Live in the Vineyard: Day 3.

On day 3 we headed over to the lovely house above. It’s the home of the wine makers for “Girls in the Vineyard” wines. We were getting to see another food demo, and have a wine blending session. Lisa was our chef. She was on the show “The Chopping Block” if anyone saw it.

While she was busy grilling food for us to sample, Kat McDonald (the homeowner) greeted us and told us a little bit about their wines. We got to try their Chardonnay that they’re going to release soon. It was really good and pretty affordable.

After a little more talking, we got to sample Lisa’s fillet mignon skewers topped with a cherry sauce. Let’s just say we both went back for seconds.

Now it was time for wine blending. We both didn’t even really know what it was before we started. I mean, you can figure it out based on the name, but the actual process was pretty scientific. You had 3 wines to choose from and you had to blend them to create a great wine. The difficult part is having to try each of the combos you make. It’s a hard life having to drink wine, right :).

Keeping track of our percentages for each combo.

We went through a ton of wine and needed more…hehe.

We had so much fun with these guys and they actually ended up winning the blending contest!

After a full morning, we headed over to the Miner Family Winery. We got to explore their underground wine caves. Incredible. Barrels of wine everywhere you looked!

In the short hour or so that we were there, they had us try 4 different kinds of wine. They even poured us one straight from the barrel! At the end of the tour they were pouring us their $90 a bottle Oracle wine. We really miss people pouring us expensive wine for free and are currently taking applications for anyone who wants that job :).

After the cave tour we were ushered into an underground dining room. It was a small room with one large table surrounded by candles. Actually, the only light down there were the candles. It was here in this small group of less than 50 people that we got to hear a private concert by Melissa Etheridge. She was seriously only 3 ft from us! No band, no microphone, just her and her guitar. We’re not big fans, but it was incredible to see such a huge star in such a small and intimate setting. Definitely an experience to remember! It was such an incredible way to end a one-of-a-kind weekend. Napa is gorgeous and we would LOVE to go back. I keep telling Justin he needs to win the contest again next year. Fingers crossed :).

So long, Napa. We’ll miss you.

Live in the Vineyard: Day 2.

Day 2 started off with a bus ride to a local restaurant. Cole’s Steakhouse was kind enough to invite us over for a cooking demonstration and a wine tasting from Pahlmeyer. As you can see below, it was a pretty dreary day, but luckily everything we had planned was indoors.

The restaurant was gorgeous and had a really homey feel to it. If you look in the bottom right of the pic below, you can see the chef giving his demo. He did a great job of explaining Napa cuisine and giving detailed steps for each of the dishes he made for us.

While he was talking, these guys were busy pouring us wine. That Chardonnay they poured for us was THE best wine we’ve ever had. If you have $70 to blow, buy the 2007 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay. It’s insanely good.

The first dish we got to try was smoked salmon with herb salad and cream cheese on a biscuit. Divine. I could eat that dish everyday. Luckily I have the recipe. Now I just need a reason to throw a cocktail party…and people nearby to actually attend :).

The other dish we tried was a grilled steak with wild mushrooms and a red wine reduction. Ehhh. Nothing to write home about. Below you can see the chef on the left and the awesome Mr. Jayson Palhmeyer on the right. Don’t you love his shirt? He was such a ham!

When we got back to the rooms we saw that we had gift bags. FREE STUFF!!! Yessssssss. They were jam-packed with Kitchen Aid utensils, CDs, bottles of wine, cookbooks, and too much more to name. I think it was my favorite part of the weekend, hehe.

We still had a few hours to kill before the evening cocktail party and concert so we headed to one of our favorite places, Bouchon. We weren’t hungry enough, or willing to pay that much, for the sit-down restaurant, so we headed to the quick serve bakery. Half a sandwich and a cookie later and we were ready for more wine and music!

All the people that performed that night were incredible. It was such an eclectic group. I know we’ll never get such a variety in one place ever again. Where else would you hear Macy Gray and hardcore rock band in the same night??

Marit Larsen from Norway was the first to perform. She has the #1 single in Norway right now. How neat is that?

Next up was my favorite (besides Train!), Jason Castro. He’s singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in the pic above and it is SUCH an amazing version of the song. He could sing “I hate you” and it would still sound beautiful. I love the pictures Justin took…especially the one above. He did such a good job!

