I Do Stuff…

in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

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Google Maps of the wineries

At last years Christmas party for Nancy’s company they had a raffle giving away three nights at any Marriott with airfare by Delta to anywhere in the continental United States.  It took us a while to figure out where we wanted to go, but we decided on San Francisco by night and Sonoma County by day for a long weekend.  My Dad and Pat joined us for the weekend and it worked out because it was my Dad’s birthday on Friday.

When we finally arrived in SF we meet up with my Dad and Pat right outside our gate, with no luggage to pick up we immediately worked on getting transportation to the hotel.  We had two options: 1) a taxi directly there and 2) public transit.  I for one was excited about taking BART and then the cable car to the Fisherman’s Wharf.  I had heard that BART was quick and clean and who doesn’t want to take the cable car, it’s one of the things San Francisco is famous for.  The train ride certainly was quick and allowed for some great views of the surrounding hills side.  We got off at Powell Street, right in the heart of Union Square.  If you like shopping this is the place to go.  I was surprised by the number of people walking around and the general hustle and bustle of the area.  The weather was perfect, the sky blue, temps low and a nice breeze coming off the water.  We quickly got our bearings and decided on lunch before starting the second leg.

at Gundlach Bundschu

For lunch we stopped off at John’s Grill, a famous landmark in the area.  The restaurant is famous for its steaks and fresh seafood and is the setting for the Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.  The restaurant has been around since 1908 and has the decor to match its age.  The floors are hardwood with oak paneling on all the walls.  Most of the walls on the first floor are covered with pictures of famous patrons, none which we recognize.  If it was just Nancy and I you could say it was our age, but even my Dad and Pat didn’t recognize anyone.  We had finally arrived and celebrated the best way we knew how, some Anchor Steam on tap from the bar to go along with great seafood.  I had the muscles in a white wine sauce and they where fantastic.

After filling our bellies we walked a few blocks to catch the cable car down to the historic Fisherman’s Wharf.  I would say that taking luggage on the small ass cable car might not have been the best idea, but it made for an interesting ride.  The cars are packed to the gills with people hanging all over the place.  Going up and down the steep streets made hanging on difficult, I kept trying not to fall into the people around me.  It took forever it seemed to reach the end of the line for a distance that really is not that far.  We checked in to the hotel and managed to get rooms right next to each other on the fifth floor.  After a few hours of rest we headed out to to celebrate my Dad’s birthday at the Franciscan Crab Restaurant right along the waters edge.  The food was pretty good, nothing to write home about.  What the restaurant really excelled at was the view.  With giant twenty food windows there is not a bad seat in the house.  In fact the tables are tiered so everyone has a great view.  We sat right next to the window over looking the water and Alcatraz.  I had the surf and turf, the crab was OK but the steak was incredible, very tender and juicy.

Irish Coffee from the BV Copyright Summer Park

Being the party animals we are we headed out for after dinner drinks.  My Dad heard about The Buena Vista which introduced Irish Coffee to America so we headed down a few blocks to taste their original receipt from 1952.  When we arrived the place was packed, we lucked out and got a table near the door and quickly ordered a round of Irish Coffees from the extremely friendly waitress.  In no time we had four pipping hot drinks in front of us, cheered once again to the old mans birthday and started drinking.  They are surprisingly good and warmed the body and soul as they went down.  We marveled at the days events, quickly realized the drinks went down to easy we had to ordered another round.  By the time we finished it was after midnight and time to head back to the hotel.  The following day we where headed to wine country and needed to get our serious drinking faces on.  Friday was only pregame.

The following morning Nancy and I woke up surprisingly earlier after a long night of drinking.  The hot tottie Nancy had at The Buena Vista seemed to help her cold as she was feeling better with a little more pep in her step that morning.  My Dad recommended it to help cure her cold.  His father would drink them whenever he felt a cold coming on, got to love those family traditions.  We all meet for breakfast at 8:30 and I got the rental car right on time at 9.  It was a short one hour drive out to Sonoma County and we hit the ground running with our wine tasting experience.  My Dad and Pat have been here before so we had a guide, but we decided to hit a few new places.  Neither Nancy nor I cared where we went, even if the wine was bad there would always be another place just down the road to sample.

