Sat Aug 4th

We began our final day in NYC with a plan to spend our time experiencing one of New York’s best attractions—the shopping. We planned on having a little breakfast and then head off to Williamsburg in Brooklyn and back to Manhattan to SOHO. Unfortunately inadequate planning coupled with the incredible heat kept us from completely following our plan.

We got breakfast once again at Zeytinz, the deli down the block from our hotel. Today we were able to eat in Bryant Park and enjoy as much tranquility as you are likely to find in New York. Before we began the rest our adventures, we tried to go to the Library. They were not open until 11, so we decided to check it out later in the day.

After a fairly uneventful trip through the subway we arrived in Williamsburg at Bedford & 7th. This is where the lack of planning on my part began to take its toll on our plans. I had forgotten to print off the list of places I wanted check out so we had to guess which direction to head on Bedford and unfortunately picked wrong.

After a few blocks of semi-residential landscape we came to McCarran Park and decided to cut over to Lorimer, which was recommended by the “Entertainment Director” in our hotel as another great street for shopping. By this point the heat, whether due to lack of shade from skyscrapers or just a location, was beginning to get pretty oppressive and patience began to wear thin. We wandered for several more blocks with nothing to show for our efforts except for one or two boutiques that weren’t open yet (note to others, Saturdays most shops seemed to open at noon).

At this point we were reday to give up and take the subway back to Manhattan and begin part 2 of our day, in SOHO. Later when we checked our email we found that if we had gone in the other direction on Bedford we would have come across practically all of the shops I was interested in. Oh well, gives us something to do next time.

SOHO is a shopper’s paradise with everything from couture and specialty boutiques to the same stores you see in any mall (banana republic, footlocker, etc.). We popped up from the subway at Broadway & Prince right into the heart of all of the craziness—shoppers everywhere fighting for space with tons of street vendors selling everything from jewelry to bootleg movies (should have bought the Simpson’s movie but I thought better of it).

Our first stop was UNIQLO, a kind of Japanese H&M, basics and some trend items fairly inexpensively (Gap should be taking notes). Liane found a belt while she found a nice sweater for me to wear over dress shirts for work. Unfortunately I was not able to find any of the Osamu Tezuka tribute Ts that they have.

We decided this was the perfect time to grab a bite to eat and something to drink, so we tried a place just down the street at Spring St called Café Bari. It’s a Mediterranean influenced café with everything from burgers to wraps and brick oven pizzas. We shared a great chop salad, with green beans and chickpeas thrown in, and a trio of spreads—hummus, babaganoush, and a tomato spread that I cannot remember the name of, though it was really delicious with chunks of jalepeno and slices of garlic. It was a tasty and fairly fresh meal to recharge us for more shopping.

From there we checked out Ben Sherman, Jack Spade (a very cool store set up with the items for sale amongst various “guy” knick knacks and where I got a great wallet), Kate Spade, Nanette Lepore (which Liane loves but not enough to pay the prices even on sale), and a great French store called Pylones that was full of tons of great whimsical items.

Then it was back to the hotel via subway to freshen up and meet up with Liane’s friend Beth. We had a few minutes to spare so we decided to stop into the research library by our hotel. We admired the amazing architecture and design of the building. In one room they even had one of the (less than 100) surviving copies of the Guttenberg Bible on display. It kind of puts things in perspective to see such an important piece of human history. In the first floor display space they also had a show of photographs that originally appeared at the Midtown Y Photography Gallery (1972-1996) which showcased a number of up and coming artists and their works that pushed the boundaries of artistic photography as well as capturing through street scenes the people and places of New York—many of which don’t exist anymore.

After that we wandered down to Morrell, a great wine bar that was all the more a surprise considering it is buried in the heart of the plaza at Rockefeller Center. They apparently focus on many hard to find wines small production wines and have an accompanying wine shop as well . There we met Beth and had great wine (a Willamette Valley unfiltered Pinot Noir), great cheese, and of course fabulous conversation.

