Raspberries

Michael gets a kick when we blow raspberries on his belly.  Recently, however, Michael has taken a shine to blowing raspberries on my belly!  Tonight, for instance.  I was trying to put him to sleep tonight, and he slid off the bed and into his co-sleeper, propped himself up into a "push-up" position with his face near my belly, and put his lips on my stomach and did a raspberry.  I giggled hysterically and he grinned proudly at me and did it again. 

It took awhile to get him to sleep.

Picture dump!

Here are a bunch of photos from the last week and a half.

Lucy, Mary Ann, Michael, Tony, Kathleen, and Ben at our last prayer group (which met the Thursday before I left).  It was a smaller group than normal.  :-(  My parents both thought Tony was Ben in a separate (Ben-less) photo.

Michael at Kewpee's, a popular diner in Racine.  Not pictured:  the scary wall of Kewpie dolls



Michael having fun playing with family



Michael at the San Francisco Grill (my mom and I split some fish tacos and a patty melt, plus they accidentally gave us a free Reuben sandwich instead of the burger, so I got to eat that, too)

Michael's first concert

Attempting to grab the water

Me, Michael, and my Aunt Carolyn (my mom's twin sister).  This was taken yesterday.  We went to Illinois for my cousin's son's baptism and his other son's 3rd birthday party.  Gosh, my forehead is so shiny, especially compared to Michael's!

Michael with Nana Talbert (Aunt Carolyn's mother-in-law) -- Michael seems to love the older ladies ;-)

Michael enjoying the outdoors at the party

Taken today.  Father Kevin Mullins is the pastor at St. Rita's, though he was at Our Lady of Grace church in Castro Valley (very close to Union City) for over a decade, which is Rosalie's parish!  (Rosalie is a friend who has been previously featured on this blog.)  Michael is pretty tired.  I lost my glasses and am wearing my backup emo Weezer glasses.

Father Joe, who married Ben and me, came back to our parish for the dedication of the new stained glass windows.  Michael is sitting in front of the baptism window (it features a seashell), which was dedicated to Fr. Joe.

Michael discovers the liquid state of matter

I plopped Michael in his tub yesterday and filled it up with him sitting in it (after I checked the water temperature).  He kept trying to grab the jet of water from the spigot and was flummoxed that his hand kept going through it.  It was so, so cute.

A mommy milestone:  I went for a run today, for the first time in almost a year!  I haven't been jogging since I developed sciatica when I was around 4 or 5 months pregnant.  (Up to then, I was jogging 4 days a week, 4 miles a day, plus walking an additional 2-4 miles a day.)  The sciatica went away as Michael shifted a few months later, but I was so unbalanced at that point I stuck to the elliptical and stationary bike in our apartment complex's gym during the remainder of my pregnancy.  After Michael was born, I was mostly confined to the elliptical machine in our living room since I couldn't leave him alone to go for a jog, plus I've been having some knee pain which means I haven't done any exercising, period, in a few months as I've been trying to recover.  That was a twist for me, as before I was a fervent exerciser (as in, 7 days a week, close to an hour a day).

But the stars were aligned today:  no sciatica or pregnancy, no knee pain, and my parents could watch Michael.  So I dusted off my old jogging shoes and took off for the bike trail.  Needless to say, I was slo-o-o-ow, just trotting along at some points no faster than if I were walking but still technically "jogging" (i.e. I did not have constant contact with the ground).  I did about a 5k (slightly over 3 miles), but I walked maybe a quarter mile at the beginning and end.  So it's not too earth-shattering, but you know what?  I finally went for a jog, and that is a good thing.

People in Wisconsin are so much friendlier than California.  Everyone (except one) I passed waved and said "hello" to me.  In California, people often ignore you on the sidewalk even if you greet them, and they generally aren't the ones to initiate a "hello."  The other thing about Californians is that they don't share sidewalks well.  They'll walk you off the sidewalk if there is a group approaching from the opposite direction, rather than file in a line to pass you.  I wonder what Texas sidewalk culture is like!

Update from WI

It's great having help cleaning up after Michael during the day!

