Saturday and Sunday in California

Saturday was GORGEOUS. Perfect temperature, sunny sunny skies.

We got a late start and started off at Mumm. They had a few options for tastings and we went with the patio, snagging a table all the way in the back, which meant we had an uninterrupted view of the mountains. You're going to get sick of me saying how gorgeous Napa is, but it really cannot be said too much.

Karin & Lori are master negotiators and managed to talk our server into one free tasting if we bought the two most expensive ones. So we got two of the most expensive and one of the next cheapest. And man, were these good sparkling wines. Prices weren't too crazy either - my favorite was $55 and that was from the most expensive tasting option.

Next up was Flora Springs, where Karin had a hook-up. She had made a reservation for a tasting & tour (free!) that ended up being with a foursome who also had a hook-up. Pair all of that with a kickass employee, Travis, heading all of this and we ended up spending almost 2 hours at the winery. Travis let us taste every wine available and gave seconds whenever someone asked. He also let us have the leftovers from some business lunch so we also got some free sandwiches and cheese from Cowgirl Creamery. It was so much fun.

But we spent so long at Flora that the rest of our day was a little cramped. We managed to squeeze in tastings at two other wineries - V. Sattui and Frank Family but it was the end of their days so we didn't get the personalized treatment the way we did at Mumm and Flora, even though Karin had hook-ups at both places. Oh well. The wine at Frank Family was really good - I'd like to go back when I wouldn't be so rushed. Plus they have these picnic tables set up outside their tasting room which would be great for lunch, though the trees were awesomely moody at dusk.

By this time, all of the tasting rooms were closed and we were all exhausted from running around all day. Time for dinner. Lori wanted Italian so we went to Don Giovanni where we sat outside. It had gotten chilly with the dark, but they had lots of heat lamps. And it was nice to be able to still be outside. We had some awesome homemade pasta, went home and watched a movie. This was why it was so great to have a cottage instead of a hotel room - Karin crashed first and Lori & I were able to stay up without disturbing her.

Sunday was another gorgeous day and our last in California. So sad. We took our time getting ready and closing up the house so I had a few minutes to read out on the front porch. Loved that they had grape vines lining the front path!

We went to Boon Fly Cafe for brunch. There was a bit of a wait, but they had free coffee out on the porch and we were able to walk over to the hotel's store that had all sorts of gourmet food and cute little gift items. As well as a large wine selection, natch.

To start, we got a half dozen of their signature donuts. Little two-bite cuties covered in cinnamon sugar and served piping hot. They were so good I almost forgot to take a picture. But I caught myself before they completely disappeared.

After brunch, we had a little bit of time before we had to get to the airport. We debated which cute little town to visit. We had already wandered around Napa on Saturday and drove through St. Helena so we decided on Yountville.

Unfortunately, Yountville didn't have a whole lot going on. A few shops, but nothing to write home about, at least not that we were able to find during the short time we had available. So then we walked up the street to look at the outside of the French Laundry

and saw their gardens across the street. A perfect way to waste some time. We wandered through the rows looking at all of the cool fruits and vegetables they had growing. Things we had never heard of or had only seen once or twice.

And then we went to see the chickens. Towards the back, they had a coop with maybe 10 chickens, all different types. They were so freaking cute with fluffy feet. Do all chickens have fluffy feet or just these? In this picture, there are three different colors going on, all with fluffy feet.

They were super friendly and came running over to us when we approached. We fed them pieces of grass and talked to them. Could've stayed for hours. I can so see why backyard chickens have become so popular.

But finally we noticed the time and headed out to the airport. Our quick little weekend was over and we were sad to see it go, but so happy that we went!

Friday in California

We woke up Friday to clouds and rain. Not a heavy rain, but an off-and-on spitting type of rain. My least favorite type. But we didn't let that dissuade us from our plans for the day!

Since we had skipped the good dinner option the day before, today we were determined to do better. For lunch, we headed over to somewhere for a food truck rally. We were a little concerned about the rain, but they had it under an overpass and even had a few tables set out. Score!

