Bonus Post

I’m cleaning up my desktop in a vain attempt to make my computer behave and came across some pictures from early January that I’ve been meaning to post. They have no real rhyme or reason but I hope you enjoy them:

Wonderful decor choices in San Francisco

Love those west coast coffee shops

Classic San Francisco

Mushroom hunting in Santa Cruz 1

Mushroom hunting in Santa Cruz 2

I hear it's continued snowing in Fort Greene after we left. Fortunately, it's summer here in South Africa.

Obligatory plane shot

Linking out

Just wanted to thank Rachel for posting the recipe for the amazing Romesco Sauce we made in Santa Cruz and ziggystarlet for sharing some words from Ginsberg/Neruda that particularly resonated with me today.

~

In other news, we celebrated Hari Raya yesterday in traditional Malay fashion (literally in my case) at the friend of one of our hosts. After a delicious meal, we headed into Kuala Lumpur City Center for some wandering around sans maps. We did pretty well for ourselves with stop-offs in Little India, Chinatown, and finally circling back to KLCC to get back on the train. (Those big Petronas Towers are a great navigational tool.)

Today was pretty low-key – cleaning, reading, yoga (Dan, too!), and doing laundry in buckets after the washing machine had issues. Good incentive to pack less next time!

Dressed up for Hari Raya

Delicious Malay food

Waiting for the train into KLCC (we're staying in a more residential part of town)

The inescapable Petronas Towers. I saw some other tourist taking this exact same picture and it seemed like a good idea.

KL street pic part 1

KL street pic part 2

Blurry pic of a very refreshing melon sago - honey dew, coconut milk, sago (the colorful starch balls), and ice

Hopefully these clothes dry eventually

Just because

Still Pretending I Don’t Have a Blog

Since my last post, we drove to Santa Cruz and back and flew to Kuala Lumpur via Korea. We’re still jet-lagging and settling in but I thought I’d post a few pics in lieu of actually writing anything.

Clothes grow on trees in LA

Santa Cruz being Santa Cruz

Waiting on seared pork belly

Wine and flowers

Hotel in Korea Part 1

Korean Hotel Part 2

Lots of AC

Hip Hop Bear

Where we ate lunch yesterday

This place goes by Restaurant OK at night

We bought dinner last night from the Ramadan Market food stalls. Yum.

Road Trip Recap

We’ve got a few days of relative down-time in Southern California before a quick trip to Santa Cruz and a long trip to Malaysia. I’m in a bit of a blog lull at the moment but I’m going to toss a few pictures into this post to keep the momentum kinda-sorta going.

I have a few traditional Niagara Falls pics but I liked this one the best.

Chicago rooftops

Yes, we visited a vacuum museum in Missouri

Did you know that Arkansas produces wine? A picture from a Swiss-themed winery.

Eastern Colorado

While we didn't get a chance to check out the dinosaurs in Utah, this tree reminded me of one

More Zion National Park prettiness

Yeah, that was only the first third of our crazy hike to the top of Angel's Landing

Damn, Zion was photogenic.

Just one more

Best food in town: Whiptail Grill

Snapshots from the car. Like you do. Hello, Mojave Desert.

Plotting another road trip

Glacier National Park in Montana. Just remembered that I need to go back there.

Last summer, Dan and I quit our jobs, bought a car, and headed out west. (Well, north first and then west eventually.) After about two months on the road, we rested for a week in Southern California and then headed to South Africa for what turned out to be another two months. Back in the States, we spent a few weeks in Boston and New York and then flew to California where we thought we’d be settled for a few months before returning to New York for a job Dan had lined up for March. But in January, I landed a job based in the Northeast so we were off again, driving 3000+ miles in five days (not recommended!). This summer, we’re going to strike a balance – we’ll have about three weeks on the road before we catch our flight to Malaysia and I’m trying to figure out how we want to approach things.

I’ve got family in Chicago so we’ll definitely stop there. And we have friends in Northwestern Arkansas so even though we’d dip a little further south than planned, we might go there anyway and spend some quality time in the Ozarks. But what Dan really wants to do is check out Colorado and Utah. I have a feeling this is where we’ll spend the bulk of our time (not counting hanging out with family in the Bay Area and Santa Cruz). If you have any recommendations for things to do along the route below, let me know! (Plus, check out a few pics from last year just for fun.)

Probable road trip route for August 2010

Adam and Dan at a crappy campsite outside of Quebec City

Weird lighting in Montreal

Fun times at the Mississippi River

Homesteading: No thanks

The Badlands looking pretty badass

We crossed the border into Alberta to spend our last $10 Canadian on fries with gravy

Taking the ferry in Puget Sound. Want a cheap place to stay near Seattle? Camp on Vachon Island.

Sand dunes in Oregon

The California Coast is so damn photogenic

Santa Cruz

Until you actually decipher Adam's handwriting, his evaluation looks more like a threat than a compliment

This post has nothing to do with social enterprise (other than I did get to finish reading Ellen Johnson‘s biography and I started re-reading The Bottom Billion while on the plane).

Last week, my family converged in Santa Cruz, CA for my brother’s final dinner for his culinary program. Adam summed it up best on his evaluation card, “It was like a party in my mouth and everyone was invited.”

As always happens in Santa Cruz, we ate lots of delicious food, drank fantastic wine (courtesy of JP’s employer Bonny Doon), spent hours walking around town and along the beach, and generally had a very vacation-y vacation. In fact, I didn’t want to leave. If I’m going to be working from home, why not work from home 1/4 mile from the beach? I think I learned an important life lesson on this trip….

And now for a few random pics:

Mega Shark

Acrobats

The boys

Bonny Doon

Lamps