And just because we weren’t sure if we had eaten and drunk quite enough, we went to dinner at another fabulous suggestion of Beth’s—Barbes, an amazing restaurant on 36th btwn Madison and Fifth showcasing North African (by way of France) cuisine. I had Couscous Au Poulet, a great dish of chicken and vegetables over a bed of couscous with a Cinnamon Honey sauce, and Liane had a Tagine de Poulet (chicken cooked in a delicious broth with lemon, olive and carrots) as well. A great final meal for our trip.

We were tempted to check out a jazz bar that Beth had recommended (the Jazz Standard) but we had grown weary from all the walking, good food and drink and decided to head back to the hotel. Since we needed to wake up early to get the airport Sunday, we did a little packing and relaxing and then were off early to bed.

NY_2007_Sat_Aug_3

This morning we slept in as late as we could. Good Morning America had a special broadcast from Bryant Park (in front of our hotel) so it was pretty noisy, pretty early.

The bridge collapse was still all over the news. It just is so strange to be watching all of these events unfold just a couple of miles from our home, and yet we are so far removed right now.

We ducked into a little deli/convenience store near our hotel for brunch, Zeytinz (24 W 40th Street). They have everything from salads to exotic olive oils, to ice cream and candy bars. After an expensive dinner last night, it was nice to have a full brunch for about $10.



After brunch we began our journey to Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim. We walked up 40th to 5th street and followed 5th until we hit Central Park.

Central Park is a really amazing expanse of greenway in the midst of skyscrapers. It is absolutely a paradise within chaos. Chris was really interested in all of the huge rock outcroppings within Central Park. I think we are going to try to look up some history on the creation of Central Park to better understand if they were a part of the natural landscape – or developed to enhance the beauty of the park.

There are so many different types of settings in Central Park. You will come across everything from a zoo, to wooden pagodas and of course, expansive lawns. It would be easy to spend an entire day wandering there.



We exited the park around 70th street and walked up 5th to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were really interested in checking out a fashion exhibit, the Poiret exhibit.

Poiret was a couture designer and self-proclaimed “King of Fashion” during the early 1900’s. He is credited largely with the creation of the chemise and overall was instrumental in deconstructing the clothes that women wore at the time. Poiret moved away from corsets, which were a mainstay of women’s clothing at the time. Instead he pulled from both eastern and Greek history to develop new silhouettes. He was highly concerned with the drape of clothes, working “on model” in three dimensions vs. use of complex patterns to develop his clothes.

What was striking to me when viewing this beautiful collection was how relevant and contemporary so many of his designs appear nearly 100 years after they were initially conceived.

After the Poiret exhibit, we took in some of the modern art at the Met. It has an extensive collection of masterworks by greats such as Klee, Leger, Picasso, Renior, Stuart Davis, Braque and many, many others.

Chris was very taken with a number of the cubist works. It was fun to learn that we share an appreciation for this way of viewing the world.



We also made it up to the rooftop installation of Frank Stella works. These large, abstract sculptures were created fairly recently by Stella, in the 1990’s. I really loved the “Chinese Pavilion” piece, which looks like a big ball of bold brushstrokes, except the strokes are made of carbon fiber instead of paint.

It was also a great place to stop and contemplate the rooftops of NY. We got a little lemonade and found a bit of shade from which to take in the impressive view.

After the met we wandered a bit farther up 5th to the Guggenheim. The façade is being renovated right now, so you don’t get to see much of its brilliant white, sculptural shell however once inside you are still transported via an immense, spiraling interior.

Chris had heard that Frank Lloyd Wright had intended for visitors to take in the gallery from the top down, however the museum had in years since reworked exhibits to unfold from bottom up. With this in mind, we took the elevator up to the top and began our downward circle.

En route we took in so many amazing visions I can hardly remember them all. Our favorite works were by Yuken Teruya and Pipilotti Rist.

Yuken Teruya took every day shopping bags from Tiffany’s, McDonalds, Banana Republic and the like and cut detailed two dimensional trees out of one side that he then folded inward to create incredibly life-like three dimensional sculptures (of trees).

