While in San Francisco, we had the opportunity to tour the awesome California Academy of Sciences. I would highly recommend seeing this attraction, especially for those traveling with children. Before touring through the museum we decided to have lunch at the in-house Academy Café.

The Academy Cafe is a modern, casual, kid-friendly restaurant inside the California Academy of Sciences, with an emphasis on quick service. The café serves a wide variety of multi-cultural cuisine, made fresh, with healthy, seasonal and organic ingredients.

Chicken Sandwich

I had a delicious chicken sandwich with a pesto sauce on a baguette ($10). This was served with a salad on the side and a couple of vegetable spears as well. A very healthy meal that actually tasted good too.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

My wife went with the chicken and sausage gumbo ($8.50). This was a very nice sized serving of gumbo, which was packed full of meat and vegetables. There was also a good amount of heat to it. It wasn’t the best gumbo I’ve ever had, but certainly not the worst.

I was surprised and happy to find bottled beer available for purchase, including a couple of local craft brews. That helped make the lunch even better in my opinion. For anyone already heading to the California Academy of Sciences, do not hesitate to stop in for a quick, healthy, and delicious lunch.

Yesterday I was informed that I had won a weekend ticket for this weekend’s MidPoint Music Festival thanks to 4EG and the Righteous Room. This will be my first time attending the eleventh annual festival. I thought about going last year, but couldn’t convince myself to fork out the money to do so. The lineup is a little more indie than what I traditionally listen to. However, now that I’m digging a little deeper into this years lineup, I’m finding quite a few acts that I’m excited about. The music kicks off this evening, but I won’t be attending until tomorrow as I have a prior commitment with my hockey team. Feel free to send any band suggestions my way for Friday or Saturday.

On our first day in San Francisco on our recent family trip, we decided to find somewhere to have dinner in the North Beach neighborhood. For those not familiar, this area is home to San Fran’s “Little Italy.” Being that it was a Monday evening, as well as Labor Day, our options were a little limited. After wandering Columbus Avenue for a bit we eventually settled on Trattoria Volare Caffe.

Bread And Olives

The host was outside the restaurant encouraging passerby’s to take a look at their menu. He was delighted when we agreed to come in for dinner. After he showed us to our table it took a little time for our server to get around to us. In the meantime, water as well as some bread and olives was delivered to the table. Eventually when our server found us, we had already decided on what we were going to have for dinner.

Gnocchi Al Pesto

I ordered the Gnocchi Al Pesto - Volare’s own homemade potato dumplings in a basil pesto sauce ($13.90). The gnocchi itself was very fresh and cooked perfectly. The sauce was quite tasty and the addition of pine nuts helped add a little crunch. The dish is fairly heavy and eating more than half of it would have been a bad idea. Fortunately my wife and I agreed to share plates.

Penne All’arrabiata

She ordered the Penne All’arrabiata, which is simply penne in a spicy tomato sauce ($12.90). As simple as the dish looks, the flavor was good. There is definitely a fair amount of spice to the sauce. Each dish was optionally topped with powdered Parmesan cheese, which was fine but I much prefer it fresh shredded on top.

The food from Trattoria Volare Caffe was overall very good. If the service were to improve I feel they could grow to become a top rated restaurant in the area.

For our second breakfast in Palo Alto, we took the advice of our friends from the area and headed to University Cafe. The restaurant is conveniently located on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto. The inside of the dining area is huge compared to other coffee shops of cafes. In addition to a variety of hot beverages a lengthy breakfast menu is offered and orders can be placed at the counter in the back of the room.

Inside University Cafe

One glance at the menu and I knew what I was ordering, the brioche French toast ($9). This comes served with a fruit salad. I would have preferred another slice of the french toast and a smaller serving of fruit, as the french toast was obviously the stand out item on my plate. It was delicious!

Brioche French Toast

My wife ordered the veggie omelet with zucchini, spinach, mushrooms, tomato, onion, garlic, cheese, crème fraîche ($9). This was served with home fries and toast. I didn’t have any of her omelet, but from what I remember she really seemed to like it. The home fries however were not very good, much too hard to easily eat.

Veggie Omelet

Our food was prepared quickly and delivered to our selected table. Without having a dedicated server, it is hard to comment much on the service provided by the staff, but every interaction we had with them was pleasant. Overall this is a good spot for a relatively cheap breakfast.

