Morning in Santa Barbara

Arrival

We arrived in Santa Barbara on a beautiful, clear night.  We could tell that wonderful things were in store.  

Ensnared in the Tea Party protest against health care

The visceral shouting and overblown rhetoric was scary!

Walking through the Tea Party protest...

After blankly staring down at the protesters for hours, some Republican staffers finally figured out that they could stir up the crowd by holding up signs, though they were kind of weak! Caitlin said that she would have been out there in an "Evita moment" much earlier on!

Malini hit a cop

It's true.  We were talking with a Capitol police officer outside of the building, discussing the minutia of the process for passage of the bill when, out of the blue, Malini hit the cop on the arm.  David, who was speaking to the cop at that very moment, interrupted his (surely) important words to say, "Did you just hit him?" to which Malini, sheepishly, replied that she had.  Thankfully, the cop was in a forgiving mood and laughed it off, continuing to give us his very well informed thoughts on the bill.

The first of two simultaneous protests

It turns out that this pro-immigration protest was rather uneventful compared to what was to come!

Glamor Shots

Recalling our senior photos on the steps of the Supreme Court.

Roofdeck II

After the Dupont Circle farmer's market, we went up to Katherine's roofdeck for some brunch.

Hotel Party

The highlight of the evening was a Hotel Party at the Hotel Rouge.  This boutique hotel was a perfect spot for our wine and Thai food fest!  Though the dance party never got going, we did enjoy our cocktails, birthday cake, and the robes provided by the hotel.  The red theme was good for concealing the red wine that was spilled on the red carpet, but not so much for that which spilled on the white sheets.  Ooops!

Despite these mishaps, it was not all that raucous a party.  Tellingly, only one of the following items from the minibar was used:  a) the intimacy kit or b) a bottle of Aquafina.  

The answer, unfortunately, was b).

On Caitlin's roofdeck

The twilight hours of our evening... Beautiful!

This photo is courtesy of a friendly neighbor of Caitlin's, who approached us and offered to take it.  That niceness, however, didn't get him an invite to our little gathering, which he was clearly fishing for.

March madness

Malini is in disbelief over Kansas being eliminated from the tournament.

Friendly neighbors across from the hotel

HRC's headquarters

Tea at the Mayflower

The gang of four met at the infamous Mayflower Hotel, site of many dalliances throughout history.  The meeting, however, was not for anything salacious.  In fact, it was for the opposite: High Tea at the Mayflower's tea room.  The room was grand and a harpist serenaded us for most of the meal.  It was an enjoyable and classy experience all around , despite numerous faux pas.  These included tea spillage and dribbling; loud clinkage of silverware; and photo taking.  We think that most of these things, plus the pilfering of the keepsake (paper) menus, went undetected.  [More details to follow.]

Clearly this memorial was built with Malini in mind

A walking tour

Malini and David awoke and sped out the door to get down to the Mall to begin their preselected walking tour. Their guide, Tim, a DC By Foot tourguide, greeted them at the appointed corner. The tour was a free tour open to anyone (the guides work for tips), and Malini and David quickly scoped out the other tourers to see who they would befriend and who to avoid. The guide was a fun guy, a former high school teacher and guidance counselor who had a seemingly endless knowledge of the area. As we walked he pointed out the big things that we were seeing, plus giving little anecdotes. For example, we learned that Constitution Avenue, which is on the north side of the Mall, used to be a canal that was really smelly and stunk up the White House. Another story that was very memorable to David (though Malini must have been daydreaming because she doesn't remember this) was about one of the early presidents who awoke every morning at 6am, walked down to the Potomic, and went for a naked swim! Clearly, these were different times. The two hour tour was wonderful on account of the fun guide, the perfect weather, and the beauty that is DC.

Leaving the Krisko-Lobo residence

The weekend begins

The weekend commenced around 9:00 with Malini's grand entrance. David was in full revelry, already on his second happy hour of the evening. He was at Poste, an outdoor bar in DC on a beautiful and warm evening, with Kinga and Paul. Malini's arrival was a joyous reunion, and the group headed off to dinner. Food was good and conversation was grand, but it had to be an early evening, since Malini had been on call the entire night prior. Off to the Krisko/Lobo home for the evening and a good night's sleep.

The Night Hawk

Much of Thursday afternoon was devoted to crafting an object de art. Not only did Scott drive the pair to the Dubliner, well on the other side of Minneapolis, but this transportation was provided in an exciting and thrilling vehicle: The Night Hawk. David and Malini felt it was appropriate to thank Scott for his taxiing services the previous night by producing a sign for, "The Night Hawk." While it may look like an ordinary black Prius, this is actually a sophisticated auto, which makes it possible for Scott to use it for his Private Investigating service and other exploits. Scott purchased the car for its stealthiness and to help reduce his carbon footprint, though the later factor was almost trumped by Scott's feelings that the Prius was completely non-masculine. In an attempt to make up for the lack of inherent manliness in the vehicle, Scott had taken to calling the car, "The Night Hawk." Picking up on their friend's desire to drive a macho car, they chose to craft a sign which was unquestionably manly. Scott was immediately impressed by the show of goodwill, realizing that only true men could embrace the pink background and starry sky of the gift.

Tunnels

We're on a tour of the University of Minnesota. (This blog post comes to you from the Starbucks on campus, where we got free drinks because of some coupons!) Since the weather is unbearably cold a few months of the year, almost all of the buildings on campus are connected by elevated walkways or--more excitingly--underground tunnels. We traveled through one of these tunnels to get from the Coffman Union to get to the Mayo Building. It was a thrilling experience for David (and a mundane one for Malini).

