Calgary, AB, Canada (March 2026)

One of my good friends lives up outside of Calgary. We had been meaning to visit them along with just seeing the area as D has never been. I visited Calgary with my parents when I was quite young so don’t remember too much about it. My core memory from the trip was going to the top of Calgary Tower and taking a trip out to a glacier where we got to ride on this giant contraption with wheels at least 10 feet tall – with the warning that you could fall into a crevasse. I also had a few free nights at different hotel chains and luckily was able to use those and save a few bucks.

We flew into YYC and obtained our rental car – a Volkswagen Taos. Previously when we went to Vancouver, I had rented a Volkswagen Tiguan so was familiar with their SUVs. We landed a little later in the evening so after checking into the Hyatt Regency, set off looking for dinner. Calgary is known for their beef as there are a lot of cattle ranchers in the area (it also just so happened that there was a Cattlemen’s convention in our hotel that was wrapping up that same day). The reception at the hotel mentioned SALTLIK steakhouse just down the street so we walked on over.

The restaurant was surprisingly out of a few cuts of steak (blaming the recent conference). We ended up with some appetizer/small plates and then shared a steak and dessert. Overall it was fine but nothing that really stood out.

The next morning I walked a block over and grabbed some breakfast from a small cafe located in the basement of a tall office building. The breakfast sandwich was fairly tasty!

The weather was supposed to be decent this day so we decided to make a day trip out to Banff. The time of year that we visited was the end of winter so it was still a bit chilly (but not TOO chilly). My friend had mentioned that her favorite lake to visit in summer on the way to Banff was Lake Minnewanka. The lake was frozen over but we stopped to take some pictures and used the restroom that was there. It was just a short drive from there into downtown Banff.

We parked the car and grabbed some lunch at The Boss Kitchen and Bar. The restaurant was named after a legendary grizzly bear that lives in the Banff national park. We split the pulled bison sliders, poutine, and a salad (the waiter was kind enough to split the salad for us).

After lunch we walked around town to get coffee. The town reminds me of most small mountain skin towns. We found a cute little coffee shop called Mountain Folk Coffee and then it was on to Lake Louise. I didn’t realize that when the lake freezes over you can actually go walking on it and the nearby Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise makes a skating rink on the part of the lake adjacent to the hotel. We walked out onto the lake and then also tried to check out the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel doesn’t allow non-guests to really see much of the hotel.

Initially I wanted to drive part of the Icefields Parkway (Alberta Route 93), which is a famous 227 km scenic route that many say is one of the most beautiful drives. Somehow we got a bit confused and ended up going down 1 West instead. So we turned around and headed back to Calgary just in time to grab some dinner. I had seen good reviews about a pizza place called Noble Pie. The wait if we wanted to sit and eat was going to be over an hour so we decided to just order a pie to go. I believe the pizza we got was the Magic Pie (Tomato Sauce, Garlic, Fresh Mozzarella, Fennel Sausage, Basil, Cream & Parmigiano Reggiano).

Breakfast was at another spot located on the first floor of a bigger commercial office tower. This time we sat and ate at the restaurant. It was a chain called OEB Breakfast Co. I had their version of a a breakfast poutine and D had the classic breakfast.

We then meandered over to the CORE shopping Centre. We wanted to look at and possibly pick up some sunscreen. The FDA hasn’t approved some of the better ingredients for sunscreens so we look and sometimes pick up suncreen products when out of the US. We then went to explore some neighborhoods surrounding the city before going to see my friend’s new business venture. We went through Northwest Calgary (Nose Hill Park) and Edgemont.

We then met up with my friend and her family to walk around the new business and afterwards headed up to their place north of Calgary in Airdrie. We enjoyed a dinner and just hanging out with them. They also have quite a few critters such as some beef cattle, dogs and many cats. It was a good evening.

Unfortunately the following day when I woke up, I wasn’t feeling 100%. The weather had been holding out but it also started snowing this morning. I ran out to get us some coffee and breakfast from Rosso (nearby) and then we just hung out. We did need to check out of the first hotel and move to another hotel (nearby).

Driving around in the snow reminded me of my days in MI. Overall it wasn’t too bad but I was glad to have rented an SUV for this trip. One of the previous Top Chef Canada contestants had opened up a fried chicken venture and so we headed on over to Cluck N Cleaver Chicken for lunch – overall not too bad.