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Wineries July 17th 2010
Larson Family Winery – Sonoma, CA
Homewood Winery – Sonoma, CA
Gundlach Bundschu – Sonoma, CA
Bartholomew Park – Sonoma, CA
Kunde – Kenwood, CA

All told on Saturday we managed to get to five different wineries all over the county.  For lunch we headed to Sonoma City to pickup some food before the next winery.  There is a large square in the city center that has a ton of great places to eat and shop.  We parked and walked around for a while before we found a great little place that sold “wine food”, Sonoma Cheese Factory.  Lots of cheese, cold cuts, weird sides, breads, everything you could think of for a wine picnic.  With food in hand we headed to Bartholomew Park for another round of sampling and to get a bottle for lunch.  None of us though the wine was that spectacular but the view from the picnic area was good and we had a great lunch.  After that it was off again to another winery.  Eventually we dropped the folks off at church so they could speak to God while Nancy and I headed to a local watering hole for some beer.  The wine was great, but I wanted a change of pace.  Shortly after that we started the long drive back to San Francisco.

Gundlach Bundschu tasting room

As we approached the bridge traffic got particularly horrible.  It certainly was no worse than Northern Virgina, but none of us wanted to sit in traffic if we didn’t have to.  Pat spotted the sign for Sausalito so we took the exit down to the water front.  Driving through this sea side town, which looks like it could be dropped into any country along the Mediterranean and it would fit right on.  We stopped at the No Name Bar for a quick happy hour drink and then did a little window shopping along the main avenue.  Near the end of our walk there was a small park, Yee Tock Chee Park, that overlooked the bay and SF (covered in fog that night).  Nancy and I were alone finally and just talked while looking across the bay.  While on this trip I planned to ask for her hand in marriage, I even got approval from her father.  Right here right now seemed like the perfect moment.  I told her how much I loved her and what she means to me, then got down on one knee, reach in my pocket and pulled out the right.  I think by the time I pulled the ring out she knew what was up.  Fortunately for me, she said yes.

We quickly found my Dad and Pat and told them the good news, they were excited for the both of us.  In such high spirits we celebrated with some beer and pizza at Caffe Trieste.  The whole time at dinner Nancy was text everyone she knew the good news and surprising, as late as it was on the East Coast, she got back a lot of responses.  Most of my family knew I was planning this and everyone else I called the next day.  When we got back to the hotel Nancy was fading fast so we went straight to bed.  It was actually Pat who couldn’t sleep and  was up for three hours that night.

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Wineries July 18th 2010
Kendall Jackson – Santa Rosa, CA
De Loach Vineyards – Santa Rosa, CA
Hook & Ladder – Santa Rosa, CA
Foppiano Vineyards – Healdsburg, CA

Sunday morning and another trip out to Sonoma.  This time we decided to head further north to check out the Russian River Valley.  I forget which wine they are famous for, but this is certainly an up and coming area of the county for wine.  First we had to make one quick stop, what I was most excited about this entire trip, Muir Woods National Monument.  I couldn’t wait to see some of the tallest trees in the world.  I reminds me of the Grand Canyon, pictures just don’t do it justice.  We got a little lost arriving to the park so we arrived a little late.  It was certainly a good weekend to be outside and a lot of locals decided to take a hike in the woods.  Both parking lots were full so we had to park on the side road about a half mile from the park entrance.