Confession is good for the soul, right?  I'm a terribly mommy.  Michael and I were taking a nap together, and I got up before him and sat in the room at the computer for awhile so I could get him when he woke up (so he wouldn't fall off the bed).  Then I thought "Well, I can be in the room and set up the co-sleeper bassinet so at least I'm being productive" so I ran downstairs to grab my dad for help setting it up with the intention of returning right away upstairs.  In the short time I was downstairs, I heard a wail and I ran upstairs to make sure I got him before he rolled off the bed, but I saw the bed was empty and I think I screamed because my dad came running upstairs and told me to calm down.  Michael was face down on the carpet next to the bed.  I don't think he hit anything on the way down.  He was shocked, but he calmed down fairly quickly and isn't any worse for the wear.  I felt absolutely terrible, though.

The co-sleeper is set up now, though.  We joked that you need a PhD in engineering to assemble it, which is why Ben could, but we were struggling since Dad and I only have Masters degrees in engineering.

I gave Michael a bath yesterday in one of those big kitchen basins that Dominic used when he was a wee lad. Michael had such a blast splashing the water, and then he practiced pulling himself up!  He wasn't quite standing, but he did get on his feet while hunched over, and then fell down right away.  He did that twice.  Once he manages to pull himself up, I won't be able to use the co-sleeper anyway.  :-( 

This is the second Father's Day that I've been away from Ben, visiting family in Wisconsin.  (I was pregnant last year, so I think that still counts!)  Here is one of the pictures I emailed him.

Michael donning a NHL onesie of Ben's (second?) favorite team, the Detroit Redwings.  They might be promoted to Ben's favorite team, since the San Jose Sharks will no longer be the local favorite and Austin doesn't have an NHL team.

My half-brother Jimmy called my dad to wish him a happy Father's Day, and I had a pleasant conversation with him.  We hadn't actually spoken in awhile, probably since before Ben and I were married, except brief correspondences through snail mail.  My dad keeps me updated on him and his family though, so I knew that they recently had a cross-country move for work also, from New Jersey to Minnesota.

First flight with Michael

I finished the rest of my goodbyes on Thursday -- goodbye to my neighbors (Giovanni, my landlord who lives next door; Elizabeth, who was giving us her Wall Street Journals after she was done reading them for the day!; and Tony and his son, who took our bags of CRVs off our hands since we weren't going to get a chance to cash them in), goodbye to our prayer group (picture forthcoming), and then yesterday, a final goodbye to California.  I am really sad but trying not to think about it too much.

I spent all of Thursday night awake, until about 5 a.m. on Friday morning when I finally got an hour of sleep.  I came down with some symptoms of a stomach bug (which I won't go into details of for modesty's sake).  I think it had partly to do with my huge meal at A Passage to India, followed by copious quantities of water and a distended stomach, followed by several quesadillas and dried apple rings at the prayer group which did not sit right in my stomach.  Plus, probably, stress and anxiety about my last night in our house in California.

That didn't bode well for my flight.

I went through the family line in security, which was nice and stress-free since everyone expected me to take awhile.  The flight itself was over an hour late so we had to kill time in the airport.  Using the bathroom was kind of an ordeal because I was lugging around Michael in the Baby Bjorn, carrying his car seat (it's too heavy for me to carry with Michael in it), toting my carry-on, and carrying the diaper bag.  I couldn't even get it all on the plane, since I had to use two hands to lift the car seat over the seats (narrow aisles) and the stewardess brought my carry-on back for me.

A latecomer sat next to me and Michael (we were in the window and middle seats) and I jokingly told him he won the lottery, getting to sit next to the baby.  He was great and smiled and told me he was happy to, and he seemed very sincere.  His name was Steve and he was a middle-aged business traveler from Chicago (coming in from a late flight from China) with three teenage sons, and we talked for most of the flight.  He even offered to swap seats but I had gotten the window seat purposely so I didn't box anyone in.  He ordered the snack box and then basically gave me the whole thing.  When I needed to change Michael, he stood in the aisle and let me change him right on his seat.  He held Michael when I was trying to shove everything in my diaper bag, and he entertained him when Michael kept staring and smiling at him.  He didn't mind Michael kicking him while I was nursing (since Michael takes up a bit of room and I couldn't confine him within my seat).  And he helped me carry my bags and car seat out of the plane all the way to baggage.  Not to mention it was nice having someone to talk to.  Praise God that I was seated next to Steve, as I really couldn't have hoped for a kinder or more understanding seat mate.  He was actually in the wrong seat, but when the person who actually was supposed to be sitting there agreed to just swap, I breathed a sigh of relief!

