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Post by artraveler on Jun 21, 2019 18:52:47 GMT -8
In 2010 my best girl and I took a trip from Fayetteville to Muir Woods CA drove along the coast and back. We were in Sacramento and I told my lady we were having lunch at the CIA. She kind of mumbled ok. The drive from Sacramento to Napa Valley is a little over two hours. Imagine her surprise when we drove into the (C)ulinary (I)nstitute of (A)merica. She later confessed that she had been expecting to have lunch in a government cafeteria.
We had fresh halibut with rice and vegetables. The fish was perfect and the location, overlooking the Napa Valley was gorgeous. Wine and coffee brought the total bill to about $70 + tip. In all a perfect meal in a unique location with a lovely lady.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 11,030
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 22, 2019 8:32:36 GMT -8
That's a great memory. And fish cooked to perfection by a pro is unlike anything we can typically achieve at home. I had some blackened tuna once at a mid-fancy restaurant. It was delicious, unlike any conception of tuna that I had ever had.
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Post by artraveler on Jun 23, 2019 12:16:15 GMT -8
On the same trip we had dinner at Scoma's on the wharf in SF. My lady had fish and I had their famous chipanno still the best on the West Coast.
SF has become a third world country and I have no desire to return, but there are some great memories from the 70s on.
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Post by timothylane on Jun 23, 2019 12:35:02 GMT -8
We visited San Francisco for a day trip up from Monterey in 1960, but I don't remember all that much about it. I would assume we visited Fisherman's Wharf and maybe even had a meal there. I do know that we toured some of the hills, saw some things (such as Alcatraz) at a distance, and attended a game in then-new Candlestick Park.
One interesting thing I can recall from a meal by first night in the Orlando area when I attended Magicon in 1992 was a jumbo shrimp cocktail -- the charge was a dollar a shrimp. (There was a wedding reception at a cousin's home in Sweeden that once also features those jumbo shrimp -- perhaps actually prawns.) Sadly, I don't recall what restaurant it was.
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Post by lynda on Jun 23, 2019 14:05:08 GMT -8
I'm going to mix my metaforums here to say that I had Plantain Chips and trail mix for lunch yesterday (we mentioned two types of edible plantain under The Garden Club) at lower Lena Lake in the Olympic Mountains of Washington. It was a 10 mile round-trip, and my third attempt to reach the lake (the first two trips having been aborted by others traveling in my pack). The third time was the charm, elevating this meager fare to celebratory status.
The trip was somewhat of a survival quest for three mid-century-classic ladies. We hiked switchback trails up the mountain through thick evergreen forest for almost 2000 feet to reach Lena Lake. The lake was formed 1300 years ago when an earthquake dislodged many acres of house-sized rock chunks from the mountain looming above, which blocked the valley through which Lena Creek (small river) runs. The trail passes over and among these moss covered giants. This is my favorite part of the journey, because the force which caused this unusual landscape is so ominous, it echoes down through the ages making me feel very tiny, and short-lived like the vapor shrouding the mountains around me. There is a log footbridge at the creek-crossing below the lake. And, although you can hear the creek raging downstream, the creekbed is dry. Here, I ventured off-trail and across a bridge of roots and boulders to a precipice above the dry creek. From that vantage I could see the torrent emerging from its subterranean cavern. How spectacular! Imagine how vast this epic 1300 year old gravel dump was, that the sediment since deposited by the erosive forces has not been enough to bring the creek to the surface until hundreds of verticle feet below the outlet of the lake. The visible creekbed most likely serves as drainage for spring snowmelt.
We finally made it back down the mountain, even though the forest service had doubled the length of the trail and increased the steepness while we were lunching at the lake. This hike was definetly one for the memory (and record) books. So, since I snacked on trail mix intermittently along the trail, in addition to my plantain lunch, then I'm calling this entire venture a Good Meal in an Interesting Place.
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