trail in Muir Woods

Before you even get to the ranger station at the entrance you can see the tops of the trees jetting high into the sky.  Once you are inside the park there is a very easy, level, paved path a few miles around the park.  There are certainly many miles of trails through the park, one that leads down to a beach I heard a park ranger talking about.  Other lead deeper into the woods away from all the hustle and bustle.  The whole time in the forest it was peaceful and calm.  The morning fog was not completely burned off so the tree tops where still bathed in fog.  I couldn’t get over how tall the red woods were.  Taller than other living thing I have seen, many building and huge trunks to support their amazing height.  Some of the older trees had to be over ten feet in diameter.  We saw several cathedral stands which are groups of trees growing near each other, usually sprouting from the same tree.  Many trees had scares from recent forest fires but managed to persevere any way.  The trees actually need fire to help them propagate, the fire clears the forest floor of debris allowing the seeds to sprout.  They need ideal condition to grow but once they take hold they grow like a weed.  The forest was a magical visit and I can’t wait to get back there to do a more extensive hike.  I told Nancy next time she could just drop me off at the forest and I would be happy and content to spent all day hiking around the woods like a crazy hippie.

After to short a time, probably 1 1/2 hours, we got back into the car and headed north to the Russian River.  The late start meant we only hit four wineries on Sunday.  Hook and Ladder had a free tasting and all the wines we sampled where excellent.  The prices per bottle were very reasonable with nothing over $20.  My Dad and Pat wanted to mix a half case of wines but unfortunately they can’t ship to Virginia and no one wanted to take it on the airplane.  It is actually run by Cecil De Loach who sold his last winery to start this one.  It still bares his name, De Loach Vineyards where we stopped at but the wines were not that great.  We also stopped at Kendall-Jackson which is a HUGE distributor of wines.  We have all sampled their wines but had a free coupon for four reserve samples is hard to pass up.

Nancy and I in Sausalito, just before I proposed

As the day wore on we headed to Healdsburg to get some food and do a little walking around.  Their city square was nice but easily half the size of the City of Sonoma.  Here we ate at a great restaurant, Healdsburg Bar and Grill, were I got the pulled pork sandwich.  They had this great bbq sauce to go with it and even put coal slaw like a true southern pulled pork sandwich.  The food was excellent and the atmosphere was great.  The restaurant was wide open with tvs everywhere, there was a nice pattio outside that would have been great if it was not so hot.

After lunch we walked around the plaza for a while.  It was certainly much smaller than the City of Sonoma but I would say much more upscale.  Nancy and I walked into one gallery and over heard the sale associate say “If you order over $15,000 in furniture you get free shipping.”  We heard that and walked out, we certainly couldn’t afford anything there.  I found a men’s clothing store that had some nice shirts, but at $120 I could buy two or three at Banana Republic.  There is even a Charlie Palmer restaurant, Dry Creek Kitchen, that I would love to eat at but probably like everything else is way out of my budget.  I certainly felt like I was rich for a few minutes.

Sunday night we took it pretty easy.  After a late lunch in Healdsburg we got a light dinner at Blue Mermaid Chowder House, a place we heard had award winning chowder.  We all got the chowder except Nancy and I must say it was rather good.  After two long days of wine tasting and Nancy still being sick, we headed back to the hotel early to catch up on sleep.  Monday would be spent traveling back to the East coast which is no fun coming from California.  Our flight left San Francisco a little late around 12:30 and we didn’t get into Dulles till 11pm that night.  By the time we got back to her apartment it was well after midnight, ugh.

This was a great trip out to San Francisco and I can see why people live there.  The city is full of sights and sounds that can keep anyone busy for a lifetime.  We spent only a weekend there and barely scratched the surface.  I could certainly go back for a week and stay within the city just exploring all the nooks and crannies it has to offer.  Plus the weather is just perfect.  It was the middle of July but the day time temperature never got above 75 and at night it was crisp with the breeze coming off the water.