I went with a sandwich from the Bacon Bacon truck.

LGBT - lettuce, goat cheese, bacon and tomato. Mmmmmm.

 this picture is from Bacon Bacon, but mine looked exactly the same

Washed that down with a Mexican Coke made with real sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup. And I could really taste the difference. Even having it in a glass bottle made it that much better. It was delicious.

All that eating made us hungry so we headed over to the Mission for Tartine. We grabbed some coffee and assorted pastries for our trip up to Napa.

I went with a lemon tart, though I did wait until we were at our cottage to eat it since I was the driver. I wanted to savor the lemony goodness. It was well worth the wait. The coffee was fantastic as well (that I did drink on the way).

We hit some traffic, but still, the drive was super easy. Living outside of DC, I always feel lucky that I'm just 2-3 hours from the beach, but man, if I were only an hour outside of Napa? I'd definitely be the luckiest girl in the world.

Hotels in Napa Valley aren't well suited for three women. There are lots of bed and breakfasts, all with just one bed per room, and a few regular hotels that have double or queen beds. But we picked a weekend that was not only a holiday weekend, but also the Napa Film Festival. So we were out of luck when it came to hotels.

On to rentals. I checked out VRBO and VRConnection and the latter had an adorable little cottage on Cross Street that was available our weekend. Two bedrooms, a stocked kitchen, grill out back and a short walk to downtown Napa. All for less than what a hotel would be. Score!

As soon as we go to the house, Karin & Lori went off to find a winery before their tasting rooms closed while I took a nap. Then we went to Mustards for dinner and had a really delicious steak and root vegetable gratin and drank a bottle of this ridiculously awesome wine Karin & Lori had bought from Miner where they also got a coupon for free corkage at Mustards. Score again!

Thursday in California

Hi, I'm Debbie and I'm a bad blogger. And the only pictures I have are the ones I took on my phone.

But I wanted to jot down the places I went in San Francisco and Napa before I forget and in case anyone reading this is heading out there. Because really, I had a fantastic weekend. Mimicking my weekend exactly would not be a bad thing at all. We did a heck of a lot so I'm going to split this up by day.

Here's Thursday:

Lori and I flew out from Dulles together. Our flight left Dulles at 5am and arrived in San Francisco at 10am. Only benefit was seeing the sunrise through the clouds.

this was after the best colors had already faded, but it took me a while to realize I could take pictures while my phone was in airplane mode

Took the BART to the Hotel Nikko and dropped our bags off after talking ourselves into upgrading to a suite for a reduced price (three mid-30's girls + city-sized hotel rooms = bad news). Walked down Market St. to the Ferry Building, stopping to get our eyebrows threaded on the way. Pored over every stall before sliding up to the bar at the San Francisco Fish Company with a view of the Bay Bridge. Totally did not suck and neither did the Thai-style mussels that I had. Totally ridic.

And the artichoke we shared as an appetizer was also so good I forgot to take a picture until it was almost gone

Needing coffee + something sweet + a long walk, we headed up to North Beach. Walked and walked and walked and walked and finally found Caffe Roma. Cute, not crowded, working bathrooms. Had a slice of super dense cheesecake and a large coffee, which was such a perfect combination. And they had brown sugar to put in the coffee. Not Sugar in the Raw, but straight up light brown sugar. It was a fun combination.

Then we walked and walked and walked and walked through Chinatown trying to find a place that did scalp massages. Doesn't that sound like a dream after a cross-country flight & walking for hours? No luck on the scalp massage, but we saw some ridiculous vegetables while dodging the masses doing their daily shopping and walked down some interesting little alleys and side streets. And walked some more. Eventually we ended up about 6 blocks from our hotel and at Stages, an Aveda concept salon. They had 30 minute head, neck & shoulder massages available for $60. About twice what we were expecting to pay, but by this time our bodies ached even more so we were willing to pay. And our masseuse, Eric, was phenomenal. Like Lori wished she hadn't already named her first born son Eli so she could name him after Eric. Plus they were all just super nice and friendly and didn't care that we just walked in off the street.