Kind people are such a blessing!  There are many good people in this world, but each time I come across one I really appreciate them.

Michael was pretty good on the flight.  There were little outbursts here and there, but he wasn't inconsolable at any point, and he fell asleep for about an hour and a half (and I tried to take a nap, too, but didn't succeed very well).  He pooped right at the beginning of the flight, which was unfortunate, because I figured a diaper change could have waited if it were at the end of the flight, but I couldn't have him sitting in poop for four hours.  Steve told me he had never seen anyone change a diaper before with rubber gloves.  (I only do that when I can't get to a sink right away!)  I'm just really grateful it wasn't a blowout.

We didn't get up at all to walk up and down the aisle, which I regret because I was going numb by the end of the flight.

I was tired, but not as exhausted as I expected to be.  I only slept 3 hours last night and I'm still not exhausted.  Thanks, body, for adjusting to the abuse I put you through.  My queasiness from the previous night mostly subsided.

My mom picked me up from O'Hare and we drove the rest of the way.  Michael was awake for all but the last fifteen minutes.  We got home around 11:30 central time, which, at 9:30 California time, was still an hour and a half past his bedtime.  Poor Michael's routine was really out of whack yesterday.  He's currently sleeping in a Pack 'n Play next to me.

Overall, the flight went much better than I expected.  (The family behind me in security was traveling with a 9-month old and told me "it's never as bad as you expect."  I thought they were going to jinx me, but it was true!)   Ben sent me an email later that I just missed the worst of it since United suffered from some serious delays after my flight.

Phase II of our adventure begins, the extended visit away from "home" (wherever "home" is now).  This is the first night Michael has spent outside our beloved Union City, CA home (*sniff*) other than the hospital when he was born.

I miss California and Ben.  I keep telling myself and everyone in CA "it's not 'goodbye'; it's 'see you later'."  I'm Facebook friends with a lot of the moms from my group, which will be nice to still be able to "watch" all the kiddos grow up.

I hate goodbyes

Caroline, from Church, stopped by Monday to drop off a gift (a photo album and Padre Pio prayer card) and pick up a Padre Pio movie she lent us.  Caroline is a lovely, wonderful person.  After our baby was born, she came up to us one week after we read and gave us a gift certificate to Babies 'R Us.  (We never even spoke to her before!)  I saw her later volunteering at St. Anne's, the church around the corner, and we've talked a couple times since.  She has five kids around my age (in their twenties) and she gave birth naturally to all of them!  We were swapping birthing and nursing stories when she visited, haha.  This was precipitated by Michael trying to nurse on Caroline.  Thank you Michael.  I feel so... interchangeable.

Lisa, the coordinator for the mom group at Kaiser Union City that I've been going to almost every week since Michael was 2 weeks old!  I've seen her almost every week for seven months.  She's seen Michael sprout up.  :-(

With some of my mom group friends on Tuesday:  Maria and James (about11 months), Tasha and Amelia (almost 5 months), and I-forgot-her-name (since I've only seen her at two meetings) and Isaiah (who is only 14 weeks old, but probably bigger than Michael).  Maria even gave me a gift (a mini photo album for my purse and some scrapbooking supplies to get started), which was so ridiculously sweet.  I really enjoyed my weekly mom group meetings and my little stop at the Farmer's Market on the way there -- the routine, yanno?  It's nice to connect with women struggling with (and celebrating!) the same issues.  I've been going to the group long enough to see several "generations" of moms come and go.

