Monday, July 29, 2013

Palo Alto Trip - Monday, July 29, 2013

Dawn and I visited the Stanford Medical Center area today.

We had lunch at the Town & Country Village's Calafia Cafe & Marget A Go-Go. I had the vegan, 9-inch "A Simple Pizza" - mozzarella, tomato sauce & fresh basil (the basil tasted lovely). Dawn also had a 9-inch "Wolfgang’s Pizza" - duck confit, pumpkin-hemp seed pesto, mozzarella, goat cheese. She loved it. We split a side of vegan/gluten-free "Minty English Peas & Crispy Potatoes" - garlic, olive oil, mint, russet potatoes, touch of curry powder...except the waiter told us it would come with green beans instead of peas, "due to change in the seasons." It tasted all right--mostly green beans and just a few bits of potatoes...the green bean ends had not been snipped--my mom would have been not pleased. ; o ) Overall, an expensive lunch (~$40, with tip), but quite tasty. When in Rome....

Above our heads the Cafe had a number of historical photographs of the Stanford campus area. One included the history of Stanford's famous tree "El Palo Alto." Amazing--it has lived over 1,000 years. It had a second tree adjacent to the first, which blew down due to a storm in the 20th century.

We had a medical appointment at the Stanford Medical Center office complex, then headed to Ghirardelli Square for dessert. I tried the new Sea Salt Caramel Banana Shake (not bad--the sea salt adds a nice bite to it) - it is as described; Dawn had the Sea Cliff sundae with dark chocolate fudge (formerly the "Cookie Bottom" sundae) - "Half of a Colossal Ghirardelli® Chocolate Chip Cookie served warm under two scoops of vanilla ice cream, freshly homemade hot fudge and topped with whipped cream, chopped almonds and a cherry."

After this we walked down Embarcadero to Pier 39, where we browsed Na Hoku's super-duper nice but expensive collection. We saw a few California Sea Lions. A man was performing with flaming Devil Sticks. Dawn briefly panicked when she failed to find her phone in her purse, but we found it on the floor of the car. A number of artists had setup: a violinist, a bongo drummer, a steelpan drum band, as well as a number of spray paint artists. We popped into Rosie's Roses--one of my all-time favorite shops. Seriously--the proprietor represents one of the sweetest people I have met, the place smells amazing with all the soap, the music and bubbling water soothes, the small space and the crystals and the flowers all come together in a perfect package. Highly recommended. We like to purchase the Sacred Chocolate Raw Chocolate Heart Bars. Rosie remarked they represented her favorite, and if she had known we were a repeat customer she would have given us a discount! 

We briefly considered going down the real crookedest street in San Francisco, but due to a bit of car trouble, decided to put it off for another day.





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