Random photos from the gallery:

Photo Gallery

bright purple berries

With the summer officially over the beach house is not being rented any more so this past weekend we took the opportunity to head there for a long weekend.  The Columbus Day holiday allowed for a long three day weekend and the first opportunity to see the beach house after the long summer rental.  We were hoping to go during the Labor Day weekend, but surprisingly people rented the week before and after.  Getting a late start on Friday was not much of an issue.  So late after summer the usual exodus to the beaches over the weekend didn’t happen.  The only trouble we had was around Annapolis and that was general rush hour traffic.

When we arrived the house was in great shape.  Actually most of the summer rentals are repeat customers, some have been coming for over 10 years to the house.  So they treat the house almost as if it was there own.  The yard was of course in pretty bad shape.  During the summer someone does come out and mow it, but that is the extent of the yard care.  Weeds had flourished in most of the flower beds and the bushes were gangly.  On the inside we removed all the baseboard heating radiators.  They must have been original ones because of how corroded they where, with the new heat pump they are no longer needed.

view across Lake Comegys

Other than that the weekend was pretty open and relaxing.  Sunday’s big thing was the Redskins game at 1 against Carolina.  It was a crappy game in my opinion.  The Skins suck and lost the game by three points.  They couldn’t block, couldn’t score, couldn’t tackle.  They even had a safety scored on them when Clinton Portis couldn’t get out of the end zone.  On top of that the Cowboys won against Kansas City in over time and Wisconsin lost a heart breaker of a game, one they easily should have won.  Ohio scored two defensive touch downs and ran one kickoff for a touchdown.  Definately not a good weekend for sports.

But on Sunday Nancy and I did get out for a long walk Sunday afternoon.  We walked down to Silver Lake, down along the beach and headed back home up Rehoboth Avenue.  I was surprised by the number of people that made it to the beach over the weekend.  While walking we ran into a lot of other people biking, walking and just enjoying the pleasant weather.  Even the beach was packed, no one was in the water, but many still went down to the water for a lovely afternoon.  Down Rehoboth Avenue we did a little window shopping in the stores that were still open, after the Columbus Day weekend many more will close for the winter months as the crowds get thinner.

Monday we took the opportunity to do a little shopping before making our way home.  Not that we can’t get stuff back here in Virginia, but not paying taxes is a nice little benefit, every dollar helps these days.  We even had time to stop off at this ice cream shop just outside of town.  It is actually a dairy farm and they make their own ice cream, highly recommend it if you are in the mood.

I wish I could have gotten into the water, but it was a nice weekend regardless.  We always manage to get a little work done and have a lot of fun while up there.  We ate well and drank like sailors.  Most nights we would sit outside talking and finish the bottle of wine we opened for dinner that night.

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When I went to the Nats vs. Red Sox a week ago a good friend of mine, Rob, wanted to come along.  But with the game sold out it was impossible to get three tickets next to each other.  Instead we decided to catch another game.  He had never been to the stadium and wanted to see a game, just like me he is not a big baseball fan, but it’s good to say you did it at least once.

The best day for everyone was a Sunday afternoon game on the 5th of July against the Braves.  If Will and Saundra were able to make it for the fourth, I thought this would have been a great way to end their trip to DC.  But after getting all interested parties together, it would be my Dad, Nancy, Rob and myself going to the game.  We of course followed the same plan as with the Sox game: meet at my Dad’s house, drive to Pentagon City Mall, and Metro to the stadium.

Me, Nancy and my Dad

When we arrived because Rob had never been to the stadium we walked around some so he could get a good look at the stadium.  We also got food and beer, what would a ball game be without beer?  Our seats for this game were right behind the visitor dugout.  These seats were covered so when I checked the weather early in the week there was a possibility of rain, but we would have been protected.  The weather could not have been more perfect game day.  It was in the mid-70′s I believe with near zero humidity.  Clouds hung in the sky most of the day, but rain was never a threat.  For being the dog days of summer the weather sure was not playing along.

