Welcome Thomas Johnny Rogers!

Before I rehash the incredible weekend, I have to tell you that Joyce and Stephen (Nick's sister and brother-in-law) gave birth today to a son named Thomas Johnny at 2:40pm London time. We're so happy for them and can't wait to meet the little baby in September!
Here's a short video of the little guy:


An indulgent weekend
Saturday we finally got our bicycles out of the garage and headed over to Golden Gate Park to explore (and burn some calories in preparation for the weekend of eating). The park is truly an oasis in the middle of the city. We toured the Conservatory of Flowers (which was more plants, less flowers) where we saw banana trees, vanilla vines, cocoa pods, and allspice plants. We walked through the rose gardens where they grow dozens of varieties of roses and the smell is so wonderful it makes you dizzy. We found a donut shaped lake where you can rent peddle boats and row boats. We saw the Japanese tea gardens with their manicured zen gardens, lilly ponds, and tea house. We rode by picnic fields and lawn bowling, tennis courts, and a baseball diamond. There is too much for one day, so we will definitely be back.

Okay, on to the food. Saturday night we had reservations at an intimate little restaurant in Nob Hill called Masa's. A colleague of Nick's had given us a gift certificate as a welcome to San Francisco gift. The atmosphere was very nice - subdued and elegant, and the 6 course tasting menu we ordered was very good, though it didn't entirely live up to the bar set by the amuse bouche of butterbean soup with olive oil froth served to us as soon as we were seated. The soup was so delicious (though given it's main ingredients had to be butter and cream, that's probably not a difficult task to accomplish) that about 3/4 of the way through the rest of the meal, Nick asked for round 2. The other course that was memorable was the filet of beef with bordelaise sauce and maitaki mushroom. Neither of us eats mushrooms, but because this one wasn't shaped in the traditional mushroom way, we accidentally took a bite and oh my God, was it good. The filet melted in your mouth and the sauce was a perfect accompaniment. The most interesting thing about the restaurant is that it is haunted by this unsolved murder that happened to the head chef and owner back in 1984.

On Sunday we tried out a new church in Pacific Heights - this time a Presbyterian one. It was very similar to the style I grew up with in Maryland and I really enjoyed it. Afterwards I dropped Nick off at home and drove down to Palo Alto to meet Meaghan for some shopping. 25 miles away and the weather was 15 degrees warmer, so I got my fix of summer to last me a few more weeks. The mall is described as a "playground for the Silicon Valley millionaires", so needless to say it was more window shopping than real shopping, but it was fun just the same.

Sunday night we met some friends of Nick's parents at a restaurant in the Ferry Building called the Slanted Door. They call it Vietnamese fusion and between the organic meats and fresh vegetables, the complex flavors, and the view of the bay, I really don't think it gets much better than this. The food was so wonderful that we made reservations for this coming Friday when Serge and Laureen will be here visiting. The last time that Seta and Samir saw Johnny and Nahia was in the early 80's in Saudi Arabia, but they treated us like they've known us forever and we had a wonderful time.

I love this city.