T is for Time’s up!

This is my last post from San Francisco, we fly back to UK on Friday evening, just a week over there before we catch the ferry back to Spain. I had another post ready but after our meal out last Friday I had to show the pictures instead. First I must apologise to any Vegetarians and vegans as it’s a meat overload. THe restaurant was in San Mateo, called Espetus Brazilian Steakhouse , what an experience, the head waitress came over to explain how it worked!

Firstly you collect a plate and go to the buffet for the starters,

The choice was amazing, stews, salads of all descriptions, veggies, rice, even paella! Seeing as our son had warned us what was to come we were careful not to overload on the starters, I had beetroot, tomatoes, cabbage salad, which was delicious , potatoe salad and yucca fries! One of each type, Tasted the same to me but too dry.

Next the waiters came around the tables with long skewers with meat on them, they start to carve and you grab the piece with your tweezers and he continues to carve the slice, we had lamb, all cuts of beef, chicken, pork belly, giant shrimps and chicken hearts that I couldn’t even look at! Our son and Steve of course had them!

On the table they have a circle on a stand, red for no and green means they keep coming to the table, we had to rest after quite a few slices but when we had rested for a while and had a drink we started again.

This shows behind the window the racks of grilled meats on the skewer, a little hard to see because the window reflects the BG, also some starters..

Lastly we enjoyed the Pineapple, straight from the grill, it was so delicious, somehow it broke down the fibres and brought out the sweetness, Steve’s mind was working overtime thinking how he could do this at home using our gadget that peels and cores pineapples, so watch this space. You can just see the little circle on the table next to the pineapple skewer.

Lastly my drink, a Margarita, not normally a cocktail drinker but decided to push the boat out as they say, it lasted me all night and was good!

Hopefully I will have time to post next week, looking after a three year old is definitely harder than the two GSS here. We had a FaceTime with him over the weekend and he told Grandad that his car is ok but wet!! I’m thinking we will have some bad weather to contend with over there

Take care and a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone Jan x

T is for Road Trip

Hello Ladies, T day once again where we all join our hostess Elizabeth and Bluebeard for our weekly drink related Get together.

We had a really great trip to Las Vegas, it took us nearly ten hours driving, well not me, our son and Steve shared the driving, we stopped for breakfast on the way and quite a few coffee breaks.

The scenery on the way when was so like Spain, hills and dry scrub land, made me miss home!

We arrived at the hotel and our sons friends family own a hotel chain, He managed to get us an upgrade, what a fabulous suite, as you can see we had two beds, dining area and a lounge area and you could have a dance in the bathroom.

Views from the lounge area of the LinQ, you can see us looking out at the view, me clinging to Steve as it made my legs go to jelly, we were on the 29th floor, it’s lit up at night, all different colours go around the outside, we did go on it and the views were amazing although you can’t see the strip from it as it’s at the back of the hotels.

We had a visit to the famous Pawn shop feature on TV, obviously we didn’t see any of the famous people but it was interesting to see the shop.

The first night we were quite tired after the journey so we went for a walk and a beer before going back to the hotel and our son ordered room service, chicken wings, a club sandwich, cheese and meats, a dip with crudités, it was quite funny as our son opened a napkin and four slices of bread fell out, it was quite like a magic trick!

My drink for this week,I bought these glasses as a bit of fun for DIL, we always have a G&T on Thanksgiving before lunch so I saw these and thought they would be a bit of fun to have sparkly glasses, one each

Our son took us to Morton’s Steakhouse, the meal a was delicious and the steaks. Melted in your mouth, I had filet Mignon, our son had a Ribeye and Steve had a Veal chop, they were all massive,, we had a baked potato with sour cream, sprouts,mash with horseradish and mushrooms to share, I totally forgot to take any photos, our son said I must be the worst food blogger on the planet!

Thanks to all that came across last week for a visit and for your lovely comments, they are much appreciated, have a Happy T Day

Jan x

T is for Tuesday

Hello Ladies, we’ve had a quieter week this week, no more Birthdays until next year!

My drink related post this week to join the T party is from Macy’s Cheesecake Factory in Union Square, San Francisco. We decided to treat ourselves to a slice and a coffee. We leave the car at S.F Zoo and travel into the city by Muni, we love to people watch, I must admit the new trains are awful, they are side seats, they aren’t long enough, comfy for two but when three squash on it’s just too close for comfort!!!

Steve chose the Mango and coconut.

