Our first American Thanksgiving

This year, for the first time since 2007, I celebrated Thanksgiving Stateside. Ironically, our first Thanksgiving in America was the first time we found ourselves not responsible for a turkey and more since Nicolas and I met back in 2014. Instead, we got to downgrade to a simple brie and fig brulée while we stayed out of the kitchen and let others handle the heavy lifting. Our new recipe, like anything coming from the hands of my Frenchman, was top notch. It even involved some fun with fire.

Brie and fig brulée on toast

Getting to sample someone else's Thanksgiving spread for a change was exciting and educational. Our favorite bit: learning about the Watergate Salad, a timely dish this year.

Before the food coma. Check out that Watergate Salad at the top, just to the left of the mashed potatoes.

While salad is a generous term-- it's made of marshmallows, whipped cream, pistachio pudding, and rum-soaked roasted pineapple-- the dish was surprisingly good! Certainly sounds like something to pair with my dad's selection of peach and mint ice cream come Christmas.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! A perfect one! Perfecto!

New city, old friends: our week in San Diego

We went to San Diego! And, par for the course, I took a bunch of photos. Being too swamped with work to do anything more, I'm embracing my blog's true purpose as a glorified photo album. Without further ado, here's our trip down to the bottom of the West Coast.

Balboa Park: an awesome pedestrian zone lined with gardens and museums through which we passed almost every day.

While in San Diego, Nicolas celebrated his very first Halloween!

Immersing himself more thoroughly in American culture by the day, Nicolas got his first taste of Dippin' Dots the following afternoon at the San Diego Zoo, which was overall as impressive as everyone told us to expect. Worth the visit.

The Japanese Friendship Garden: pretty things to fill an hour or two.

The Scripps Aquarium! While waiting to kick off Diana and Pete's wedding, we found Nemo and some frisky seahorses.

Diana and Pete got hitched!

We're on a boat! Specifically, the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. You could go into the depths of this ship and not emerge for weeks, losing all sense of a circadian rhythm. It was a pretty intense floating city. Fun fact: turns out planes used to land with their back wheels touching down first, before the front. Doesn't sounds like it would make for the smoothest landing.

We made a (valiant?) attempt to hike at Mission Trails Regional Park. I was not quite equipped for the sun/heat. At all.

I can't forget to mention how perfectly our trip was timed, coinciding neatly with San Diego's Beer Week. I may not have been up for the hiking but the drinking? Yes, please!