G'day mate!

We were not sure we were going to make it all the way to Australia when we originally left for NZ ten months ago.  But, as we realized it was only a relatively inexpensive, 3 hour flight from Auckland, we decided we would have to do it (as opposed to making a 15 hour flight from LA for instance.)  So when Jen saw that there was going to be a medical conference in Adelaide, the largest city on the southern coast of Australia, we took the occasion to also throw in a side trip weekend getaway to Sydney.

Jen left NZ and flew first to Melbourne, the biggest city in Australia.  She visited with Cameron Waterman, and his aunt and uncle, Sam and Michelle Cameron at their home, and they hosted her for the night, and she got to attend their church the following day.  Then she flew on to Adelaide for her conference.

Jen described Adelaide as a decent size and otherwise unremarkable city on the southern coast of Australia. Her lack of photos are telling.  But she enjoyed the conference and the food and the dancing one night when the conference had a 70's/80's hits band : )

After the 3-day conference, Jen flew to Sydney to meet Pete, who flew in from Wanganui that same day.  Amazingly, with no working cell phones, they found each other in the airport (like old times!) and took the train from the airport into the main city center.  Our hotel was located in the perfect spot - right by the wharf, the opera house, walking distance to the Rocks neighborhood with its restaurants and cafes galore, and across the street from the Botanic Gardens.

Thursday we had a great cafe lunch at a French cafe, sharing a baguette sandwich, an Aussie meat pie, and lovely coffees.  Seemed verry Aussie.  And we walked the wharf area, and parts of the Rocks.  Here is a shot of us from the Rocks looking back to the Opera House.

That night we got all "dolled up" for our big night out...

...and went to the Opera House where we saw a play at the drama theatre called Hay Fever.  It was an old British comedy about these layabout and idle rich country folk, and was very entertaining.

Friday we woke and took the commuter ferry to Manly Beach, a really nice beach town just a 30 minute boat trip from downtown Sydney.  We started out with a short walk around Manly Beach, and were amused by old guys in very skimpy bathing suits running on the beach, huge numbers of surfers out in the ocean and kids out playing beach volleyball in their school uniforms.

After a delicious cafe brunch at a place just off the beach...

...we then walked to Shelly Beach and around the National Seashore area.  We took in lots of great views over the ocean, and of the lovely little sandy coves and beaches that dot the shoreline. We were amazed that right outside such a cosmopolitan city, you could find little coves to go snorkeling!

We decided to walk the 5 or so mile out to the farthest point, and were rewarded with views of the Tasman Sea and even all the way back toward Sydney Harbour and the Sydney skyline.

Realizing how far we had to still walk on our return to the ferry, we began stopping more frequently,  but each cove seemed to have its own cafe, and so we had a couple coffee stops to fill our awesome day together. Here was the view from one such cafe.  Not shabby.

Finally after a return ferry trip, it was off to a great sushi dinner at a restaurant just a short walk from our hotel.  To adapt a line, "Toto, I don't believe we are in Wanganui anymore."  This place was flash!

Saturday we walked the whole area again, visiting the Botanic Gardens in the morning, having another cafe lunch in the Rocks, and enjoyed the mild late Fall weather.  We saw very pretty views of the harbour bridge and opera house.

A friend of ours, Jared, had lived in Sydney, and he recommended that we go armed with peanuts to the Gardens and try to attract tropical birds.  He emailed us pictures with birds draped all over his family - cockatoos, lorikeets, you name it.  And indeed we saw both of those kinds of birds and more, but our attempts to coax them out of the trees made us wonder if we were on "Candid Camera" and he had just photoshopped the birds into his pictures, because they were not biting on what we were selling, so to speak.  A local guy told us they only came out of the trees in the early morning? Maybe he was in on the joke? Maybe Jared is a bird whisperer and didn't realize that he has actually missed his calling in life?  At any rate, here is a shot of a couple lorikeets in a tree...

...and here is a shot of the famous kookaburra.  We saw this in the tree and a local guide told us it was very rare to actually see them in the park, so we felt quite lucky to see this guy.

Later we took a tour of the Opera House, learning about the whole process of designing, and building this architectural icon.  It was interesting to learn that Sydney understood the opportunity before it 60 or so years ago, and indeed set out to build such an iconic wonder!  It has a lengthy and interesting and even slightly sad history, and fortunately, our tour guide was hysterical and should be doing stand-up comedy work.  He made an already fascinating tour even better.

