Text 5200, 95 rader
Skriven 2006-09-05 09:38:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 200
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Carol had text-messaged me - said her flight out of Denver
was a little delayed (not a big deal, she was supposed to show
about 20 min ahead of me). I went to the souvie shop and
picked up some blue corn popcorn with a kokopelli on the
label and got to the gate right at boarding, which was
less orderly than it might have been. Started with preboard
and zone 1; the people directly in front looked pretty
able-bodied and were zone infinity or so. The ticket taker
announced the status of each boarder: first class; silver
preferred; first class, gold; and so on. With the folks in
front, he looked at their passes and let them on, saying
nothing. After which came the announcement: "This is a
preboarding only, please wait until your zone is called."

US8042/HP285 PHX SJC 1928 2122 320 3B

There are only 3 rows of first on the America West 320s,
but still you get no more room than on the US Air ones,
which have 4 rows. I found the seats kind of uncomfortable.

As for the service, the spirit was willing, but the
execution was weak. 

A limited drink list, no Courvoisier - so I had a Heineken.
Biscoffs, chips, and honey sesame sticks on a tray
constituted the snack offering.

We gained about 15 minutes.

Turns out her flight came in pretty much on time and mine
was early, so we arrived within 10 minutes of each other -
couldn't have done better if we'd choreographed it.

Annoyingly, the line at Hertz took about an hour and half to
clear, and we didn't get to the hotel until after 11:30. The
really weird Microsoft Streets directions didn't help - at
one point, following them verbatim, we found ourselves right
in front of the guardhouse at Moffett Field - turns out
there have been a few road realignments in the apparent
decade since the Microsoft 2005 database was compiled.

Checked in without a hitch at Dinah's Garden Hotel; our room
was 100 feet from the Poolside Restaurant and 200 feet from
Trader Vic's - perfect. It was also ample of size, well
appointed with somewhat out-of-date appointments, and had a
quite nice balcony overlooking the pool. The only defects
were that it was a little musty-smelling and had only one
robe for two guests. Bed felt really good.

We got up at 7 (10 our time) and decided to check out
Poolside for brekkers. I had hash and eggs - pretty abundant
but made from extremely lean corned beef round; Carol bacon,
tomato, and cheese omelet was quite nice. After the exertion
of downing these piles of food, we had a nap, after which it
was time for lunch. My first choice was Palo Alto Sol, which
is pretty well regarded, with Cafe Brioche as an alternate.
Sol is closed for Saturday lunch! so we went across the way
to Cafe Brioche, which not only was packed with a line, but
every plate I saw was crammed with green things. We walked
on. Illusions was closed. A Szechwan place looked seedy and
furthermore had a distinctly un-Szechwan menu. Ended up at
Nora's, whose menu looked kind of promising. The service
was pretty friendly, the outside tables charming (inside, it
seemed a bit stuffy). In a fit of silliness, Carol ordered
a bacon, tomato, and cheese crepe - it was good enough,
but (as she admitted) tasted kind of like breakfast. In
another fit of silliness, I ordered steak (perhaps steack)
tartare - of course at a modest place such as this, you
don't expect the freshest filet, the heart only, scraped
with the back of a knife into tender little crumbs, tossed
with capers, onions, parsley, oil, and perhaps Worcester
sauce. What I got was pretty fresh pretty good although a
tad gristly fatty ground chuck, with do-it-yourself piles of
onions, capers, and dried parsley, with Lea and Perrins and
Tabasco on the side. The very fresh egg yolk helped quite
a bit. It was okay, but I had a hard time getting down the
whole 12-oz serving. A slightly acidy 2003 Cotes du Rhone
whose fruit had started to age off actually went well.

Oh, yes, the bread was quite good; the butter, Darigold
unsalted, what United has been serving and sort of okay.

The purpose of our coming was for my cousin's wedding -
it was a gorgeous day for it, and the Memorial Chapel in
Palo Alto is a lovely venue (I'm told assembly-line
weddings in the summer). Got together with about 99 others,
including cousins I haven't seen in 25 or 30 years. There
would have been more perhaps except that some relatives
couldn't get back here from Asia, as they had a funeral
to attend in Hong Kong, and all flights back to the US
were sold out. Weddings make some people cry. Nobody
cried when this particularly agreeable and attractive
couple got hitched.
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