Next up was Macy Gray. We loved that she brought her whole band with her. Definitely great music to start the night and get everyone dancing. She also had this awesome pink sparkly microphone stand. I totally want one. Except I can’t sing and have absolutely no need for one. Oh well.

As opposite as they can be, Theory of a Deadman went next. They’re a pretty hardcore band and when they came out, they saw about 10 kids sitting on the floor in front of them. You could tell they felt incredibly awkward and were trying hard to clean up their act. Literally. It was kind of funny…

And for the BIG finale of the night, one of our FAVORITE bands ever, Train, performed. Below is Amy. She was my “dancing to Train” buddy. I think Justin was relived to have someone else play that role for a while. Dancing with me to Backstreet Boys was bad enough for one weekend :). If you’ve never seen Train in concert, I command you to do so immediately. They are the BEST concert I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a ton. Concerts are sortof our thing :).

Love.

Singing “Meet Virginia”.

Yep. Awesome.

At this point he is singing a capella and rocking it out. That man has one heck of a voice. He can seriously belt it!

We unsuccessfully tried to stalk the band after the show but we were too late. By the time we snuck our way behind the stage (through very sketchy means), the band had already left. I was crushed to not meet them, but I quickly recovered. I mean, afterall, we did had new friends to hang out with!

Here we are with Aslihan (below) from Aloft Hotels. She was awesome. We won the contest through Aloft. They are a super trendy, affordable brand of hotels that are popping up all over the U.S. We plan on staying at the one in Portland sometime this summer. I’ll make sure to take pics.

And finally, the picture you’ve been waiting for. My picture with the last Backstreet Boy. I tried unsuccessfully to get a traditional pic with him, but he kept getting pulled away. I happened to be standing behind him at the hotel bar when I noticed that he was wearing leopard print underwear!?! I don’t know if it was funny because of the wine or if you’ll chuckle too, but we had to take a picture. So here I am with my new friend Lisa posing with a Backstreet Boys butt. Wow, that’s a weird sentence to say.

The funniest part is that Justin had to take the picture. Some guy saw Justin taking a pic of the Backstreet Boy’s butt and told him. He didn’t seem to mind too much, but we still cracked up. I really put my husband in some weird situations. Glad he loves me. Stay tuned for Day 3.

Bottega.

We love food. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, that’s no surprise. I do think we should clarify that we eat really healthy and organic every weekday. It’s the, ummm, weekends where we let loose. Life’s too short, right? With that said, we don’t just love off the beaten path dive joints, we like the fancy smancy places too. We just can’t afford to eat at them often :).

We had been planning for months to go to Napa Valley and I told Justin that when we went we had to go to Bottega. “Had” meaning that it was an absolute necessity. You know, like milk and bread. The restaurant is owned by Michael Chiarello from the Food Network and I adore him. He’s the soft-spoken Italian guy. No, not the bigger guy with the orange clogs. The other one. Can’t remember him? Scroll to the bottom.

Anyways, since Justin won us a free weekend to Napa, we gave ourselves the green light to head to have one fancy lunch. The entire meal was hit or miss, but I don’t think we made the smartest choices with what we ordered. Overall, the things we liked were so amazing, we’d go back in a heartbeat. We started with a “miss”…a crudo (raw fish sliced thinly) topped with blood orange and fennel. We weren’t fans. However, the pear bellini in the right of the pic above was heavenly. Hints of cinnamon and vanilla mixed with the pear and champagne….I’m seriously stealing that idea.

Next was a play on green eggs and ham and it was beyond delicious. The star of the dish was a crispy fried egg, creamy in the center and topped with pancetta. It also came with a to-die-for pecorino cheese pudding (who knew?!) and olive oil poached asparagus. I don’t care what you eat and don’t eat, you’d love this. Seriously.

As if we had room for more, we ordered entrees. Silly us. First the “miss”. My pasta with clams wasn’t that great. It was the cut of the pasta that we didn’t like. It reminded us of ramen and we barely ate half. Justin’s steak on the other hand was one of the best we had ever eaten. I had to fight him for more bites! And the garlic truffle fries, well you needed to be sitting while you ate them. Justin ate half the plate himself!

Needless to say we could barely move by the time we left. Dessert was out of the question and dinner never even happened that night. The only part of the meal that wasn’t fun was the check. That’s always a bummer. Luckily we budget so we weren’t too shocked :). P.S. Isn’t that cup adorable. I’m obsessed with the napkins and I’m working on getting plates with our names on them too. Too pretentious? Probably. Good thing I’m joking :).

