San Francisco サンフランシスコ

We were in San Francisco this weekend to see Matt's MIT friend Jesse get married.
マットの大学の友達のジェシーの結婚式のために大好きなサンフランシスコに行ってきました。
Our first stop, Friday Morning, was Tartine, a fabulous bakery.
金曜日まずは友達の勧めるベカリー、ターティンへ




Clockwise from top left:
Lemon Meringue, Meringue encrusted cakes, Meringues, Almond Croissants, Pickled carrot with open face sandwich, famous bread pudding, banana cream pie
The most remarkable was the pickled carrot. This has inspired us to try making the same. It seemed to have been pickled with peppercorns, garlic, and thyme.
左上上から時計回りに：
レモン・メレンゲ、メレンゲに包まれたケーキ、メレンゲのクッキー、アーモンド・クロワッサン、人参のピクルスつきのサンドイッチ、パンの入ったプリン、バナナクリームパイ。人参のピクルス　（にんにく、胡椒、タイムが入ってたと思う）はとても感動したから今年のなつくって見る予定。

That afternoon we met up with Emily and had more baked goods and more coffee
午後は大好きな友達のエミリーと散歩した後でお茶しました。
Saturday morning is the San Francisco farmer's market, so we couldn't miss it. Kenneth wasn't able to make it out of bed in time, but we took the Muni into town to be there.

土曜日は早朝からフェリー・ビルであるファーマーズ・マーケットへ。お泊り先のケニスは早起きが苦手だから二人で行ってきました。



Clockwise from upper left: yogurt, rare beef sushi, hand made coffee, peppercorn marshmallows
We had more at the market than just this, but these were some of the highlights. The yogurt was in small ceramic crocks and absolutely delicious. Peppered marshmallows are a lot better than they sound, especially hand made marshmallows.


左上から時計回りに：ヨーグルト、牛肉のたたきの鮨、一人分ず作ってくれるコーヒー、ピンク胡椒の入ったマショマロ。

小さな器に入ったヨーグルトと聞いただけじゃ美味しいか分からないマショマロは他にも色々食べた中でも絶品でした。


Kenneth met us at the market and we drove to Japan Town. There we saw a poster for an origami exhibit, so we had to go see it for Matt.

マーケットの後はやっと起きたケニスと日本町へ。ポスターで見つけた折り紙展へ。

Left: Wall-E and his cockroach friend. Right: Yoshizawa-inspired origami by a very new artist.

左はウォーリと友達のゴキブリ右は折り紙で有名な吉澤先生スタイルでぬれた紙を折って作った新人の作品。


Saturday evening, we headed to the wedding.
昼からは一番のハイライトの結婚式。


Matt spent most of his waking hours in the apartment playing Portal on Kennth's Xbox 360. Here he is cramming in a level or two before we headed out. It turned out that both of Matt's other close MIT friends (Kenneth and Victor) became the MIT triplets by waring almost exactly the same thing: dark blue suit, blue shirt, yellow tie. An old MIT memo?
サンフランシスコにいる間暇な時間は常にXボックスのゲーム、ポータルにはまってたマット。結婚式に行く寸前までゲームしてました。マットと大学の友達二人は三つ子のようにはみんな青のピン・ストライプのスーツに青の入ったシャツと黄色いネクタイでした。MITの影響?

What didn't match were the socks. Kenneth wore red, Matt white, and Victor black. Who really sees the socks anyway? That's what they were thinking...
ひとつだけみんな違ったのは靴下。誰も見えないだろうとマットは白、ケニスは赤だったけどビクターだけは黒でした。

The wedding included Jewish traditions.
ユダヤ文化を取り入れた結婚式でした。


Since they got married on March 14th, π day, they had wedding pie made by friends and family rather than wedding cake. The newly weds enjoyed banana cream pie.
３月１４日、パイ（数学のπ）の日に結婚した二人はケーキの代わりに友達や家族の作ったウエディングパイがデザートでした。新婚さんはバナナ・クリームパイを楽しみました。

We stopped by Emily and Koen's house before going home.
帰る前エミリーとクンちゃんの家に寄り道。

Food in Canada

We went up to Canada for the weekend to see Jennie again. It will be a while before we can visit again because soon Matt will be in Boston to do some interviews and then we'll be in San Francisco for a wedding.

We went out for pancakes one morning. Not the usual thing:
It's called the "Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe". It reminded us of our favorite ice cream place in Toronto called "Dutch Dreams."



Ham, cheese, tomato, mushroom, red onion.



Cheese and apple.


Juevos Rancheros


Pineapple, bannana and cheese on vegitarian chilli with a side of salad and ice cream.


Pineapple, banana, and nasi oreng.




We also went to our favorite waffle store and got some filled waffles. Here are caramel and pinapple and cream:


Though we didn't buy any, we had to take a picture. These are the most beautiful goat cheeses we've ever seen. They were for sale at the Granville Island market.

