Culinary delights of home and other west coast events

9 months is a long time, though can go by very quickly.  9 months is equivalent to the length of time it takes to complete a cricket match, watch a soccer game, gestate, and also the length of time it had been since I had been in the US.  Needless to say after 9 months (and let's call it 6 months for Cleaver) we were very excited to go "almost" home to LA and Arizona for a 5 day visit to the US.

Both a wedding and a 90th birthday party were reason enough to make the 12 hour flight from Zurich to LAX and enjoy a few days on terra ferma familiar.  Arriving in LA on Thursday afternoon, picked up by Cleaver's sister Julie and our two little nieces we were very quickly reminded why LA is maybe not our favorite place.  It's the traffic.  Lots of traffic. As we slowly made our way toward Thousand Oaks, on the way we did manage to hit the first of several required food stops over the course of our week - Chipotle.  Burritos have not exactly made their way to Zurich, save for this futile effort at a chicken burrito I tried one time.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good.  And it was a flat square.

A Zurich Burrito, with Bread for some reason?

Anyway, finally made it to the house and before too long we called it a night.

Up early the next day and hit up the next food requirement - Peet's coffee.  You can get Starbucks in Zurich, starting at about $6, and plenty of tiny espresso cups of coffee, but nothing quite like a medium drip from Peet's.  Thoroughly enjoyed that.  Killed the rest of the morning by playing some Barbies, yup I did, and packed up the car to hit some more traffic on our way to the Inland Empire for Friday night's festivities and the wedding on Saturday.  Before hitting said traffic was of course lunch at Togo's.  The good deli sandwich is dearly missed in Zurich and nothing sounded better for lunch than Togo's.  Delicious.  http://www.togos.com/

100 miles and a sweet 3+ hours later 'cause of traffic, we arrive in Beaumont, CA where the usual Horzen fueled accordion playing, beer drinking, singing, laughing, and more kids than can be counted were all in full force.  Always a good time.  Getting married on Saturday would be Cleaver's cousin Joe and his bride to be Janelle, both of course in attendance Friday night.  This raucous atmosphere went on into the night and ended across the street at a local watering hole called the Sand Trap.  The Sand Trap would also play host for the nightcap after the wedding on Saturday and was actually a pretty decent place.

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Horzen

Saturday was lazy, sitting by the hotel pool, lunch, and my first date shake.  While nothing like a Shake Weight which is hilarious, (check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHUdvvHTkw ) the date shake is a milk shake flavored with dates served by one of those places that has been off the freeway for about a 100 years and this is what they are known for.  A little random, but pretty good though not sure I'm making the stop next time through Beaumont.  Saturday afternoon, 4:00 the wedding begins with a  lovely outdoor ceremony followed by a reception on the same grounds.  A very nice wedding in a very nice setting and congratulations again to Joe and Janelle!

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!

Up Sunday morning and off to Arizona to spend two nights with my Grandma for her 90th birthday.  Along the way of course we had to hit the next food stop which was In-n-Out burger, don't really need to say much more than that.  Delicious.  Got to Arizona for a nice evening chatting and some real Mexican food.  Can't get that in Zurich, we've tried.  Bummed around a bit the next day before celebrating the birthday with a nice steak dinner, dessert and good company.

Before we know it, back to the airport and off we go home to Zurich.  Temperature when we left Phoenix = 103.  Temperature when we arrived in Zurich = 43.  It's a long trip I guess.  Good to be home, got some rest and back to work.  Busy week ahead for us both but do have a little getaway weekend coming up to the Italian Rivera!

Shopping in Florence

It was probably two months ago when I was at brunch with a few girls from work when one of them started talking about a recent trip she made to Florence and the Prada outlet located just outside of Florence.  It was then and there that us girls decided we also needed to do a shopping weekend in Florence, and that weekend turned out to be this last one.  There were five of us girls and we had only one goal for the weekend....shopping!  While of course also enjoying some yummy Italian food and wine.  We arrived Friday evening and stayed in a cute little apartment in the middle of the city.  Saturday morning we were up bright and early to make sure we got to the Prada outlet right when it opened at 9:30.  The Prada outlet is about an hour by train from Florence and then just a short cab ride from the train station.  

There are no signs for Prada along the way....it is merely called Space and is basically a giant warehouse.  But when you step inside, it's not like a warehouse at all. It’s like stepping into a regular Prada store, just larger.  There’s a men’s section, and then sections for handbags, sunglasses, women’s shoes and of course women’s clothes.  We beelined it for the handbag section and then slowly covered everything else.  Everyone was quite successful, perhaps too successful.  I treated myself to a pair of shoes and sunglasses while the other girls were much more successful with the handbags.  All in all, a good start to the day and it was only 11:30.

We headed back to Florence, had a lovely lunch and then shopped the rest of the day in Florence.  There are tons of shops all around town so there is plenty to choose from.  We tried to hit up as much as we could with the different stores and then headed to a local outdoor market to check out some of the leather goods.  Again, we managed to all be quite successful during the afternoon as well.  Oh and to top it all off, the weather was absolutely amazing.  It was in the mid-80’s and sunny.....it felt like a summer day.  

By 6pm we were all pooped and headed back to the apartment to rest for a bit before dinner.  We had another delicious Italian meal before calling it a night.  The next day our flight wasn’t until 7:20pm so we had more time to, you guessed it, shop!  We weren’t quite as aggressive as the previous day but still managed to walk around and shop for a few hours while also enjoying one last dish of pasta.  

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.  You never know what to expect when you travel with girls you’ve never traveled with before and who all want to shop.  But we all got along fabulously and ended up being great shopping partners for each other.  I got home, showed Nate my purchases and told him about our weekend and he was all too happy to have been at home watching the Giants and enjoying the beautiful weather sitting by the lake.  I guess it was a win-win for both of us.