One Table with Hernan Gipponi

 As I alluded to in my previous post, last week we tried a different, semi-closed restaurant while Ted and Kyra were in town.  We first heard the name Hernan Gipponi when he partnered with our friend Chef Mun last month to host a joint dinner in Buenos Aires.  After that, Pick Up The Fork wrote a thorough post regarding the entire experience, which was enough to make me pick up the phone and make a reservation.  The restaurant is in the hotel Fierro in Palermo (Soler 5862, Palermo, 3220-6820), reservations are required, and the One Table concept is only available on Monday nights.  If you are able to jump through those hoops, clear your calendar for Mondays and jump on in.

As expected, there is one, joined table in the restaurant with 14 seats, so you'll be sitting with anyone else who has a reservation that night. We were hoping for a local experience with a local chef for our visitors, hilariously, there was only one Argentine at the table.  And he is married to an American.  Chef Hernan seemed slightly uneasy by the 100% English speaking dinner, and he cut some of his food descriptions a bit short - I think for fear that we weren't all keeping up.

The restaurant is small, but perfectly decorated. One wall has a large window to see right into the kitchen action.  The opposite wall has one of the coolest photography collages I have ever seen. Black and white, close-up and long distance, they are all food related photos - a mix of ingredients, cooking utensils, and food preparation methods that set the mood for the rest of the evening.  This brilliant idea may make it's way into my home someday...

We were met at the restaurant door by an English speaking hostess that offered us a bloody mary while we waited for the rest of the guests - and after seeing my super-baby-belly, immediately asked if I wanted a virgin version.  Strangely enough, I received a virgin bloody mary while everyone else received some sort of refreshing grapefruit-lime-vodka-spritzer garnished with either a sage leaf or bay leaf that I was told was very good.

We were served a panko-breaded shrimp in tzatziki sauce as we waited to sit down, and then again once we were seated. The shrimp was crispy and hot, the sauce was tangy and citric but it was one of the less memorable dishes of the night - not the one I would choose to offer twice.

The set table has some great touches. Handwritten menus (written by the chef) both in English and Spanish, pristine kitchen towels that matched the menu colors which served as napkins, bread served in small burlap sacks and condiments like olive oil, Patagonian sea salt, pickled turnips and cucumbers available for all to share.  

The second tapa course was a smoked salmon dish served with a sour-cream-based-creme-fraise-style sauce and a thinly shaved fennel salad. There was one dish for every two diners, and ours was gone in a matter of minutes. I forget how good fennel is when someone knows what they're doing, for me it always tastes like licorice.

The next tapa was steak tartar with crispy onion rings served with a side of guacamole.  The combination itself is interesting, but everything went together with a great mix of textures, flavors and temperatures.

Another nice service note, the staff brought me a plate of tiny empanadas during these courses, again due to the pregnancy.  I enjoyed the garnishes and sides on both of these dishes, but only taste-tested the proteins themselves.  Por las dudas...

So, here's where it got a little more interesting for me.  Something I have never seen on a menu, veal heart.  It looks and tastes just like beef, not surprising I guess - since it is beef, but the concept just messed with my mind for this course.  It was served with oversized lima beans and a salad of pickled items, both of which added to the texture of the dish but remained neutral with regard to flavor.

I really enjoyed the fact that the chef was visible throughout our meal, and personally served a few of the courses.  The first appearance he made for the presentation of a dish was the final tapa, a soft-boiled egg served over a bed of hummus with veal broth poured by Hernan himself.  Cool presentation and I loved the serving dishes - though submerging hummus in broth was a mix of items that I would have done without. The dish was flavorful and interesting - and especially for those that love a yolk-y egg.

On to the main dishes.  That's right - we were still at appetizers until now.  This was a huge plus in the evening, there were so many dishes to try, each one more interesting and creative than the other and there was enough food to leave everyone satisfied.