Ben and his great boss, Fethi.  Fethi treated us to an Indian buffet-style lunch at Passage to India today.  It was so, so good.  I had like four heaping plates of various Indian dishes that I want to make at home now, except I forgot their names.  (I almost always make curries, but I really liked the other stuff I had today, too!  I tried a yogurt-based Indian dish for the first time!)  One dish I remember the name of is Carrot Halwa, which was a really rocking dessert.  Anyway, Fethi has been really good to Ben and our family and we will miss having him as Ben's boss.

San Francisco II: Attack of the Diaper Blowout

For our last bay area tour, we decided to go back to San Francisco yesterday.  After a fifteen-or-so minute wait at the toll on the Bay Bridge around 10:30 on a Wednesday morning, we made it into Fisherman's Wharf.  Objective:  to have an authentic San Franciscan sourdough bread bowl, filled with authentic canned New England clam chowder that was opened in an actual San Franciscan restaurant.

I brought a snack for Michael.  But what is it... ?

Everyone I asked (at least 4 people) said Boudin's was the place to go.  I actually went here with my friend Rachel once when she came to play tourist (I also rode the cable cars with her, so at least I already checked that off my list) but Ben had never been, plus I only had a small bite of her bread bowl.  Ben and I decided to get a combo plate of a bread bowl and half a sandwich.

It was nothing spectacular, but it was decent.  The clam chowder was not very good, and I'm not a big fan of sourdough bread (though Ben is); however, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.  I didn't like either the bread or soup on its own, but the bread that had soaked up the soup was nice.

Michael got to eat a Weetabix, which looks really unappealing (like a cow patty) but actually is rather yummy.  It's a biscuit made of wheat that I purchased on my very last California Trader Joe's trip (approximate total:  $270).  I decided to stock up on shelf-stable goods (since someone else is moving everything) so that I'd have a full pantry in Austin with all my trusted Trader Joe's supplies while I was  deciding where my new grocery store loyalties lie.  Everyone who got behind me in the checkout line promptly moved.  I felt a need to explain myself to every employee I saw because of my cart.  It was actually the first time I got Weetabix, but Michael loves crumbling it, so hopefully I can find this UK product in Austin.

Michael and me standing outside Boudin's

We decided to head towards Pier 39 and scout out some dessert places.  But first!  A stop to see the sea lions.  They were pretty much gone when I was here last year with Rachel, but there were a couple more this time around.  (It used to be all the docks were filled with sea lions.)

It was an unusually clear day, and we could see Alcatraz very well.

I have never actually been to Alcatraz.

Anyway, after flip-flopping a bit, Ben convinced me to go get a crepe.  I have never had a crepe, and every time I passed the crepe store on Pier 39 I've wanted to get one.

Inside the crepe store.  Ben tried getting pictures of the ladybug on my jacket collar.  The ladybug hung around for several hours -- we found her still on me at the museum.

My strawberry crepe, topped with sugar and whipped cream.  And me, topped with a sleepy Michael

We used up almost the entire two hours of paid street parking along Fisherman's Wharf, and it was around 1:30 when we decided to go to the new California Academy of Sciences museum.

By complete and total coincidence (no advance planning on our part),  we happened to go on the third Wednesday of the month, which is a free day.  We counted it as a mixed blessing, since we expected much larger crowds than usual, but at least we saved $50 or so.

The line to get in was rather long, naturally.  They took a photo of everyone who walked through the door so they could sell it to us again later.  Ben staked a place in line and called his folks while I fed Michael in Golden Gate Park, so the time wasn't wasted.

Michael staring at a baby version of his favorite animal

Discussing the issue later, we were glad we arrived on the free day, because the crowds didn't detract from our experience (other than not being able to see the snakes and lizards exhibit due to capacity issues), but we didn't think the museum was worth the ticket price.  It wasn't a bad museum, but Ben and I both felt that it wasn't as good as The Smithsonian (shocker), Houston's, or even Milwaukee's museum.  I think part of the problem for me is that it was almost entirely biological sciences.  There wasn't very much breadth/diversity in the exhibits.  Anyway, I'm still glad we got a chance to see it before we left the bay area.

We had to rush through the rainforest exhibit because Michael had an unfortunate blowout through his outfit and onto my jeans.  Awww, his first out-of-the-house diaper blowout.  Better mark that one in the baby book!  We didn't even have any spare clothes for him in the diaper bag, so he went commando through the rest of the museum until we could get back to the car.