Our last night we went out to dinner at a brewpub in the rocks neighborhood. And then we did our best mid-40s attempt at bar-hopping, which means that we went to one other brewpub, and then went home to fall asleep : )  though in our defense, we did get a little lost finding the one pub on foot and once again seemed to walk the entire city, and were pretty exhausted.  That, and we are not that much into bar hopping : )

Sunday morning we checked out early and went to Sydney's Darling Harbour.  This was our first spot on the entire trip that we could have skipped.  It was very commercialized and hokey, and, as is often the case in spots like that, our breakfast was very average.

Oh well. Even that couldn't put a damper on our enjoyment of that city.  And from there it was on to the airport and our flights back to Wanganui.  What a trip, what a city!

Kendra leaves for Colorado! Sadness

So Kendra here one more time...

I leave New Zealand in two days : ( A trip that I originally approached with apprehension and, frankly, fear, has actually turned out to be an incredible experience. Coming here as a gap year, taking the time off of college; it actually gave me an incredible time of growth, allowing me to really prepare for my future!

One of the most important things I have experienced this year has been my youth group, Ekklesia. An incredible group of 18 to 25 year olds who all are kind, fun, and passionate about God. For me, it has created immediate relationships and social plans, some of which blossomed into great friendships! Weekly Wednesday meetings for prayer, worship, messages, and amazing testimonies have radically changed my faith, as well as introducing me to some brilliant people. The last one was at our house...

Some of the girls in this youth group have truly become very good friends for me! We have weekly coffee "catch-ups" (Kiwi term) which always end in laughs and good times. When Alannah, a good friend of mine in the beginning of my trip, went to University in Palmy, it simply meant I got the chance to go down there to spend one more coffee date with her. Everyone has been very welcoming!  Here is a perfect shot of Tiare, Kerry-Ann and me having fun while out on the town.

My work has also been a true blessing! I wanted to find a job to earn a little money and to give me something to do, but Mint Cafe truly exceeded all of my hopes! I worked between 2-4 days a week, occasionally as much as 30 hours. By the end, I had finally begun to have regular shifts on Thursday nights and Sundays, with other shifts coming and going. And I still had great flexibility to take time off for travel.  It was an incredible job with an amazing staff and boss which made it fun and welcoming! We even had a little party at the end, which most of my co-workers came to!

Of course, because of work I hadn't been able to go on all of the trips that the family went on. I hadn't been to Wellington, but my friends Tiare and Kerry-Ann decided to take me down for a night on the town! We went shopping, visited Te Papa (the national museum), went out to a few bars (hey, it's perfectly legal at my age in NZ!), and visited Weta Workshop the next morning (prop creators for LOTR, Avatar, and lots of other movies). It was an incredible last weekend with the amazing friends I have made while being here.

Then, in the very last week of being here, my dad took my for one last trip up to Taranaki, re-creating another trip I hadn't yet done. Despite heavy rain, we drove up the "Forgotten World Highway", a gorgeous, rarely used highway in the Taranaki region. Halfway through was the "Republic of Whangamomona" a small town that had declared itself a republic in the late 1800s (it was a tiny little bar and hotel in the middle of nowhere...still fun though!)

We then visited a lovely waterfall, which was pretty swollen by all the rain (yes it was still raining.)

Upon making it the coast, we tried to take a beach walk at Tongaporuto (a town that is actually about 10 summer houses...) but got turned back by vicious wind and surprise! more rain, which had caused the river to be too high to make our way along its banks and out to the beach where my family had previously explored. Instead, we took a shorter walk on the other side of the river, getting to the northern beach at Tongapurutu, and seeing beautiful sea caves and cliffs, and these weird little boulders that are imbedded in the limestone.  Heres a selfie of us from the bluff above the beach.

The next day was spent in the Egmont National Park, doing walks to other beautiful waterfalls, the "Goblin Forest" (forest of very gnarled, moss covered trees...very middle earth-y!), and lava created pools.

All in all, it was a wet (yeah...still raining) but very beautiful trip, and a lovely way to end my year in New Zealand.

This has been an amazing time, and I am so grateful for all the incredible opportunities that I've had in this beautiful country! Great friends, beautiful scenery, amazing job...what more could I ask for? Goodbye to New Zealand, hello to the USA once more!

