FOOOD Glorious Food

With the amount of food places I am constantly trying, it is a wonder this isn't actually a blog just dedicated to me reviewing various food establishments. Maybe I have missed my true calling in life: Food Critic. For now I can only dream, and write reviews to my hearts content right here and hope that one day I will be discovered. But for now, fake Yelp reviews written on this here blog will have to do. So let's get started shall we? 

Artichoke Basille's Pizza

 I tried this pizza in NYC and have been dreaming of it ever since. They have another location in Berkeley, so one day I said to Jenn, what if we went and got dinner at Artichoke Basilles? So we did.  We gladly made the hour long drive, and paid the $6 toll to try this pizza.  I recommend walking around the unique downtown area, and Berkley campus before enjoying a slice-for the people watching alone. The Artichoke pizza slice was huge and delicious-easy to share. Though a little bit of a "one note" flavor, therefore, I give it 4.5/5 stars. 

Taco Tour of San Fransisco
One Friday night I went with some people to do a taco crawl in the city, to find the best taco. So pretty much my dream, buuutt it was late, so I actually didn't eat (who can wait until 9pm to eat dinner??) and was just there for the good times, so I actually can give 0 reviews on the tacos. Missed opportunity, I know. At one point we ended up in Taqueria San Jose. This was a random, and unplanned location because La Taqueria (where we were suppose to go) was closed. While we were there, street performers came in and started playing the guitar and an accordion and singing, so I got up on my chair and started clapping in rhythm and got the rest of the place to join me. We then danced our way out of the place. The people loved us. 

We ended up at Karaoke so I will give my review on this place. 

The Mint Karaoke Lounge
The DJ is a force to be reckoned with. Warning: will smack your butt with a paddle while you are singing, or use other props if appropriate song is being sung. Helpful tip: can bribe him to bump you up on the karaoke list. FYI: is a no nonsense DJ, you better be there to sing in 3 seconds, or he is moving on. Yet he is also a delight to be around. DJ gets 10/5 stars.  But the overall establishment gets a 4/5.

The crew who took the Mint Lounge by storm.

The Great San Francisco Food Tour 2019 aka. Friendship Day year 7

Guess who has another year of friendship under their belt. Your favorite Duo. Tiffany and I. In true Carlie/Tiffany fashion we decided to go try a bunch of food to celebrate. 

 Stop #1 was Devils Teeth Bakery where we tried two items of food, the breakfast sandwich and the cinnamon roll. The fake yelp reviews continue....



Devils Teeth Bakery
Crowded, cramped, delicious, wanted to try everything, and regretted not doing so. Need to go back ASAP. The breakfast sandwich was 5/5. Cinnamon roll was 3/5. Overall rating: 5/5 (no, not the average of 4. it still deserves a 5. I don't ever seem to love bought cinnamon rolls that much, I should have known better). 

Wouldn't have said no to some cream cheese frosting on here. 

So stinking good. 

 Stop number 2. 

Butter Love Bakeshop 

Food wasn't fresh, would have been excellent if it had been, but like, what bakery sells old baked goods in the morning?? Rating: 3/5. Upside: was so quick, that we didn't have to pay for parking.

The fruity pebbles cookie: excellent flavor. 

Nutella Donut: Underwhelming. Probably amazing if warm. 

Stop #3. 

B. Patisserie 

A crowd favorite and crowded. We tried the chocolate chip cookie. It was solid. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, great cookie flavor, good chocolate. All arounds solid chocolate chip cookie. Would recommend and get again, but not like the best cookie I have ever had. Rating: 4.5/5. 

And our final stop of the day...

La Taqueria

We tried the cheese quesadilla and it was delicious, and it would have been even better if we hadn't waited the 45 minute drive back home to eat it...whoops. Would recommend this restaurant 100 times over. This is the place I tell everyone to go to if they are going to the city. Pro tip: being charming (and probably a woman) to the cashier will get you 1. Free salsa add ons 2. A free fresh (delicious) strawberry drink and 3. Roses. Miguel loved us. Rating 5/5. We love this place. 

