That is what a Hamburger is all about!

Since we will be in California is just over 2 weeks I thought it was appropriate to think about the wonderful culinary delights that await us there. One that popped into my mind (stomach?) was In-n-out Burger. Now most people who go there on a regular basis know about the unwritten menu items that you can order (animal style fries anyone?). I found today that they actually publish a "Secret Menu" on their website. Check it out here. It is interesting to note that there seems to be no limit to the number of patties that you can add to your hamburger. The secret menu goes up to 4x4, but the picture to the side would suggest differently. This is a 100x100 burger. That's right, 100 patties and 100 pieces of cheese. I think I am going to stick to my normal cheese-burger, animal style, extra lettuce, extra tomato with a thick creamy chocolate shake.

Year of the Boar

Ster made some delicious sweet and sour pork to celebrate the Chinese New Year. In addition to this we had egg rolls and homemade fortune cookies. We took time to write fortunes for the other person which was pretty funny. It was a nice way to roll in the year of the boar.

Elephant Seals and Yogurt at Bali's

We went up to Piedras Blancas and watched the elephant seals. There were many males that were sparring and trying to get the females attention. That night we all went to get frozen yogurt at our favorite place in SLO - Bali's.

It's good (and cold!) to be in DC!

Last weekend, Helen, Dan and Jeannie joined Erin for a few days to explore Erin's new surroundings. The weather was sunny, windy, but cold. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at one of our family's favorite restaurants in Annapolis - Cantler's Riverside Inn. Steaming bowls of clam chowder really hit the spot on that chilly evening. Annapolis is a very quaint, picturesque town. The Naval Historical Museum, where Erin has her internship, has many interesting, hands-on exhibits. It seems like we only saw a small portion of the museum, so it will be nice to see more when we are there in March. The museum is free and even has a destroyer in dry dock that you can visit and walk through. We spent Sunday in Baltimore and thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Fort McHenry. It was a bit of a challenge to find the national monument, but very worthwhile learning how our national anthem came to be written after the Battle of Baltimore. It was good to be in DC and the surrounding area!

Trip to Hearst Castle

This past weekend, Evan and I met Lisa and Allen up at the beach house in Morro Bay. We decided to visit Hearst Castle. The Neptune pool was drained (first time since 1995) due to repairs. The pool was losing close to 5000 gallons of water a day due to cracks in the concrete under the tiles. Coincidentally the guide that gave us our tour of the castle was a high school friend of Dan Crump.