Lake Waikeramoana and Te Urewera National Park

We asked Kendra, who has only weeks to go before returning to the states, what she wanted to go see before leaving NZ.  Number one on her wish list was Te Urewera National Park, a very remote bit of wilderness in the Eastern part of the North Island.  There are two ways in and out of the park, and they are dirt roads - one from the northwest side from Rotorua in the middle of the country, and one from the town of Wairoa, which sits on the Pacific Coast about halfway between Napier and Gisborne.

Last Saturday we dropped Jen off at the airport for her trip to Australia (more on that in a later post) and set off driving the five hours to Wairoa and spent the night in a holiday park there just off the river that bisects the town.  What a relaxing evening under the stars!  

Waking early, the girls and I took a drive through very shire-like countryside to Lake Waikaremoana and the Park.  An interesting side note to Te Urewera is its name! From Wikipedia...The name Te Urewera is a Māori phrase meaning "The Burnt Penis", from the tale of a Māori chief who died after rolling over in his sleep while lying too close to a camp fire.   Yes, you read that right!  Lindsay was seriously grossed out, but also giggled a bit, when she found out.

Our first stop was for a hike up, up, and up to a lookout of the Lake.  It was a gorgeous hike and it afforded a view of the entirety of the area.  The Lake is huge and surrounded by hills covered in dense virgin forest and rock outcroppings. And lake itself is beautiful to look at, the water crystal clear and having multiple colors, as you see the greens and blues of the lake bottom.  So it is pretty stunning, as this pictures shows. But I also liked this photo because it was windy and made for fun artwork with Lauryn's hair : )

Descending from that overlook, we drove to the Visitor Center and set out on a tramp to the neighboring Waikareiti Lake.  It was an hour long uphill walk through very dense native bush and forest.  Here is a pic of the girls on the hike.

We gained about 1000 feet as we climbed, and we were happy to arrive at the lake's edge and just marvel at it for a while.  If Lake Waikaremoana was clear and multicolored, it was nothing compared to Lake Waikareiti.  You could see thirty feet to the bottom at spots, and where the bottom was green, the water appeared the same, and where it was sandy, it was clear, and in other spots it was blue.  Unreal.  Not sure if this pic does it justice!

This lake is also famous in that it is dotted by islands, and the largest of them has a permanent lake within it...so...you guessed it, it has a lake on an island, which sits in a lake sitting on the island of New Zealand.  Only in NZ!  

We rented a row boat, and endeavored to paddle out to this island. We enjoyed the experience and the adventure...but man oh man was that difficult, and I am not sure we would do that one again.  We always seemed to be going straight into the wind, and we felt like we were making no progress, and either we would go too far left, too far right, and seemingly never where we wanted to go! Anyway,  the girls were superstars and all took turns, and I helped too, but mostly laughed as the girls struggled with it, and took these pictures on our very small boat!

We did circle one of the islands, but had been told that landing on the one island (the one with the lake on it) and hiking to that aforementioned lake was forbidden due to trapping and poison baits that the DOC had set in order to eradicate possums, stoats, weasels and rats and re-introduce native birds to the islands.  That ended up being OK with us because that island was about twice as far of a row as the little island we did circumnavigate, and I think we would have been out there all day on that rowboat if we had to make it to the further island!

Back on dry land, we completed our hike back toward the visitor center by taking a loop and seeing some waterfalls, which were pretty remarkable...

...but by the end of that hike we were all so exhausted from the walking and the rowing that we wanted nothing more than to check into the DOC holiday park at the Lake and get some dinner.  We checked into our cute little cabin (four bunks and a little table) and then had one of those awesome hot dinners while camping (2 minute noodles thrown together with some chicken I had cooked before leaving) and then Kendra and Lauryn trounced Lindsay and me in numerous games of Euchre :( but we had a great time.  And we were just about the only people in the park - we only saw one other couple at our holiday park.

One last note on our day there - the weather was unbelievable - sunny and relatively warm, and not that windy.  And it was clear, so at night we could see more stars than we thought existed, specially since we were about as remote as we ever had been while in NZ.