We originally planned to go to the de Young art museum, but we left the science museum at near closing (both museums closed at 5).

A view of Golden Gate Park from outside the museum, with the de Young building in the background

Another view of Golden Gate Park with the Music Concourse in the background

The California Academy of Sciences

So we took a short walk around Golden Gate Park, which is lovely (I had never been there before), and then headed to dinner.  Last item on our San Francisco bucket list that we were going to be able to tackle:  have some San Francisco cioppino!

We Yelped this yesterday and decided to go back to Little Italy, to a seafood restaurant called Sotto Mare ("Under the Sea"), where we split "The Best Damn Cioppino" dish between the two of us.

Michael is working on some bread.  No messy marinara or shellfish for you yet, little guy

It was the highlight of the day.  Clams, mussels, crab, prawns, bay scallops, calamari, and pasta simmered in a smooth marinara sauce.  We are looking forward to making some ourselves with our own preferences (perhaps using canned crab, because shelling the crab was messy and took some work).  The service was a bit slow, and Michael was a little fussy, but ... the cioppino!  Yum!

Michael fell asleep on the way home, around his normal bedtime (8-ish)

A day of goodbyes

A bittersweet day.  It began with our last visit to Holy Spirit Church as a family (Ben still has to lector next week, though Michael and I will be gone).  We were both happy with the priest/deacon combination presiding at mass this morning.  They were the two we sort of "knew" the best and we wanted to say goodbye.  The priest was the one who baptized Michael on December 5th.  Here is a picture of us from the baptism.

Fr. Tom with us and an almost one-month-old Michael

After service, we went back in the sacristy to wish Fr. Tom and Deacon Chuck goodbye.  Deacon Chuck gave me a hug and Fr. Tom gave us a blessing for a safe journey.  I teared up.  Fr. Tom said something about having fun living in a state with Governor Perry, a Republican... and then Dn. Chuck jokingly hushed him lest he give away his political affiliation!  Ben and I were debating whether Fr. Tom was a Republican or Democrat based on that ambiguous exchange.  (Ben thought Republican, while I thought he was being sarcastic.)

We also said goodbye to the old couple who we sat behind when we would lector, as well as the family of young twin girls with whom we'd sit in the cry room on weeks we didn't lector.

The rest of the day was spent preparing for our goodbye BBQ.  It was crazy hectic between the cleaning and food prep.

We had three kinds of meat for the grill:  chicken tenderloins, smoked pork ribs, and ribeye steaks.  I prepared some side dishes (some yesterday, some this morning)**:  cheddar biscuits, Mexican bean salad, sliced veggies and dip, chips and dip.  I also made a chocolate bourbon pecan pie, dark chocolate truffles with leftover cake shreds, and peanut butter blossom cookies.  Then people brought more food.  It was a crazy amount of food.  We planned on making cornbread and just didn't even bother because we had so much food to give away as it was.  We didn't want leftovers because we'd have to chuck whatever we couldn't finish, which would be most of it!  We gave away tons of meat (including uncooked ribeye roasts for people to play around with).

** recipes link to sites we based ours on, though we made our own modifications.

This is the first party we've thrown.  The variety of food was good, but the massive quantities were kind of ridiculous.  Several people who RSVP'd didn't show, and most people didn't show up until about an hour later.  I'm going to go into a boring exposition about the food just for my own records, in case we do another BBQ.  But first, pictures!

Laura, Elizabeth, and James 

Alessandro, Rosalie, Mary Ann, Brad, Cindy, and some dork

Victor, Michael, and Ben (Victor is Ben's friend who treated us to Fuddruckers on Thursday)

Trish, Kathleen, and the rest

Cheddar biscuits -- people liked, especially the 10-year-old neighbor Haley!  I made too many.  My friend Laura took the rest home, uncooked (I cooked two batches and left a third) and I gave her baking instructions.

Mexican bean salad -- people liked, once they tried it.  About a third remained, but people were pretty willing to take the leftovers.