I’m always in search of decent coffee and D found this small place in the Chinatown region called Hidden Corner Cafe. Definitely was a bit hidden as you go down into the basement of a building and there is a small cafe present. We enjoyed a warm beverage and a pastry.

We were then able to check into our hotel at the Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau Claire. All of their rooms are set up as suites so this was a first for me. It was nice having a living room area separate from the bedroom. We had dinner reservations at Vero Bistro Moderne. This was a cute little place that is a fusion of French and Italian cuisine. This was a unique but good overall dinner.

Because of the sometimes bitter cold, the city of Calgary developed a system they called the +15 Skywalk. These are weather controlled walkways set up between various buildings throughout the downtown corridor and are open to the public. You can therefore make your way to various parts of the city without ever having to step foot outside. We went to The Bow building for breakfast at Patisserie du Soleil. There is a large mesh head art exhibit in front of the building. We grabbed lunch at Bread & Brew and coffee from Analog.

We also drove out and checked out a mall to look at more sunscreen. For our last dinner we made our way over to Caesar’s Steak House – using the +15 Skywalk. This felt like an old school steakhouse and experience as it opened in 1972. I had a lovely Manhattan and nice steak with sides. We shared an apple pie for dessert.

And then we had a very early morning flight back home the next morning. Overall was good to see our friends. I did experience (not consistent but multiple days) where I had this outbreak of intense itchiness of my palms and some other areas. Not sure if related to the cold or to the significant dryness in buildings due to heat. It was not pleasant. I used to live in very cold places but that’s been decades now.

-StewsCat

Hawaii (February 2026) – Part 2

We hopped on a short flight back to Oahu and picked up our rental car. Our friend has a 2 bed-2 bath condo near Waikiki and generously offered to let us stay. Parking is a huge pain in the butt in the area but she had graciously parked her car on the street right outside her place and when we arrived we swapped spots (she has covered parking in her complex).

After dropping off our stuff, we walked over to Ala Moana Center to grab some dinner. Within Ala Moana there is the Makai Market Food Court in Foodland Farms. where you can get customizable poke bowls/plates. After grabbing some food and drinks, we walked across the street to Ala Moana Regional Park and watched some fireworks while we ate.

In the morning, KP and I found some breakfast in the building next door to where she lives at Da’ Hi Brew. It was raining a fair amount again so for the morning we decided to check out the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA).

Lunch at Paia Fish Market, located in the International Market Place, consisted of some fresh fish. I had mine in a sandwich along with some fries, while D had hers as fish tacos. I had read about this place that had some homemade ice cream and sorbets and we went on a walking adventure after lunch to Henry’s Place.

We then just chilled back at KP’s place until dinner. We had a lovely dinner at Merriman’s Honolulu. During our honeymoon on Maui, D and I had gone to Monkeypod on the recommendation from friends and it turns out that Merriman’s and Monkeypod are part of the same restaurant group. Of course I had to have a mai tai. We shared the Bag O Biscuits and the daily special salad. KP had the pork shank, I had to the macadamia encrusted fish and D had the mushroom ravioli. We then finished off by sharing the chocolate purse.

We walked to a local breakfast spot the next day at Sunny’s Local Grind. I of course had to get the loco moco and it was delicious. Our friend suggested we drive out to the southeast end of the island to try to do some whale watching. On the way we passed by Diamond Head. Unfortunately there weren’t a ton of whales to see and the area we were in was swamped with flying insects and then it started to rain. We ended up continuing around the island to Kailua and stopped at Maui Mike’s Fire-Roasted chicken for lunch. This place actually turned out to be pretty tasty as well. Prior to lunch we had also checked out the Kailua Honey Tasting Room & Store (our friend had been looking for some lilikoi honey).

To get back to Honolulu we drove through the foresty part on the H3 and then we were planning to stay at an AirBnB in the Manoa Valley area. When I booked, they had stated some construction was going on but when we arrived it was a lot worse than that. The entire building was a construction site and the person who we found there was working on the place and had no idea about reservations. She was texting with the owners (apparently there had been a recent change in ownership and they were trying to make the place habitable again). The person there thankfully said that we should just leave and cancel.

Hawaii (February 2026) – Part 1

We hadn’t been back to Hawaii since our honeymoon many years ago. One of our good friends now lives on Oahu and we had been talking about both visiting her as well as just going back to Hawaii for a vacation. Knowing that it was the slower/rainy season, we booked a trip to go in February. I hadn’t been to the big island in even longer and D hadn’t been before so we decided to check that out first and then spend the latter half of vacation in Oahu.

