July 21, 2011 - Garden Business

 The harvest has definitely began! The yellow squash and zucchini are coming in fast, lots of cucumbers too.  I've roasted most of them but also baked a couple loaves of zucchini bread.

 

The cherry tomatoes are in ripening and now some other tomatoes are ready too!

The cucumbers are going crazy and I have already pulled in a few dozen.  I've made some cucumber salad and a cucumbers soup. I have several more I picked yesterday. Pickles next?

The butternut squash almost looks ready, but as there are only two real nice looking fruits I'm going to give it a little longer to ripen up.  It's my first time so I don't know what is too ripe verses not ripe enough.

 And the big thing is the watermelon...  I was so excited for the watermelon but when we came back, something has eaten nearly all of them.  Some of them only have some nibbles on the skin, but most are gouged out and lay rotting on the vine.  I was able to harvest two of the golden midgets and they are sweet!   I have two suspects as to who ate them: a groundhog that has been spotted in the melon patch, and a rabbit who I've caught now twice in the garden.  The rabbit is a huge problem that may need "solving"....

July 21, 2011 - San Diego Food

There are some glaring ommisions looking back at the pictures, but I tried to get a pic of all the different delicious foods and cool resaurants we visited.  Missing are some fish tacos, king crab BLT, sushi, ballpark franks, a variety of appetizers at Harbor House, Balboa Park cocktail party food, and lots of little quick stops around the Gas Lamp district.  My favorite was the Nobu Omakase - expensive as hell but worth it!

 

Basic Pizza

 Caprese Pizza (with Joe from Princeton, NJ) at Basic Pizza

The Marble Room

 

 Seared Ahi tuna (mine)

Shrimp and Scallop scampi (Stacey's)

  Joe's Crab Shack

Dungeness Crab Bucket at Crab Shack

Frosted Robin's Cupcakes

 Fancy cupcakes from the Seaport Village

Solei @ K

 

Shrimp and Avocado flat bread

Heirloom tomato flat bread

 Breakfast Buffet every morning here too!

Nobu San Diego

Course 1: Tuna Tartar

Course 2: Oysters New Style

 

Course 3: Tuna and Salmon Salad

 Course 4: Tempura Rock Shrimp in Spicy Ginger Sauce

Course 5: Miso Coated Poached Cod with Fresh Ginger

 

Course 6: Miso Soup

 

 Course 7: Sushi

 Course 8: Frozen Yogurt Over Berries

July 22, 2011 - Back from San Diego

A really enjoyable work conference took Stacey and I to San Diego last week.  I can't say enough about how beautiful and amazing that town is.  Interesting buildings, people and places - with great weather.  I didn't want to come back, especially now after experiencing the "Heat Dome" over the Philadelphia area. 

Here is a brief photo tour of the trip ( I took well over 1,000 pictures in 7 days).  First, some random shots of the city.

    

The ESRI User Conference itself was exciting for the map geek in me.  I learned a lot and met some great people.

 

 

 
We went to the world famous San Diego Zoo.  I was impressed!

 

 

 

 

 

Took a tour of the USS Midway.  Amazing bit of history and a marvel of engineering.

 

 

Rode the ferry out to Coronado Island to see the Hotel del Coronado...

 

 

...And had a few delicious tasters at the Coronado Brewing Company.  Great place!

 

 

Cocktail party at several museums in Balboa Park

We caught a Padre's game since it was a block away from where we were staying.

 

Lots of Navy activity in the bay.