San Francisco Trip: DAY 2

The second day's itinerary was to picturesque Napa Valley. We started the morning bright and early (forgoing breakfast, as we were still hungover from our food binge the previous day) at City Rentals, to get our call for the day. We opted to rent a luxury Rolls Royce for the day because hey---when in Rome....

Wait--who am I kidding?!? We went with a mid-size vehicle (which happened to be a Honda, so I was right at home behind the wheel). I was the driver because I have a pretty good sense of direction. That, and I trust Andy to read me directions from his GPS system (iPhone) more so than vice versa.

It takes about an hour or so from San Fran to Napa Valley, so we enjoyed the picturesque scenery along the way. Once in Napa, we stopped in the cutest little town of St. Helena for some brunch. This town kinda reminded me of Zionsville, with it's brick sidewalks and quaint shoppes. While waiting for our table, I took a stroll down the road stopping in a cute kid's boutique and bought Emma a book. ("Llama Llama Misses Mama," in case you were interested. She loves the Llama Llama Red Pajama book we currently have, and after further research the other day, I realized that it's a whole series. Llama Llama Holiday Drama drops 10/17 and Llama Llama Mad at Mama is currently in stores. Just FYI.) And I was tempted to buy a pair of Valentino pumps for the low, low price of $1,500 for myself at a cute shoe boutique called Shoecandy, but then I woke up.

So after brunch, we headed to all the wineries. Our first stop was Castilla de Amorosa winery, or "Castle of Love." It is an amazing winery that truly looks like a castle out of Italy. In fact, that was the goal behind the construction of this massive building. Back in the early 70's Dario Sattui, owner, traveled around Europe for two years, studying the architecture of medieval buildings. He took photographs, studied their designs and took detailed sketches and renderings of these structures then brought them back to the states in 1972 with the intent to re-establish his great grandfather's original V. Sattui winery which had been dormant for over 50 years. In 1993, he purchased a 171-acre vineyard property and began construction on Castilla de Amorosa in 1994. The success that came from this venture can be seen in the beautiful pictures below. It was truly an experience to visit.

The next stop was to the Beringer winery. I wanted to go to a "big one," meaning one that was massive in quantity of bottles distributed, and one that I had drank before. It was beautiful as well. Sprawling landscaping, live music, and serene waterfalls all made this winery a pleasant stop. Andy & I enjoyed a tasting with chocolate at this one. It was fan-freaking-tastic. The lady who explained the wines to us was very down-to-earth, so we were able to "be ourselves" at this one. Which may or may not have entailed some purposely-placed chocolate in our teeth! Hehe!

We ended our winery tour at Sterling Winery. And let me just tell you, we saved the best for last. This winery was unbelievable! After driving up the entryway of beautifully-lined trees, we took the aerial tram up to the actual building. This tram was a car that was suspended on cables, taking you up the mountainside, allowing you to enjoy a truly picturesque view. From there, we leisurely took a tour at our own pace, on our own agenda. We saw the fermentation part, the barrels used for the aging process, and impeccable views from the top of the mountain. All while sipping on some wine. Not too shabby, eh?

At the end of the day, we drove back into the city to drop our rental off, then headed to the neighborhood of Nob Hill for some fine Italian cuisine. We stuffed ourselves full at the Nob Hill Cafe then headed back to our hotel for some much-needed rest.

Castilla de Amorosa

Live sheep and chickens on the grounds!

Simply amazing.

Dining hall inside the castle.

View from the courtyard.

Inside the cellar, where the wine tastings took place.

Storage process at the castle.

Beringer Winery

The grounds at Beringer.

Ever the connoisseur, Andy Swickheimer.

Followed by the Mrs., toasting to 5 years.

Impeccable landscaping @ Beringer.

You can see the tent outside the mansion at Beringer.  Live music serenaded us as we walked around.

Aboarding the aerial tram at Sterling Winery.

View from the tram.

View from the tram, as we traveled up the mountainside.

Fermentation process @ Sterling.

Barrells line the storage celler at Sterling.

View from the 2nd tasting station, along our walking tour at Sterling.

The countryside in Napa.

Oh, the views!

San Francisco Trip: DAY 1

We had an AMAZING time in San Francisco! Because of everything we did and all the pictures we took, I'll break apart our trip in multiple posts. Today's post will focus on the activities we did on the first day.