Cute outdoor patio that was way too cold to sit at!

After lunch we walked around the adjoining store and then headed to our hotel for our FREE weekend. Details to come…

Oh and here’s Michael Chiarello. Feel free to smack yourself when you realize you knew who he was.

Image borrowed from google.

Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39.

Walking.

We’ve been doing tons of it. Up hills, down hills–you name it, we’ve walked it. When we found out we were only a 20 min walk from the popular Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 area, we knew we needed to visit.

The walk to get there is really pretty. A few blocks walking through the city, then you dead-end into the water and follow it along past shops and restaurants. There are always tons of people riding bikes, rollerblading, running, or simply enjoying a stroll. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon.

On our walk, the first stop we made was at Pier 39. This is a super touristy area. Tons of souvenir shops and restaurants. We don’t really recommend stopping to have dinner here (there are way better restaurants a few blocks away!), but it’s definitely fun to poke around all the little stores.

I think one of the most interesting types of stores we’ve noticed in this city are the candy shops. They are everywhere! You walk in and there are barrels and barrels of just about any kind of candy you can imagine. We’re not big candy eaters so we never buy any, it’s just fun to look around :).

Barrels and barrels of candy!

We also saw a store entirely devoted to left-handed people! We had never seen anything like this before so it was interesting to see all things they make just for left-handed people. Who knew??

After strolling past all of the shops, you get to a deck that overlooks the water. It was here that we got our first glimpse of Alcatraz. Incredible! We were both excited to visit the old prison on the tour we had booked for the following weekend. We’ve since taken the tour (amazing!), but we’ll save that for another post.

Continuing along the water we made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was pretty much exactly like we imagined. There are dozens of food stalls offering fresh fish and huge crabs for sale. We didn’t get to try any of the food but trust me it smelled delicious!

Fisherman's Wharf

Boats at Fisherman's Wharf.

We also got to visit Boudin Bakery. This is the bakery that made Sourdough bread famous. You can’t help but be drawn into the store….you can smell the fresh bread a mile away! They also had a window where you could watch workers actually make the bread. The bakery is definitely worth a stop if you come to town.

After several hours of wandering around town, we headed back to our apartment. Along the way we saw cable cars, beautiful boats, incredible cityscapes, and a pretty park right near our apartment.

All we have to say is,

“This city is awesome!”

Good-bye, San Diego.

We still can’t believe it’s already time to leave. It seems like just yesterday we were packing our apartment in Atlanta and saying goodbye to our friends and family. We had no idea what San Diego would hold for us, but we were excited about the future.

After three days of driving, we finally came over the hill and caught sight of the city before us. Incredible. A beautiful jewel of a city that had so many new experiences awaiting us. This was the first time we would both be away from everything we had ever known, and we were nervous to see if San Diego would feel like home. It did. It still does.

San Diego had everything we wanted in a big town, but in a small town setting. We loved being able to walk to the water, stroll along the beaches, and feel safe walking downtown at night. It was a nice change to be able to walk to almost anything we needed. And the weather–wow, the weather. Gorgeous. Nothing will even compare.

Being here was the first chance we actually got to spend time together. No more homework or late night studying. That was all behind us. We even got to try our first ever happy hour! This city will always be special to us simply because it was the place we got to fall in love all over again.

We’ve learned to take life a little slower, enjoy the little moments, and not stress (as much!) when things don’t go according to plan. Being here has even helped us to realize just how much we enjoy each other’s company. Obviously we knew we got along (hence the marriage, lol), but we realized that anywhere is going to feel like home when we have each other.

We’re going to miss the afternoon walks to the Bay, watching the seals and the surfers at La Jolla, the gorgeous sunsets at the beach, visiting our favorite bookstore in Coronado, window shopping at Horton Plaza, the amazing food at Sammy’s & Phil’s & all our other favorites, running into random cultural festivals around town, getting bread from our local bakery, walking around the zoo, people watching at Balboa Park, eating frozen yogurt in Coronado, the incredibly loud train that would wake us up,the gorgeous palm trees everywhere, and simply put…just enjoying this city.

Thank you San Diego for being such an amazing beginning to this trip. We know we will be back to visit, but it won’t be the same. For three short months, you were our home. Forever, you’ll be a wonderful memory.

We’ll miss you.

Justin & Jennifer