Pipilotti Rist took everyday objects and assembled them into a large installation of an apartment or house. Littered throughout were small to medium scale videos projected on various items from a stack of books to an empty bottle of alcohol. The effect was intended (according to the Guggenheim) to refer to the secret lives of inanimate objects. However for me the effect seemed more about ghost objects, or the life that is burned into the space objects occupy, that exists even when they disappear. The exhibit reminded me a lot of Tom Robbins’ novel, Still Life with Woodpecker. I haven’t read this in years but it made me want to pick it up again.

There is so much to see at the Guggenheim that I began to get pretty visually overloaded. We decided to end our gallery touring (abandoning our initial plan to also check out the Cooper Hewitt museum) and seek out a nice café for lunch.

It took us a while to come across something other than pizza, noodles or bagels. So when we stumbled into Geronimo it was an air-conditioned relief!

Geronimo (at 3rd and 90th street) isn’t a place I’d exactly go out of the way to experience, however they do have great salsa and provide a never-ending basket of homemade chips. This was reason enough for us to stop in, as all the walking had made us ravenous! For entrees, we ordered chicken soup (with rice, Pico de Gallo and avocado) and chicken flautas (with home-made guacamole that was delicious). Both were quite respectable, though nothing you couldn’t find elsewhere.

After leaving Geronimo it started to rain. We decided to abandon our initial plan to walk back to the hotel and instead took the subway. There were times it was raining hard enough that pedestrians simply lined up under awnings to wait out the downpour. Within a few minutes we spotted a street vendor selling umbrellas. You are never far away from some sort of street vendor when wandering NY!

Upon returning to the hotel we took some time to relax and shower. Riding a packed subway with hundreds of sweaty folks like yourself leaves one feeling less than fresh! Then we brought the laptop over to Bryant Park to do a little research in preparation for the evening.

Chris found a number of music events, but most of them were far away or we were too late to get a ticket. We searched our guidebooks (provided by the hotel) and decided to check out The Artisanal (2 Park at West 32nd) as it was supposed to have the best cheese selection in the U.S.

The walk to the restaurant was pleasant, as the temperatures were beginning to drop a bit. We were disappointed when we got there, as the environment and experience overall wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for.

The space was huge and patrons were packed in elbow to elbow. It had more of a suburban vibe vs. something quaint and unique. The waiter knew nothing about the cheese courses. He couldn’t even describe the cheeses I ordered for me, but kept referring me back to the menu. The wine list was respectable, at least. I did enjoy a nice sauvignon blanc with some sheep cheese from the Basque region. Chris had a French pinot noir and chicken cooked under a brick.

I was glad that I had gone with simple, light fare as Chris’ chicken came piled on top an enormous mound of mashed potatoes that were swimming in a moat of salty gravy. It looked like the typical fare you might expect from a chain restaurant like Champs. It was palatable, but it certainly wasn’t unique or special in any way.

We enjoyed the cooler evening and took our time getting back to the hotel. For the first time during our trip we saw a number of homeless folks bedding down for the night under cardboard boxes, or sometimes, simply sprawled out along side a building.

It was surprising to me to see so many homeless folks as in the last decade NY has done so much to clear the homeless folks off the streets. Though the result may be pleasant for visitors to NY, the means of providing this result so has done little to help the homeless problem overall. Homeless folks in NY are simply thrown in jail.

After dinner, Chris would have loved to check out more of the music/nightlife but unfortunately that was not to be. There was lightening in the sky as we walked back to our hotel and by the time we had settled in, thunder began to crackle and then there was the steady patter of rain. Personally, I was relieved to simply fall into bed for the night.

NYC_Aug_2_2007

Woke up early this morning to catch our taxi. We allowed extra time as traffic was predictably backed up due to the collapse of the 35W bridge over the river yesterday. We would have normally taken this bridge en route to the airport. The catastrophe was the lead story nation and worldwide. We feel so lucky to have not been affected but are still waiting to hear all of the details as we are worried about friends and colleagues who may have been driving over the bridge at that time. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those involved.

We arrived this afternoon in NY and are staying at the Bryant Park Hotel (40 West 40th street NY). It is located in mid-town Manhattan, in the garment district. It’s a lovely place that I have stayed at previously for work and one that I was eager to share with Chris. It’s close to the heart of the city but a little out of the way, so not quite as hectic.



