Serena Epstein » nom http://serenae.com Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:18:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Cornwall, Day 4 http://serenae.com/2009/07/16/cornwall-day-4/ http://serenae.com/2009/07/16/cornwall-day-4/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:01:31 +0000 Serena http://serenae.com/?p=911 We spent the sunniest day of the week outdoors, on the Lizard. Mid-morning, the high tide was crashing into Mullion Cove, where I climbed a hill and made friends with a pretty bug. After that, we hit up the Lizard Pasty Shop for “Ann’s famous Cornish pasties” and ate them overlooking the ocean.1 We arrived at Kynance Cove just in time for low tide. I did pretty much the same things I did last time I was there, the only difference being that I’m not four years old anymore. (I had to be careful not to damage my camera while exploring the many caves and climbing cliffs barefoot. Life is easier when you’re four.) All of the cliffs at Kynance are made of beautiful green and red serpentine (lizardite). I geeked out a little over this, and got strange looks from my fellow beach-goers as I leaned close to the rock walls to examine green serpentine veins. It amazed me that people were running around and climbing on these rocks without even noticing how gorgeous they were.

Fun fact: basking sharks are very common in Cornwall, and fishermen/divers/tourists often encounter them as they rise to the surface to inhale plankton and small fish. The sharks, not the tourists.2 They’re pretty silly looking,3 and are normally six to eight meters long.

  1. They almost lived up to the hype. The crust was delicious and flaky (the best I’ve had in a pasty), but the filling could have done with a bit more steak and a bit less swede (rutabaga).
  2. What I wouldn’t give to see a tourist inhale plankton.
  3. Well, that could be the tourists…
]]> http://serenae.com/2009/07/16/cornwall-day-4/feed/ 1 San Francisco, Day 2 http://serenae.com/2009/03/03/san-francisco-day-2/ http://serenae.com/2009/03/03/san-francisco-day-2/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:05:49 +0000 Serena http://serenae.com/?p=759 Second day of San Francisco trip. Started off with food from Boudin at Fisherman’s Wharf, then chocolate from Ghirardelli. Explored the city some more, ending up at Haight-Ashbury, where I purchased a delightful rainbow argyle sweatshirt.

More photos on flickr.

]]> http://serenae.com/2009/03/03/san-francisco-day-2/feed/ 3