The Camping Trip That Wasn't

Our tent under the "stars" AKA string lights 

We had reservations at Snug Harbor over the Easter Holiday but due to a work emergency, I had to cancel last minute.

For those of you who have kids, you know that they don't tend to forget things like camping trips or ice cream once it's been thrown out. But conveniently, they often forget about picking up their toys.

I didn't want to be a dream crusher, so instead I elected to break out the Hobo firepit and we roasted hotdogs in the backyard. Then we pitched a tent and pretend camped.

This was the first time I slept in a tent since owning a trailer. It was A LOT colder. For a good 30 minutes, I considered coming back into the house once I was good and sure City Boy Camper was asleep. But I bit the bullet and stayed through the night.


For those of you in the market for a tent, I have the 4 person dome tent from REI. I don't know where tent companies get their fit models. My guess is they're retired Oompa Loompas from The Wizard of Oz because in no way does this tent sleeps 4 adults. Especially if you intent to use cots.


So if you are a family of 4, you might want to get 2 four person tents instead of 1 six person tent. It's the same thought as getting two small generators that can be ganged instead of one gigantic, hard to move one. The ease in transportation, set up and configuration options is worth the consideration.

Neat Camper Bike

With the high rents in China, it was only a matter of time.

More info @ www.kevincyr.net

From Camping to Cabo

I am not usually one to schedule back to back trips. However, due to several conspiring events and a well timed Groupon offer for 4 nights at the Cabo Azul Resort at a very reasonable rate, I rolled with it.

The infinity pool was located right on the beach

Talk about a 180 degree change in environment! I can get used to mojitos by the pool and air conditioned luxury resorts! We got upgraded to a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom suite upon check in.

Loved the canopy ceiling in the bedroom

I did a lot of reading on my Kindle. The highly acclaimed Night Circus was meh. But a friend recommended The Descent and oh my God, I have been staying up until 1:00AM for the past two nights reading. BTW, this book is not the same as that dumb ass movie that came out a few years ago.

My favorite thing about the Hotel were these pods situated around the pool. Something about an egg shaped cocoon, made for a very comforting experience while lying inside.

The only thing was you had to take care to change positions once in a while as to not acquire odd tans lines.

It was a difficult decision each day to choose between lying in the pool or the pod. Second only to deciding between margaritas and mojitos during happy hour.

As Adam Carolla would say, "Champagne problems!" For the record, the mojito was the way to go.

Our new trailer is here!

I am beyond excited. I ordered it sans logo and artwork so that I can have it custom wrap later down the road. It's temporary name is Moby Dick because it sort of looks like a White Whale. By default, our car is named Captain Ahab.

We spent last week test driving SUVs and decided on the Audi Q7. Love this car so much. Comparing the 6 cylinder diesel in the Q7 to its 8 cylinder peers with the same towing capacity, (6,600 lbs) we had to go with the Audi based on torque and gas consumption. BTW, if you are in the market for an Audi, Rector Audi in Burlingame deserves a shout out. The pre and post sales experience has been nothing less than stellar.

Our first "official" trip planned is to Three Rivers in late September. However, we are hoping to take her out to Bodega Bay for a quick trip prior, if schedules permit. CAN NOT WAIT.

PS, La Palace was passed onto a very nice couple in San Francisco. He started a tradition of gifting things to his wife manufactured in '74 because that's her birth year. Last year, he purchased a piano produced in 1874.

How to Cook Twice and Get Four Meals

Since it was Memorial Day, I tried out a 5 hour slow bake ribs recipe.

Some of you have asked me about the cooking club referenced in the last post. Ok, it was only two people but in my mind, I imagine I have a legion of followers who marvel at my genius.

As a busy mom, I am always looking to maximize my time without compromising too much. The challenge was this : How do I serve my family homemade meals but cook as little as possible? The answer is getting other people to cook for you! So I solicited my neighbor to test out my little Cooking Club. I would cook on Monday and Wednesday and deliver the meals to her. In return, she cooks on Tuesday and Thursday and delivers to me. The result: Cook twice, get four meals. It's not that much extra work to add 2-3 more servings to a recipe if you are already cooking for your own family.