At Sebatian Joe's

Taken on David's phone, transferred to the Desktop (of his awesome Macbook!), and then uploaded to here!

The Sculpture Garden

At the Sculpture Garden. "The Cherry on a Spoon" is a well-known Minneapolis destination.

Thursday afternoon

After Kayaking, Malini and David walked home, venturing by a store that Malini was eager for David to visit. Surely you can understand why.

When they arrived home, Malini and David began two projects. The first one was making pizza dough for a homemade pizza. The other is temporarily classified and will be written about in a later blog post.

As the pizza dough was rising, David and Malini went running--separately. David was embarrassed by his running abilities, so they went in separate directions. David was home in 20 minutes, while Malini was out for more than half an hour.

As this is being written the duo sit in Sebastian Joe's eating ice cream. Malini is amazed by David's technilogical prowess and gawks at his ability to seamlessly transfer pictures between his computer and phone.

Thursday morning exercise

After the good feelings and enlarging of muscles that came from canoeing yesterday, Malini and David decided to go kayaking this morning. From the moment they left shore, there were met by constant problems controlling their kayak. Within the first minute of launching, they decided to go through a narrow channel to make their way towards the Lake of the Isles. After successfully avoiding a sandbar on the right side of the tunnel, they almost immediately ran into the cement wall on the left and in an attempt to straighten the kayak, David ended up throwing a gob of seaweed into Malini's hair from his paddle. Their shrieks of laughter echoed in the tunnel, and the runners going along side their kayaking path watched, presumably in horror. They recovered from this initial setback and began to get into a routine, paddling in sync. Upon reaching the second lake, the pair were met by the gusty winds (maybe from El Nino?) and immediately ran into a new set of problems. The small, two-person kayak was far lighter and less robust than yesterday’s three-person canoe, allowing the wind and waves to batter the small sea craft to and fro across the lake. Try as they might, for the next 45 minutes, they were unable to paddle in a straight path and repeatedly found themselves careening off the the right or the left. The gusts of wind caused their paddles to splash more water up and into the kayak, leaving them rather wet by the journey's end. Finally, towards the end of the adventure, as David repeatedly asked Malini to stop paddling and just sit pretty and allow him to take care of matters, the kayak came under control. However, prior to this, as the pair found themselves going in circles a few hundred meters out from the rental place, it was certain that the young canoe-rental boys had a good laugh watching one of their rentals meander in circles before their eyes.

The Intelligent Homosexual, David Soo

Malini wanted to show David the Guthrie Theater so they decided to stand in line for rush tickets to see the new play by Tony Kushner, the Intelligent Homosexual. The insanity of this play was far beyond what either had anticipated and rather than staying for the entire 3 1/2 hours they were told the play would last, the two stayed for the first two acts and then called the trusted "Night Hawk" taxi service and Scott came to pick them up.

Scott was on his way to the Dubliner, an Irish pub, where two of Scott’s friends were performing. On their way to the show, David and Malini attempted to process the craziness that was “The Intelligent Homosexual,” but were unable to clearly explain the happenings of the play. Scott was highly disturbed by the conversation and remained silent for much of the drive. Because it was now after 10:00, the pair were very hungry, having eaten lunch at 4:00, so they decided to make a quick stop-in at Subway, where Malini and David each had some dinner. During this excursion, David witnessed a really sad encounter, where a skinny roughly five-year-old boy’s mother (who looked like she weighed over 300 pounds) overruled his decision not to have mayonnaise on his sandwich, saying, “Oh it will be really dry without it.”

After discussing the depressing incident and the state of unhealthy eating behavior in America, the trio arrived at the Dubliner, to watch Reverse Cowboy. The eclectic crowd at the Dubliner included the band's number one fan, a female who makes the two band members birthday cakes and an assortment of other baked goods, a drunk 20-ish male who had been at the Twins game earlier in the night and who attempted to steal one of the guitars from the band, and a Dungeons and Dragons-esque couple who kept time to the music with fake Irish-step-dancing. Eight Guinesses, one homosexual slur, and quite a few fun songs later, it was time to head back to Uptown where frozen chocolate cake and Jelly Bellies were waiting to be consumed.

Lunch/dinner

We had a late morning snack today: gouda, a baguette, and mimosas. And therefore our lunch was pushed back until about 4:30. We had Indian food that was fantastic.

Our Wednesday outing

Breakfast today was amazing. Inspired by oatmeal that we had had a few years ago when visiting MLB in New Haven, we made oatmeal with flax seed, nuts, granola, yogurt, and fruit. Priyanka made french press coffee, which was delightful.

We next ventured out to our main activity of the morning: a trip to the lakes right in Minneapolis where we planned to go for a walk and for a canoe trip. Though Malini and Priyanka did not feel the need to dress specially for the occasion, David decided to don what came to be referred to as his boating outfit. The three of us and the college-aged gentleman who rented us our canoe agreed that it was appropriate for such an outing.

For three relatively amateur canoers, we did quite well. There was only one point that we almost hit a concrete wall, and that was averted by a strategically extended oar.

There were many notable sightings while we were out on our canoe, including pirates and many forms of wildlife. The pirates took the form of two old people who were kayaking down a small stream. We spied them from afar and were trying to keep our distance, but they were making a fast approach. It was clear that we were in for trouble as the pirate in the first boat scowled at us as we passed. The Dread Pirate Brian, bringing up the rear, verbally assaulted us as we passed by. "Who's steering this vessel?" he snarled at us, clearly seeking to determine who was the captain of our ship.

"We wish we knew too," we replied, highlighting our ignorance of the high seas in hopes that the pirates would have pity on us. He eyed us suspiciously, but our poor maneuvering of the canoe must have confirmed our lack of experience.

More to come...