But overnight a huge storm moved in and the wind howled, and we woke to grey skies, heavy winds and cold temps (more typical for this park apparently) so...time to get moving!  Still, we did a few more hikes while in the Park - to Mokua Falls, a huge waterfall that drops some 100 feet or more from its stream bed and down this steep valley, then is met up with by another stream and waterfall that drops in from the other side of the valley.  The next picture shows a tall waterfall falling the valley below, and what we didn't know at the time of taking this picture was that we were standing just over an equal size waterfall which meets up with the one we were photographing.  The two rivers met below, and the scene was something out of Lothlorien in Middle Earth! 

I will also include these following shots at the waterfalls of the girls, who were awesome on this trip.  I had taken off to find a spot to climb down to the valley, and never knew these pictures were taken until I downloaded them later.  Nice work, girls!

Finally we left the park, but stopped by on an NZ Frenzy recommendation to see the "ferry lakes" that are just outside the park.  Apparently some of the water from the Lake is pumped out and into a man-made lake, and the water is used for a hydro-electric project on the east side of the park.  We were super glad we did this short hike, which was way off the beaten track!  The lake was even more crystalline than the others we had seen, and the lake bottom was green or blue in places, hence the name fairy lakes, and so had this ridiculous appearance of being phosphorescent green or blue.  The trail was overgrown and it didn't appear that more than a handful of people come out to this remote spot every month or so.  So another very obscure and beautiful spot in NZ that we could hardly believe.  This picture was taken by Kendra, and hopefully you get a sense of this spot!

After a long stop in Napier for time on the beach, some dinner, a little soccer for Lauryn...and some more pictures of the girls...

...we drove home to Wanganui to end a long weekend. We were really glad we had made the trip to this spot which so many kiwis have not even heard of, let alone visited.

Hard to get to? Check!  Remote native setting? Yup! A feeling like you have gone back in time to the mid-1950's?  Definitely! Unbelievable never seen before attractions? Of course!  Sounds like a place you should get to!

Fiji Time

Bula!  Before leaving for NZ, friends of ours were already telling us that as long as we were getting to NZ and the South Pacific, we would absolutely have to do our best to get to Fiji.  Only a three hour flight from NZ, at about the same longitude, Fiji is stereotypically South Pacific - atolls and islands covered in coconut trees, bush, and white sand beaches, all of which is surrounded by warm, aqua blue water and pristine coral reef.  So, during the kids Fall break from school, we made this our one really "flash" trip while here - seven nights in Fiji, five of those on a small island an hour's catamaran ride off of the main island.  Those six days truly brought us onto "Fiji time".  The pace at our resort - Musket Cove - was so slow that it was impossible not to relax and enjoy the tranquility of the place.

Here are, in no particular order, our favorite things about the trip and about Fiji...

"Bula!" You have to love a place with a national saying - "Hello" said in a sing-song kind of calming way to anyone and everyone and at all times.  No matter where we went, we would hear "Bula" in this calming and friendly way, from people who just seem pre-disposed to being outgoing. We could get used to that!  It just brings a smile to your face and is so relational.

Guitar strumming - The Fijian people just seem to naturally have these melodious, deep voices, and we heard a lot of singing.  Every dinner, lunch, welcome ceremonies, restaurants there would be a few guys with acoustic guitars, and accompanying percussion, singing Johnny Cash or new pop songs or 1970s hits.  Here was our welcome party at the resort...

Beaches and Coconut trees - There is something so calming and scenic about coconut trees on the beach, until something would fall from one and almost knock you out!  We learned to be careful what you sit under!  Also, it was a little eery (but obviously non-threatening) to see these giant (foot wing spans!) fruit bats swooping in and out of the coconut trees at dusk. Anyway, when you think of Fiji, you think of beaches and coconut trees, and our island did not disappoint.  Here are some of our favorite scenic pics...

Barefoot or sandals - How nice to go a week without shoes!  Even Pete got in on this action and worked on his tan lines.

Crystal clear water and colorful reefs and fish - we snorkeled once or twice a day on trips to local reefs arranged by our resort, and we even went scuba diving one day!  We will do a separate post on that later, with videos, but what a treat to do that every day for a week.

The village trip - mid-week we took a trip from our resort to a local village on a different island.  It was a very real experience, as we saw how a typical village lives.  Here is a picture from the little market on the beach at the village.

Here's a picture from our welcome ceremony, done in a small house in the center of the village.  We drank the traditional kava juice and paid our respects to the village elders.

Finally, here is their school and grounds.  It was fun to see our kids wrap their minds around growing up and going to school on a small island in the South Pacific.

