Tongfamily Website

I had a dinner with some folks there last week, it is right at Emerson and University in Palo Alto, so convenient to get to. They have a great wine list (which restaurants in tony Palo Alto don’t). Metroactive (http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/10.10.02/dining-0241.html) seems to have the best reviews of local Palo Alto eateries.

My buddies who took me there recommended the lamb and the veal chops. I have to say they were terrific as was all the wines. You really need to go there with friends as there are so many different things to try. I also had their .

If you are wondering, Lavanda is Italian for lavender and the chef is a well know fellow down there. His name is Clyde Griesbach and he was at Marbella, Azur and Goosetown Café.

[Read more →]

Well, I don’t know how authentic it is, but Shiok is a great find in Menlo Park, its on a quiet street and it has great teas including the lime one that I had where you got to pour your own sweetener in. The shrimp was really tasty and the service was quick.

My buddy who goes there quite a bit tells me it is very reliable.

A perfect hangout right around the corner from the glitz of Stanford Shopping Center. Glad there are still places like this on the Peninsula.

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

It wasn’t clear from this if you want a landscaper or a landscape architect. This review is for an architect to plan a project.

We’ve had her work on a small landscaping, a big one and then a whole front lawn and she’s done great each time. Not the cheapest, but you’ll get a really creative design that really uses Northwest native plants.

If you are looking for the ball of evergreen and the big green lawn, she’s not the right person, but she did for us one project where she used waving native grasses that looked just great. In another project, she took a really bare naked lawn and used creative hardscaping to break up the sight lines (a la Central Park or our very own Lake Washington Blvd) to make everything super private.

[Read more →]

The folks at Sprague do our regular pest control maintenance. They are good about coming regularly and they do a good job.

Our main problem has been carpenter ants, but when you need a nasty yellow jacket nest taken care of, they will do it.

They are environmentally sensitive to the extent you can be, so there are some spots where we don’t spray but just watch for the big ants. BTW, this was a bad year, so keep on the look out. Carpenter ants are rampant in Seattle.

[Read more →]

And the best thing is that he’s reliable. You can call him on his cell phone and he’ll tell you what job he is on and what is doing. The carpet cleaning is thorough. Probably a little on the expensive side, but you get what you pay for.

The nice thing is that you can just say the carpets up the stairs are dirty and he’ll just do those. None of this, we’ll do a room and then rip you off.

With all the kids traipsing through, it is great to have someone who can take care of it and make it look nice at least for a while.

He doesn’t use any yucky chemicals or things which is nice!

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

OK, so maybe we didn’t see the Ompa loompa man, but this whimsical shop has just about everything form Jawbreakers to Vomit Jelly beans of Harry Potter fame. A great place for that little bag of treats from after dinner.

There is a great pizza place across the way, so its a great after the ‘za treat place.

[Read more →]

OK, it ain’t the biggest water park nor the most exciting, but as a family-oriented place that doesn’t feel commercial, it is hard to beat. By noon on any sunny day it is incredibly crowded, but we’ve been there when it is raining and its great.

The key is to get there by 9:45, so you are the first folks in the door. Normally, they have a separate line if you have cash, so make sure you have $15 per person and you will fly in. We get all our rides in by 11AM it seems.

There are a total of ten slides and they are all different and fun. The most amazing is the Purple Haze, which is a completely pitch black and I mean black slide where you go down the tube, you go this way and that. Water splashes everywhere, you can barely breath and then you come shooting out just a millisecond after you see a dim light. Then if you are seven years old, you laugh and go running back up the hill. If you are any older, you collapse shaking. It’s a great experience. really!

They have a set of slides where can go down head first and race. Alex thinks the heaviest person wins, but we’ve seen some great technique. A great team sport. The center slide features four with different layouts that are fun to disentangle.

There is also a gigantic hot tub to warm up in and a great kiddy area with slides from 3 feet to 30 feet tall for the little ones. They have a nice snack bar and we normally get there at 10 and can be out by 2PM feeling just great!

[Read more →]

We’ve been to Campbell’s for both casual upstairs which is mainly bar food and also the more formal dining below. It’s not 5-star elegant, but the upstairs has a nice view and its fun to see the whole city move below you.

The more formal place isn’t pretentious, but it is nice to have one place with linen table cloths in this town where you can live the whole week in your bathing suit :_)

[Read more →]