This past Saturday was the second annual running of the Hudepohl 14K Brewery Run, well the second of this reincarnation of the old race. You may recall that I ran this race last year and was happy when my dad said that he was doing it again this year. Not that I needed an excuse to run this very fun race, but it’s always nice to have someone to run with.

Before the Race

With the opening of the Moerlein Lager House on the riverfront this year, the start and finish of the race was moved nearby. We still ran through Over-the-Rhine, the sight of last years start/finish, on a very similar course through numerous old Cincinnati brewing locations. However, the new location provided a much better spot for the after party.

And They’re Off

My dad and I did not run as fast as we did last year, around 8 min/mile pace, but we were still far under our 8:30 min/mile goal. The official race results have us at an 8:18 pace, but my dad’s Garmin watch had it closer to 8:07. Either way we were very happy with our performance.

Out on the Course

Once we crossed the finish line we were given our medals, which are even cooler than last year’s. This time around they included a bottle opener as part of the medal design. We were also given a souvenir pint glass, as well as a couple of beers and a variety of food. Just as last year, the lines were long but at least we were outside this time around. Plus the Uberdrome tent that was setup for Oktoberfest weekend was in use for large seating areas and musical entertainment. Overall the race was much improved verses an already successful first year. I can’t wait to run it again next  year.

I’ve been rocking the iPhone 3GS for well over 3 years. I passed on the iPhone 4 and then the 4S, but once the iPhone 5 was announced I knew I had to have it.

iPhone 5 Packaging

Many have said that it isn’t much different from the now discounted 4S (and free with contract iPhone 4). The feature I had to have was the larger screen. I feel that with the increased space there are things that the older hardware won’t be able to do. It also can’t hurt to have a faster 4G network (though not in Cincinnati on AT&T yet) as well as the updated A6 chip.

Open Box First Look

Another common argument against the phone is the new Lightning power/syncing cord. While it is true that I will likely need to purchase another one or two of these new cables, I will not have to buy the adapter they are selling for the older style docking devices. I’ve never owned any of these devices, so one less thing to worry about.

In Box Accessories

An added bonus to the deal are the new headphones. While I do own a pair of noise canceling earbuds that offer premium sound, the changes Apple has made to their included earbuds sound quite nice. Plus they included a carrying case, which I feel should always be true.

3GS vs 5

So long 3GS, it was fun while it lasted. I’m not getting rid of the old phone, as I can still keep it around and use it on Wi-Fi networks, just like an iPod touch. I figure I’ll get the most use out of it as an easy way to play my entire iTunes library throughout the house.

We have slowly been adding more decor to our home over the last year. I wanted a way to display some of my photography and was sold on the idea of getting one of those canvas prints created. The problem was that I wanted to get something at least three feet wide, and I just wasn’t finding many options for that.

Enter Fabness and a recent LivingSocial deal. For $69 I was able to get three 12×18 canvas prints. And with their simple to use website, you can easily have one photo span all three canvases. Essentially that created one three-foot wide and 18 inch tall print.

New Wall Art

The LivingSocial deal did not include shipping, which was another $20. However I think it is still a deal for under $100 and the results look great! Normal price from Fabness would be $315 before shipping, though they do seem to run sales very regularly.

Closeup

Original Photo

They have many other options available. So I may have to use them again for another print in the future.

On our second day of our recent vacation in Palo Alto we found an interesting place for lunch. Tava Indian Kitchen is the Chipotle of Indian restaurants. While there are an ever-growing list of counter order assembly line style restaurants, this was almost exactly like Chipotle, down to even the three main ordering types: Burroti (their version of a burrito using a whole wheat flat-bread), rice bowl (with Basmati rice), or salad bowl (on Romaine lettuce).

Protein and Sauce Station

Once your selection is made, you move on to the protein choices. In this case either chicken, lamb, or paneer (Indian farmer’s cheese made in-house and tossed with garbanzos). From there you can pick between a tikka sauce (smooth tomato) or daal (hearty lentil).

Chutney and Topping Station

Once you have your protein and sauce it is time to select a chutney whether it be mild (yogurt sauce with cucumbers), medium (cilantro and lime), or  hot (tongue-tingling mint). You can then add lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and chilies.