I chose the White Chocolate and Raspberry, they were both delicious, rather too much cream for me so I had to leave most of it, we shared them and had a Latte as you can see, I also had a chilled water.

So many to choose from as you can see!

Union Square is getting ready for winter, they are getting the ice rink ready, we went a few years back with the GSs when we came over for Christmas, I didn’t venture on the ice but DIL did with our GSs, I haven’t been skating since I was about 18 so decided not to show my skating skills of mainly clinging to the side walls, LOL

Our son and DIL took us out last Friday night, because we were still looking after Chloe the dog who can’t be left apparently we had to eat outside, in summer it would make a lovely place to eat but on a foggy evening, well it was quite cold, the meal was lovely when it finally arrived, our DIL ordered a mixed starter to share but our fish and fries arrived before the starters, they bought out three drinks and it was halfway through the meal before they came out with our DILs wine! The good thing was that the fish and fries were delicious but they seriously need to sort themselves out!

We are off on a road trip tomorrow with our son, we are driving to Las Vegas, he has taken a few days off work to go with us, we are only going for few days but he has booked a meal at a famous steakhouse so hopefully I will have some photos next week. We have been before but we are staying at the Venetian Hotel this time so I’m quite excited!

T is for Tuesday

How come it’s Tuesday again already! Time to join the T party with Elizabeth, Bleubeard and friends around the world. How time flies, when your having fun, as they say.

I totally forgot to show my crafty items from last week, three designer paper pads, one with cameras, one seaside and the other just random colours. The circle die makes torn edges and the other is to make journal pages, I usually buy smash books to use for scrap booking so I thought , hopefully, this will save money by making my own, unfortunately I can’t try it until I get home early December!

A big thanks to all who came over for a visit last week and left kind comments, I’m still not having any luck commenting on some from my iPad although I think I have since found how to get past that so hopefully next week I will be able to comment on more of your Blogs.

Our son looks after his boss’s dog Chloe when she has to travel with work, chloe had to stay over for the night as his boss had a very late meeting , he collected her from Doggy daycare! Yes you read that right, she spends four days a week there, it costs more than our son used to pay for our GS! when he looked in her bag for her food He found this Outfit! Does anyone in England dress their dogs up? Our son and DIL used to dress their dogs up, we always said the dogs were relieved when the boys came along to be dressed up instead, LOL

It was also my birthday on Halloween , we spent the morning with our GS at the pumpkin farm on his school trip, we had a family tea, hot dogs, pumpkin bread and Halloween goodies before going trick n treating. Totally forgot to take any photos in the excitement of opening my Birthday pressies. It’s amazing here, most of the houses are decorated and it takes a couple of hours just walking around the neighbourhood.

I wasn’t going to dress up, usually I have to go as a witch seeing as it’s my Birthday and the GSs are convinced I have special powers but our DIL came home with two tiger coats so we both wore them, I must admit they were very cosy!

This is the Halloween card I made for our GSs

I was very spoilt on my Birthday with lots of lovely pressies, one gift was a photo of Steve and myself when I was about seventeen! I really don’t know how our son got hold of the photo as I thought I had the only copy and I haven’t seen it for years! The GSs ouldnt believe it was Nan and Grandad! Our eldest son said we looked like Bonnie and Clyde!! Since I forgot to take a drink photo from Halloween, this was my Cocktail from the night before when we went for a Thai curry, very colourful but a tad too sweet for my taste!

Sorry for the long post, I will say bye for now and wish you all a Happy T Day Jan x

T is for Treat

The weather has been exceptionally hot here in San Francisco, it starts off foggy and but by 10am the fog has lifted and it baking, I’m not complaining as we had quite a few days of rain while we were in the UK.

At least we’ve been able to enjoy getting out and about. Last Friday was our eldest GSs birthday, 11 years, he’s nearly as tall as I am although our sons say that’s not hard as I’m only 5ft 4, ha,ha he takes much bigger size shoes too!

When our son was a teenager he wore size 11UK, very large, he would buy flashy designer trainers, (sneakers )when he got tired of them would pass them on to my dad who also took the same size, we had the only senior walking around with flashing lights in his heels, looked very funny but Dad loved them!

Last Thursday we went on the Muni to San Francisco, we love it, for $1.50 each it’s good value, we love people watching, we leave the car at SF zoo and go into Market & Powell, we were going to Macy’s sale to buy our eldest son some Levi jeans, on the way we nipped into to Ross, found three pairs for $75 instead of paying $59 each! A bargain, managed to buy pumpkin bread mix from Traders Joes as eldest GS loves it..

