J-Pop festival, Gorilla BBQ, model store

Here's a bit of what I've been doing lately--yesterday, we visited the J-Pop music festival in SF's Japantown. I'm including just one photo here, but there were lots of people in costume walking around, and the craft booths were fun to peruse also. I bought a small kit to make crochet squares to donate for Earthquake and Tsunami relief in Japan.

The red train car is where my favorite take-out food is, Gorilla Barbeque. There's no place to eat inside the car, it's all kitchen and a little counter for ordering. But it's near the beach in Pacifica, so there are plenty of outdoor places to eat.

Finally, we also visited a traditional "model" store in SF, Franciscan Hobbies on Ocean Avenue. It has been there for years. I never knew there were so many different magazines about model trains!

Wood sculpture and breakfast on the Coast

My son's first attempt at wood sculpture came out very nice. The oil finish really brings out the grain and he polished it so it is totally smooth, lovely to touch. My crochet lace scarf also came out quite nice, if I do say so myself. We had breakfast at the 3 Zero cafe today at the Half Moon Bay airport, the row of mailboxes across the road is a typical rural scene.

Seen at the Alameda Antiques Fair

I snapped just a couple of photos at the Alameda Antiques Fair yesterday--the red and black blanket is entirely crocheted, really gorgeous workmanship. The vendor had two matching blankets, he wanted $120 for both--he said they were crocheted in South America. Unfortunately, they were made with a scratchy wool that I could not imagine actually wrapping around myself!
The other shot shows some amazing woven chairs and hats, they look African but the vendor wasn't around for me to ask questions about how they were made or where they came from.

The Japanese Garden in Portland Oregon

I went to the Sock Summit last week and blogged about it on the Knitting Today! magazine website. But after the event was over, we spent a day doing other things in Portland. First, we took the MAX train to see the Japanese Garden, which is lovely and has a great view of snow-capped Mt. Hood. The MAX station there is underground, and has an interesting display of the soil that was removed from the area when it was built (ancient timeline). The Rose Garden is just across the street, but we didn't have time to walk through it, because we had to get to Powell's books! Just outside the store, we had a quick noodle lunch--it was delicious. I also ate at Burgerville several times because there was a location right across the street from our hotel, near the Convention Center. Also, the food is excellent and inexpensive--what more could I ask for? We had one great dinner at the Oyster Bar downtown, but I didn't get a good photo of the outside of the restaurant.