Burroti

I went with a Burroti stuffed with chicken, tikka sauce, hot chutney, and most of the toppings ($6.99). I wouldn’t say that it was stuffed quite a full as my normal Chipotle burrito, but the serving size was plenty adequate. The flavor combination was overall good. The Burroti wrap doesn’t hold up as well as a tortilla normally does, which made it a little messy toward the end.

Rice Bowl

My wife went with the rice bowl served with chicken, half of each sauce (tikka and daal), with mild chutney and most of the toppings ($6.99). The idea was that our toddler aged son could eat some too. I had a bite of the daal sauce, and was glad that I went with the more flavorful tikka on my dish. With that said, the rice dish was probably the better way to go as it was much cleaner and easier.

Naan Chips and Dip

We also had a side order of the garlic naan chips with the medium chutney ($2.49). I’ve had naan chips like this before served as an appetizer in other Indian restaurants. I don’t really care for the mostly bland chips, and feel that an in-house recipe would be a lot better. Definitely skip these until improvements are made.

My one big regret is not trying the paneer. I would definitely give that a try the next time. Overall the concept of this restaurant is pretty creative, but I think it needs a little more polishing to really shine. With that said, it is still a great spot for lunch. However the space is very small, so perhaps it is best when taken to go and eaten at home.

After our walking tour of parts of San Francisco on our first day there, we rented bikes for our second day. We started off on the bikes around 9am in the Civic Center area and headed west through the Haight and toward Gold Gate Park. Before getting to the park we made a quick detour to Alamo Square Park to see the famed “Painted Ladies.” We then biked through most of Golden Gate Park before stopping in for a visit to the California Academy of Sciences. After spending a couple of great hours at the museum, we headed north toward the Golden Gate Bridge, crossed over it and then continued north to Sausalito for dinner. From there we loaded the bikes on the ferry and arrived back in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, where we rode the bikes back down to the Civic Center following the bay along the way. We put in over 20 miles on the bikes and spent the majority of the day out exploring San Francisco. I wouldn’t have done it any other way.

Before leaving town the following day we found time to stop at the Cable Car Museum for a quick visit. It was really cool to see how the cable cars that we had ridden all weekend were operated and what powered them. This free museum is well worth a quick stop.

Sausalito on Dwellable

Late last week a friend of mine invited me to yesterdays Bengals game versus the Cleveland Browns. He received four tickets and a parking pass through his work and offered one of the seats to me for free. Having not been to the stadium for a game in a few years the decision was easy and I immediately decided to attend.

Since I had a hockey game later in the evening, I offered to drive our group to the game. We arrived before 10 in the assigned parking lot for a little tailgate action. Unfortunately we didn’t have a plan for any food, and everyone forgot chairs, so our tailgate basically amounted to hanging around the open liftgate, snacking on chips, and having a few beers.

Coin Toss

In order to reach our seats in the 300 level we had to climb at least a dozen or so switchback ramps to the top-level concourse. The east side of the stadium has an escalator, but the west does not. Even with the lengthy climb we were still able to see the opening kickoff from our near 50 yard line seats. We had a great view of the field and the weather outside couldn’t have been more perfect for the game.

Beautiful Day

The Bengals jumped out to a quick lead when Pacman Jones returned a Cleveland punt 81 yards for the score. The stadium was officially sold out, but by my estimate at least a quarter of those in attendance were there supporting the Browns. This became evident by the loud cheers a Browns touchdown received throughout the stadium. But even with the less than 100% backing, the Bengals managed to add another touchdown in the second quarter as well as a field goal, the same scores that Cleveland had. The score was 17-10 at half time with the Bengals leading.

View From Row 1

During halftime I met up with another friend who was at the game, sneaking down to the lower level for the halftime show provided by the Ohio University marching band. Once the seats again began to fill with their owners, I started the long trek back up to my own seat. I stopped at a concession stand hoping to buy a slice of pizza. However all I could find were chicken fingers, popcorn, hamburgers, and hot dogs. I settled on the chicken fingers, realizing that the food offerings at Paul Brown Stadium leave a lot to be desired.

Back to the football game at hand, the third and fourth quarters were filled with back and forth touchdowns for the teams. It seemed that none of the scores were from inside the red zone, and were instead the result of long pass or run plays. It made for an exciting game, that’s for sure. We stayed all the way to the end of the game, as it never quite seemed that the Bengals had it completely wrapped up. The Browns had it down to a 7 point game, and even tried for the onside kick, but the Bengals recovered and went on to win the game 34-27. Who Dey!