Sunset Magazine Weekend

Sunset Magazine is having its open house weekend this weekend, June 4 and 5 from 10-5.  Sunset's offices are in Menlo Park on Middlefield Road.  

For details, see the Sunset Celebration Weekend website.  Sunset opens up its test kitchen, which is great to see.  They have food booths and wine tasting.  Sunset Magazine's food editor, Margo True, discusses her book The One Block Feast.
















Sunset's exhibits feature information about:

• Urban homesteading
• Chicken coops (seriously fun!)
• Making cheese
• BBQ demonstrations
• Sunset test kitchen tours
• Gardening tips and examples

This is a great event, despite the rain the Bay Area has been experiencing this weekend.  I went yesterday, and the rain didn't do anything to stop the fun.

Jumeirah Essex House

Wanted to follow up our post from a few weeks back about our stay in NY with some pictures from the hotel.

Here's a view facing downtown (from the first room when we checked in, which later got too smoky to stay in):

Another angle, again facing downtown:

Here's the view from the room we ended up in for the rest of our stay.  This faces towards the Time Warner Center:

A view facing the southwest corner of Central Park, with the traffic circle by the Time Warner Center lit up.  The building to the right is the Trump International Hotel.

 
A view in daylight, again facing the Time Warner Center.  The Mandarin Oriental is in the towers, and the Trump hotel is off to the right.

And here's a daylight view facing the Park (the trees were still quite bare in early March).

1,000 Places to See Before You Die

Read 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz.  I'm also including a link to 1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the United States and Canada.  

One example of the recommended excursions in this book is Nimmo Bay Resort, in British Columbia.  On pg. 752, Schultz describes Nommo Bay Resort, writing, "There are no roads leading to Nimmo Bay, an eighteen-guest wilderness resort that sits on the remote, undeveloped, and largely unsung western coast of Canada.  It is open May through October.

New York, New York - The Jumeirah Essex House

We recently returned from a trip back East, where we spent over a week in Manhattan.  While there, we stayed at the Jumeirah Essex House, which is on Central Park South (59th Street).

Our stay started out a bit rough.  About two hours after we checked in, our room started to reek of cigarette smoke.  Someone in a nearby room must have been lighting up.  While we don't like to complain, the smoke is a problem for us -- my son and I both end up with breathing issues when we're exposed to smoke for longer than a few minutes.

So, we asked to switch rooms.  After a bit of debate about where the smoke might be coming from, and whether the smell was really that bad, they moved us to a new room lower down in the hotel.  The new room didn't have much of a view -- we were at about tree level, facing the leave-less trees of winter in Central Park.  The new problem -- when I tried to pull the shades up to see the view, the shades themselves actually fell apart and broke entirely.  And no, I wasn't pulling that hard.

At this point, I'm happy to say that the hotel really stepped up.  They gave us a fantastic room/suite on the second-to-top floor of the hotel, with a partial view of the Park, a full view of the Time Warner Center (which is one of the great new architectural views in 21st-Century NYC), and a bit of a view beyond that of the Hudson River.  They didn't raise the price on us, and they allowed us to extend our stay when our trip itinerary changed.  Despite the rough start, the Essex House really came through in the end.  We recommend it.

Budget Couples Coastal Lodging

What is there not to love about the Mendocino Coast?  I recently learned about a "sweetheart" deal of $99 for a one-night weeknight stay or $396 for a two-night weekend stay.  Check out Living Social Escapes.  Note - Living Social's deals change periodically.

Valentine's Day Away from the Coast

For Valentine's Day this year, we ended up heading away from the coast.  Motivated by our son's extraordinary eagerness to see snow, we went up to Lake Tahoe.  We stayed at the Resort at Squaw Creek.  ]www.squawcreek.com We ended up in a blizzard.  It was great.

Livingsocial.com sometimes offers pretty good deals for stays up at Tahoe, including Squaw.  We met some families who live just down the hill from the Tahoe area, in Auburn, who were using a livingsocial.com coupon deal.  We met them while they were using a s'more kit from the Sweet Potatoes Deli at the resort (Sandy's Pub also has s'mores kits, and is near one of the fire-pits at the resort).  They were generous enough to share one of their s'mores with our son.

We went iceskating at the rink at the resort.  This was our son's first ever iceskating experience.  The rink is small - the perfect size for a little person like our 3-year old.  They also have equipment for little people, including small skates down to size 6 and a rail-bar to hold onto.

We had lunch at The Auld Dubliner in Squaw Villiage.  We highly recommend the potato skins and also the corned beef sliders.  It's a great place to have a beer and some yummy comfort food!  Especially in the middle of a blizzard.

Our dinner at Plumpjack at the Squaw village was excellent.  The restaurant was a little too dark for our son, who wanted to stay in the bar area.  I would highly recommend the Plumpjack for romantic dinners for two, but not as much for a family dinner.  That said, the waiters did a fantastic job; truly excellent service.

The Problem with Esalen, Part II

So getting back to the title of this two-set post, what is the problem with Esalen?

ANTS.  LOTS of them.  Everywhere.  Especially during the rainy season (October-May).

And you probably thought I was going to say the problem was the nude bathers at the Esalen baths, who really shouldn’t be seen nude.  But no, that’s not the real problem – the real problem is ANTS.

By way of example:

We check into Esalen to take a weekend workshop.  I arrive with an open mind.  It is Esalen, right?

We tour the grounds.  Breathtaking views.  Simply amazing location.  Decent classrooms.  An area for playing musical instruments (especially drums). 

We have lunch.  Decent food.  Not much to write home (or blog) about.  But decent.  And healthy, if not particularly tasty.

Then, exhausted from the drive down the coast, we head to our room with our bags.

Ants.  Lots of them.  At the doorway.

“No big deal,” I think to myself.  “No big deal,” I say out loud to no one in particular (but within earshot of my wife).

I put my bag down and think I saw an ant nearby.  Again, no big deal.

I lie down on the bed.  I turn my head.  I notice an ant or two on my pillow. 

“Ick.  No big deal.”  I say again, brushing off the pillow.

Under the pillow?  Ants.  LOTS of them.   I look down on the blanket – more ants.  I look at the sheets:  covered with ants.

I get out of bed, pretty irritated.  I don’t like ants.  I really don’t like ants in my room.  And I ESPECIALLY dislike ants in my bed.  I don’t like ants in my bed EVEN MORE when I AM PAYING FOR THE ROOM.

I figure, “this must be a one-time sort of thing, right?”  Wrong.  On closer inspection, I find ant traps in the corners of the room.  THEY KNOW ABOUT THIS!  That’s just not okay with me.  You don’t rent out rooms that are infested with ants.  Just because we’re at Esalen for a workshop doesn’t mean everyone is going to be so enlightened that we overlook all the ants in the bed (and now on our arms, torso, legs, face, hair)…   

So we move rooms.  In the new room – lots more ants.

This is not okay with me.  I’m in favor of expanding my horizons.  I like rustic spots and I love backpacking.  And I’m not expecting the place to be like the Ritz or the Fairmont … or even Motel 6.  But I DO expect that the room be somewhat clean and relatively ant-free (at least the pillow, if not the bed).

And that’s the problem with Esalen.

--COTC