After relaxing a bit in our room we wandered around Bryant Park and then walked the Avenue of the Americas and Times Square. Times Square is so touristy/main-stream it feels much like a neon-powered out door mall. Not a lot of unique stores to check out, but plenty of major brands (MTV, Billabong, Virgin, Elements, etc.) …If that’s your thing.

At the recommendation of Mario, the events planner at the Bryant Lake Hotel, we decided to visit a local restaurant, Salute, for dinner. (Salute, 237 Madison Ave @ 39th street, NY. 212.213.3440) The service was a bit lacking, but the prices were reasonable. The atmosphere was very open/airy and the Tiramisu was to DIE for, so we can’t complain too much.



We started our meal with a salad of greens, caramelized pecans, blue cheese, celery and apple. For our entrees, Chris had gnocchi (with various cheeses) and I had taglliatelle with shrimp, arugula and cherry tomatoes. Both were really good, but not fabulous. For wine, we selected a fahlingina (mellow white wine) to complement our meals, and it was really wonderful.

After relaxing a bit in our room, we decided to check out the bar in the basement of the hotel, the Cellar Bar. It was a really cool space with vaulted, tiled ceilings, lots of candles and wrought iron accents (candle holders, wall hangings etc.). The crowd there was a little bit generic. Not what I had expected given the perceived hip quotient of the hotel. I felt like I could have been in a Midwest bar based on the patrons. We danced to a few tracks and spent a little time people-watching.

We were getting pretty tired so called it a night around 1am and watched cheesy TV shows on the plasma screen TV in our room until we fell asleep.

honey-mooning -- the honeymoon's over!

Well, yesterday was a little bittersweet. it was the last day of our trip, but we were going home to see our kitties and to be able to eat home cooked meals. It was also an entire day of travel (arrive airport SF time at 10 am and land MPLS time at 9 pm), which was a bit grueling.

We checked out of the Andrews and arrived at the airport way earlier than we needed to, and promptly got to sit around for a little over 2 hours before our plane boarded. then it was on to Salt Lake City airport for a layover of a little more than an hour. I have to say that if you can avoid it do not layover in the SLC airport. Salt Lake City must be the most poorly planned airport...ever. They have so many gates crammed into such a small area that there is always a huge crowd of people (literally elbow to elbow) standing and sitting at all times. Also, they have an automated announcement system which is constantly shouting out information. With all the gates so close, it is hard to tell what is being said about which flight, there is just this constant drone of a mechanical voice chirping along in a sing-songy way. What a headache! While there we had a wonderful lunch/dinner of airport food. (Not!) Liane at a deli, which ended up being to better choice than the cheese pizza and breadsticks I got from Pizza Hut.

Finally our flight to Minneapolis was ready, and it was time for the final lag of our journey home. Luckily we arrived about 20 minutes early into Minneapolis and after a lengthy wait for our bags (not sure where they disappeared to from the plane to the baggage area - but they took forever to arrive). My mom picked us up just outside the baggage claim area and we were on our way home to unwind and see our kitties. It was such a relief -- and in someways a big let down after all the excitement of the wedding, the gift opening, our travels/trip.

It took us a while to unwind, so we unpacked a little and sat around with our kitties and watched a bizarre "documentary" about Harvey Darger. It was disturbing, fascinating and compelling all at once. Harvey Darger was a gentleman with mental issues who documented his life and imaginary life in incredible detail - creating two huge novels, one being 15,000 pages (typed) single space and the other sequel ending unfinished after about 8,000 pages. Then there was the autobiography that was 13 volumes or so. He also kept detailed notes on the weather, his thoughts - deeds and religious experiences and ideas. He was obsessed with little girls, seemingly in a benign fashion, creating fictional worlds and countless sketches, images and illustrations with them at the center.

Also heard that Peter Jennings had died of lung cancer. Always surreal when someone who has played such a role in describing/bringing world events into America's livingrooms passes on.