Couldn't think of a better way to end our friendship food tour, than with making Miguel our new friend. 

Though Tiffany may be married now, I am glad that it has had little to no affect on our friendship and that we still hang out all the time. Here is to another great year of knowing each other, and eating even more delicious food! 

So concludes some of the food I have tried in the last few months. If anyone knows how I could make this my job, please let me know. 

Also, here is a picture of the beach, because I live in California and go to the beach occasionally: 

A Week in McCall Idaho: .5 of a Jackson Family Reunion

It's time for the annual Jackson Reunion blog post.  This year instead of going to St. George, we went to McCall Idaho, though we only had half of the family-Matt and Madi were still on their internships in NYC,  Rachel on her mission, and Nathan's family had just moved to Texas. So we had just the elite crew. Aannnd as we came to learn, less people = easier = more fun activities. But I mean, of course the other siblings were missed.

I flew into Boise Sunday night. 

It was flight #24 of my 2019

Dad and my uncle Bill picked me and and drove to Bill's house, where the rest of the family had been spending their weekend.

Greeted by the cutest cowboy the next morning.

Monday we drove to McCall, and walked around town, and played in the lake for a bit.

Grandpa Jackson and Ellen were also in McCall, and on Tuesday morning took us to get breakfast. 

The portions were huge.

Which suited Nicole just fine.

Mckay enjoyed the bacon while trying to stay warm. 

We then spent a large portion of our day kayaking and paddle-boarding the river. 

@Mckay

It was a dreamy day, which included a moose sighting.

Covey had had enough if this sharing business and commandeered a kayak for himself.  

The next day we went boating, which included lots of tubing, wake boarding, and skiing. 

Doug has still got it. 

 After a solid day of boating, we went to get burgers, fries and shakes for dinner. The peanut butter shake was one of the best shakes I've ever had.

I just can't help myself when it comes to taking pictures of Mckay. 

The next day we drove back to Utah, which included a beautiful drive through the mountains. I hung out in Utah for two days and then boarded my 25th flight of the year and flew back to the Bay. 

Overall we loved our trip and McCall!

A Day in Yosemite

From almost day one of living together, Jenn and I have discovered that we know a lot of the same (somewhat) obscure songs, and just in general have a similar taste in music. One of those similar interests is Rascal Flatts, and wouldn't ya know it, they came to the Bay Area this summer.  So Jenn and I went to their concert. 

Not bad for $20 seats. 

But the real story of this post is about the time I went to Yosemite with 6 strangers. On Tuesday I met Tyler at institute- one of Jenn's friends from college. On Wednesday he invited Jenn and I to go to Yosemite with him and his friends, Jenn couldn't go but I decided to go anyway. So Friday night I found myself with a bunch of people I didn't know on the way to Yosemite.

That night we stayed at a motel about an hour outside of the park, which really turned out to be a double wide trailer.

I don't know if these pictures are doing justice to its creepy vibe, but we didn't exactly find it charming. 

Saturday morning we woke up early, grabbed breakfast at the local grocery store, and finished the drive to Yosemite. 

Us and our lovely accommodations. 

El Capitan

We hiked the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls.

It's called the Mist Trail for a reason, by the time we got to the top we were soaked. 

At the top, a rest was in order.

We hiked back down, grabbed lunch at the car, and then headed to a lookout point where we could see a lot of the Yosemite Valley. 

Half dome, Vernal, and Nevada falls are featured behind us 

The boys wanted to go swimming, so we found a river for them to jump into. 

Though it was really just this little pool.

The sunset on our drive home. 

We ate dinner at 9pm at Wendy's, we had to eat outside because the inside was closed. 

A Junior Cheeseburger never tasted so good.

Overall it was a great trip with new friends- would go to Yosemite with strangers again.