We landed at the Daniel K Inouye International Airport in Honolulu around lunchtime and we had a few hours to kill before our next flight to Kona on the Big Island. After walking up and down the hallways checking out our food options, we settled on Mauka Market. I tried a Hawaiian themed hot dog and D had some poke.

After arriving in Kona and getting our rental car, we made our way to the Royal Kona Resort, where we were staying for the night and also were attending their luau. Part of the resort was under construction so we were able to get a good deal on the room. I really liked the fact that right outside our building was a salt water lagoon that you could go wade/swim in (which I did the next morning before checkout). The room came with 2 complimentary mai tais but we also had unlimited drinks at the luau so didn’t end up using our room coupons. The rooms were clean and comfortable, though a bit dated and you could tell that they were indeed ready for the upgrades that the resort was performing.

For the luau, we were seated at communal tables and started off with some drinks while they were waiting to unearth the pig and get the food ready. The food overall was pretty good. After we ate they then had the actual show, which consisted of various dances including some fire dancing.

The following morning we grabbed some breakfast at Arise coffee. They had these “bubble” waffles so we tried one of those along with a Acai type bowl. The bowl was very delicious and the waffle was also tasty.

Dinner Rolls

For our cousin’s night dinner last week, I found a random recipe online for dinner rolls. I have done parker house type rolls before and also have done other general dinner rolls (without great success). I didn’t have any milk on hand so found a recipe that didn’t need it. Overall these rolls actually turned out to be quite the hit (nice and soft) at the dinner so decided I should save it here for future reference.

Ingredients:

3-3.5 cups AP flour
1 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons white sugar (I only had turbinado sugar so used that)
1.5 teaspoons instant yeast
2 Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 Egg

Mix water, yeast, and sugar. Let sit 5-10 minutes to bloom
Add egg, oil, salt, and 3 cups flour. Knead until smooth and slightly sticky (can add more flour) – I did this by hand, can do in a mixer
Cover the dough with damp towel and let rise for one hour or until doubled in size
Grease 9 x 13 inch baking pan
Punch dough down and place on lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 14-16 pieces and roll into ball.
Cover and let rise and double in size again
Preheat oven to 350 F
Bake for 20 minutes or until browned
Brush with softened butter or oil
Let sit 5 minutes then move to cooling rack

I made this recipe again and made some bigger buns for possible sandwich/burgers. They grew a bit more together than I anticipated.

Crumb from latest batch along with one use case as turkey burger bun

-StewsCat

NorCal (January 2026)

Ever since moving down to southern CA in 2024, we haven’t been back up to the Sacramento area. We really missed the food and decided to make a trek up to our old stomping grounds (both Sacramento as well as the Napa Valley area, another favorite place to visit when we lived up there) in early 2026. After living in the Sac region for so long, we had some “go to” places that we wanted to hit up.

After landing at SMF and collecting our rental vehicle, we made our way over to Davis to have some lunch before the drive out to Sonoma. The first restaurant to check off our list was Mikuni Sushi. While it is now a chain with 10 locations, it is still quite good and relatively affordable sushi and other Japanese fare. Knowing that our dinner that night may be somewhat heavier, we ordered accordingly and had some sashimi, rolls and nigiri

After lunch, we walked over to Pachamama to grab some caffeine for the slightly over an hour drive to Sonoma. They had some seasonal drinks and I had one that was like a “Fireside mocha,” which was quite tasty. Also the toasted marshmallow was a nice touch.

Our room at the boutique B&B in Sonoma (Inn at Sonoma) was ready early so by the time we arrived we could check in. I had stayed at one of their sister properties (funny enough the parent company is called Four Sisters) while working down in southern California. This place was just a few blocks from Sonoma Plaza.

We had a little bit of time to kill before dinner and decided to do a little bit of a hike at the Sonoma Overlook Trail (I had discovered it when I was researching a bit of the area to see where I could run – fit in a run later in the trip). The trail had a slight incline and took about 40 minutes of casual meandering to get up to the top. At the top we spotted a family of deer that were grazing and of course keeping an eye on us. Before heading out to dinner, we partook in the B&B’s free wine and cheese hour

StewsCat

Running, baking, cooking, drinking