Arriving in San Francisco after that beautiful flight across the western United States, I made my way to Anita’s, dropped off my bags and headed to Union Square to complete some last-minute shopping.

While there, I was hungry and wanted a quick, easy and relatively healthy bite to eat.  That desire made me realize another notable difference between life in Thailand and the United States.  In the US, if you are out and want a quick bite to eat, it seems that more often than not you end up at a fast food restaurant.  In Thailand, you can end up eating something fast, but I wouldn’t call it fast food.

My hunger led me to the only Thai restaurant I went to on my entire trip: King of Thai Noddles, the small San Francisco chain that does a good job of approximating the Thai wok-style street food experience.  The surest clue is that the entire staff is Thai – my first time hearing Thai spoken in nearly two weeks.  The pad siew, wide rice noodles in a soy sauce with chicken and chinese broccoli, were a flavor memory of Sukhumvit Soi 38’s night dining and a much-needed reminder that home is where the taste buds are.

After completing my dining and shopping, I headed to Newark and dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house.  Like many houses around the Bay Area during summer, once the sun begins to go down the onshore breezes pick up, making a sweatshirt or even a roaring fire necessary.

Above, clockwise from upper left: my uncle Dick mans the grill; Cousin Patrick prepares hamburger patties; I try to light a fire while extended family members look on; Cousin Jackie poses with a plate of watermelon.

We had a number of extended family members in town, including my cousin’s cousins (their first cousins through their mom’s side of the family) whom I had not seen in probably twenty-five years as they now live in Arkansas.  They were visiting with their respective families and it was interesting to catch up with people whose lives have taken an entirely different path than my own.

I also had the opportunity to meet my cousin Michael’s future in-laws.  He and Sara are getting married next summer and this was my first opportunity to meet Sara’s parents and younger siblings.  All very nice people and I look forward to them being a part of the family.

As a result of all these new people, we had a lot of young children running around.  Jackie decided that smores were the answer to keep them occupied and so, ever the girl scout, she pulled out the smore making gear.

Notice that some people didn’t wait to put the marshmallow between the chocolate and graham crackers, opting to just eat it straight from the fire.

Patrick, ever the chef, made a chocolate chip and tequila bread pudding that was really tasty.  The serving was also way too big!

Thursday morning I headed down to San Jose to catch my flight to Long Beach.  My decision to fly out of San Jose was based both on low prices as well as a desire to see how the airport from which I flew a great deal as a child has changed.  The old terminal still uses air stairs instead of jetways, something of a throwback to an earlier generation of air travel.  A new terminal is under construction, threatening to modernize the airport to an entirely unrecognizable point.

Thankfully, though, the outdoor observation deck is still open and I spent two hours watching planes, taking pictures, and getting a sunburn on my forearms.  The best of the shots, a Southwest 737 rotating and climbing into the sunny afternoon:

Below, my flight on a jetBlue Embraer E190.

You’ve probably had enough pictures from the air after yesterday’s entry, so I’ll ask that you indulge me with just a few more.

Below, “Silicon Valley” – the San Jose area – just after takeoff, the airport visible in the background.

Smoke from the many fires still visible as we head down the coast, just past the Monterey Bay.

The art deco terminal of Long Beach Airport, complete with palm trees.  What could be more Southern California than that?

Since Bill works for jetBlue, he met me at the baggage claim and then took me on a little tour of the airline’s west coast operations center, a nondescript building near the terminal.  It is interesting to see how they still have much of the start-up mentality, making it a fun place to work.

We headed to their house, just a five-minute drive from the airport in the city of Lakewood.  Alex joined us a little bit later and I had a tour of their backyard, which they’ve recently done some work on.

Below, Bill (or Bill’s arm) feeds Alex some wild grapes that grow along their fence.  Turns out to be pretty bitter.

After the grazing, we headed to the nearby city of Bellflower.  During the summer months they do a weekly Thursday evening block party.  The main street is shut down and a combination of craft fair, farmer’s market, and concert takes place.  There are many people who show up, especially families, and the crowd shows the diversity that is very much a part of Southern California.

Below, Bill stands by as Alex snaps pictures.

We opted for a barbecue dinner at Johnny Rebs, a Carolina-Georgia style BBQ place that has buckets of peanuts on the table and encourages you to throw the shells on the floor.  Despite this, they received an “A” rating from the public health department.

The food is good, although I think Lucille’s – another of Alex and Bill’s favorites that we went to last September – had smokier meat.  Here’s what we had:

Bill had the deep fried catfish with hush puppies and fries.  The tartar sauce was homemade and the hush puppies were, surprisingly, not oily.

Alex had the pulled pork shoulder, which I found a little dry and not very smoky.  The sauce, which is a regional matter, is pretty vinegary but I found it lacked a distinctive flavor profile.  Of course, taste in BBQ is very individual.  Something that one person loves, another will not.

I chose the tri-tip sandwich.  Tri-tip is a unique central California treat and it should be medium rare with lots of juicy pink in the center.  Unfortunately, the meat for this sandwich was overcooked and, subsequently, a little tough.

We wrapped up sharing a peach cobbler that we barely made a dent in.  Too much dessert and the cobbler itself was a little doughy and undercooked.

Overall, my impression on Johnny Rebs was that it was okay, but it was not the real deal.  It was BBQ done Los Angeles style with lots done to make it look authentic but not enough to make it taste authentic.

Back at their home, we stayed up until after 1:00, visiting.  I realized as I rolled into bed at 1:30, that I’ve spent too many nights on this trip staying up too late and getting up too early.  Something that ended up catching up with me.