randalevan's blog

My trip to Boston

I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Boston to connect with some old friends. My journey began with Don & Nancy - great people and wonderful pastors of the Vineyard Church in Kingston. The weather was great my first day in New England. We went out for lunch at the Blue Eyed Crab Grill and Raw Bar in Plymouth and we all ordered the same thing...a crab cake sandwich with some kind of sauce that included jalapeños:
On the way to the restaurant, I saw this great warning label above the storm drain...
I bet you have never seen one of these in California before!

Morro Bay Triathlon - June 5th, 2011

Well, I did it! I completed my first triathlon. What a journey it has been to reach June 5th...and I am SO glad I did it! Here are some photos that I would like to share with you, together with a little story line.

Hawaiian Vacation 2010

Well, I finally posted some photos (three albums) from our Hawaiian Vacation, which took place in August. The trip was a gift from my Mom & Step-Dad to help us celebrate Jacquie's 50th Birthday...and what a celebration it was!
You can also check-out our "mochi" experience by going to my post on August 10th.
We had the time of our lives and are so grateful to have been able to enjoy such an incredible vacation.

things my hannah reminded me of

One of the privileges of being a parent is having your kids either teach you new things or remind you of things you have taught them. This happened to me at least three times yesterday during our visit to Hilo. Our daughter, Hannah, reminded me of the importance of living in the moment, of helping others when it is within our power to do so, and, to ask when you want something. I'd like to elaborate a bit more on this last lesson.

A friend from church, Eric Wong, grew-up in Hilo. So, when he heard that we would be traveling to the Big Island, he recommended we go to Two Ladies Kitchen. (*You can Yelp it for more info, but it is located at 274 Kilauea Avenue.)

So after lunch at Cafe Pesto,
which, by the way, we all strongly recommend...

we walked past the local farmer's market and purchased some papayas (7 for a dollar!).

Then we walked a bit further, arriving at the little store front kitchen, located in downtown Hilo, on Kilauea Avenue. I have to tell you, if people judged the quality of the confectionery delights produced inside the kitchen from the outward appearance of the shop, Two Ladies Kitchen would have gone out of business long ago. (*Perhaps another lesson here: we simply don't know what is inside - either a shop or a person - merely by looking at the outside.) Two Ladies Kitchen's exterior is anything but impressive. (*I think you can see what I mean when you look at the photo above.)

As we went to open the screen-door of the shop, we saw a hand-written sign which read, "No more strawberry mochi." Well, that is the one they are most famous for! We were a bit bummed-out, but decided to order some of their other flavours.

On the inside, the shop is small but colorful with live orchids and strawberries hanging from the ceiling. (*One more reminder that the thing to order there was the thing they were already out of.)

making our way to manhattan - part 2

well, getting back to our trip from jfk...

once we arrived at our stop, we got off the subway and came up to the street...it was raining cats & dogs! thankfully we didn't have to walk too far. meredith, our daughter in law found us a great deal on a hotel - off soho suites (www.offsoho.com) - and saved us a couple hundred bucks, at least!

later that afternoon/evening, nathan and meredith took us out to a very cool "enoteca" in greenwich village called otto's. (*if you want to get a feel for it, go to: www.ottopizzeria.com.)

we had a great bottle of italian wine, together with a lot of fun dishes: three types of yummy olives, five different cheeses with some accoutrements (honey and spices, cherries, apricots...amazing!), and two pizzas (*i don't even remember...5 formatges i think was one of them...maybe the other one had cheese, spinach...) for dessert, we shared a "black & white" (MILK CHOCOLATE CHIP GELATO, HAZELNUT CROCCANTE, CRÈME FRAICHE GELATO, CHOCOLATE SAUCE, CARAMEL CREMA) and "panna cotta" (HUCKLEBERRY SAUCE, MEYER LEMON SORBETTO). oh, and of course...a cappuccino! a wonderful evening with two of our favorite people.

making our way to manhattan - part 1

Jacquie and I landed in New York yesterday after an uneventful flight...if you know my wife, you know how happy that makes me! If you're not familiar with NYC, once you land at JFK you're definitely not home yet! We walked to the Air Train, which you ride into the city in order to connect with the subway system. We then took two subways to reach our destination in Manhattan. This was both a wonderful experience and a not-so-wonderful experience. We sat next to some very proud grandparents, who I think were Russian, and their 20-month old grand daughter who feel in love with Jacquie immediately (*smart kid!) she smiled at us, sang a bit of a song, etc... Then we had a man start shouting at another man who boarded the train. This poor guy had an obvious substance abuse problem, was disheveled, and gave menacing stares to the people already seated on the train. It made both Jacquie and me nervous, wondering if he was going to pick on us. Thank God he didn't!