Category Archives: Photos

Weekend Away: San Francisco Part 1

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It’s one of our favorite cities! I suspect we could go back every year and not do the same things twice. This time we revisited a few of our favorite places plus had a few new adventures.

We treated our selves by hiring a car for the drive from the airport. You know the guys in suits and shades who hold the signs with people’s names on the card? So cool!
I should have made our driver pose for a cheesy thumbs up photo. Alas I didn’t want to ruin the “I’m pretty cool!” vibe of having a driver.

We stayed at the Sir Frances Drake Hotel near Union Square

Jef and I love the historic location and were very well taken care of.

Our favorite place at the hotel was the bar in lobby where, after an afternoon of site-seeing, we had a lovely beverage made by the charming bartender.

First thing we do upon arrival in San Francisco is high-tail it to Chinatown and our favorite lunch spot.
The Far East Cafe is.. okay, can I be honest? It’s pretty touristy, being right on Grant Ave and the food is American style Chinese. I’ll wager it’s not terribly authentic as far as Asian cuisine goes.

But guess what? I don’t care! The proprietor himself greets you with a big smile as you walk in and seats you right away.

The atmosphere is everything a Chinatown restaurant should be, combined with a nice cold Tsingtao beer and a big plate of something fried and covered in sweet and sour saucy stuff…that’s my idea of a great start in San Francisco!

After lunch, if you’re very lucky you could meet the Emperor of Grant Ave.

He likes a nice scratch behind the ear.

More SFO in a bit, stay tuned!

Weekend Away: Disneyland

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We are big Disneyland fans. Huge! We’ve been taking the kids since they were very little. This trip differed because they are no longer little.

How to have a fun family vacation that includes a big dose of “cheesy” without all the eye rolling? We who have teens, run into this often.

Fortunately my kids were raised on “cheesy” so it was easy to get them on board. Plus, ditch school for 2 days? Sure, no problem Mom!

We stay at The Grand Californian Hotel. Can I just say, it’s worth the extra money to stay right in the park. Plus, the pool, restaurants and amenities are awesome.

(No this isn’t a sponsored post. But hey Mickey, call me!)


Photo courtesy of Grand Californian.

This time around, instead of bunk beds, we got king/double-double adjoining rooms. That way everyone can have their space when inevitably, we all get a little sick of each other.

We purchased our 5 day Park Hopper passes online. It’s a big time saver, I can’t recommend the practice more! Disneyland is famous for its looong lines, ticket lines being the longest.

As we were staying in the hotel, we started our days at The Storytellers Cafe. Like all the restaurants in the resort hotels it’s a “character breakfast”. I was curious as to whether or not the boys would be into interacting with the characters this time around. It was really fun when they goofed around and posed for pictures between bites of Mickey shaped waffles, just like the younger kids.

I’m sure you’ve heard that a “Disney strategy” must be employed in order to escape a “meltdown” by your youngster. Things were a little different this time. We’ve reached that “Mom and Dad, who…?” stage, in which Jef and I get ditched. I did tell them that I’d like it if we could all go on at least one ride a day together.

My kids are pretty good at humoring me.

We met back up for lunch at old favorites like Taste Pilots Grill and there were a few new places in Frontier Land, Downtown Disney, and California Adventure Park that are now on the list of favorites.

Our dining splurge was for dinner the second night, when we ate at Napa Rose. We avoided the nice restaurants on past trips but, as the boys don’t smear everything within a three-foot perimeter of the table anymore, we thought we’d check it out. I’m glad we did, it was a very nice meal.

We had a great time on our cheesy Disney trip! It’s probably the last time we’ll go to Disneyland, just the four of us, so it was particularly meaningful.

If you have any questions about our trip leave them in the comments!

Link Love

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I’d like to introduce you to my early mother’s day present! I’ve named her Solange, after Beyonce’s younger sister. And If you don’t know who Beyonce (No, not the singer!) is…

Speaking of, the most excellent Jenny Lawson is #1 on the NYT Print and E-books bestsellers list! Go Jenny!


Illustration by Billy Steve Clayton (pixelfoot)

I’m a Janeite, that is to say, I’m a big fan of the works of Jane Austin. Pride and Prejudice, in particular. What if P&P were a present day story, in VideoBlog format? You have to check out, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries an excellent retelling of P&P and so funny!

And lastly, what’s funnier than $9000 speaker cables? The reviews for the $9000 speaker cables!

What gems have you found on the internet this week?

In the Kitchen

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(what’s going on in my kitchen: dishes needing doing, bananas, birthday present for a friend, math homework)

I’ve been playing with a few new (to me) apps for my phone trying to find a replacement for the soon to be disbanded Picnik. I could yak on and on about how disappointed I am about Picnik’s demise, but I won’t bore you with my scars.
So far I’ve found a few things that work pretty well: Diptic, Photogene2, and for my desktop, Snapseed.

Say, do you take more photos with your smart phone or your camera?

High Speed

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You use a high-speed camera to film things you want to slow way down, things you can’t normally see with the naked eye. It’s caught on as an art form that’s beautiful and fascinating.

This high-speed demonstration of microwave destruction is amusing. (Don’t try it, unless you want to destroy your microwave and possibly seriously injure yourself!)


