This place is quite the little gem tucked away in the southern part of Santa Cruz. It’s located right on the water’s edge near a marina, the constant soft clanging from sailboats and the seagulls are the accompaniment to your dinner if you are fortunate enough to snag an outdoor table. I definitely recommend making reservations ahead of time if you want to eat here, as it is quite popular.
Of course we started with cocktails and the bread, lately I’ve had a thing for Bloody Mary’s, so I thought I would see how well they do them at this place. They didn’t disappoint me, thankfully, and C had some craft beer that seemed to go down pretty smoothly.
Next up for me was a nice cup of clam chowder, I’m a sucker for clam chowder, and this was definitely delicious. I wish I could eat more of it, but I really have to stick to a small cup if I want to enjoy my dinner. C had himself not one, but two shrimp cocktails, because the first one was so good he decided to get a chaser.
And then there was dinner. I had the Sand Dabs, which is a type of white fish, very thinly sliced, coated in parmesan cheese and pan fried. Oh. My. Goodness. I’ve never had Sand Dabs before, but these were so soft and buttery I managed to clean my plate. Mostly.
C had the Pacific Rim Chicken Breast. Now, I’m not usually a fan of chicken at restaurants, but this meal was amazing. The chicken was tender and juicy, and very flavorful, I definitely recommend it. Unfortunately, we were so excited to eat the main course, that we dove right in without documentation. Nope, no pictures of the main course. Sorry! It was delicious even if there are no instagram pictures to prove it.
There was no room for desert, but we made up for that the next day after my Stanford appointment. Bonus review: La Baguette in the Stanford Mall has these amazing chocolate strawberry pastries. They are a delicious as they look. That thing didn’t stand a chance.
The Cancer Report
Well, that was quite a week! It was a little more intense than I had anticipated. To say the least. My Doctor said this would be a more gentle approach, because they would be using an immunosuppressant instead of the normal chemo drugs. Well….. my body did not agree with that statement. The immunosuppressant is made with rabbit proteins, something they fondly refer to as ‘bunny juice’ in the world of bone marrow transplants. It sounds funny, but it didn’t feel funny. Bunny. Monday afternoon/evening were pretty rough – fevers, chills, vomiting. All the typical stuff associated with chemo. But then, that’s why they had me check in to the hospital for the first three days of treatment. When they told me that my body would tolerate the treatment a little better each time, I had a hard time believing it, but they were right. By Wednesday night I was walking out of the hospital a free woman (with a giant face mask, but so what). So happy to be out. Ecstatic actually. Now the trick is staying out of the hospital, and that just means being super careful about my health. Today is Friday and I’m receiving my last dose of the bunny juice, and I had my fifth radiation treatment this morning as well. The radiation is a breeze compared to the rest of it. Next week I have four more days of radiation, and then on Friday I’ll be getting the stem cell transplant from my sister. And then it will get a little easier as far as appointments go, three days a week instead of of daily appointments. That will be so much nicer than coming here every day.
I’ve just seen so much this past week, it’s sensory overload. A lot of nurses from when I had my first bone marrow transplant are still here. It was nice to see them again, except for the circumstances of course. And then there are all the other patients, I definitely know I’m not alone in this. There are a LOT of people with cancer, and a LOT of people getting the exact same treatment that I’m getting. For the most part people seem pretty upbeat about it. There is a woman sitting across from me right now, she is about 10 years younger than I am, and just beautiful. She is almost all the way through here treatment. And she doesn’t look worried about the future. She has three children, 16, 14, and 10 waiting for her at home, and she seems perfectly calm about stepping back into her role in life. I’m sitting here admiring her, and hoping I can be as dignified as she is. I just have to get through this one hard week first and then I can start to recover from this.
And then there is the house situation, people have asked us, “does Stanford provide a place for you to stay?” Um, no. Or, “does the insurance cover that?” Also, no. Either of those things would be really nice, but nope, they do not do that. What they do, is tell you that you must stay locally, within an hour of the hospital, and good luck. Well, we found a great little casita, which is actually someone’s guest house, and we are able to rent it for the next three months. The landlord is a very nice Greek man, who is very generous and seems to want to help out with everything. Also, his wife is a surgeon, so I guess that’s helpful, but hopefully we won’t need her services.
All in all, it has been a good week, and I am thankful to have survived it. True story.
Adventures in Food 