Clothespins

The clothesline in my brother's studio apartment, strung from wall to wall again and again.

Happy Birthday!

Hawaiian Food

Ono Hawaiian food and Leonard's malasadas. A perfect combination and literally within a few blocks of each other.

Ono Hawaiian Foods is a little hole-in-the-wall family restaurant just down the street from the touristy Waikiki beach in Honolulu. One couple we met while standing in line had been coming for over thirty years! Pictures of famous Hawaiian stars as well as snapshots local families cover the walls.

The elderly owners are also the waiters and well as the cooks, in addition to their small staff. Not knowing what to order we picked out a couple of sampler platters, only to be told -- "that's too much food" followed by an excellent suggestion of what to get instead (and they were right!). (You can see her serving dishes in the first photo).

Leonard's Bakery is just down the street and just serves pastries, what could be better? The sweet scent of friend dough can be sensed from at least a block away, so by the time you get inside you can only thing of one thing: malasadas (which are similar to jelly donuts).

We brought bought some malasadas with us to the airport. The security ran it through the X-ray scanner. The screener wasn't sure what he was looking at. "Don't worry, it's just malasadas" the guard shouted to the other and let it pass through.

Can't make it to Hawaii? check out the Kauai Family Restaurant in Seattle for some amazing and authentic Hawaiian food.

Food around Guanajuato

Saturday night in Guanajuato

Guanajuato has a young and vibrant night scene, with people everywhere listening to musicians, strolling mistrals, comedians, or just taking a stroll through the Jardin de la Union. What a sense of warmth, culture, and community! It's a college town and tourist destination yet still retains its charm and authenticity. Of course Saturday night is the most crowded, but there was something going on seemingly every night, such as the State band that plays twice a week or just the mariachis being hired out to play a couple of songs over dinner.

Colorful Guanajuato

Guanajuato is fractally colorful, from the entire town down to the locals. The town was built into a valley, so the homes are stacked and placed in no particular order along the hills, and only connected by narrow winding footpaths. Some have compared Guanajuato to Venice for the architecture, ornate cathedrals, charm, color, and beauty, among many other qualities, and I'd have to agree.

Be sure to check out "Me... in Guanajuato!", a great blog about another traveler's day-to-day experience living in town.

Mexican food

The food in Mexico is delicious and cheap. I finally discovered the wondrous chocolaty joy of mole, and ended up ordering it at least once everywhere we went. Look for "enmoladas" on the menu. It's not an accident that "enmolada" sounds like "enchilada" -- they just mean "in mole sauce" or "in chili sauce" respectively. And don't forget the ever popular "enfuego" -- on fire!

Freshly made churros were definitely one of the culinary highlights of our visit to Mexico. It's just dough extruded by a giant spritz press, then fried and covered in coarse granulated sugar. The outside is chewy-crisp, and warm and soft on the inside. I've really only had them at Disneyland -- three bucks for one long reheated churro (still tasty) -- but for twenty pesos (about US$1.25), I had an entire bagful, freshly made, that I shared. Oh man, what an experience.

The Lebanese place (Meson de Terraplen) on the corner from where we stayed was excellent too. Very flavorful, great textures, and beautiful presentation. San Miguel has not one but TWO Lebanese restaurants. Who would have guessed?

San Miguel de Allende Colors

Hot Air in the Jardin

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

We heard from the locals that a hot air balloon was going to lift off from the Jardin the next morning at 7am. We somehow managed to wake up that early and rushed up to see it. Hot air balloons aren't normally launched from the center of town, but it looks like an exception was made here because it was being filmed for a Canadian art TV show. As you can see, the balloon is as big as the Parroquia (the cathedral)!

First the balloon is unrolled on the ground and the basket is placed on its side and attached. A big fan is used to mostly fill the balloon with air. Heating the air with a huge flame finishes the job.

Most people were right next to the balloon taking photos up until it lifted off. I ran around the Jardin instead to capture the balloon from the side and different angles before it flew away. The silhouettes of the geometrically cut trees framed the balloon in unusual ways (in more photos than I've posted here). I like how the size of the balloon is emphasized when seen towering over the trees and with the Parroquia just peeking out from behind.

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

San Miguel de Allende is a small charming town in the central mountain region of Mexico.

San Miguel looks like it could be anywhere in Italy -- narrow cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, peeling paint, lots of people walking around. Most buildings are one or two stories, and have very simple facades, just a door and a few windows. You would never guess at the opulence and charming architecture of the buildings behind the walls.

Pear Jam

Friends gave us a big bag of pears so I turned them into jam. It's delicious and almost like eating candy. What's funny is that I made four batches of blackberry jam (about 4 - 8 jars per batch) and only made 3/4 batch of pear jam (5 jars), but by the photos it looks like I only make pear jam.

I took several photos with the blackberry jam in the same setting but the pear jam just came out visually more appealing. The golden yellow really pops against the green moss, and in other images seems to naturally match the surrounding colors.

Snow Day

I woke up this morning to find the neighborhood covered in a thick layer of fluffy snow. A lot of fluffy snow. At least six inches of fluffy snow. Did I mention it was a lot of snow? It snows here once or twice a year, but usually an inch or less. My neighbor said this was the most he'd seen since moving here thirteen years ago. On top of that, more is on the way in the next few days. The weather will remain below freezing which means all the snow-covered streets will turn into ice and take seemingly forever (days) to melt.

All the neighborhood kids were out sledding in the streets (us too, briefly) which is a ton of fun. It also means that the city shuts down because it's nearly impossible to drive anywhere. To put it simply, infrequent snow, hills, and inexperienced drivers are a bad combination.

Kids standing at the bottom of the local steep street called out when a car foolishly started heading down it. The driver, realizing they made a mistake, experienced their car sliding and spinning in slow motion down the icy street. There were a lot of close calls with the one car abandoned near the bottom of the hill but amazingly most cars managed steer and avoid collision (although it was eventually hit with minor damage). Truly a suspenseful and terrifying spectacle. Good thing someone put up a warning sign at the top of the hill.

Golden Pear Jam

Home-made organic pear jam illuminated by the sun.

Hide and Seek

How long did it take you to see the rabbit in the picture? Isn't it amazing at how well the rabbit's mottled fur matches the dirt and twigs in the background? Wow.