By this time, Karin's flight from Chicago had arrived so we all met up in the hotel lobby. Our suite was quite swanky with a TV in the bathroom and everything.

Yup, I watched Jeopardy while curling my hair.

We scoured the internet looking for a place for dinner. Karin & Lori didn't feel like taking a cab so we didn't go to the pop-up restaurant and instead went to Trace in the W Hotel. Okay, this is one place where you should veer from my plan. I wasn't impressed. The food was very good and our waitress rocked, but it just had that whole hotel-restaurant vibe going on. Very posh combined with a whiff of sterile. We left kicking ourselves for not going to the pop-up. Oh well, next time. And there will definitely be a next time.

None of us could imagine being awake for a second more at this point (and Lori & I had been up since 3am Eastern) so we hopped in a cab and went straight to the hotel.

Side note - if you upgrade to a suite, you can convince the front desk to send up a cot for free. So everyone can have her own bed. Man, we are getting old.

More adventures to come!

California's been good to me...

Just got back from a long weekend in California - one night in San Francisco and two in Napa. You'd think that flying 3,000 miles for just three nights would be a bit ridiculous, but it's not. I've now done this trip four times and always feel the long flight is 100% worth it.

I'll have more details on my actual trip once I collect the very few pictures from our various cameras (I went with two girlfriends) and look up the actual names of the various places we went (while "the coffee shop in North Beach with the coffee roaster in the front window" worked for a native San Franciscan, I'm assuming the rest of you would like to have at least the street name if not the name of the cafe itself).

In the meantime, I thought I'd give you some of the music that was in my head all weekend. The main one was Tom Petty's "California" (hence the title of this post), but I couldn't find it online. So here's "Walls," also from the "She's The One" soundtrack (all Petty and fan-freaking-tastic) and was also in "Larry Crowne," which I watched on the flight home. Here's a link to the official video http://www.tompetty.com/video and then here's another lovely version with lyrics:

I heart New York

A couple of weekends ago, I went up to New York for a quick little overnight trip with my friend, Karin.  Karin and I have known each other since we were 4 year olds in tap class and have been close friends since middle school.  Her house was an extension of my house in high school, I was a bridesmaid in her wedding and even though she now lives in Chicago, we're still as close as ever and try to get away for little trips every so often.  She was already going to be back in DC for a conference so we just popped up the coast for a little vacay in the Big Apple!

Karin snagged us a FANTASTIC deal on Le Parker Meridian from Priceline and her Starwood card got us upgraded to a super high floor with a view of Central Park.  Sure, it's all brown this time of the year, but still pretty darn cool.

After checking in and changing out of our travel clothes, we hit the streets.  It was a beautiful sunny day, chilly but not ridiculously so.  We headed all the way downtown to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  I love suspension bridges - always have.  Just glimpsing one gives me this tingly feeling inside. 

But first, a stop for a hot dog.  Why do NYC vendor hot dogs taste so freaking fantastic?  And as a Chicagoan, Karin got a kick out of being able to get one with just ketchup.

We walked from Manhattan to Brooklyn so our skyline shots are of Brooklyn.  But that's just fine by me.  Plus it's a lot easier to find the bridge entrance from the Manhattan side.

All of my pictures are skewed a bit right because I was being a good pedestrian and staying out of the bike lane. 

The Verrazano Bridge in the distance.  My dad's from Brooklyn and we would cross over this bridge when visiting his side of the family.  Betcha this is where I got my early bridge-love.

I was enthralled with all the cables.  It made me feel like I was on a sailboat.

On the other side of the bridge, we got completely lost trying to find Brooklyn Bridge Tourist Attraction, Grimaldi's pizza.  But it was so sunny and we were wearing comfortable shoes so it didn't matter.  Finally we found the right block.