Sayulita Pinata ピンヤータ

The day before leaving to come back to the rain country of Seattle, we celebrated with a pinata. Our efforts to surprise the grand kids were successful. Nonetheless, the kids didn't know what it was, so they didn't know how to react.
雨国シアトルに帰る前日メキシコ風にピンヤータ（お菓子が中に入ったくす玉のような物でスイカ割りみたいに割って楽しむ）を用意して孫娘をびっくりさせるのに成功しました。でもピンヤータを知らない四人は始めは戸惑ってました。したの写真はまだ壊れてないピンヤータ。

After the explanation, the kids started attacking it with a broomstick. The four of them worked as a team, but the broom lost.
説明の後は箒の棒で割るために4人は力をあわせて努力したにもかかわらず箒の棒が折れて大変。

An authentic pinata has a clay pot inside that doesn't break easily. We upgraded to a frying pan.
本物のピンヤータは中につぼみたいな物が入っていて中々割れなくて最後はフライパンを使い始めました。

After breaking through, the girls wore the limbs of the beast triumphantly on their heads.
やっと割れて中のお菓子を集めた後のピンヤータをかぶった記念撮影。

Sayulita Sand Castle 砂の城

Matt entertained the grand-daughters one afternoon by building a sand castle with them. Nile warned him that he was building it too close to the waves.
砂遊びが大好きなマットはジムの孫娘達と砂のお城を作る事に。ナイルの海に近すぎるよってコメントを無視するから

It turned out, she was right.
第一号は大波に飲まれました。

They resumed building about three feet up the shore.
1メータほど移動をして作り直し。

The new castle withstood many attacks from the waves and was decorated with mother of pearl, limpet shells, and a mangrove sprout.
完成された城は貝やマングローブのデコレーション付き。

Sayulita Food サユリタの食べ物

We found a Popsicle shop (paleparia) on the first day, and every day we had Popsicles (palepas). The store we frequented had Mexican flavors like spicy mango (Matt's flavor below), passion fruit, guava (Nile's flavor below), hibiscus, and cinnamon chocolate. It was very difficult to choose one every time out of the 25 flavors.

ついた日に見つけてから 毎日アイス・キャンディーを楽しみました。通い続けた店はメキシコならではの唐辛子入りマンゴー（写真下マットのアイス・キャンディー）、ハイビスカス、グアヴァ（写真下ナイルのアイス・キャンディー）、パッションフルーツ、シナモン・チョコなど色々有って全部25種類の中から選ぶのが大変でした。

　　　


Right next door is Burrito Revolution where we had the biggest burritos. Though the guy never smiled, the burritos he made were excellent.

もう一軒通った店はアイスキャンディー屋さんの隣の革命ブリトーという意味の名前のブリトー屋さん。オバマ氏のシャツを着たお兄さんの作るブリトーは絶品でした。

Big Snow 大雪

It kept on snowing for several days after our first dusting. There was more than a foot of snow stuck on the ground.
雪は何日も降り続きました。30センチ以上積もってなかなか融けませんでした。

Elmo eventually learned to have fun in the snow.
その内エルモは雪の中で遊ぶようになりました。

At one point, there was four inches of soft snow, a layer of thin ice, and then another few inches of soft snow. The ice would hold about 45% of Elmo's weight, so she would take a step forward, and then come crashing down to her chin as soon as she put her weight on it.
積もった雪の上に氷雨が降ってその上に雪が積もり、エルモが歩くと体重を乗せた時点で氷の層がエルモを支えられなくなってあごの所まで雪に浸かってちょっとかわいそうだねとか言いながらかなり笑えました。

This got snow all over her front.
あごまで雪がついたエルモ。

First Snow 初雪

Elmo's first snow. エルモの初雪。

...not quite sure about this.... 困ってます。

Elmo's foot prints. エルモの足跡。

Cupcake Decorating

Matt took a class on cupcake decorating. His instructor has one of the books that he got recently: Hello, Cupcake!

The penguin took a dive on the way home and cracked his head open. The feet are part of the cupcake cup, something that Nile got for her birthday.

Matt learned how to make a wreath, Santa, a cat, and a dog. Matt tried to make the dog and cat look like Elmo.

Cookie Decorating クッキー・デコレーション

Matt got into the holiday spirit today and took a cookie decorating class. Next week is cupcake decorating!
今日マットは年末に向けてのクッキー・デコレーションのクラスに行ってきました。来週はカップケーのデコレーションだから来週も楽しみです。

Moving the tree 木の大移動

Matt moved our little tree to the front of the house to take the place of the huge tree that Chad took out.

家の前の木を取り除いたからマットが裏庭の木を家の前に植え替えてくれました。ありがとう！

Elmo in Doggles! エルモの犬グラス

Elmo gave her doggles a test run on the way to the dog park.

早速新しい犬メガネを公園に行く途中にエルモに試してもらいました。

Doggles!

Check out Elmo's new shades!


Why? So she can do this without squinting:

Imakoko Party 今ここシアトル

Takashi and Imakoko hosted an event and our friend and restaurant owner, Sussy came over with his family.
今ここシアトルに友達のスッシー家族が来てくれました。

The amazing meal started with "hydrangea" a beautiful dish using agar, hibiscus tea, and gobo.
第一品目はアジサイ。牛蒡とハイビスカス茶が入ってます。


This was followed by blueberries in a tofu paste with gruyer cheese chips and almonds.
ブルーベリーのしらえにアーモンドとグリエールチーズ。（ちなみにブルーベリーが苦手なジョンもお代わりしました）

Fried lotus root, fish, shiso, spanich, and bean sprouts. (Imaculately cleaned!)
もやし、魚、ほうれん草、しそ、蓮根。

Albacore with okra
白マグロとオクラ。

Salmon with mango and white vanilla sauce
鮭のマンゴ・バニラ・クリーム・ソース。

Traditional rice sandwitches (onigiri)
おにぎり

The main course, barbequed pork and vegetables at the table
This was followed by dessert that was so good we didn't get any pictures. In all, about 8 coures. Wow.
メインはラオスなべ。
デザートも入れてその日は８コースでした。
ご馳走様でした。