We're on week three and I am really enjoying it! I find myself stepping up my game because now I am cooking "for company" so I follow all the steps in a recipe instead of cutting corners. It's bearable because I know tomorrow, I get to relax and have a hot dinner delivered to me.

Here's some helpful tips if you'd like to start your own cooking club:

1) Keep it small, three members max is my suggestion. Since I am assuming your partner is taking you out at least one night a week (if he isn't, why not?!?) and/or you have other social plans - realistically only five meals are needed. Having too many members will make scheduling around "off" nights hard to manage. If you have three members, you can alternate who gets the coveted one night per week slot. IE: Member A = Monday/Wednesday, Member B = Tuesday/Thursday, Member C = Friday OR Sunday. The next week Member A gets the Friday OR Sunday duty and so on.

2) Be honest and give constructive feedback. We all have different taste. Some people love spicy, others love salty. It's OK to tell your friend to take it easy on the oil, spice, etc. BE NICE about it! (Part B of this is portion. Admittedly, I have a hard time judging this.)

3) Make sure you pick members with similar taste (this will help with #2).

4) Go easy on spices until you get the hang of everyone's tolerance. My neighbor is on a special diet that is salt free so I have to be extra careful. Actually, they are on this crazy diet that restricts a lot of things (I have not been able to make any of my pasta or rice dishes.)

5) Agree ahead of time on some ground rules. I shop at Whole Foods for the majority of my groceries, so I expect the members of my group to adhere to a similar quality. Don't get me wrong, you don't have to shop at Whole Paycheck, I mean Whole Foods to start a club, just set some guidelines that work for your group so that everyone is on the same page. PS, this includes delivery time and disclosing your weaknesses.

6) Stick to a schedule, once you start trading nights because of a soccer game or that once a month bridge game, things will quickly unravel. Other members are depending on their delivered meals. As noted on my last post, I cooked a pot of chili on my "off" night since I knew I'd be too tired.

7) Have fun! If this becomes a hinder rather than a help, this is not right for you.

8) It may easier to adhere to a schedule if you start this during the school year rather than the Summer or the holidays.

9) For convenience, members should live close by so deliveries can be swift and painless. Co workers also make a good choice.

10) Email your meal plan on the Friday prior to the next week to prevent duplicate recipes.

I would love to hear from you if decide to give it a go.

What the Bone Song and Vintage Trailer Restoration Have in Common

a few of the vintage trailers in the yard

Upon arrival on the first day of my internship, I got a quick tour of the yard and warehouse. There were dozens of vintage trailers in various stages of restoration. From 14 ft all the way of the 42+ ft. (I must apologize for the subpar photos in this post taken with my iphone)

I was put to work immediately on a glorious 42ft trailer which was to become the new office. The task of the day was to remove some damaged wood panels. I was handed a cordless screw driver and some plastic putty knives to pry off the trim. I decided to do what I always do when faced with something I've never done before, dive in and figure it out along the way.

exterior of 42ft trailer I worked on today

You know that Bone Song they teach in elementary school to help you memorize your skeleton? The one that goes something like, the hip bone connected to the back bone, and the back bone connected to the neck bone and so on....

Well, removing wood panels reminded me of that. Because you start out thinking, "OK, this is gonna be straight forward", but then you quickly realize that everything is connected. In order you to remove one panel, you have to remove the seams, that are connected to the trims, and to the baseboard. Then there are screws and a million finishing nails. And just when you think, "Aha, this is the last nail", you find two more. Oh, and you can't just rip the panels off in frustration because they are needed intact to make templates.

As you can see by the wet ground, it was also cold and rainy. Altogether I removed seven panels.

Of course it crossed my mind that maybe I had bitten off too much. Why did I choose to drive 90 minutes to an unfamiliar town to do manual labor? Couldn't I have learned this by watching HGTV? All I know is that I was dead tired by time I pulled into my driveway. Thank goodness I had the fore sight to make a pot of chili the night before in anticipation that I would be too beat to cook dinner. Plus it was my night in our cooking club. More on this later.