But the line was 90 minutes long.  Ridic, especially as we heard it wasn't really the best pizza ever, just the oldest.  And around the block was another pizza place with only a 5 minute wait and we thought it was pretty darn tasty.  Especially when paired with a Brooklyn Brown Ale.

And I was able to get some more shots of the bridge from a different angle, which made me very happy.

We wandered around Brooklyn Heights for at least an hour, working off that pizza and dreaming about living in the neighborhood.  Both of us would have a hard time turning down one of those brownstones!

We headed back into Manhattan to change for dinner.  We went to The Spotted Pig and managed to get a spot at the bar after only 30 minutes.  A heck of a lot better than the estimated 90 minutes for a table.  And I often prefer sitting at the bar - it's more lively.  We shared orders of deviled eggs, devils on horseback, gnudi and the most meltingly rich burger ever.  Washed it all down with a couple glasses of really yummy Zinfandel - yeah, we were happy girls.

Popped into the ladies' room where I was greeted with the most ridiculous wallpaper ever.  It went from the walls to the ceiling with no break for molding.  I had to take a picture, though it's hard to get the impact.  About 3/4 the way up the picture is where the ceiling starts.  But lovelovelove their ridiculously huge scale.  It was a little overwhelming, but in a totally energizing way.  THIS is how a tiny bathroom should be decorated.  Over-the-top ridiculousness.  My favorite.

The next morning was still bright and sunny and while a bit colder, still not too bad.  We walked down to Times Square and snagged 1/2 price tickets for La Cage Aux Folles - orchestra row M.  Love it!

We headed back north and stopped at the Carnegie Deli for lunch.

Where we proceeded to totally crush the Woody Allen sandwich - pastrami AND corned beef.

We asked for extra bread so we could make two normal sized sandwich halves out of each half of that monstrosity, but I didn't even touch my extra bread.  Just divine - everything a good deli sandwhich should be.  And the mustard?  Heaven.

More walking, this time through Central Park where we happened upon a statue of one of my ancestors - Robert Burns.  Pretty sure it's a winding path to get to me from him, but he's a relation nonetheless so I was pretty excited.

We spent so long walking through the park that we had to hop in a taxi to make it back down to Broadway.  The play was delightful and the drive home was completely uneventful.

All in all, it was a perfectly perfect weekend.  Can't wait to do it again!

welcome home, west wind

In 2000, my mom took my sister and me to Italy.  It was a great trip.  We did a tour with Globus which eliminated three strong personalities from fighting over what to do - all we had to do was show up and soak in the beauty of the country.

Lunch in Verona

I can't remember which town it was, but we were wandering through an outdoor market of sorts and my sister spotted these terracotta masks.  SO perfect.  Large enough to not get lost amongst other tchotchkes, but small enough to fit in our carry-on suitcases.  She went with a very scary Medusa, I went with a sweeter West Wind.  At least I'm assuming it's the West Wind.  No snakes coming out of his head to signify exactly who he is.  And who cares that they were probably mass produced?  We still bought them in Italy so they're still special to me.

Zephyrus lived at home with me for several years, but when I moved to my current office at work, I decided to bring him in.  He lived happily on the same wall for years, but then I recently rearranged things and got rid of the second desk (and hopefully will not have to bring it back in!) and decided that it was time to bring him home.

And he's perfect in the blank space above my little dresser!

What's that?  You want to get a better look at how I've rearranged my TV bookcase?  Okay, no need to twist my arm or anything.  Here it is with the flash so you can see the detail a little better.  It's not perfect, but it works.  And I'll probably rearrange it before the summer's out.  I like a bookcase that evolves.

I really like using flowers to balance out the birdcage, though ultimately I'd like to put a lamp there and get rid of the floor lamp.  Though wall sconces would be even better!

sorry for the dark photos - if I wait until I have good light in my living room, I'll never end up posting any pictures!