sushi

I'll try to keep this short, as I am in a crunch right now. Ariel will be here in a week, after visiting her aunts Nan and Beth in the Bay Area (on a work assignment). She and her mom are going to Ojo Caliente, her mom's graduation present for finishing her NYU program. We will have some time with her, too, and maybe that will even include attending Jack's cub scouts banquet on Friday. He's not gotten many awards this year, but he will get his bear and many awards this time. Tonight, Jackson and I are doing the overnight at Explora, while Ry and Cyndi spend time together. Tomorrow there's midday supper at Ellie's, and we'll cook a brisket for that.

We went to Sho-gun last night for our family Valentine's Day celebration. A little late, but we couldn't schedule it any sooner. It was fun.

Jackson has been wanting to go to Sho-gun for a long time. It's in Nob Hill. We called just as we drove out of our garage, and they could seat us at the sushi bar about the time we would have arrived anyway. We found a parking spot right at the front door and only waited about five minutes.

There's a river of little wooden boats that goes around the sushi bar. On some of the boats are little dishes of wasabi and ginger. At one time there would be sushi on the boats, but I think they have stopped doing that. There were a few boats with bits of paper on the them with little handwritten notes, many writing about someone or something the writer loved.

We ordered sake and a cabernet. We spied the dishes the people sitting near us were eating, and that sparked conversation with our neighbors. I asked the chef what he recommended and he made us a couple of yummy sushi rolls for us. Soon the chef was presenting us our orders. We also ordered little bowls of rice for the boys, and Jackson wanted the nigiri sushi, ebi, with shrimp. Cyndi and I had to have a little unagi. Jackson was still hungry so we ordered some California roll, which he was not much impressed with, and a crab nigiri, which he loved. I had spied tempura-fried ice cream on the menu, so I ordered one green tea and one vanilla.

As I was finishing my sake, Cyndi her wine, the boys the ice cream, we starting reading the little notes going by and Cyndi put her sake cup on a boat and we watched it disappear around the corner and then return around its circle. Then Jackson put his Lego Ninja Mini Figure in the cup and we watched that go around a few times, looking to see if anyone would notice it. Rylee put one of his figures in the cup with Jackson's, and we watched them go around together in the little cup on the little boat along the moving water. Somebody put a little piece of paper from a sugar packet on top of them, and then we watched as other people noticed the figures floating by. The boys thought that was all good fun. We finished our wines.

We did a little late night shopping in Nob Hill. Ry found a huge sticker catalogue of Lego Mini Figures, while Cyndi looked at hats and shoes and bracelets. Jackson liked all the gizmos and toys at the store we went in. Nob Hill is doing well, better than ever, with lots of shops and restaurants. The weather was finally nice, and there were many people strolling the sidewalks. A fun night out.