Good Times & Gluttony

May 14 – 23  (Menlo Park, San Fran & Truckee, CA, plus Deer Valley, UT) —

Our week started off innocently enough with a visit to Deep and Gina in Menlo Park to see their new baby girl, Mila.

We then headed off to Sonya and Eug’s in San Fran, where the party started almost immediately.    As it always does.

The most memorable day was when David and I went to the Ferry Building to hit the farmer’s market and then met Sonya for lunch at Michael Chiarello’s new restaurant, Coqueta.   Which turned from lunch into an afternoon drinking session.

The food and cocktails at Coqueta were outstanding, although I only took pictures of the elaborate cocktail fixings:

We left Coqueta intending to head home.

But, of course, then had to stop at nearby La Mar when its happy hour specials included Moscow Mules.  This apparently made us very happy, although I have to admit I’m a little fuzzy on events at this point:

I do know that we eventually made it back to Sonya and Eug’s house and discovered that Pancha was also indulging in some gluttony by trying to eat a cow’s hoof as big as her head:

The next few days passed with much of the same.  Great times with great friends who never, ever fail to make us smile.

After a few days, however, our livers simply couldn’t take it anymore, so we headed east to Tahoe National Forest, where we stopped in Truckee.   At the Squeeze In cafe the next morning, I laughed out loud to read this at the top of the menu:

Um, no.  That certainly hasn’t been the problem.

Of course, we then jumped from the frying pan into the fire by visiting our dear, wonderful, awesome friend Bus in Deer Valley, UT.

A pictorial summary should suffice to give you a taste of our days with Bus:

 

 

Missing from Pictures but Entirely Consumed During the Visit:   Blueberry Pancakes with Bacon, take-out pizzas from Fat Boy Pizza that were too big to fit in the passenger seat of Bus’s car, waffles with strawberries and creme fraiche, plenty of beer, a handle of Jack, and who knows what else.

On our final day, we barely managed to leave in time to make it to Fruita, CO before dark for the next part of our adventure.  But we did.

The truth is it was hard to leave because we were hungover, but the deeper truth is it was hard to leave because it’s always hard to leave friends you love.

Two weeks spent with friends and family reminded us that there really are