Gone on the weekends

The last couple of weekends Daniel and I have been on the go.

One weekend we flew to Michigan to meet up with several families Daniel knew and grew close to in Okinawa. Over the last few years of our marriage I have been able to meet all these dear people. I am thankful everyone wants to remain close and in touch. They are a great group.

We met up at a particular Marines house on a lake. It was a perfect set up. Plenty of beds and air mattresses for everyone.

One particular family had several children and I was reminded of how dear Daniel is with kids. We had not seen this family since 2006, but all of them took to Daniel like he was family. I know they were like this in Okinawa as well. There are pictures with the kids hanging all over him. He has fond memories of the family then, but kids change over the years. You never know how they will be next time you see them. Daniel was still memorable to them. They were a wonderful family to spend time with as well as all the others. (I am refraining from names because I didn't get to ask if they wanted to be on the blog.)

No more flying for me until after baby, unless absolutely necessary. Flying isn't fun when you are not pregnant, but even less when your feet look like they belong to an elephant and the seat belts have to be on the largest size. Ha!

This last weekend we drove about an hour north to Gilroy and its annual Garlic Festival. We took a new friend, Krista, whom I met at the Carmel 4th of July beach bash, and had a great day of it.

You never know what you are going to get with festivals. This one was really worthwhile. I mean from the yummy food, great musicians, guest chefs having cooking shows through-out the day, to the clean port-a-johns, this lady was happy to be there. Oh yeah, not to mention all the free samples. I love garlic! Gilroy is know for their garlic fields and you can pretty much smell the town itself. Mmmm, Yum.

This is us after eating lunch. We couldn't decide what type of food to get so we got three different kinds and shared. Garlic calamari, garlic stir-fry veggies and garlic pesto pasta. So yum. We smelled rank!
Glad Krista is of the sharing type. :)

Note the giant flaming garlic behind us.

Here they are sauteing tons of garlic. Literally tons. They advertised how much they go through in the weekend and it was something like 2 tons of garlic. You bet it smelled there.

My favorite:

They were dipping these rosemary "brooms" into a garlic and white wine mixture and patting the steak with the brooms. Makes me wish I went back for the steak sandwiches.

We did have to share a couple garlic fries that afternoon.

All-in-all I want to go back next year, despite smelling garlic on my breath for two days after we got home. So if anyone is here visiting the last full weekend in July, you know where we are headed.