I went to the woods... [Outdoors]

“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.”

-David Thoreau

Every year, my old college roommate and I get together for a little camping action. Last time I visited him in Texas. This year, it was my turn to put together a mini-expedition.

With the uncertainty behind the future of California State parks, I wanted to get my camping in. Through ReserveAmerica, I was able to reserve a slot at Butano State Park. It's only an hour north of Santa Cruz and the drive down the Cabrillo Highway is absolutely breathtaking. What's also great about the area is the number of must-see places.

Areas around include:

• Pigeon Point Light Station - Best visited during dawn or dusk for your best pics
  
• Año Nuevo SNR - Get there before 2:30PM to get a permit to get up close and personal with the elephant seals
• Santa Cruz - We never made it down there, but it's a beautiful beach town. Check out a google map of potential sites I made before the trip here.
• To Kiss or Not to kiss, the banana slug.
  

There is enough hiking in Butano to keep one occupied for an entire day. We left at 10AM and 6 hour later, looped through the entire valley on a 12-mile hike. Below are some pics I took from the trip, you can get more a more detailed look at the pics here.

Crabtastic [Thanh Long]

I came here for the first time because my friend had a cousin in town. Instead of taking him to Fisherman's wharf, we decided to do something different. We are so glad we came here. There's nothing like the bone breaking sound of crab while wearing a plastic bib.
Furthermore, the service is impeccable. I shall return!

Things to get:

• The Roast Crab is absolutely delectable. I'm not sure what the "secret spices" are, but mixed with the garlic, I was tempted to eat everything down to the shell.
• Garlic Noodles. There is a reason why everybody talks about it.
• Shaken Beef. Yummy.
• Soft Shell Crab. Yes, we couldn't get enough crab

Tip: We had a good ole time ordering drinks. Let me tell you, they are VERY heavy handed with their vodka.

Thanh Long
4101 Judah St
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 665-1146

The US Deficit

Megan McArdle of the Atlantic Monthly has an interesting post of the budget deficit. Read it here.

Twitter 101

I've been playing around with twitter the past couple months, but haven't been able to move beyond the inane, "I'm on a plane, stuck on the tarmac" tweets. While there has been an explosion of twitter accounts, few people truly generate content. However slow, I've been starting to explore more and more of what Twitter provides value for me:

1. Easier for me to follow people (Maybe I'm more a taker than a giver)
2. Twitter is my social networking gateway (I sms twitter which will automatically update my facebook and friendfeed accounts)

I've also noticed that while I "follow" 50 people, I truly only follow 15 people. Those 15 people tend to be people I've had personal connections with (@bryantng, @mcurren, @xenlogic). The other people I follow closely are CXO superstars like @padmasree and @stevecase.

For those of you who want to get in on the action too, but have been a bit too timid to test the waters, Infinite Thinking Machine cites a couple places to get you started:

1. Twitter in Plain English - a great video that explains Twitter in a nutshell
2. 7 Things You Should Know about Twitter -Educause publishes a series of excellent articles detailing new and emerging technologies.
3. Tweetdeck -Use this third party app to manage Twitter. It's much better than using the Twitter web interface.
4. TwitThis -Install this tool into your browser's toolbar so that you can share web sites on the fly as you surf.
5. Hootsuite -This is a great tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts. Try this out once you've mastered Twitter basics.

Arlington

I'm also sad that I gave up my VA drivers license for a CA one....

Before and After the Course [A16]

Having recently learned that Nate Appleman won this year's James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef, I decided to visit a second time. With an open kitchen and a remarkable staff, this is an ideal place for a date.

To the restaurants credit, there are some lean-forward dishes--burrata, salumi, and chocolate tart. With such great appetizers, I found that the main course had a hard time competing for my attention. I found myself looking forward to the beginning and ends of the meal.

Overall, A16 is a solid and dependable restaurant, but not a place that will blow your mind. My advice is to drop by for the bookends of your meal.

Things to order:

• Mozzarella Burrata. If you like cheese, you'll love these bite size pieces of heaven. Burrata is basically a mozzarella inside a mozzarella. It's fluffy, light, and absolutely delicious
• Salumi Sampler. Get a taste of Italy with a sample of their salumi.
• Chocolate tart with olive oil and sea salt. It's amazing what salt can do to a dish. A little bit of salt serves to reinforce and accentuate the flavor. The sea salt brings out the sweetness and flavor. As one who doesn't have a sweet tooth, I was amazed how much I ate of the shared dessert.
  

A-16 Restaurant
2355 Chestnut St
San Francisco, CA 94101
(415) 771-2216