The crowd for the game was much thinner.  I should not have seen a sold out game vs. the Red Sox first.  There might have been 15,000 people that day and that is probably just because it was a Sunday game after the 4th of July.  Everyone is already in the city for the fireworks so why not catch a game.  Even with the low turn out the crowds was pretty good.  Again there were a lot of Braves fans in the stadium, this time we Nat fans were not outnumbered 4 or 5 to one.

your OUT!

This was the third in a series with Atlanta, tied at 1-1 with the Nats winning the game on Saturday they were heading into game three with the pendulum swinging toward their side.  Right from the start the Nats quickly took the lead and by the third inning were up 3-0.  The Braves struck back and took a nibble out of that lead in the third with one run scored.  By the ninth inning, with the game all but won, the score was 5-1.  We were still staying till the final pitch was thrown and the game was officially over.  But the Braves had a little life left in them and scored two in the finally inning.  It looked like we had a game on our hand and extra inning was a possibility.  But with some great pitching the Nats won the game 5-3.  My Dad’s win streak was still holding with a win every time he sees a game.

Once the game was over we decided to hang out and let the crowds die down before fighting the crowds on Metro.  This time the staff was more vigorous in getting the people out of the seats.  With fewer fans in the stadium it was much easier to clear out.  Getting kicked out was not a problem, we decided to take the hint and hit the Capitol City Brewery in Shirlington again for some victory drinks.  We ponied up to the bar and ordered a round while we savored our teams victory.  I couldn’t wait to get to work on Monday and nag John about the Nats victory.  He is a huge Braves fan and the lowly Nats won two in the series.

crazy shot

After the first round of drinks it was getting pretty late and we needed to head back to my Dad’s house.  My Dad was grilling flank steak and Rob was staying for dinner.  With such nice weather we decided to eat out on the deck.  But before we left Shirlington we stopped by the Best Buns Bread Co. to get some bread for dinner.  While there I also picked up some lemon squares for desert, everything looked so good.  When we did get back to his house we started cooking and had some great wine to go with dinner.  We sat outside for several hours enjoying dinner and just talking.

It was a great idea Rob had to see a game at the ball park and Sunday was the perfect day to do it.  A lazy Sunday afternoon at the ball park, drinks after, and a good home cooked meal on the deck, life is perfect.  I can’t wait to do it again.

July 5, 2009

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Atlanta	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2		3	9	1
Washington	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	X		5	14	0

crazy

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Being only 25 miles from DC I was looking forward to going to the city to see the fireworks display on The Mall.  I have seen it several times in the past, last year in fact I made the trip up.  But I have never been able to get Nancy to go with me.  Yeah it might be a small trip and there are a TON of people that attend it each year.  But how often do you get to participate in something as extravagant as this, right in your back yard?

I had Nancy convinced to go to the city to enjoy the celebrations, but not because of my doing.  Her brother and wife were coming up from North Carolina to visit and they wanted to see the fireworks on The Mall.  Unfortunately at the last minute they couldn’t make it because of work so the plan of going to DC got scrapped.  Instead we headed to my Dad’s house to celebrate our nations birthday.  I certainly knew we were going to eat well if we came.  Matt mentioned a week earlier that he was planning on smoking some ribs on his brand new grill.  Yum.

When we arrived Matt was almost finished smoking the ribs, the smell coming off the grill made me want to dive right in.  I had not eaten all day so I was definitely hungry for some food.  After he took the ribs off the grill and let them rest he cut a rib for himself, my Dad, Nancy and I.  Sometimes it pays to hangout with the cook, normally you get to try stuff that “falls off the plate” before anyone else.

With the ribs finished and plated, we headed to a neighbors house in my dad’s culdesac to party it up with a few friends and lots of family.  In fact half the people at the party was our family, we certainly brought the troops.  Walking through their kitchen and out onto the deck we passed a full spread of food, enough to feed a small army.  At least enough to make everyone in attendance stuff with good food.  After the mandatory mingling the hostess opened the flood gates for everyone to grab a plate and start eating.  There was so much food I was a kid in a candy store.  I didn’t get a lot of any one particular things, but I made sure to sample everything that was offered.