This capture of a dove in flight is amazing!

So must check out Alan Sailer’s incredible high-speed photo set on Flickr!

Of course I couldn’t resist either. Checkout the film I made of the color and water experiments I did a couple of years ago.

Be Mine

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I get nostalgic every Valentines day, remembering buying and preparing Valentine’s with the kids for the big class party. Choosing just the right one for each classmate.
“Sigh”
But that doesn’t mean I’m not charmed all the same with the cards I’ve been seeing in the shops and online. These are my favorites.


I saw these and nearly got them before I remembered we don’t send Valentines anymore. So, someone out there go buy these!


These vintage Valentine replicas remind me of the ones I found in my Grandma’s album.


And for those who like to make stuff, this really great idea from Gabrielle Blair.

Reader Poll: New For 2012

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Heeeeey! Welcome to 2012, you made it!

I’ve been taking a look back at WFH’s 2011 posts. My goals for the blog last year were to post more, increase my readership and focus on trying to find my voice as a blogger.

Thanks so very much to all who subscribed last year! I hope I kept you well fed and entertained. It means the world to me that you’ve clicked on by and visited!

WFH content is driven by what is interesting to me at the moment, but I write with you in mind. Mostly I think, “I’ve got to show them this!” Or, “I’ll bet they’d like to know how to do this.” My series on packing light and teens traveling abroad come to mind as examples.

With that in mind I’d like to ask you what you’d like to see more of on WFH.

Here’s to a great 2012…

Happy Halloween!

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Those who know me, understand that I love Halloween! I decorate with gusto and hand out full size candy bars, I dress up and allow my teenagers to go trick or treating. (provided they wear a costume, don’t trample the little kids and, are excruciatingly polite) This years festivities are hampered a little by the fact that it’s a school night and the forecast calls for rain. But only a little.

Gavin (14) will be dressed this year as a can of Spam and Kellen (16) will be serenading the neighborhood as a Mariachi; along with a friend from school who intends to bring his trumpet.

How AWESOME is it to be my neighbor I ask you?

I intend to fill you all in with all the fun tonight via my Facebook wall

Until then, here’s a few things to keep you amused:

Neil Gaiman’s very creepy short story, “How To Talk To Girls At Parties”

Check out Nightmares Fear Factory Flickr page:

What is in the room with these people? Not sure I want to know!

Weekend Away: Seattle

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Traveling is one of our favorite things to do. Getting free of the office during the school year, is challenging so we’ve become experts at the weekend away.


(click on the pics to embigen)

The last few years we’ve driven up to Seattle, but our first love is taking the train. This was THE way to go when the boys were little.

Sure it has its quirks, this trip there was an hour-long delay as they cleaned up an accident further on up the tracks. Let me just say this; if this delay had happened on I-5 we would have just sat there, our bladders filling and annoyance levels rising.
On the train, they offered us free snacks and let us off the train to stretch our legs at the station where we stopped. I bought a half bottle of wine at the bistro car to go with my free snacks and took a short nap. Yes driving is cheaper and faster, but it’s no fun…at all.

We stay at The Monaco Seattle It’s a really great hotel for families, and people traveling with pets. It’s situated right in the middle of downtown, near Pike Place Market with easy walking to everything of note.

Speaking of Pike Place Market, no trip would be complete with out breakfast at The Athenian Inn. The historic (and Hollywood famous) eatery has the best breakfast in Seattle. Go early and grab a booth upstairs.
We would recommend the blueberry short stack, crab cake eggs Benedict and, corned beef hash. Order a side of Uli’s sausage. Oh, and the coffee is served in a proper diner style, mug!

Our next stop is the EMP or Experience Music Project, or as we’ve dubbed it “The Rock & Roll Museum”. Walk over to Westlake Center and take the escalator up to the third floor and buy a round-trip ticket on the monorail. Again, a giant favorite when the boys were little.

It’s a seriously cool place, with entire wings dedicated to the careers of Nirvana (take a gander at Kurt Cobain’s canned meat collection, LOL!) and Jimi Hendricks, the history of the electric guitar and, lots of interactive areas.

There’s also exhibits about Battle Star Galactica and Avatar. Again, loads of stuff to play with.
(As for whether I’m a Cylon or not… I’ll never tell!)

The newest exhibit is called “Can’t Look Away: The Lure of the Horror Film”
It replaces the Science Fiction Hall of Fame wing of the EMP, a fact that I was bummed about at first, but then I got to see Guillermo del Toro’s sketch book, and Edward Scissorhands… um, hands!

It’s marked outside the entrance of the exhibit it’s PG-13 and that’s the truth, there were several little kids that were demanding to be taken out.

For my big kids (14 & 16) this was their favorite spot.

No trip to Seattle for us would be satisfactory unless we had dinner at The Brooklyn Steakhouse. A perfect steak with all the awesome sides and a glass of red wine; maybe a plate of oysters to start, YUM! We look forward to it all year!


The last place I love to go is DeLaurenti. It’s an Italian specialty grocery at Pike Street Market. I always stock up on my favorite Italian sweets a pantry goods!

So, that’s our weekend away in Seattle! I hope you enjoyed my city guide, I’ll feature more Weekends Away throughout the year.