After our shopping trip We drove down the coast to Half Moon bay intending to go for fish and chips at Barbara’s fish trap but when we saw the queues we turned back at ended up at Nicks at Rockaway Beach

The food was delicious and I had a glass of wine from Napa, Steve had sin alcohol beer, you can see they have amazing views, lots of artwork, Steve says some people on the pictures from the 50’s were probably still sat eating in the restaurant , I must admit it is a big favourite with Seniors LOL

Finally the latest photo from “Buck House” from my son, you can just see one guardsman on the bottom left on the second photo, in red, they were changing the guards at the time but unfortunately due to the barriers he couldn’t get close enough

Sadly for many people in CA they have once again lost their homes in the awful fires again, we’ve had no power since Saturday night,no school so we went to the cinema, it only came on at 4pm today, the GSs ran out of iPad juice so we had glow sticks and played statues, Jedi knights and then we played hide and seek, youngest had a flash light on a head band so we could see him moving about upstairs, quite funny that he hid under the duvet and I could see the light! Have a happy T Day, I’m happy my Joanns order arrived today Jan x

T is for Jetlagged

Firstly I’d like to thank you all for the lovely welcome back, it was lovely to join in again and read all the goings on around the world, thanks for your visits and kind comments, I think I managed to visit everyone but if I didn’t comment on your blog I apologise as there were a few that wouldn’t let me post my comment.

we have arrived in San Francisco, a long journey but so lovely to see the DGSs again, they did spend a month with us in Spain in July which was a really special time as we had all three DGSs altogether.

My son who works in London sent this photo, on his way to work he watched the Queen go past on her way to the State opening of Parliament, I must admit I’ve never seen this, a very splendid display of the royal carriage.

We had a ride over to our favourite breakfast place, The Copenhagen Cafe in Burlingame, we love it, usually we just have coffee and a Danish Pastry and watch the world go by but last week we treated ourselves to my favourite BLT, we only have one between us but you also get fresh fruit, we also had a coffee too, We were extra naughty and had a lemon curd Danish pastry, Between us, our favourite.

I must admit I haven’t tried anything else on the menu as we usually only have breakfast but it’s very popular and the food looks delicious, they also have a bakery next door, I can vouch for the Pastries!!

The view from outside isn’t very good, too many parked cars but they have seating outside.

The waitress actually took the photo for me of the Halloween decorations,

It’s taken me a week to get back into my blog, google blocked me out as I am signing in from a different location, good for security but frustrating when you can’t sign in! Well have a good week and T day Jan x

T is for Travel

It’s been a while since I was able to join in T for Tuesday, at the moment we are looking after our youngest GS while his Mum is completing a course at the Uni to become a teacher but we are babysitting tonight so I thought I would get a post ready for Tuesday. On our travels over here to the UK we stayed in the north of Spain Overnight before catching the ferry, we saw this beautiful double rainbow, actually it’s the first I’ve ever seen.

while we were watching from our balcony I spotted a man on the seafront also looking, he was dressed in a long black raincoat and black umbrella, I know this sounds totally mad but he looked the double of the Tim Holtz stamp, if you know the one I mean, it was quite spooky, unfortunately he didn’t show up in the photo, I was quite disappointed as I would love to have shown it to you all.

My food for this week, as you know from previous posts we are lovers of Tostado con Tomate, tomatoes on toast, so before catching the ferry we drove to the local supermarket to buy food for the journey, wine, Beer, Chorizo and olive oil to take for our son and DIL, oh and gherkins for our GS, he loves them! Inside the Mall they had various cafes so we decided to have breakfast , steve ordered it and we had a shock when it arrived as we had six pieces of the toast and three bowls of tomatoes, all for €4, you see the Spanish very often serve coffee in glasses! They do burn your fingers so I prefer a cup.

I’m actually posting this from my iPad and it seems to have a mind of its own and won’t put spaces where I want them so excuse the odd layout of everything, it’s the first time I’ve done it this way! Seems hard work trying to figure it out but until I go home it’s the only way I can join you all, hopefully I will get better, LOL

I look forward to visiting you all, hopefully I will get some free time to comment, it’s quite hectic with a 3 year old around, it takes me half an hour to recover after the walk to daycare, he goes on his scooter and going to daycare it’s downhill so he goes quite fast with me running behind, then I have to walk back carrying the scooter, coming home I have to pull him up the hill as he always says he too tired! He’s learning fast! Have a great week Jan x