Sliced veggies and dip (celery, carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, and a spinach dip using a Target pre-made dip mix and sour cream and mayo) -- not too popular.  I managed to give away the abundant leftover veggies to somewhat begrudging recipients, but not the dip, which is sitting in my fridge and I'll have to toss.  Sort of surprising -- I actually prepared way more pre-cut veggies and didn't even have to bring out another batch (except for Haley who asked for more carrots).  I expected a fairly health-conscious group here to graze more on the veggies.

Chips and dip -- again, not too popular.  Bought a queso cheese dip at Trader Joe's that no one touched and which I couldn't give away and will have to toss (boo).  No one had tomatillo salsa.  Some people had a little guacamole.  Most people didn't touch the chips, and the ones who did ate sparingly.  We bought a huge Costco-sized bag of chips and barely made a dent.  I convinced Rosalie to take the rest for the prayer group.

Pecan pie -- oh my gosh, so good.  Second time I made the pie, first time with some modifications on the original recipe, and Ben and I thought it was a winner.  Barely anyone tried it, but the ones who did really liked it.  We gave about a quarter of it away, but kept a quarter of it for ourselves!

Chocolate truffles -- I was a little surprised that these went "out" easiest of all the desserts.  I had leftover birthday cake scraps from Ben's marble cake, so I made crumbs in the food processor and combined it with a little crème de menthe, and then tried two fillings:  buttercream frosting and cream cheese.  Ben and I both liked the cream cheese filling the best, so most of the truffles had that, and I rolled the truffles in dark chocolate and dusted a few of them with cocoa powder or shredded coconut flakes.  I didn't think people would like them, because they were more bitter than my usual Oreo truffles (since I had only dark chocolate chips and no semisweet), but people liked them and it didn't take too much arm twisting to convince Alessandro to take the rest home.  (He saved the day -- he took so many leftovers home that I would've felt bad about tossing!)  Haley loved them said they tasted like Starbucks cake pops, but better.  :-)  (Her mom wouldn't agree to take any home, though!)  People actually liked that it wasn't too sweet.  Go figure.

Peanut butter blossoms -- everyone who tried them liked them (including Ben and me), but absolutely no one would take any back, haha.  I don't think they'll be too hard to get rid of, between Ben, me, and his coworkers, plus they have a longer shelf life than anything else we made.  We think people were reluctant to take them because they were so obviously diet crashers.  Alessandro wouldn't even take them! 

Other people's dishes -- Rosalie brought a watermelon that we didn't even cut into; Cindy and Brad brought cherries which I think were all eaten; Kathleen brought a spinach salad late in the game after everyone was stuffed, and yet my neighbors had several helpings worth (since it was vegetable-based, they felt good about eating it); Mary Ann brought a truffle cake which, I have to admit, was decent on its own, but compared to the rest of the desserts, I personally didn't think it could compare (Victor, the last one to leave, took the leftovers, which Mary Ann didn't even want!); and then Elizabeth brought a jello salad which people liked, but almost half of it is still sitting in the fridge.

In the future, it would be a good idea to have a better plan in place with dealing with the wind blowing away all the napkins and paper plates and utensils, rather than putting all that stuff indoors with the food outside.  We ought also have separate plates of each side for each table, since one table couldn't always tell when we brought something out (like the late-arriving spinach salad).  My plan was to have the food on a third table, while people ate at the other two, but it didn't work out that way (partly due to space constraints on the third table).  We should also put the recycling container outside for all the drink cans and have more trash cans around.

Berkeley Sugar Fest

Ben (reluctantly) agreed to one more trip to Berkeley with me today, since I hadn't really done any serious exploring even though I spent three years in grad school there, including half a year literally a block away from the "Gourmet Ghetto," which includes such famous Berkeley institutions as Chez Panisse and the Cheeseboard.