1. Breakfast at Dottie's True Blue Cafe. Amazing food. Arguably the best food we had out there. And such a way to kick off our culinary experience. Seedy neighborhood, but worth of walk (and sites of bums, hookers, and drug dealers).
2. Light shopping/sight-seeing in Union Square. Spent too much at The North Face, but my jacket proved to be worth it, with the chilly nights and early mornings.
3. Peered into the opening of Chinatown. Had plenty of other cool things we wanted to see and do, aside from dead fish and Asian trinkets, so we took our obligatory picture of the gates into Chinatown, and ventured on.
4. Fisherman's Wharf. Unbeknownst to us, it was Fleet Week, so we got to see a couple of Navy vessels which was uber-cool. And the seals at Pier 39 were hilarious; Emma would have had a ball. Drewbie too!.....although he would've called them "doggies."
5. Biking Across Golden Gate bridge into Sausalito. Unbelievable views. Again, unbeknownst to us, the Blue Angels were performing a show above the bay, so as we were biking, not only did we enjoy the breathtaking views, but we also experienced some amazing aerial tricks.
6. Lunch in Sausalito. Cute little cafe across the bridge. Sausalito is such a cute little town; almost European-like.
7. Ferry back to San Fran. Again, amazing views and beautiful weather.
8. Fart around Ghirardelli Square. (Yeah, I said "fart.")
9. Walk the looooong trek uphill to Lombard Street. Love that crazy, crooked street!
10. Dinner at Hayes Street Grill. Had some seafood, and listened to the other dining patrons discuss the smallest molecular atom in existence. We fit right in.
11. Night cap at Starbucks, ending our adventurous at 11:00pm west coast time. Yes, that's 2:00 our time.
    
    

The line for Dottie's for ridiculously long.  But oh, so worth it!

All the cooking magic happens right here on this little oven top and burners.

Our obligatory picture of the "gates" of Chinatown.

Andy was so envious of all the sailboats.

One of the Navel fleet ships.

The seals on Pier 39.

You can't see it here, but there was one seal that swam over to us.

Starting our biking excursion.


Beautiful views on the bridge.




Lombard Street

Emma's 4th Birthday Party, Take 1

We celebrated Emma's 4th birthday at Monkey Joe's last night. This was her "friend party", where we invited her friends from preschool along with a few of our close friend's kids. It was a smaller affair, with just 9 kids. Which was perfect.

For the first hour of the party, the kids got to play on all the different bounce houses, jump-a-roos, and slides. It was like a kid's heaven there! This was our first time at Monkey Joes and I can safely say it won't be our last! The staff was great, the atmosphere was fun, and most importantly--Emma wore herself out (making it great for a quick bedtime routine)! 

After about 45 minutes or so, some of the kids started coming back into our Party Room, with curious little mouths looking for some food. Emma included. Bless her heart, her face was beat-red from playing so hard....but she was starving! We tried giving her a snack before we left, but she--of course--wanted nothing to do with that idea because she just wanted to get to her party. Can't blame the girl!

So after an hour, we all gathered into our private party room, ate pizza, and sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl. She was totally in her element....with all eyes on her (sitting in her "throne"), she was like a freaking pig in mud. As for presents, we asked that instead of getting Emma a gift, to bring a school supply or non-perishable food item to be donated to the Julien Center on Emma's behalf. The kid has more than enough than she'll ever need, and Andy and I both felt it was time to introduce her to donating and providing for the less fortunate. This turned out fabulous; everyone brought some fantastic items to be donated including a backpack, notepads, pencils, markers, and popcorn!!!

All-in-all, it was a successful party where fun was had by all!

On her birthday throne.

Climbing up one of the many slides.

Emma and JT tearing up the slide!

Drewbie enjoying the kiddie area.

Loving his "boons"

Getting her b-day shirt from Monkey Joe.

Emma's princess cake.

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Last weekend we took our annual trip to Stonycreek Farm for some fun fall activities. This place is great for kids. It has all sorts of activities for the little kids to do: a giant jumping pillow, multiple inflatable mazes, bicycle carts, train rides, corn mazes, a newly-added Zip Line, pumpkin throwing contests, a small animal farm, and of course hayrides. As you can imagine, Emma spent the majority of her time on the jumping pillow and mazes. And if the Zip Line was open (it was closed due to the wind), she would probably go crazy for that too! As for Drew, he enjoyed walking around and being the little explorer man that he is. His favorite thing were all the dogs that people brought along. The little man goes CRAZY for dogs. Or as he says, "Doggie."

The Jumpin Pillow was a big hit!

Me and my two babies.

My little monkey...so cute, I could just eat him up!

Emma picking out the perfect pumpkin.

My two men.

Drew and his "doggies."  He goes crazy for dogs!

Again, how cute is he?!?

"Posing" on the bike cars.

Taking a ride on the train.

My little lady.

5 Year Anniversary

Andy & I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on Friday. FIVE YEARS. I know most people seem to say, "Wow, I can't believe it's been five years already." But I don't know....for me, it seems like we've been married much longer than that. We've had two children in the timeframe, moved into a new house, basically re-gutted that house, moved my mother-in-law twice, gone through a couple of deaths (unfortunately), gone through the death of a pet, gone through sibling catastrophes.....I feel like I've almost lived a lifetime with Andy. But yet, I know that I have so much more to experience and haven't yet even seen the cusp of it.

And that excites me.

I love this little life we've created. And it all started with a simple request to set his beers down....