Yipeeeee!

Last night when I got home I saw this on our coffee table:We got our guide books and other goodies from our tour company!! I know what I'll be reading for a while.....

Memorial Day Weekend

Well. No big adventures for us on Memorial Day weekend, but we still managed to have a pretty good time. We had a lazy Saturday morning, rolling out of bed sometime after 9. We went to Renaud's Bakery for some coffee and croissants (the best pain au chocolat ever, and I've had a lot). Later in the afternoon, we went to a BBQ at the home of Brooke's professor. The BBQ was oddly divided by age. Everyone was either under 35 or over 55. No exceptions. The kids played croquet, while the adults chatted.







































Later that same evening....we played Cranium! This time it was divided boys against girls. The girls won the first game, but the guys redeemed themselves on the second.


















On Sunday, we woke up early for a long bike ride to downtown Santa Barbara. Read more about the ride on Brooke's Training Blog (linked on the right menu bar).


















Then on Sunday evening, with our legs still fatigued, we went to a BBQ at one of our neighbor's apartment. Someone brought a fun bean bag tossing game. Basically, you get 3 points for getting a bag into the hole and get 1 point for any bag landing on the board. Brooke and I quickly lost our first game to Kevin (owner of the game). But against A & C, Brooke and I came out victorious.

















Later everyone moved inside for some Rock Band. For those who've never played, it's a video game where you can rock out as a band with a lead singer, two guitarists (we only had one), and a drummer. I was a lot of fun!








































By the way, I really suck at drumming.

Another WWWT

It is another installment of WWWT. This week we tasted Fume Blancs, which is actually just a made up term to make Sauvignon Blanc sound more appealing. Our host really stepped it up a notch this week and made Tofu Curry Bao. She made them from scratch and steamed them as we sat there with our mouths watering.
This week the winner was Ferrari Carano 2006 Sonoma County Fume Blanc, the second and third place was a tie between the Robert Mondavi Private Selection 2006 Fume Blanc and the Hogue Fume Blanc Columbia Valley 2006. The last place was not a Fume Blanc, it was the Barefoot Pinot Grigio. I guess there weren't enough Fume Blancs readily available to have a tasting of four wines. When you put Pinot Grigio next to anything else it tastes like water, so it never really had a chance.

Cooking Class

Tonight was the first night of Vietnamese Cooking class. Van and I took this class a couple of years ago, but it was so much fun and such a good deal that we decided to take it again. The teacher gives us all the recipes for the day, then everyone splits up and cooks 4 dishes in small groups, and then we all have a big meal at the end of the class. Van's job was to chop the herbs for the Bun Bo Xao (Stir-Fried Steak on Rice Noodles), and I made Banh Dua (Coconut Balls).
Van chopping:
Making the Banh Dua:
The finished product:
It is a pretty good deal, about $10/person/night. You get recipes, instruction on how to make it, and a homemade meal with out dirtying your kitchen. I love cooking class. :)

Beach, Bike, and Hookah

Brooke and I had quite an eventful weekend.
On Friday night, we tried a new restaurant, The Marmalade Cafe. We arrived around 8:30 pm and the place was completely dead. There were maybe 6 filled tables in the restaurant with 50 tables. Brooke had the salmon asparagus farfalle and I was given the cheese ravioli (I actually ordered the chicken ravioli). The food was, at best, average. Although we had fun going out, there are too many restaurants in SB for us to ever go back.

On Saturday morning, while I played video games, Brooke went to the pool and swam an amazing 1600 meters nonstop. Later in the afternoon we went to East Beach. Brooke got a couple hours to lay in the sun while I played beach volleyball in the 91 degree heat. In the evening, we went out with another couple to Cafe Zaytoon. The Middle Eastern cuisine was good, but the atmosphere of the dining area was more outstanding. We sat in the outdoor patio surrounded by flowers, fire pits, and a lemon tree. And what meal would be complete without a strawberry margarita-flavored hookah and belly dancing....








































On Sunday, we got up early for a bike ride with our friend, Lu, who just got a new road bike. Lu pedaled casually the entire way while Brooke and I struggled to keep up on our mountain bikes. Dreading another embarrassing ride with Lu, we went shopping for new bikes. The guys at FastTrack were great, very nice and very helpful. Brooke got a great deal on an aluminum-framed Trek 1600. Being last year's model, it was $400 off the retail price. She also got a pair of SpeedPlay X5 pedals and Sidi Genius 5 shoes. I can't justify buying a road bike yet. But if Brooke beats me in our next ride, you can expect another post about a trip to the bike shop.
See more about our Sunday morning ride in Brooke's training blog (linked in the right side bar)

Research and Planning

Van and I have been very busy the past few weeks trying to finalize plans for our trip to Italy this fall. We started in March by booking a tour of Venice, Florence and Rome. We wanted to get there a day early to make sure we didn't miss the start of our tour. So we thought we would fly into Milan, do a little sightseeing and then head on to Venice. But then of course we thought why don't we go two days early and include Verona, or maybe three and see...... So we are now going 5 days early and have a long list of towns we plan to see before our tour starts. A lot of internet research and 3 guide books later, I think we finally have our schedule nailed down.
We wanted to see more of Tuscany, and I don't think our tour really goes outside of Florence so we decided to start our trip in Tuscany. We plan to fly into Pisa, and go directly to Sienna for 2 nights. While in Sienna we will take a day trip to San Gimignano. From Sienna we will go to Pisa and stay 1 night. While in Pisa we will take a day trip to Lucca. We will then head to the Cinque Terre to stay one night. From there we will head to Milan and stay 1 night. The next morning we will tour Verona and then head to Venice for the start of our tour. We have our hotels picked out, now we just have to buy those plane tickets!!

I also signed up for another triathlon that takes place in 1 month!! I was so excited about the location that I lost all reason. The race takes place at Disneyland!! How fun is that? Now I just have to get in really good shape, really fast. I have started a new page specifically dedicated to my race training so that this page doesn't become all about running. Hopefully I will really be able to get those 3 runs a week in now!!!

WWWT

It was another Wild Wednesday Wine Tasting, although it was a week late because so many people were sick last week. This week we tasted Zinfandels. The first place wine this week was the Kendall-Jackson (2005), followed by the Ravenswood old vine Zinfandel (2005), then the Ravenswood Zinfandel (2006), and in last place was the Barefoot Zinfandel. We all agreed that unlike last time, we liked all of these wines.