Perils of Caffeine in the Evening

Wow, yesterday’s record warmth and soft sunshine caught us completely unawares. When I got home from work, we decided to take a walk down to Gasworks Park, something we hadn’t done in months due to darkness and inclement weather. I had an awful time figuring out what to wear, since my “wardrobe” has been on virtual autopilot since fall - jeans, long-sleeved polypro undershirt, fleece pullover and whatever suitable jacket or shell. I was absolutely paralyzed trying to remember what I used to wear when it was over 70 degrees.

With that settled, we finally got out the door. We encountered a neighbor and his young daughter on the sidewalk, and I just had to get a picture of her getup:

Click any picture to enlarge

The park was buzzing with others who were similarly gobsmacked by the serendipitous weather. People were frenziedly flying kites, doing skateboard tricks, scaling the barbed-wire fence around the rusting hulks of the old gasworks, and just lying around on blankets picnicking or making out.

As we climbed the hill, we someone was flying a largish red kite, making it swoop and dive in big arcs. On the ground, a small dog (we’re thinking it was a Boston Terrier) was frantically chasing the kite, in an apparent attempt to herd it someplace only it could envision:

Here’s an amusing video of the dog in action.

Everyone on that slope of the hill was voicing encouragement.

We pressed on to Fremont in search of libations and sustenance. Near the Adobe complex, we saw this fully-realized bleeding-heart bush. I love these things, they’re just so completely gratuitous and festive:

We tried to get into a favorite Mexican restaurant, but the wait was 40 minutes and their bar was a mob scene, so we decided to try a place we’d been walking past for a couple of years. I knew it was a little pricey, but we it was such a pleasant evening and we were in the mood.

Man, it was just a great decision - all of our dishes were interesting and delicious. We started with a blue cheese scallop dish, hoping that the blue cheese wouldn’t overwhelm the shellfish. It came garnished with some pear-butter sauce and a dollop of pomegranate syrup, all perfectly balanced. My entree was halibut on a bed of oyster mushrooms, and Mrs. Perils’ was risotto with roasted manila clams in the shell. We were glad we had the uphill walk home to balance it off.

As a final “treat”, as we crested the hill on the walk home, we passed a street-level garage that (what else?) was thumping with garage-band music We think they were channeling an unholy alliance of The Kinks and The Ventures.