The night before the wedding we were in town for had a fair amount of drinking involved for myself. The wedding party had gathered at a downtown bar to watch college football and I joined in. When it was time for their rehearsal dinner, my wife and son met me for a semi-late dinner of our own at Pizza My Heart.

I had found this place before our trip as it was pretty well reviewed online. A couple of my out-of-town friends had tried it the night before and said it was worth checking out. Pizza My Heart is primarily a pizza by the slice kind of place, though full size pizzas can be ordered. A very large salad, slice of pizza, and a drink can be had for $7.75.

Big Sur & Cheese Slices (after my son got his share of the cheese)

The three of us (me, my wife, and year and half old son) split a slice of their Big Sur (cloves of roasted garlic, organic tomato pizza sauce, pepperoni, sausage, Portobello mushrooms and green onions) along with a slice of cheese and the seasonal green salad that is large enough for two. Oh yeah, they also serve a few varieties of beer on tap, which I was happy to sample.

The Big Sur has won first place awards at the West Coast Pizza Championships as well as the World Pizza Games. I had no idea either of those things existed, but still cool to try an award-winning pizza. Overall I enjoyed the slice. I’ve never really enjoyed Portobello mushrooms and these were no exception, a little too rubbery for me. The rest of the ingredients were solid and the garlic was plentiful.

The cheese pizza was actually really good. I think due to the nature of the pizza by slice concept the cheese was more fresh than the Big Sur. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the Big Sur even more had it been fresh. Was it the best I’ve ever had, absolutely not, but it is definitely better than your average late night pizza joint.

So after a few days in and around Palo Alto we took the train back north to San Francisco for a few more days of fun and exploring. On the first day we met up with Kim’s friend from college, Melissa, who has lived in San Francisco since graduating from college. She gave us a full day walking tour of the Fisherman’s Wharf and North Beach areas of town. My pictures of the day can be viewed below.

San Francisco on Dwellable

During our tour of Stanford University’s campus we stopped for lunch at Ike’s Place. Ike’s is a San Francisco Bay area sandwich shop. Our tour guide pointed out that the Stanford location is a very popular spot and it often has a line out the door when classes are in session. Fortunately for us classes were not in session, so there was no line to order. We were pleasantly greeted by one of the cashiers, who seemed more interested in having a conversation than taking our lunch order. According to their story, “When you come to Ike’s Place it is our goal to make you feel like the unique individual that you are.” That mission was definitely accomplished.

Spiffy Tiffy

After our conversation with the cashier along with a long look through the lengthy menu, I finally decided on the Spiffy Tiffy sandwich with halal chicken, mushrooms, avocado, pesto, provolone, and pepper jack ($6.96 for half, $9.99 for whole). In addition all sandwiches come served with Ike’s Dirty Secret Sauce, lettuce, and tomato. Mustard, jalapeno, red onions, pickles, and banana peppers are also available free of charge. You also have a choice of French, Dutch crunch, sourdough, wheat, or gluten-free. I went with sourdough.

The sandwiches are all served toasted and are stuffed full of ingredients. I decided to get the full sandwich, but normally half would have been plenty for lunch. The flavor was excellent and all ingredients were fresh. The addition of pesto to the sandwich added a nice flavor throughout and I liked the secret sauce. I also had a bite of my wife’s Menage A Trois sandwich which comes with halal chicken, real honey, honey mustard, BBQ, pepper jack, swiss, and cheddar. This is listed as one of the most popular sandwiches, and I can see why. The flavor combination was outstanding!

If I a student at Stanford Ike’s would definitely be on my weekly lunch rotation. I would absolutely visit again on a future visit to the area.

As I already mentioned, the primary reason for our trip to northern California was for the wedding of my friend Joe. Their ceremony and reception took place at the Thomas Fogarty Winery in Woodside, California. It was a lovely spot for a wedding and the weather was fantastic. The winery and vineyards sit high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, providing picture perfect views of the San Francisco Bay area. My photos from the evening can be viewed below.

I still have a lot more photos to post from our northern California trip, but I also wanted to start on one of the many restaurant reviews I also have planned. On our first morning in Palo Alto we quickly searched for a restaurant that we could walk to for breakfast. My wife found Hobee’s in the Town & Country Shopping Center just across El Camino Real from Stanford University. From the front of the restaurant it appears to be very small and most tables I could see were filled. In actuality all you can see from the front is a small room but there is a much larger room in the back, which is where we were seated.

Cal Browns

In one quick glance at the menu I knew exactly what I was getting. I don’t eat omelets or eggs, so I was immediately drawn to the section of special hashbrowns. There I found a listing of six different loaded hashbrown offerings. I went with the Cal Browns, which are topped with chicken apple sausage, mushrooms, tomato, green peppers, Tomato-Basil sauce, Parmesan, Jack and Cheddar cheese ($7.95). You can optionally have the special hashbrowns topped with an egg for an additional $1.50. The hashbrowns are “country-style” chunks and not shredded, but that actually works better with all the toppings that were served with it. I loved this dish and wish that more restaurants would offer something similar.

The Pruneyard Ommie

My wife went with the Pruneyard Ommie, which was stuffed with turkey bacon, mushrooms, spinach, red onion, Swiss cheese and topped with Sundried Tomato pesto ($9.75). Though I did not try a bite, I’m told it too was very good. All omelets are served with a choice of their world-famous blueberry coffeecake, toast, or hashbrowns. Wisely she chose the blueberry coffeecake, which was just as awesome as it sounds. It came served warm with a monstrous scoop of butter on top. Though many items at Hobee’s are geared towards a healthy crowd, this is not one of those items. However I would not recommend skipping it.

Blueberry Coffeecake

Our service was quick and friendly. The food was great. I would definitely not hesitate to visit again, or to try one of their seven other locations, if I were to travel back to the San Francisco Bay area again in the future.

Kim’s roommate throughout most of college, Amy, has a brother named Troy who attended Stanford University and now works on campus. Troy offered to give us a tour of the campus on our free day in Palo Alto. Since the campus is so large, 8,180 acres to be exact, he arranged for a tour via golf cart. The campus was very picturesque, as you can see below.

In case you’ve been wondering where we have been hiding, we have been bouncing around Northern California for the last week. We just got back to Cincinnati late last night, so I haven’t had much time to get through many photos yet. However here are a couple of photos from the wedding of my friend Joe and his wife Lindsey.

You may kiss the bride.

Family Shot at Thomas Fogarty Winery.

We met on the Internet.