First item to cross off the bucket list was the Cheeseboard, which, again, similar to Arizmendi in Oakland (rather, Arizmendi is similar to Cheeseboard).  Vegan, mostly organic and local, cooperatively owned.  The pizza of the day was more "classic" than the one we had last week with the corn and cilantro.  Today was "roma tomatoes, red onion, mozzarella and montalban cheese, fresh herbs, and garlic oil."  I was a little disappointed that it wasn't some weird esoteric combination of veggies and condiments, but it was still good, and I'd never had or heard of montalban cheese before.  The cheeses went together really well.  We got separate plates of one slice each, and each plate came with a small extra slice of pizza, as opposed to Arizmendi where we had one extra slice for a whole half pizza (four regular slices).  Since almost everything we wanted to do in Berkeley was food related, we decided to "graze" today, hence single slices for each of us.

We also wandered next door to the cheese and bread bakery, where I was lost in the smell of cheese and fresh bread.  But one thing they don't have here:  cheese curds!  Looking forward to that in Wisconsin.  We didn't buy anything, but I wanted to see the bakery.

We then drove over to Cinnaholic, a vegan bakery that sells one thing:  cinnamon rolls (with different toppings).  We got the "Old Skool" cinnamon roll (plain vanilla frosting) per Yelpers' advice and split it.  Even Ben could not object to the delicious, gooey vegan animal-free sugar.  Hooray!

We walked past a van in Berkeley that had two stickers:  Wisconsin -- You're Among Friends, and Don't Mess With Texas.  Spooky!

Here I am revisiting where I had my spirit crushed. Etcheverry Hall is the mechanical engineering building.

Ben had an item on his bucket list:  visit the top of the Campanile (the large clock tower on campus, which is apparently the largest clock tower in northern California).  This was the one of the few things I had already done in Berkeley that Ben hadn't!  The views are amazing.  This is a view from in front of the bay, which I have to specifically spell out since my photography skills are lacking and I cannot take a decent shot of both the background and my guys (Big and Little).

The carillon bells in the Campanile!

Ben looking at the Lab where he worked

We stopped in the Doe Memorial Library and I had to take a photo with Mark Twain and a phantom foot.  Here is a random Mark Twain quote:  "Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principle one was that they escaped teething."

The Sather Gate is a Berkeley landmark, and I wanted to get a picture of this guy walking through it.

Not really.  But it does look like he's the focus, rather than the Gate and Ben and Michael over in the left there.

We then went into the campus store and walked down Telegraph Avenue.  The street vendors didn't have any of the anti-Bush t-shirts that I saw so prominently last time I walked down Telegraph (it had been awhile), but there were pro-Obama and "People's Republic of Berkeley" shirts (a term I'd only heard used pejoratively before).

We went to Fuddrucker's yesterday with Ben's friend and his wife, both Berkeley grads, and I asked if they had any ideas to add to the Berkeley Bucket List.  They suggested Ici, an artisan ice cream store that I've passed a couple times and always noticed a huge line running out the door.  They added we needed to get the cone.

We took the scenic route through the Berkeley hills to get there, but Michael was screaming most of the time so it wasn't quite as enjoyable as it might have been.

We managed to get to Ici between lunch and dinner traffic.  There was a small line (not quite out the door yet), and still a fairly significant wait because everyone ahead of us got samples.  I sampled the Earl Grey, Rosemary Pine Nut Praline, and Ginger Crème Brûlée.  I went for the praline, while Ben got a boring old chocolate.  I enjoyed mine, especially the crunchy pine nuts, but I thought Ben's was boring!  They had so many interesting flavors, and he got chocolate?!  But more importantly, Ben enjoyed it and was sad to reach the bottom of the cone.

The cone was good.  According to one Yelper, it was made by the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse.  I'm not a big fan of cones in general, but this wasn't waffle.  Nestle Drumsticks has delicious cones, too, though I haven't had one of those in ages.  Both the Ici and Drumstick cones have a little pool of chocolate on the bottom!

By the time we walked out of Ici with our ice cream (we ate standing on the sidewalk outside), there was already long line of people running a couple storefronts down the street.  You can see some of the crowd in the background here!

I wanted to visit Acme Bread Company.  This was added to my bucket list after I read a book called Ravenous: a Food Lover's Journey from Obsession to Freedom, which was written by an author who lived in Berkeley, or at least ate there a lot.  She described some enticing places in Berkeley that I just had to visit (after getting confirmation on Yelp that they were, indeed, worth it).  There were so many breads there that looked delicious, just like in the Cheeseboard bakery, and any other day I would've gotten a sweet dessert bread.  But so far this day, all I've had is sugar (and flour, if you count the Cheeseboard brunch) and I had some more planned for later.  So I got a ham and cheese turnover and shared with Ben.  Still yummy!