The catch of the day was linguado (sole, for all of us English speakers...) and it was cooked perfectly.  Flaky, moist and served over fresh veggies - delicious.

Next up, a dish called Bomba Rice Abanda whose description had me lost in translation. Basically, it is a rice and seafood dish, plated at the table and served with aioli sauce on the side.  I have to say, this dish could have been skipped.  In contrast to the other courses, this one lacked flavor and took up lots of valuable real estate with the amount of rice.  Considering how much food was served, I left space for the other dishes that had more wow factor for me.

Then came the rabbit.  Yep, we had Peter Cottontail and his baby cow friend in the same night. 

The chef, again, came out to wow the table - this time he cooked the meal right in front of us. He took rabbit tenderloins (or the equivalent of, I'm not up to speed on my rabbit meat cuts) and placed them on a fire-hot griddle in the middle of the table.  He then plated the meat on a spiced carrot puree with a handful of steamed vegetables.

This dish was outstanding.  The meat was cooked perfectly, the vegetables were light and al dente. A great course all around.

One of the smartest moves of the evening was to end with a light and fresh dessert.  After all of this food, something like a chocolate volcano or a dulce de leche stuffed crepe is far too heavy (though don't misunderstand, I would scarf down almost any dessert in its entirety).  The mixture of tangerine sherbert, fresh strawberries and what the chef refers to as a vanilla cloud was perfect.

Of the other guests around the table, there were at least three people referring to the blog posts they were going to write on their experience at One Table, so there are sure to be lots of opinions available soon.  In my opinion, this was a great place to take guests, a unique dining experience - even in a city full of surprises - and you should absolutely jump at the opportunity to spend a Monday night at One Table.

New York, New York Resto Bar Gourmet

We celebrated another birthday here in Buenos Aires, Jon turned 32!  As I searched for candles for this year's cake, it amazed me that we had the "29" candles from the first year we lived here.  That means we've been in Buenos Aires for FOUR birthdays, incredible.

Anyways, after our family party at home, we spent last weekend at dinner with friends at a new place called New York, New York Resto Bar Gourmet in Palermo (Fitz Roy 2192, Palermo, 4776-6118).  We heard about this place from the SaltShaker blog, which gave the place a favorable recommendation.

Our reservation was at 9:30pm, and we sat down to a completely empty restaurant.  There are only 10 - 12 tables in the place, though it feels smaller than it should due to all of the decorating "noise"; Christmas lights, sparkly red, white and blue garland, large patriotic flower arrangements and Marilyn Monroe fabrics everywhere.

The menu was all over the place, which we knew going in.  There is KFC-style chicken alongside macaroni and cheese, tacos, Thai salad and BBQ pork, so when the waiter suggested a 5-course tasting menu, we jumped on board.  The waiter gave us the option of 5 courses chosen by the chef, or choose whichever 5 courses we wanted off of the menu.  In a stranger turn, each of our 7-person party could choose their own 5 courses.  This seemed an unlikely situation for a restaurant of this size, there were at most, two people in the kitchen working, we were no expecting these two people to make up to 35 different dishes for our table.  I'm still convinced that the waiter was unsure of the options and was making it up as he went.  Either way, we asked for the chef's selections for the entire table.

We started with the Thai salad, which was very good and presented in a really pretty bowl.  It was the best Thai-style salad that I've had in Buenos Aires.  Tasty, light, and full of a variety of vegetables.  Good going, course 1.

Course 2 was a squash soup.  Also tasty, nicely presented, and served with a delicious toasted bread slice with basil oil drizzled on top.  Another win, though the time between courses was a disturbing 45 minutes.  It seemed excessive considering that at this point, there were only 4 other people in the restaurant outside of our table.

Moving to course 3, the taco.  It was a tasting menu, so we only received one taco, but it was served with a large flower holder candle holder filled with salsa.  The taco was great, filled with pulled chicken and a little bit of spice.  Again, the only complaint was the time that it took to get to this point in the meal. It was a solid 45 minute wait for this little taco, and at this point it is getting late in the evening...

