A Wonderful Birthday Weekend With Katy

I'm writing this, effectively putting words in Katy's mouth, but I think she would agree this has been a very nice birthday weekend. Not only did we get to see each other for the first time since last Sunday morning, but we've gotten to do so many different things we couldn't have otherwise.

Friday night, my boss and his wife graciously took us to a steakhouse in Pleasanton, CA, called Hap's, in part if not in whole as a way of celebrating Katy's brithday. I should preface things by stating that you know we know beef in Nebraska, right? Hap's understands that, and serves "...Angus, Midwestern corn-fed beef, aged 21 to 28 days", which means that it likely came from Nebraska, or maybe even Iowa. Now, we've had some great steaks. There are two spots within Omaha, Cascio's and Gorat's, that are both extremely good, old-style Italian steakhouses. In my humble opinion, they couldn't hold a candle to Hap's. The Filet Mignon was far and away the best steak I've ever tasted. And that was only after having lamp chops and tempura-battered shrimp as an appetizer and then a red pepper dungeness crab bisque that can only be described as heaven in a bowl. I've never had soup like that.

It was an amazing evening filled with great conversation, great food and a meal finished off with a ridiculously good chocolate creme brulee. Are you kidding me??? Wow! I must say that today as we discussed last night several times, I couldn't help but smile in my enjoyment of the memory. Katy and I have had two dates since Zac was born and the last was for a few hours in advance of our anniversary last November. To get to spend an evening with a great couple, with great food and atmosphere and the conversation and all of that was just wonderful.

Today, Katy's birthday, we decided to drive south of San Jose down to the coast, headed for Carmel, which is a bit south of Monterey. While the weather on the coast was cool, cloudy and foggy in many places, the view was still something to behold and we very much enjoyed getting out a few times to hear the waves crashing. We started the day by doing McDonald's for a quick breakfast, then headed south. We stopped first in Capitola, a bit south of Santa Cruz. That was a bit disappointing in many ways, but we did spend some time walking above the beach and watching some surfers catch some small waves.


We then headed toward Carmel, driving through farmland along the way, which was a big surprise to both of us. We knew California had large farming areas, but it hadn't occurred to either of us that any of those areas would be so close to the ocean. It's too bad we didn't have a way to buy some of the fruit, which was all priced better than you'll see in any store. So just after Monterey, we caught what's called 17-Mile-Drive, which is this twisting, winding, very hilly drive through the Pebble Beach area. There are, I think, four golf courses and a bunch of homes, and once you have driven over to the coast, the views are very enjoyable. We stepped out of the car along here to get a few pictures and watch the waves crash against the rocks. Many people were doing this and all of them were apparently willing to pay for the drive. We obviously did as well, but it was a shock when we shelled out the $9.25 to do it.

Fortunately, we got that money back. Along the road you go through the famed Pebble Beach golf course, which hosts major PGA events every year. They even have a shop on the grounds named "2010 U.S. Open", where everything has that theme. Spyglass Hill is also along this stretch of road. Now, I love golf, but at my skill level, I'm not willing to pay whatever their greens fees are to shank one into some $3 million dollar home along the coast. :)

So Katy and I stopped and ran through a few shops on the Pebble Beach course campus there, then ate at the Gallery Cafe, which sits with a view of the first tee box and from which you can also see the ocean just above a building to the west. By spending at least $25 in one of their restaurants (not hard to do), you get the initial $9.25 back in cash, which was nice. We drove the rest of our piece on this road, exiting at the Carmel gate. We'd been told that'd be a nice place to visit.

The beach did not disappoint, though with the sand being so fine and so soft and so deep, and the hill getting down to the beach being fairly steep, it was a bit taxing for us going down and then back up. We did walk along the beach for a bit and get very unexpectedly wet when a wave crashed in further than we thought it would. We had water up to our knees and it was not even a little bit warm! But, we really enjoyed it and then headed up into the town to see the shops. While the town is very quaint and has pretty architecture, I cannot possibly imagine living there. However, if you like a constant traffic jam and tons of people all trapped inside one square mile of space, this will feel like home! Way too busy, way too touristy, just not a very relaxing space. No wonder we found so many people jammed into the beach parking area and at the beach. That said, we found great souvenirs there and it was the one spot where we stopped and got our feet wet, which was a goal for today.

We then headed back to San Jose and dinner at Genji downtown, which is a Japanese steakhouse, the kind where they cook dinner for you at the table. The food was OK, nothing special, but we still enjoyed ourselves and really just had a very pleasant, relaxing day despite the travel. I think Katy felt this was a unique way to spend her birthday and even though it didn't feel quite "normal", it was fun nonetheless. :)