The beach house weekend was a blast. A relaxed blast, if that's possible. Turns out Pajaro Dunes abuts a bird sanctuary, and a short walk down the beach brings you right into view of it. There were swarms and swarms of all kinds of cool birds -- the ubiquitous western gulls, but also barn swallows, dowitchers, sabine's gull, some tiny birds that were probably pipers, some big gull-looking birds that were probably albatrosses, and some pelican looking birds. (Forgive the vagueness-- the internet is NOT the best resource for figuring out just exactly what you saw! I will confirm what I saw once I get my hands on my guides after work. )

That was one awesome (mostly personal) hit of the weekend. Lest you think I've given up on my extensive food blogging of late, I'll inform you that the other was Steve's cooking skills. He made a "carpetbag" steak -- a flank steak, marinated in good old magi sauce (you may not know the name but you would recognize the taste for sure -- very traditional steak marinade), cut almost in half and stuffed with (cooked, not fresh, in this case) oysters, capers, shredded cheese, onions, and garlic, and then grilled to perfection.

And I do mean perfection. I nearly swooned it was so delicious. In fact, we had known red-meat-decriers AND even a vegetarian who tried it and also swooned. Amazing. Steve is at last proving his culinary education! Yum.