we went into Sacramento to have an amazing lunch at Cafe Rolle. It has made it onto at least one of the Food Network spots, and there is good reason. Of course the food is fantastic-desserts, pate, salads and sandwiches...we ate them all. Bread. People always talk about good crusty bread and I always thought I knew because I have eaten a lot of crusty breads. But my breads somehow have too much crust. This bread you can actually bite into without the whole thing cracking up, sharding, and cutting into your mouth. Darn, now I am ruined. And the atmosphere is not to be missed. It was an all French staff and they were busy busy busy...and super happy about serving you at the same time. They are adorable. Go eat here. I dug in so quickly I forgot to even take photos, but he has some on his web site and it looked exactly like it.
Then we went to see the capitol building. This is something that I think everyone should do-doesn't everyone have to go in like 4th grade? I didn't grow up here and I have felt bad that I have not been to see it yet. Much of it is pretty standard, but there are a couple items of note. The assembly color is green, while the senate color is red but they have similar patterns. It is a lot of the color, very loud, not sure I could work here. Then in the rotunda, there is both green and red, and then shades of red, meaning pink. It is weird, but whatever! They were showing an exhibit on WWI. Some of the poster propaganda was hard-core. You must buy bonds to support the war effort! The message is pushed by a lot of bloody knives and sub-human Germans. Fear is not just for the 21st century. Turns out that California sent most of the engineers-even back in the day CA was an engineering haven. But then they have letters...these basically made us bawl and we had to leave before running out of tissues.
The best part of the capitol is the exhibit of the counties. Each county gets large display case to show themselves off. The huge difference in approaches in interesting and we graded them. If you just make a big poster, F-. If you try to use technology, like a rotating billboard or computer screen, and it is broken, F (LA county I'm speaking to you!). If you rely only on history, even if you have some photos, C (Santa Clara county, really, nothing past 1880?). If you go with some representative art, even if it is from the children, B (good job Napa). Any time you add in a useful calendar of events, or a map with common highways, you go up a grade (nice job Alameda). But the only way to get an A is to do a full on diorama. Who doesn't love a diorama! Dioramas with waterfalls, kayakers, hay bales, whatever-woo hoo! Very fun to look at-very nice job Glenn, Siskiyou and Inyo!
So then we go off to a movie...cause we are really tired of moving around. And we end up in the sad downtown mall which is nothing at all special...except for one store that is not a store, but a display. For a guy named Steve who is trying to collect enough elephants to beat the current world record holder. This was amazing and completely whackadoodle. There were hundreds-cards, posters, stuffed, carved, inflated, tiny, huge, flat, oversized....just everything! I thought I would be able to track down an online presence easily, but all I can find is someone who got actual photos from inside and with Steve. I love that there are passionate people in the world!
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