San Francisco - The Golden Gate Bridge

The year is 1998. I've just survived a 24 hour Greyhound bus ride from Seattle to San Fran. I'm zonked but my friends were heading to Alcatraz so I headed down to the wharf to try and get a ticket. I snagged one and got another bucket list item checked off. I'm not sure why but I never managed to make it to the Golden Gate Bridge on that trip.

Anyway he I am back in San Fran and the first thing I did after getting off the plane was motor over to the bridge. Call me a beek (bridge geek) but I love a wander over a famous bridge, especially on a nice sunny day.

I was with a colleague and the plan was to walk over and get a ferry back. Sadly I didn't pick up the ferry was from a town 5 miles on. The walk over was bathed on sunlight. Once on the other side we watched an amazing spectacle as the famous San Fran fog rolled in. I wish I had the Gopro on time lapse.

Coming back in the fog was amazing. It was rolling over the hills at great speed and reducing viability down to 100 or so meters. An amazing experience and glad I finally got to make it over.

Not a cloud in the sky

The fog starting to roll in

 

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Ash's NYC Part II - A taste of things to come.......

It's now one week out before I head back Northside to NYC. It's for a work trip but will be still great to get back to this mighty city. In preparation for it as well as for Valentines day and to celebrate Tracy's new job we had a night out on the town. Di kindly babysat and left the night as our oyster.

I'd struggled to get a booking anywhere decent due to our last minute plans. Throw in Valentines Day and it was a struggle. I lined a place up in Darlinghurst but we swung by Riley St Garage as they do walk-ins at the bar. This place opened in October last year and looked like it had a real Barbuto feel (Converted mechanic workshop in the West Village).

We snagged a couple of seats and were then fortunate enough to get a table from a cancelation.

The palce itself is a massive converted warehouse with a central bar and a exposed kitchen. Had the industrial chic look and I think they did a decent job about the interior.

The night started off well as they served Moscow Mules in a metal cup. True to form but a rarity in Sydney to find this. Admittedly they were not the copper mugs but still I'll take metal over glass any day of the week.

We then went on a progressive share plate crawl which went from strength to strength. Our order went something like this:

• Oysters
• Beef Capriccio (Gave Cafe Sydney's a run for their money)
• Butter and Burnt sage spinach ravioli
• Pulled pork sliders
• Spanner crab risotto
• Pork Knuckle and truffled mash potato

The pork knuckle is their signature dish. It was a bit of an upgrade from the usual knuckle we'd have at the Bavarian. It had this sweet honey soy style marinate which gave it a slight asian flavor that really complimented the meat.

Washed down with a few cocktails and a Malbec and we were back in foodie heaven. We were so full that desert was off the list. A big call considering there was a choc brownie with salted caramel and honeycomb.

A really solid place and somewhere we'll go back to for sure.

Flynn, The Chair DJ

He's getting more mobile by the day......



http://youtu.be/PVtMInp2K0M

Flynn's first day of day care

Tracy returned back to work last week which meant it was Flynn's first day at day care. We'd managed to snag a spot at a centre in the city right next to her office. It was a mixture of sadness and happiness dropping him off. Flynn ended up being completely fine, his mother was mostly ok.

We're now a week and a half in and he's been a real star settling in. We're both sad and miss him but hopefully the social aspect will be good for him.

First day and all ready to go

Heading to the ferry

A tough way to get to day care

Cya little man

After a tough day in the office I can still do the splits

Flynn's First Crawl

It might be the wrong direction but we've got some movement. I've sped it up to consolidate 5 minutes down into 30 seconds but you can really see his progress. Usain Bolt eat your heart out.



Click here if you cannot see the video:
http://youtu.be/Yr3zk0MUzWE