Medicine walk - on our penultimate day, one of the local guides at the resort who had some training in local medicine toured us around the property and showed us the different trees, plants, and leaves that local healers use for various ailments.  It was fascinating and educational!

Our barbecue experience - we took the week off cooking and allowed others to cook for us, except for one night, and even that was cheating.  We picked up some marinated meat and seafood and grilled it on the beach using their gas grills situated under the coconut trees by their island bar.  That was a relaxing and tasty dinner.

Pig on a spit - we had a traditional pig on a spit dinner one night.  Our favorite part of this was that the spit the resort used was right outside our villa, so all day we saw the smoke and fire and smelled the roasting of pig, so the anticipation just kind of built throughout the day for it.

Wind-Surfing - the girls spent a little chunk of each day learning to wind surf, and getting some nice complimentary lessons from the male staff (who seemed all to happy to help out all four of our blondies : )  It was pretty windy most days, making it more difficult, but the girls persevered and by the last day were turning and staying upright most of the time!  Here is a shot of Lauryn and Jen upright and riding with the wind.

And we were also able to take out the paddle board - looking good, Jen!

Chilling...but mostly we just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company, and got some terrific family pictures.  Here are our favorites...

In a subsequent entry we will post some pics and video of our time spent in the water, scuba and snorkeling.  It was awesome and worthy of a separate entry!

Undoubtedly it is a bit exotic to get to Fiji from the Western Hemisphere, but....if you can, you will not be disappointed!

An American guide to New Zealand Foodie Culture - Cafes, Meat Pies and Coffee

We were pretty unaware of the culinary traditions of New Zealand prior to arriving. We vaguely knew that this was not a "foodie" destination, and that the country was known more for its wonderful natural beauty than for its cuisine. Nine months in, our general observation is that we were spot on - the food is nothing to write home about (though, ironically, that is just what we are doing right now.)

The Kiwi cuisine is mostly a mixture of English style foods - fish and chips, pies, roasts - and then the Maori diet consists of grilled meats and roast veggies, and fresh fruits. NZ also has a lot of Asian eateries - Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Korean.  We have been pretty satisfied with these takeaway restaurants, the quality of which seems comparable to those we have in the states. Perhaps it is just because we live in a small town, but we don't really have much in the way of fine Italian, French or bistro style dining, and that which we have tried has been average at best.  And we sorely miss Mexican and American Southwest food, which is almost non-existent here.

So what are the food things we will truly miss when we return to the states?  First, NZ is blessed with awesome local produce year round.  There are great fruits and veggies who's quality, taste and freshness is unlike that we were used to in the States on a regular basis.  This is not California produce! The Kiwis do not know how good they have it.  Right now for instance there are seven or eight varieties of apples for under a dollar a pound, three or four different pears that are absolutely stunning, a brand new crop of locally grown mandarins, and both gold and green kiwifruit.  It can be hard to find those fruits when they are out of season, but that is OK - something always seems to be in season since NZ is so temperate, and all of this local produce is seriously tasty.

Also there are fruits we do not have.  The feijoa, for instance, is a native NZ fruit that many people have growing in their yards, but which you can also get in the grocery or fruit markets.  It is EVERYWHERE right now.  This is a cool fruit - it looks a bit like a small, smooth and unripe avocado.  After cutting it open and scooping the fruit out, like a kiwi, it tastes both sweet and sour and has the gritty texture of a pear.  They are interesting, unique fruit.  We have experienced four of five such fruits here that we had never had in the US.

Another thing we will miss is the coffee culture.  We had no idea what a big part of life cafes and coffee are in NZ.  Kendra specifically remarked that every time she goes out with a friend here, they always go to a small, independent cafe.  That has been the same for all of us.  Having people round the house for a casual cup of coffee just doesn't seem to be done here.  And there really is no Starbucks or chain coffee cafe.  Instead, each town has dozens of local coffee shops serving food.  Our town of 40,000 people for instance must have 25 or more different cafes, another five or ten coffee kiosks streets or in malls, AND, just about every bakery or gas station has their own barista making espresso drinks.  Talk about a competitive market!

But the result of that is great coffee.  Whereas in the states most coffee sold is made via drip coffee makers, it seems that the vast majority of coffee here is made via espresso machine, and that the rest is via a coffee press.  We have not even seen a drip coffee maker since arriving!