The meal continued with a sushi course, which did not live up to the quality expectations we had from the rest of the food.  The rice was undercooked and the sushi was pretty tasteless.  Admittedly, I am pregnant, so we asked for all cooked items so the sushi was a bit limited.  That being said, the chef was able to choose any items off of the menu, why he chose this course is unknown.

The main dish was a BBQ pork rib that was outstanding.  The pork fell off of the bone, it was smoky and delicious, and the sauce could have been eaten with a spoon.  It was the highlight of the evening!

At this point, it was 12:30am.  One of our friends had to leave and relieve their babysitter so they missed the delicious BBQ.  The waiter came to the table now and asked if we wanted the next course - which he claimed was part of our tasting menu.  By my count, we are already at 5 courses, so we turned the next dish down - which was salmon - but I'm still perplexed as to why we were even given the option.  Since it was a birthday dinner, we stayed for dessert - which took another 45 minutes and had the option of a cupcake, banana split or brownie.  I was the only one who ordered the cupcake, which was just ask well, and as it was delivered the entire dish was dropped in front of me, flipped over and went all over the table.  No worries, everything was cleaned up and a new cupcake was served.  Or the same one with some new sprinkles on top....  The cupcake was dry, my search for a good cupcake in Buenos Aires continues.

So at the end of the day, it was a four hour dinner.  We left at 1:30am.  The food was good, but with the competition in the area, one block from Osaka, Sudestada next door, I'm not sure that this place will survive.  Between the confusion of the staff and the time it took to eat a meal, I'm certain that no one in our group will return.  The menu prices are right, we had 2 bottles of wine and the food mentioned above for AR$200 per person - but we just about fell asleep at the table waiting for the next dish to arrive.

Olsen

After years of enjoying Tegui on special occasions, we finally visited Olsen, the original restaurant opened by Germán Martitegui.  Olsen (Gorriti 5870, Palermo; 4776-7677) is a Scandinavian restaurant that has been highly recommended since the day we arrived, it was due time to give it a try.  The front wall of the restaurant was completely open and spilled onto an outdoor covered terrace, which is where we sat.  The waiter greeted us in Spanish, but then switched to English for the remainder of the meal.  This is something that doesn't bother me as it does some people, I'm fully aware of my appearances as a foreigner, but it was funny that we were fully capable of communicating in Spanish and yet he tried desperately to struggle through in English anyway.

The first item given to us was the vodka list, then the drink list, then the wine list....followed by the food menu - so you know where their priorities lie.  I know virtually nothing about vodka, but our friends were impressed with a specific traditional style of vodka and the way it is served, ice cold in shot glass which is then kept on ice at the table.  It looked very chic, though my pregnant belly prohibited me from doing anything but look.  The inevitable bread course, a staple in Buenos Aires, was a spindle of bagels - interesting and fun, though they were quite dry.

The menu had just undergone a change, and the night we visited Olsen was the first night of a few of their menu items.  The items were so new that after 20 minutes of sitting at our table a hostess said that the English versions had just been delivered to the restaurant if we wanted an English menu.  We did quite alright with the Spanish version - though I appreciate the offer.

Between the four of us at the table, we tried all three new dishes:

I had a grilled chicken with goat cheese potato cakes.  This was outstanding.  The chicken was moist and flavorful and nicely accompanied by a non-cream based dill sauce.  I will take this opportunity to say that there have been very few times I come across dill on any menu in Argentina, Olsen was an exception.  Dill was present in the majority of menu items, in interesting ways that I completely appreciate.  Hats off to dill.
The goat cheese potato cakes were also quite tasty, though there was so much cheese that they were almost overpowering.  I ended up eating them separate from the chicken - they were almost a meal in their own right.  Goat cheese, another rarity in BA, though I will say this version was for the extreme salt-lover.

