Will and Kate

Now I am sure that everyone has seen the pictures and watched the replays and many of you will have even sat in your living rooms with friends watching the Big Day; as Kate revealed 'the dress' for the firs time and everyone found out that Sarah - who apparently has had an awful year - was the chosen designer, and ohhh how she deserved it blah blah blah.....
So how was it for us? Over a nice slice of toast and marmite and coffee we watched highlights on BBC UK News and oh'ed and ah' ed in all the right places. Rose sat transfixed and has spent the day talking about Princess Kate and Owen just wanted the watch the jet plane fly past and then was bored. This afternoon we invited Owen's school friends and parents to the park for an English picnic. Cucumber , ham and egg mayonnaise sandwiches, strawberries and cream, homemade scones with cream and jam ending with red white and blue jelly with whipped cream and blueberries. Red juice in union jack cups, napkins and blue spoons. Perfect..... but totally lost on the children, who just wanted to play with sticks and mud!!!!!

Just a little note on scones, as I have had to research this to get it right. There is a difference between English and American scones and there is a debate as to using milk or yogurt or even sour cream. So eventually I came up with a recipe which seemed to follow the english principles but with american measurements (as we have no scales, only cups). Any thoughts? They went down well but who knows if people tell the truth or not!

Scones - makes 8
Ingredients
2 cups /225g self raising flour
1/2 stick/55g cold butter
1 level tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 pint / 150 ml milk
1 egg beaten with a little milk

Preparation:
Heat the oven to Heat the oven to 400°F/205°C/Gas 6
Grease and flour a baking sheet.
Sieve the flour into a roomy baking bowl then add the butter, baking powder and salt. Quickly rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the center and using a dinner knife, stir in enough milk to make a soft, pliable dough.
Turn the mixture on to a floured board and knead very lightly until just smooth then lightly roll out to 2cm / 3/4" thick.
Cut rounds with a 7.5cm/3" cutter or cut into triangles with a sharp knife.
Place on the baking tray and brush with the beaten egg and milk mixture. Bake near the top of the hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and well risen.
Cool on a wire rack before eating.


Love Jo x

Golden Gate Bridge

The majestic red lines of the Golden Gate Bridge define the San Francisco Bay. It stands beautiful and tall against the forever changing sky and can be seen, in part or its entirety, from much of the city.

We have driven over the bridge a few times now and each time is as exciting as the last. Sometimes the rain is pouring down and our view of the Bay is masked but on a sunny day it is spectacular. On this particular day we were blessed with good weather and good company.

Driving North over the bridge towards Marin County and Sausalito takes you to Vista Point with the most wonderful views of the SF skyline and Fort Point directly below. With a perfectly clear blue sky the bridge was 'awesome'.







A few facts about the Golden Gate Bridge (with some quite cool photos):

It took 4 years to construct and was completed in 1937.

More than 40million cars cross the bridge each year.

It is one of the world's longest suspension bridges measuring 1.7miles (including the approaches).

The bridge stands 220 feet above the water and in high winds can sway from side to side as much as 28 feet from left to right!

It has enough cable to wrap 3 times round the equator.

American Cupcake

American Cupcake is on Union Street just down the road from us. Helen found it and we all went to check it out on Saturday.

It was the most glamorous cake shop that I have ever been to and the cup cakes just looked amazing. The entire design of the cafe/bar and the cupcakes themselves had been thought through in every detail to give both children and adults an experience they wouldn't forget.

Each of the children were allowed to choose one mini cake and a candy floss stick, so with great excitement and jumping around we were presented with immaculate looking cakes with various coloured 'frostings' and decorations.

Dave and Helen treated themselves from the adult menu - flights and pairings. This is a combination of 3 mini cup cakes and 3 glasses of wine, beer or fizz!!!

Highly recommended by all.

Jo x

Cherry Blossom

All the cherry blossom is out in the city and especially in Japantown. The other day Rose and I were walking home and as we looked up to the sky it seemed as though it was snowing. A gust of wind had taken all the blossom off the trees and was swirling it down the street. Beautiful.

This last Sunday we (Websters and Taylors) went to the second day of the SF Cherry Blossom Festival. It is in its 44th year and is a celebration of Japanese American culture.

Japantown was bustling with people, performers, stalls, games and Hello Kitty, including this fab black and white Smart Car! There was the most amazing smell of Asian cooking in the air and an array of exquisite japanese foods. Our wanderings took us from one stand to another, making intricate sand pictures and colouring shrinkies, watching sushi demonstrations with these fabulous wooden sushi shapers (which Helen and I both bought) and tasting a variety of different asian foods. The children were brilliant trying the japanese picnic we presented them with from sushi to udon noodles and okonomiyaki pancakes with bonito flakes scattered on top, which was probably a highlight for me.

