I made it in to Philadelphia without much problem, but alas my bag was lost for the second time on the trip. Hopefully my visit to Princess Sydney will cast better omens for future travels.
We had a great afternoon after picking up Sydney from camp and lounging at my brother’s pool, to be followed by a fantastic steak BBQ (3 different cuts no less). A great first 24 hours in the USA.
With one week left of solo Berlin, I am trying to cover as much ground as possible. Street Food Thursdays was on my list — an old class markethalle taken over by creative young chefs every Thursday. At first it is a bit overwhelming — where to start when there are so many amazing food (and drink options). But after taking a full walk of the place, we slowly dived in. The Taiwanese pork belly “hamburger” was the winner — the soft fluffy white steamed bread combine with succulent pork belly, various pickles and vegetables, peanut crumbs, and sauce was perfection. But will need to head back more often to cover the variety of foods. The good news is that there is a kids play area in the middle, so I am thinking after school adventures for Kai and family when we are all back in August.
With the kids in Japan, I am dependent on Skype and media care packages from Chika. Now I know how the grandparents feel when they only get the remote access. Can’t wait to all be back together in a few weeks.
It was a seed planted in the fall last year — a road trip to celebrate Mike’s 40th birthday. While we pondered exotic locales like Iceland, we decided to focus on minimizing travel hassles and return to the original international roadtrip — GBR90. It was a fantastic trip — all the pieces fell into place with some pleasant surprises like getting 13th row tickets to Wimbledon. And we did it all — eating (lots of it including Dim Sum), drinking, sightseeing, a rock concert (in the legendary 100 Club on Oxford Street), shopping, biking, museums, and even a little movie action (as there were no real good theatre options on Sunday night). Looking forward to future Wolfson brother adventures.
At 7:00am the family was on the plane and there I was on my own. I grabbed a chocolate croissant from the bakery in the airport and a coffee from Starbucks and jumped on the bus home. Back at home, I finished a bunch of little projects — getting pictures copied onto the PC, a few posts, started doing insurance reimbursements, getting ready for terrace cleaning project with our cleaning person, etc.
I met another local papa who had come back from an overnight camping party by a lake and needed “hangover help”. While it wasn’t my plan, we ended up going to the Bird for massive burgers. It was well executed — snagging outside seats without much hassle. And I ate the whole burger, which I usually share with Chika. A mistake, as I ended up going home and lying in bed for a while to recover. I think I heard “moo” every time I opened my mouth. Finally I did make it for a short gym workout until my colleague Mark pinged me for our planned dinner (which I was not vaguely hungry for). I proposed we bike down to the canal in Kreuzberg to an asian restaurant, and with the long summer days in Berlin we had a pleasant ride down to Chan. Decent food, not amazing, but pleasant place to sit outside on a summer evening. We decided to do a bit more exploring on the way home riding down the canal searching for one more drink. We didn’t succeed (the sake bar was closed), but ended up stumbling on a pool hall (a serendipitous event, since Mark had just asked 10 minutes earlier if I shot pool). We couldn’t ignore the omen, so went to check it out. My rusty skills magically came back to some extent, and even won the first game. Finally it was time to head home — we decided to be safe papa’s and bring the bikes back on the tram.
While I will miss the whole family for the summer, it will be sad to lose my newest partner in crime. Who else can I feel guilty pleasures with eating ice cream and hiding the fact from mommy (just kidding! at least most of the time.) We managed to fill all the promises with swimming last weekend and now making it onto the boat this weekend (and still continuing on to the zoo).
We had showed up the week before without a reservation and were turned away, and now we know why. Amazing coffee, the best charcuterie/cheese plates in town, and killer cakes. Worth a visit for sure to Pakolat.