Even Michael wanted to try it.

Cafe Fanny is right next to Acme Bread Company.  It's Alice Waters' other restaurant, besides Chez Panisse.  I really wanted to visit and sip a Cafe au Lait, but it was closed by the time we got there, around 4 or 4:30.  :-(

I had one more stop on my list, also thanks to the Ravenous book, called the Xocolate Bar (get it?  ha ha!).  I didn't take a picture, but it was a cute, small shop on Solano Avenue and the nice lady at the counter loved Michael and let me sample some of their sipping chocolate and a few of their truffles.  I tried a chai-flavored truffle and a raspberry something or other.  I became paralyzed with indecision, as is my style, and she tried to reassure me that I could always come back later for something else, but I spilled that it was my last visit to the area.  When she found out I was going to Austin, her reaction was surprising, something to the effect of "Austin is nicer than Berkeley!"  Full of sugar already, I decided to buy a chocolate bar for later:  Cardamom Crunch.  She said it was the most popular chocolate bar they had.

We agonized over where to go for dinner.  We wanted to find a place on Solano, and while there were plenty of places that looked nice, nothing screamed a special "LAST MEAL IN BERKELEY!" to me.  Part of the problem was that a lot of the places that looked nice, especially the middle-eastern cuisine, cooked things very similar to dishes I already make a lot at home.  In a hopelessly optimistic last-minute play, I called Chez Panisse and asked if there were any available seats in the cafe (which is more informal than the restaurant) but was informed there was nothing until 9:30.  (It was around 6 on a Friday night... not surprising that I couldn't get in.)

We decided to walk down the Gourmet Ghetto again, because I wanted to stop at Cafe Gratitude.

I decided not to actually eat here after looking at the menu and being disappointed with the selection -- it seems they've revised their menu significantly since the last time I'd been there.  They now sell ... COOKED food (gasp!), in addition to a shortened raw menu.  I wanted to get something, and settled on "I Am Bright," a fermented kombucha tea that I liked, but Ben felt was not his cup of tea (har har).

Also, Michael!  He was fast asleep and I just carried him in my arms.  I love carrying my sleeping baby, especially when he snuzzles against my neck.

Again, there were plenty of places that I'd have tried any other day, but this had to be Last Meal Special.  Ben and I were struck by an idea that took the pressure off:  we were going to go back to the place where we had our very first date!  Mel's Original, now simply called The Original.  We couldn't pass on the symmetry.  Ben realized while we were there it was not only where our first date was, but also his first meal in Berkeley, hence it was symmetric on the Ben axis AND the Ben and Tarisa axis.  Plus the food didn't have to live up to any expectations, since the memory of the establishment itself and bringing our dining experiences around full circle is all that we were going for.

Still, couldn't complain!  I had a really yummy turkey burger with The Works (bacon, avocado, mushrooms, two types of cheese, tomato, lettuce... probably other stuff too I'm forgetting!).  Ben had roast beef sandwiches, and we shared the fried mozzarella sticks and fries.

I think Michael just let out a really cute burp and I started laughing here.  He really wanted to eat my sandwich but I wasn't prepared for him to make a mess -- I felt so bad!  I let him have a teeny bit of avocado before he started smooshing it all over and I didn't have much in the way of cleaning him so I was a bad mommy and took it away.  :-(

I'm sure people passing us were wondering why the heck we were taking pictures of this restaurant, of all places.

We passed several of these types of places (though "Berkeley's Secret Garden" seems to be the most prominent do-it-yourself marijuana growing establishments).

Michael hated being strapped in his car seat for most of the day, but he was pretty good on the ride home! He didn't like the flash though and made a Buddha face when it went off.

Here is my loot from the day.  We got some Tervis Tumblers from the student store, since I really like the ones we already have.  Plus my "xocolate" bar!  Yay.