weekend travel notes

Trip of the month: three days in (really hot, really humid) Houston for a 60th birthday party.

For short trips, I've become a regular user of FastTrack's long-term airport parking, since it seems kind of sucky to be asking my friends to drive me to/from the airport all the time. Plus, it gives me more flexibility; last Thursday, I was able to have dinner in Palo Alto with a friend visiting from Seattle, before heading to SFO to catch the red-eye.

I was just mentioning to someone a couple of weeks ago how I hadn't had a problem in several years, while travelling domestically with my small Swiss Army knife. Of course, once I'd said that, I mentally kicked myself, knowing that I'd just jinxed myself. Sure enough, security found the knife this time through, and gave me three options: check a second bag and pay the $25 fee, mail the knife home and pay $10 for shipping, or throw the knife away. I chose option four: hide the knife in the women's bathroom outside of security and hope that it stays there. I'd done something similar once at the SF passport agency, but I'd never tried it overnight before. Amazingly, the knife was still there when I returned, three and a half days later. I'm not sure what that says about airport security, but I'm happy to still have my decrepit old Swiss army knife, that my parents bought me in Switzerland over twelve years ago.

On the return trip, due to poor planning and some traffic (and wanting to stop for a Whataburger breakfast taquito), we arrived at the bag drop counter about 23 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart, and the airline agent refused to let us check in our bags, due to the "30-minute cutoff" rule. She tried to insist that we fly on a later flight (I suspect the flight was overbooked and she wanted to clear up some space), but that was pretty much not an option for us, so we tried a few different approaches.

First we asked if we could check our bags on later flight and pick them up at SFO later. We were told "passengers must fly with their bags". I know for a fact that sometimes passengers don't fly with their bags; when the airline screws up, or when a flight is delayed and the passenger is able to catch his/her connection but the bag doesn't make it. But, I guess it's a good rule from the security perspective.

Next we asked if we could leave a bag at the counter, and have a friend pick it up later, since we didn't really need it. We were told that the airline didn't have the resources and couldn't handle this task.

Finally, we asked, if we packed all our stuff into our (half-empty) carry-on bags, if she would throw the remaining suitcase away for us. At this point she realized that we were not about to give up our seats on the flight, so she suggested that since the suitcase was only a few inches larger than carry-on size, we could try to get it through security and then have it checked doorside.

We ended up going one better; we got through security with no problems, and then, even though the flight was full and carry-on space was tight, one of the flight attendants actually managed to fit our suitcase into an overhead bin, so we never had to check it at all. Ironically, the flight's departure was delayed 15-20 minutes anyway, but I'm not complaining this time.

Thanksgiving + Texas = food overload

This year, I spent Thanksgiving in the Houston area. Thanksgiving being the eating holiday, and Texas being known for its steak and BBQ, of course I spent most of the weekend eating.

For dinner on Thursday, in addition to the regular Thanksgiving food (including two turkeys; one deep-fried and one baked in soy sauce), we had battered fried fresh shrimp, bacon-wrapped sea scallops (also very fresh and very delicious), broccoli salad with olives, ham, and cheese (I'll be trying to duplicate this sometime soon), you2 fan4 (literally "oily rice"), wakame salad, edamame, homemade pot stickers, and homemade pork meatballs. For dessert, there was homemade pumpkin pie topped with chopped pecans (awesome idea, which I am looking forward to stealing), homemade Mexican tea cakes, and coffee-chocolate ice cream cake. Luckily, I had gone directly to dinner from a 4-hour plane ride and 4 hours in waiting and ground transit time (don't ask), having eaten nothing all day but two fan4 tuan2 (rice rolls), so I was able to try practically every dish over the course of the evening.

The next day, we had a late lunch at Ichibon, a Benihana-style sushi/teppanyaki restaurant owned by a friend. The sushi was fine, but was overshadowed by the fried ice cream and fried bananas that we had for dessert. The bananas in particular were decadent and amazing; they were the perfect texture; soft but not gooey, with a crispy but not oily crust, with a scoop of red bean ice cream (one of my favorites, and surprisingly hard to find). It was nearly 4pm when we finished lunch, so dinner was light; clam chowder with leftover scallop and shrimp, served with pumpernickel bread.

Saturday was dedicated to Texas cuisine; fajitas at Pappasito's for lunch, and pork ribs and beef brisket at Pappas BBQ for dinner. (Yes, they are owned by the same company, hence the similar names.) After watching the Rockets demolish the Nuggets at the Toyota Center, we had a midnight snack at Sinh Sinh on Bellaire; some people had congee and/or noodle soup, but I decided to order two desserts, which turned out excellently. The first was an "Almond Crust Pastry" which turned out to be a cup of hot sweetened almond soup with some kind of bean in it, topped with a freshly baked puff pastry. The second was a "3-color icy", which was less creative but still yummy; the crushed ice came with red and green bean pastes, coconut milk, and Chinese green jelly.

For lunch on Sunday, a friend asked me to pick a restaurant in Galveston, where we had decided to meet up. Not knowing anything about the area, I turned to Yelp for help, and we ended up at the strangely named but very good Mosquito Cafe. I liked my appetizer best; listed as a "Walnut Crusted Baked Brie with Jalapeno Chutney and Toast Points", it was well executed, with just the right proportions of cheese and walnuts, and a generous serving of fresh grapes on the side, to balance the softness of the baked cheese. Yum.