In a nice cafe, there are staple coffees that are always made by the designated "barista of the day". Flat whites--coffee shot with thin milk and very little foam. Lattes--shot with thicker milk and some foam on the top. Cappuccino--shot with foamy milk. Long blacks--shot of expresso with a bit of hot water. Mocha--essentially a cappuccino with chocolate, commonly known as coffee for the inexperienced.

There are many others as well--americanos, short blacks, affaghettos, etc. Each coffee is truly created here, and most cafes take great pride in their coffees. Despite how long Kendra worked at Mint, for example, she was never deemed worthy to make actual coffees for customers...that was left to the more experienced baristas! (This was also because Mint truly has some of the best coffee in town, and that's most likely because novices aren't allowed on the coffee machine!)

And part of the cafe coffee experience is the design on your coffee, and how pretty it looks!  In nicer cafes, it is expected that the barista will decorate your coffee with some design - usually leaves or hearts or swirls.  Here is a picture of three coffees from Mint - Kendra's mocha on the upper left (it has waves and swirls), the flat white is on the bottom (it has a heart on it - it got a little undone before we realized we were taking pictures of the coffees) and then there is also Lindsay's hot chocolate on the right.

Last, we will really miss the pies.  To be more accurate, Pete, Lauryn and Lindsay will really miss the pies. (Jen kind of likes/tolerates them, and Kendra just isn't a big fan.)  Many people seem to have grown up having pies here as a major part of their diet.  At the local golf club, after every round Pete guesstimate that half the guys get pies from the restaurant, smother it in tomato sauce (kind of like ketchup but sweeter) and eat away.  One golfing partner waxed poetically that as he has grown a little rounder at the middle he no longer has a pie every day (secretly Pete thinks he does)...but that "growing up, my mum always had a hot pie waiting for me when I got home from school."  His eyes got a little misty at that.

What are the pies like?  Most of them have a shell and crusty pastry top, and are filled with mince (ground beef), steak, bacon, and then have options such as onion, cheese, black pepper in with the gravy and meat. Or lots of times you can find a meat pie topped with mashed potato.  There are also white broth based pies, such as chicken (which often have fruit such as apricot or cranberry mixed in) or seafood pies. And then there are potato, egg and other breakfast pies.    At the fancier cafes, you start getting venison and other interesting options such as curried sweet potato (kumara) or mixes of nuts and berries with meat or chicken.

The biggest difference with the pies comes from where you get it.  For instance, you can get pre-made and heated pies at a dairy or grocery store for around $1.50.  We won't miss these, and only made the mistake of getting them on one or two occasions.

Most common is the local bakery pie.  Some of these are run by Asians and some by Euro kiwis.  These are pretty inexpensive, about $3.50 a pie, but quite large, tasty and filling.  These are pretty sweet and gooey, having a gravy mixed in with the filling, so they are not all that healthy! Naturally, Pete, Lindsay and Lauryn love them.  Here is the warm pie display of our favorite local bakery.  Just help yourself!  And..bonus...after 3Pm or so, pies go to about half price.  The number of dudes in their work overalls sitting in their cars outside these bakeries having a post-work "snack" is impressive, as is their waistline : )  

Then there are also more upscale cafes that make very lovely pies, and these can be $6 or so.  Here is the display case at Kristy's Cafe in Wanganui, which most people here would agree (or admit) make the best pies in town.  (Similar to growing up in New Jersey, and declaring allegiance to a favorite pizzeria, people here definitely have opinions as to who makes the best pies in town.)  Kristy's pies are AWESOME! They are slightly larger, the shell and crust is very handmade and flaky, and just seem much more healthy and wholesome.   We wish we could bring a dozen of these home with us, but they probably wouldn't last the flight and layover.

And here is the display case at Mint.  While they don't specifically make pies, they always offer something like a pie, just because we are in NZ you know.  This is a nice display case!

We all have our favorite kind of pies - Lauryn's is steak and cheese, Lindsay's is mince and cheese and Pete likes the Thai steak pies, or from Kristi's Cafe, the venison pie or curried pies.  Mmmmm.

We end with a photo of Lindsay enjoying pie at Kristi's Cafe...

...and also a recent Mother's Day photo of Jen and her girls at Mint Cafe!  Nothing like a caffeine shot to enhance those smiles!