Goodbye Snow

Snowy southern Minnesota from the plane. Frozen lakes and farm fields. Rectangles are roads separating 1-mile square sections of land. Dark patches are groves, one for each farmstead.
Back to our beloved Bay Area for a visit! Once at SFO we got off to a less-than-auspicious start. The plane taxied to the gate and then we waited...and waited...and waited. Cabin attendants announced that the jetway had broken one foot from the airplane door. Wait, can't just about everyone step over a one-foot gap? If not, doesn't someone have a piece of plywood and some duct tape? Does Red Green make house calls?

When Sun Country finally released us, Ted picked us up from the airport and dropped us at Hertz for our rental car. We saved $90 by renting from the San Bruno facility instead of the airport; our frugal friend Ted appreciates this.
If our Vibe, George, and our Altima, Bertha/Liam Nissan (the Altima is a little conflicted) got busy, their kid would look like this.

We got a Nissan Versa, which is what the resulting offspring would be if our two regular cars (Nissan Altima and Pontiac Vibe/Matrix) could somehow reproduce.


Shanghai Dumpling House green beans--best on the planet!

and soup dumplings...mmmm!

Then Gauss and I made the requisite pilgrimage to the Shanghai Dumpling House in Millbrae for dry cooked string beans and soup dumplings. Yummm! After a rest at Frances' house, Ted took us out to Mr. Fong's/Tai Wu for dinner. http://www.yelp.com/biz/mr-fong-tai-wu-bbq-and-noodles-daly-city

Mr. Fong's is a Cantonese restaurant known for the duck and pig carcasses hanging near the front entrance. Their char siu pork is amazing and the prices are even more amazing, hence Ted's enthusiasm for the place.

The next morning we slept in before heading down the Peninsula to meet Ted Jorgenson and Beth Guislin, two of Gauss's old co-workers at Santa Clara County, for lunch. Beth worked with me on the 2010 census and was responsible for getting Gauss the Santa Clara gig, so she's our fairy godmother of employment. She chose Spicy Hut for delicious Indian food with or without meat.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/spice-hut-san-jose


The middle of Lexington Reservoir just before the Pineapple Express arrived.

We also paid a visit to the Lexington Reservoir near the little cottage that Gauss rented when he was here in 2012-13. Because of California's extended drought, there was water only in the central part of the reservoir, and it was many feet below the full stage.

We had dinner planned with our friends John and Ying, so I went up for a swim in the Menlo Park pool. Aah! So sweet to swim outdoors in December and watch the clouds skitter by ahead of the oncoming storm.

John and Ying served takeout from Chef Zhao Bistro (the erstwhile Trend, a.k.a. Chuan Wei Chuan.)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/chef-zhao-bistro-mountain-view

They remembered all our favorites: Chongqing Chili Chicken, dry-cooked string beans, spicy beef tendon, Fish buried in chili-pepper soup. It was a short evening because John and Ying now have two children, and baby Kai had a bad cold. Everyone was sleepy. And there was a "storm" headed for SF that everyone was spazzing out about. People kept telling us that we needed to get home before the storm hit so we would be safe.

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