Jon ordered the lomo, I think.  At this point the dinner was a few weeks ago and we are both a bit sleep deprived so neither of us can remember.  This is not a poor reflection on the restaurant, I do remember his plate being clean when he was done...

Our friends went for the seafood items on the menu.  The first was also a new addition to the menu, the mussels, strangely enough served with large-cut french fries (shown in the background).  The only suggestion here was that the sauce is so good, there should have been some bread to help make the most of the dish.

The second item was a salmon pizza, made without flour.  I'm still trying to figure out how this works.  I believe it was a polenta-based crust, covered with salmon, arugula and pancetta.  I would make a terrible food critic, all I remember was that this was also very good.  Salmon pizza, who knew??

The dessert was, unfortunately, the lamest of the courses.  We ordered the "Giant Oreo Cookie" with high hopes, and though it was a fine dessert that we all finished, there was no comparison to the other dishes.  The cookie itself was a bit dry, the filling was a strange middle-ground between cream and icing.

The moral of the story is: Don't save room for dessert.  The meals are so packed with flavor, interesting combinations and quality ingredients that there is no need to stop yourself during the primary food courses.  I didn't even get a picture of the appetizer, we ordered a 3-part smoked fish plate (this had a much nicer name on the menu, though the menu is not posted on their bare-bones webpage and I cannot remember the name to save my life...).  The dish consisted of smoked salmon, trout and caviar - the salmon and trout were delicious, I wasn't brave enough for the caviar.

Olsen lived up to it's numerous recommendations, the food was outstanding and the atmosphere was great on a summer night. The interior of the restaurant is a modern, angular warehouse feel, so I will reserve this spot for terrace-friendly evenings.  Preferably when I can enjoy one of their numerous cocktails the next time around....

Las Pizarras Bistro

If your Spanish does not include vocabulary from inside a schoolroom, you may not know that Las Pizarras means "The Blackboards", also the name of the restaurant we visited for our four year anniversary back in June (I'm a little behind on my post for this place).

Las Pizarras (Thames 2296, Palermo, 4775-0625) was highly recommended by Dan at the SaltShaker, so highly recommended in fact, that it is in his top 5 recommendations in the Buenos Aires!  This is one of the reasons that Jon went ahead an booked reservations for us on this special night out, and it was a good thing he did because the place was packed by 9:00pm.

True to name, Las Pizarras does not provide any type of printed menu to you at the table, but the menu is incorporated in the decor by being plastered on every open wall surface in the form of a (wait for it....) blackboard!  This is an interesting and novel concept, unless you are the guy sitting right under the blackboard while everyone seems to be staring intently at you all night. This allows for the chef to decide the menu each day and change the components, or the entire dish, at a moment's notice - which is priceless in a city that is known to have availability issued from one day to the next.

We chose our dishes and were immediately served a burlap sac of outstanding warm bread with an infused coffee butter that I could have eaten as an entree.  Coffee and butter, and unlikely, but delicious combination.

Don't get stuck on this novelty, you are going to want to save room for your dinner!

Jon ordered the lamb, which was served over a bed of smashed potatoes and topped with a tomato compote, or relish, or something of that nature.  It was tasty, tender and, in a word, gone.  I wish I could describe it better, this is why I can't wait 2 months before posting about a restaurant....

I ordered the risotto, which is not something that I do often, because I feel like it's one of those dishes better served at home.  This one had multiple kinds of mushrooms in it, which is something that I never make at home due to Jon's detesting of fungi (a ridiculous aversion considering what other foods we eat, but nevertheless) so I enjoyed a chance to eat mushrooms to my heart's content at a restaurant.  The serving sizes are not deceiving, they are LARGE, and we enjoyed every last bit of them.  

We had a great time meandering through their wine list as well, which was ample and included many of our favorites for really great prices.  Just be sure you bring your glasses if you plan on enjoying wine, the list is on one of the smaller blackboards, and I was having a rough time trying to read the selections (darn you, PRK laser surgery!).  

