Surfrider Cafe

Down town Santa Cruz has some pretty sweet little restaurants. We found this one on Yelp, I think it was the pictures of the deep fried avocados that got our attetion.

Deep fried avocados? Yes please!

We decided to head straight to Santa Cruz on Sunday before we went to Palo Alto, just so we could spend a little time at the beach. Of course food was on my mind….the last two times we were in Santa Cruz, the places we ate were not worth mentioning. I was starting to worry about the city of Santa Cruz, did they have any good restaurants? This time, upon arrival, we stopped at a Starbucks for some coffee, and asked the locals where to eat. They told us about a very nice place, and we actually made reservations there, but then in the meantime, we found the Surfrider Cafe on Yelp and decided on that. We both wanted to try those avocados. They did not dissapoint. Our waitress told us that that’s what they’re known for. I bet. Wow. Just wow. So, these little slices of (perfect) avocado are lightly breaded, or rather rolled in bread crumbs and then deep-fried to perfection.

All good stuff right here.

Of course then we had still had the main course coming. I had the sliders, with more sliced of avocado as you can see, and crispy fried onion slices. C had grilled fish and fries (fish and chips done healthy) with a couple of prawns. It was all delicious!

Double brownie delight.

For some reason we thought we needed desert. We did not. But I’m not sorry we ordered it. It was supposed to be a warm brownie with ice cream but we asked her to just bring the brownie. So she substituted another brownie for the ice cream, just stacked them on top of each other (what smart waitress). The whole thing was dripping with chocolate sauce and covered in whipped cream. With a cherry on top. Oh my….yeah. That was an amazing desert. To our credit, we didn’t finish it. We could’ve, but we didn’t.

This place is on my list of places to go back to. I highly recommend it.

Until next week…

The cancer update

Officially this was supposed to be an ‘rest’ week. But… the trial experts needed to have some test results to check my progress and to see if the drug is working and, also how well it’s working. So Monday found us once again in Palo Alto. I really can’t complain, it’s a beautiful place to hang out, but a week off from hospital stuff is pretty nice too. Anyway, this past Monday I had to have a PET scan done at Stanford. In case you’re wondering what a PET scan is, let me tell you. They inject you with a radioactive solution and let you sit for about 45 minutes so that can work it’s way through your body. Then they lay you down on a giant table that slides into a corresponding giant tube to ‘scan’ you. I’m a little claustrophobic, so I really have to tell myself not to think about being trapped in a small space. Just close my eyes and try to take a nap. No thinking, just napping. After 25 minutes or so it’s all over. That’s it in a nutshell. 

Normally it takes a week to get the results from the test, which I’m fine with, I don’t sit by the phone waiting for them to call. I feel fine, I don’t need a test to tell me that I’m feeling better. But a really awesome (wonderful, miraculous, blessed) thing happened this week. One of the trial team members called me the day after the PET scan to tell me the results of the scan. She said it’s really good news, there was no suspicious activity. The lymph nodes, the ones they were keeping an eye on, are shrinking. Hallelujah!!! Happy dance, happy dance!! The little pills I take every day, twice a day, are doing their job. Praise the Lord! I can’t say it often enough how grateful I am for Stanford and the doctors there. God is an awesome God. Yes he is.

Progress 🙂

To be continued….