Nicolas Cage from The Rock

It was wonderful sitting down talking with everyone and catching up with my family.  Bobby and Tracy brought over both kids so half the time they were chasing Ellie around while the other one had Ty.  Nancy did some baby holding and even I got in on the fun.  He is so tiny and I am so big I was afraid I would cruse him or possible drop him.  But Tracy said not to worry, kids are pretty durable.  I must have held him for 3o minutes, most of the time he was awake and staring back at me.  Cute kid.  Very animated too.  He was smiling and laughing the whole time and I didn’t have to do much.  Tracy was saying he doesn’t do that often so it felt good that I could get him to smile.  You know we bro’s got to stick together, I certainly look forward to him getting older and then we can have some real fun.

After everyone was stuff and desert was served it was getting pretty late and about time for the adults to have a little fun. We didn’t have a large collection of fireworks that shot into the air, to my disappointment.  But we did have more bottle rockets and fire crackers then we knew what to do with.  So for about an hour Matt, Bobby, Nancy and I are firing these things off as quick as we possible could.  We even started to get crazy with them and hold onto them or throw them, crazy stuff that no one should be doing when handling high explosives.  Fortunately by the end of the evening everyone had all their fingers and toes with no extra holes in our body.

yikes!

As the night started to wind down I headed inside for a few minutes to catch A Capitol Fourth on PBS.  Every year in addition to the huge fireworks display there is a concert and big production put on next to the capitol building that is televised.  All I cared about was the fireworks display.  I certainly got my fill of fireworks and when it was over it was back outside for more firecrackers.  The show stopping finally Matt had was a giant roll of two thousand firecrackers.  He set it up in the middle of the culdesac and let things rip.  It took about 60 seconds for the entire roll to go off and it was pretty cool.  What was not cool was cleaning the giant mess afterwords.

After a long day of great food and company it was time to head home down 95 where Nancy and I were treated to more fireworks from people that lived next to the highway.  For a state that outlaws fireworks that shot into the are, there certainly was a tone of illegal fireworks around.  But one day out of the year to do your civic duty and celebrate the birth of our nation, I think the cops can over look.  But if you loose an eye don’t come crying to me, your an idiot.

me and my Dad

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Last year I went to my Dad’s house for Fathers Day and cooked him  a spectacular meal.  Getting the best ingredients and making everything from scratch.  It is labor intensive, but I think the final product is well worth the effort.  Well this year Nancy and I continued that tradition and again cooked a wonderful meal to celebrate my Dad and all he has done for me.  This year especially he has helped me get my house and it is the least I can do to honor him is cook him a great meal and bring him some beer.

This time around we had a four course meal.  Well actually it was only three courses, we took the salad course and just included it with the mean.  Only fresh ingredients were used to cook all the food.  Not even the sauces were store made, all made by Nancy and I with love.  She has asked me before about short cutting certain portions of the dinner and I told her no.  I love to cook and especially for something like this I don’t mind putting in the extra effort to come up with a great meal.

Appetizer: Sizzling Garlic Shrimp
Salad: Orange, Walnut, Gorgonzola, & Mixed Greens
Main Dish: Grilled Tasty Chicken Kabobs
Side Dish: Sauteed Asparagus with Dijon Vinaigrette
Dessert: Zabaglione with Raspberries & Peaches

Things turned out really well and we spent several hours on the deck talking and eating.  To me that is one of the most important things about holiday, spending time with your family.  I even got my dad to enjoy some dessert, which he rarely eats.  But it was peaches, raspberries and a custard that plated really well.  Who could say no to that?

I love you Dad.  Thanks for being there and for everything you have done over my life time.

Zabaglione w/ Raspberries & Peaches