By far the best thing about Las Pizarras is your bill at the end of the night.  For eclectic dishes like this, you might find yourself leaving the restaurant feeling like it was good, but not something that you could afford every weekend - Las Pizarras is the exception.  Our bill was easily 50% of what it would have been anywhere else in the vicinity, and we were much more impressed than we have been at many of the more expensive places we've tried.  This was a win many times over with the casual atmosphere, the interesting and tasty dishes to choose from and the affordable prices.   

The only downside we experienced was a lapse in the service as soon as the restaurant got busy.  The place has roughly 30 tables and we only saw 2 waiters for the dining room, making it a cliche BsAs restaurant faux pas where you get great service for the first 30 minutes and then fall asleep at the table waiting for dessert and/or the bill.  We'll give it another shot though, for the positives outweighed the negatives by a lot at Las Pizarras.  

Happy 4th Anniversary Jon! Thank you for choosing such interesting places to spend a night away from home.

 <3

Unik

I haven't written about a restaurant in a while, though there have been a few that deserve reviewing.  I'll skip forward to our most recent discovery, Unik, which is intended to be Unico (unique), however a restaurant named Unico already exists in Buenos Aires, thus, the name was shortened. We found a favorable review in the lastest issue of TimeOut, our recent magazine find that has become a bit of a bible for us.  If you live in or are visiting Buenos Aires, buy an issue of Time Out.  It's better than any tour book on the market.

We had a 9:30pm reservation at Unik (Soler 5132: 4772-2230, Palermo Soho) and we arrived just as the restaurant was starting to fill up. This is one of the more interesting looking restaurants I've seen, it is bright without being awkward, the decor mixes modern design and retro seating (all of the chairs are different, ranging from barber's chairs to rolling office chairs) and the kitchen is clean, quiet and completely open to the public's view. One of the most interesting features of the place is that the back wall is all glass with a large green neon sign spelling "BadabOOm". I don't understand it, but I like it all the same.

Our table was visited by a few different waiters, along with one particular man that took our order and provided a bit of detail about the restaurant and recommendations off of the menu.  I'm not convinced that this was our waiter, because he was clearly French and dressed differently than the rest of the staff. He was very knowledgeable about the dishes and gave us quite a few solid recommendations.

Yummy smoked butter

Our meal began with a delicious basket of homemade bread and a smoked butter that I could have licked from the bowl. This same smoked butter showed up in a few other dishes; as a condiment to mashed potatoes or as an additive to the mushroom appetizer, and it was tasty wherever it showed up.

The appetizers were small, though a perfect size for each of us to order our own. I thoroughly enjoyed my mushroom sampler appetizer, though I think the best-appetizer prize goes to Jon, who ordered the slow-cooked egg with crispy potatoes.  I'm not much of an egg person, but the crispy potatoes combined with the slightly cooked pancetta was a combination that I would go back for.  It was outstanding.

Best app of the night - egg + potatoes + pancetta = amazing

One of our friends ordered the shrimp appetizer that was served with king crab (a rarity in this city) and tomato gazpacho.  Our friends were gracious enough to let me photograph all of their food as well.

Our meals were outstanding, and I left the restaurant feeling satisfied but not stuffed - which is unusual with all of the heavy food and large portions usually found in restaurants.

Jon ordered the steak, which was good, though the highlight of his plate for me was the smoked butter in his mashed potatoes. I have to figure out how they made that butter...

The other interesting entree option was the lamb, which slow cooked and tender. Not a commonly served item, and even less commonly served well.

After looking at the dessert menu, we both decided on the flourless  chocolate cake with praline ice cream dessert, which was exactly as it sounds.  The ice cream was accompanied by a lighter chocolate item, they were my favorites. If you are a dark chocolate fan, the two flourless dark chocolate bars would have been the ticket.