Before leaving we managed to catch the very talented Taiko Dojo (Taiko meaning drum in Japanese - Kitty and I looked it up when we got home). This was a demonstration of traditional japanese drumming from a local group in SF. The children were transfixed even though we were quite a long way from the front. The group of men and women performed a very powerful piece written by their drum master entitle Tsunami, dedicated to the victims and survivors of the recent tragedy in Northern Japan.
There is a great response here to the recent disaster and many of the stalls and food outlets were donating profits to the relief fund.

The Queen of the Cherry Blossom will be crowned next weekend so hopefully we will make it back down again for the big parade on Sunday.

Hope you have enjoyed this,

Love Jo

9 ticks for the Taylors

Bus to Union Square, Breakfast at Loris', cable car, Fisherman's Wharf, Duck tour, Pier 39 for bubble gum flavoured icecream and Sea Lions, bus home through China Town and home again for pizza from Dinos (and a beer for Dave and Nick).

What a wonderful start to the week with Helen, Nick, Jemima, Kitty and Oscar. A jam packed Saturday and we had so much fun.

It was decided that we would start the weekend with a proper American breakfast. So when Dave had finished with the Grand National (everything went well apparently) we got the No. 3 bus down to Union Square and on to Lori's Diner for CableCar Pancakes, egg benedict, strawberry milkshake and refill coffee.
Lori's is a typical American Diner from the movies with cars hanging from the ceiling,jukeboxes and red leather booths. A perfect introduction to the holiday for Jemima, Kitty and Oscar.

With full bellies we headed down Powel to the cable car turn-a-round and watched as the cable cars came down the hill and back up again while we were entertained by a very talented tap dancer. We had already discussed how we were going to jostle for prime position and managed an outside seat with fantastic views of the road ahead. Owen and Kitty had the best seats at the front of the car and could see every rise and fall of the road.Rosie squealed with delight as we descended the hills! We alighted at Fisherman's Wharf and joined in the touristy hustle & bustle before boarding 'The Duck'!...... A WW2 military amphibious vehicle.
As part of the tour we were all issued with duck quackers....you can imagine the din! Captain Dan was the man,full of bad jokes and songs that we could quack along to.
After a brief city tour we drove down to the bayside and down a slipway into the water, much to the children's delight.

All the children were allowed to steer the boat, even Isla.  Dan the Man generalised saying that girls tend to go straight until they need to steer the wheel whereas boys turn immediately.  Until Rosie that is, who started steering like crazy from the moment she took the seat.

We do have photographic proof of all of the children driving the boat but they're on Helen's camera and we can't find a way of getting them off.

After the duck we walked to Pier 39 for ice cream. The most unusual one was the blue ice cream with bubble gum in it.  Dave had cotton candy flavour which he looked pretty pleased with.  The children (and Helen) all sat in a line and looked so adorable that a couple of Japanese tourists came up and took it in turns to stand alongside them while the other one photographed the scene!  Not sure you could get away with that in the UK.

We then went to see the sea lions and chatted to a nice man from the Marine Mammal rescue centre who told the children all about the different varieties of Californian sea lions and the whales that we might see in these waters at this time of year.  Then we tried to get a cable car back home but found that the queue was too long and caught a very long, bendy bus for a very long (bendy) journey via Union Square   (because we missed our stop).

Pizza
Bed

Love Jo and Helen x

I was hoping for a little more....

So I went for my first Californian haircut last night (yes Southwold types, things are open in the evenings). I wasn't expecting great things given that I could walk off the street and get a haircut there and then. But that's OK - I wouldn't describe myself as overly fussy and it's not like there's all that much to cut these days.

I sit in the chair as requested, minding my feet as the guy sweeps the hair from around my feet. A minute or two later he puts his broom aside and comes over to introduce himself. I didn't quite catch his name as his accent was very strong but he's certainly very friendly. He asks me what I want which is something I always find a challenge. I mutter something about "the same as Scott does" but, not surprisingly, he looks rather blankly at me. I change the subject and point out that it's been a lovely day....

Not deterred by the lack of any real requirements (sounds like my day job....) he tentatively picks up his clippers. He then drops the real bombshell: "this is my first day" he says. When he says this I'm suddenly aware of the fact that he's shaking. Not a lot, just a little shake. Not terrified but certainly not comfortable. He brings the clippers up to my left ear and trims the smallest amount of hair. He looks up at me and says "Is that OK?" I was hoping for a little more, I think.

Some bad news

The liquor store on Fillmore Street finished it's offer of a bottle of Laphroaig 10 for $29.99 (less than 20 quid!) before I made it down there.

To soften the blow, here's a picture from our weekend.

There we go, that's better isn't it?

Sun in San Anselmo

We went to Point Reyes on Sunday. We have lots of lovely photos and there's a big old blog item to post but I'm not going to do that right now. What I wanted to share is the fact that we drove through San Anselmo listening to one of my all time favourite songs "Snow in San Anselmo". On most other days, this would have been the highlight of my day but Point Reyes is a truly beautiful place....