According to TimeOut, the restaurant was designed by the "architectural wiz" Marcelo Joulia - and it is a beautiful building.  We will certainly be returning to Unik, the meal was delicious and the ambiance was interesting and, indeed, unique.

Home Hotel

For our four year anniversary last week, Jon surprised me with something that we have never done before - left Gretchen with a sitter for the night.  Granted, we have spent the night away from Gretchen before, but she stayed with her grandparents, so this was a new first, albeit a minor one.  We were less than 10 min away, and her sitter was our beloved Candy, who has known Gretchen since before she was born (literally, she started helping us when I was still pregnant).  I worried it was going to be hard to leave but when Candy showed up she brought two of her wonderful children, Gretchen started repeating "bye, bye" to Jon and I while dragging her playmates to her play area to demonstrate her toys.  I'm still not convinced she knew we were gone.

We stayed in room 14, a highly recommendable room

We headed out for the night to a place called Home Hotel (Honduras 5860: 4778-1008, Palermo Viejo), which was recommended to Jon by a friend.  Ironically, it is the same hotel where we stopped for a drink a week before prior to my birthday dinner at Tegui (my choice for celebrating both my 29th and 31st birthdays).

First, the hotel: Home Hotel has an interesting concept, basically, the couple that owns the place were married in Buenos Aires and virtually all of their wedding guests were from out of town.  The guests had trouble finding suitable places to stay, so after the wedding the couple created a hotel "that we and our guests would like to stay at".  Without knowing this backstory, I guessed that the concept was something like "modern amenities meet your childhood home's wallpaper", which somehow works out quite nicely.  Upon checkin, the receptionist gave us, by far the best packet of city information we have received anywhere else.  This packet included a map of Buenos Aires, a more specific map complete with recommendations in Palermo Viejo, a list of spa options and prices, and a 51-page visitor's guide booklet with restaurant, shopping, bar, club, tango, art gallery recommendations and a drawing of a cow with labeled parts so that you can order meat with confidence.  Needless to say, I was really impressed by this packet.

As I mentioned before, the hotel has an interesting 1970s-wallpaper-meets-flatscreen-TV feel to it, but it goes right along with their theme, Home.  It is exactly what you see in people's homes, and there is a quaint and welcoming feel to it.  Don't be deceived by the yarn cross-stitched room numbers, there is a full mini-bar, nice bath products, fuzzy robes, black-out shades, an outdoor balcony and chocolate cookies on your pillow.  My only complaint about the room, and this is certainly not specific to this hotel, is the hairdryer was terrible. Weak. Mounted extremely low on the wall with a super-short-super-coiled cord.  Worst of all, it was one of those that you have to constantly push the button to get it to work - like they're afraid I'm going to turn on the hairdryer and then leave for dinner.  So, next time I bring my own hairdryer and everything is copacetic.

Now for the Spa:  I booked a facial appointment at their spa, and was not disappointed.  The room was clean, quiet, smelled nice and had a comfortable table to lay on.  The products used were nice and left my skin feeling quite nice.  The spa is open to hotel guests and non-guests alike and have a full range of skin care, massage and reflexology options to choose from. My appointment was with Cynthia, she gave a great facial, a mean shoulder and arm massage and spoke impecable English.

And lastly, the Bar: We stopped at the bar for a drink before heading out to dinner at Las Pizarras Bistro.  We chose the bar the weekend before because it was close to Tegui and it was recommended by TimeOut Magazine as a place with great drinks. The drink list is short but interesting with drink ingredients like capers, cucumber, jalapeño, mint, basil, honey, grated ginger and egg white - though not all in the same drink.  I had their Green Martini which includes cucumber vodka, fresh basil and capers which Jon stuck to his favorite, the Mojito, which had at least a full cup of mint leaves in the glass.  These drinks were interesting and fun, though the bar lacks a bit of the mainstream options that people tend to look for on a drink list.  When we met at the same bar with a group, a friend ordered a strawberry daiquiri, and they didn't have that or anything even remotely close to it to offer as a second choice.  The other part of the bar that seemed out of place is the furniture.  The first thing that comes to mind for me with this style of furniture is an office building break room, or a hospital waiting area.  For the amount of class that the rest of the hotel gives off - this furniture has got to go.  There is a beautiful outdoor garden and pool area that, unfortunately, didn't have any heaters, so it went unused during our visit.

A great stay at a great hotel - and the perfect night out for our anniversary.  Home Hotel is a comfortable place to stay in a great part of the city - and the amount of information they give you when checking in is worth it's weight in gold.  Bravo to Four Years of Marriage!

The Palermo Rose Gardens: El Rosedal

There are a whole lotta parks in Buenos Aires, so it took me a while to find this "rose garden" park that everyone was talking about.  When I finally stumbled upon it, I felt like an idiot, because it has somewhere in the realm of a million roses (actually, more like 5,000, according to their website), thus justifying the name El Rosedal.

The Rosedal is actually a small part of the Parque Tres de Febrero, a park that sits between Libertador and Figuero Alcorta, starting at Sarmiento street.  Virtually every weekend, especially in the summer, there is a fun run, or a roller skating tournament, or a brake-dancing show, or some other event going on in the pedestrian street that covers the perimeter of the park.  This is one of the most lively parts of the city during weekend days, and it offers a fun day outside for families, or fantastic people-watching for the casual observer.  There are vendors located on the pedestrian street that rent bicycles and peddle carts, a paddle boat rental for the small lake and plenty of ducks and geese for the little ones to feed.  It is also a great place to bring your camera and get fantastic, colorful shots of the city.

I have gone to El Rosedal exactly 10 times.  I have entered the park exactly 5 times because the other 5 times it was closed.  Maybe it's just me, but the downside of this park is that it seems to be closed on the most awkward of occasions.  New Year's Day: closed.  All Mondays: closed.  Carnival: closed (apparently it is closed all holidays, I should have learned from my mistakes). And to top the cake, I have attempted to take my in-laws to visit this park at least 2 times, my mother-in-law being a huge fan of flowers, and they have yet to get inside the gates, it's always been closed.  So, be warned, check their website before visiting, because on even the most beautiful spring day.... the gates may be shut.

Jon and I have taken Gretchen to this park together 2 times, and in an extremely unfortunate turn of events, we both wore the exact same shirts on both visits.  Luckily, Gretchen changed considerably between the two visits, so you can easily tell the difference in the pictures.  In other news, we are looking forward to our next US trip so that we can buy some new clothes.

Daddy and Gretchen April, 2011

Daddy and Gretchen, April 2012

Mommy and Gretchen, April 2011

Mommy and Gretchen, April 2012

 For families that want to visit the roses, here is another tip.  The rose gardens are accessible from two different directions, one has a footbridge with 12 steps up and then 12 steps down, the other direction is a long sidewalk of these clay-rocks, both are pretty rough on a stroller.  Bring the jogging stroller on this outing, if you have one, and if not, consider a carrier for the little one.

Also, the clay stones leave clay dust on EVERYTHING.  It's impossible to resist this face that wants to play in the rocks, luckily, the dust washes out.

 One of my other visits to the Rose Gardens was with our friends the Wilsons, who visited us back in October 2010, when Gretchen was just a little bean in my belly.  We got some great pictures of the roses, and the adorable Wilson girls:

Emma and Roses

Rebecca amid a whole lot of roses

 There are nice fountains and lots of walking paths around the park as well, it really is a nice place to spend an afternoon.  The actual Rose Garden is pretty strict about not going on the grass, so if you pack a picnic, plan on eating it on the outskirts of the park.  Also, if you visit in summer, the lake is a big draw for mosquitos, so bring some spray.