That is it for us for the time being but we will definitely add to this wherever our travels take us.

honey-mooning -- day 6

Yesterday was our last full day in San Francisco. We decided to go to the Castro district for some shopping and lunch. Castro is the center of San Francisco’s gay community and is known for its boutiques, restaurants, antiques, and of course the famous Castro theatre. We were fortunate enough to chat with a gentleman on our train who gave us some pointers as to where to shop and eat, which was helpful as we really had no idea where to go! We found a number of second hand stores, however they really carried more consignment/used clothes versus classic vintage items. At any rate, we didn’t find anything worthy of hauling home in our already bulging suitcases, but it was fun to look!

We checked a few menus and found a wonderful Middle Eastern restaurant where we stopped for lunch. I think it was called La Mediterranean. Chris enjoyed traditional middle-eastern coffee, salad and some filo sandwiches with spinach, garlic and cheese. I had a chicken and lemon soup, which was wonderfully rich and tangy. Along with the soup I enjoyed a couple of chicken kabobs, which were nicely seasoned and perfectly cooked.

I was getting a bit worn out at this point, so we decided to head back to our hotel room to regroup. We talked about going to Japantown or the SF MOMA, but ended up deciding to check out Valencia St in the Mission district. We took the BART from Union Square to 16th and Mission and wandered along Mission to the 24th station. We stopped in on a number of interesting stores, including a fabulous store with a number of Japanese designed briefcases, bags and suitcases. We also found a cool antique store, a Mexican arts store and a couple of neat clothing stores and thrift shops. We stopped for a break at an airy coffee shop that was jam packed with folks in their 20s and 30s, many of which were surfing the net/typing away on Macs. It was interesting to note how many more Macs there were than PCs. Guess Mac has done a great job of capturing the imagination of this demographic!

Feeling a bit more refreshed/caffeinated. We wandered on toward 24th, stopping at a music shop (Aquarius Records) where Chris found all kinds of neat music. I think it was really hard for him to decide what he really wanted to buy, as there were so many interesting things there!

Finally we were at the 24th station, so we rode the BART back to Union Square where we stopped off for some last minute shopping at a giant Urban Outfitters a couple of blocks up from the Bart stop. It was getting on near dinnertime, so made our way back to our hotel and decided to get dinner at Fino, the wonderful Italian restaurant next door to our hotel. We enjoyed a glass of tasty house red (our hotel provides for a wine reception at the adjoining restaurant in the evenings) while waiting on our table. Chris ended up ordering the ravioli special for the evening, a blend of chicken and roasted garlic that was fabulously rich and flavorful. I got a calamari steak, which was also very flavorful (in a wine, lemon and garlic butter sauce), literally melting in my mouth! It was a delightful way to wind down for the night.

The night was still young as we finished dinner, so we decided to head out to one last Tiki bar, Trader Vic’s. The original Trader Vic’s opened in Emeryville across the bay from San Francisco and was originally called Hinky Dinks before turning into the Tiki paradise that they then sent across the world—including locations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The original San Francisco location closed after the first wave of Tiki ended, but now with the resurgence of all things Tiki they have reopened a new location. Interestingly enough the alley next to our hotel is Trader Vic’s alley. With that and the tiki from Tiki Bob’s down the block this area must have been tiki central in the 50s and 60s. After our heavy meal, we decided to walk the 10 blocks to Trader Vic’s from our hotel, which made for more interesting sight seeing. San Francisco is truly a diverse city. From one block to the next you can feel you have traveled into separate worlds. From the underbelly, with sex clubs and “Lingerie” shows to Range Rover dealerships and high-end boutiques.

Once we reached Trader Vic’s, I tried a Pina Colada and a creamy, dessert drink called a “white cloud” which was mostly cream and coconut with a splash of coconut liqueur. Very tasty, but very rich. Chris had a tangy drink called “Dr Funk of Tahiti” which had an interesting herbal taste. He finished off with a Coffee Diablo, which came flaming with a big cinnamon stick in it. It was pretty strong, so only made it part way through that drink.

They had some nifty merchandise for sale at Trader Vic’s so we caved in and bought a commemorative glass in the traditional “Easter Island” shape. We tried to catch a cab on our way out but ended up just walking back to the hotel, as cabs were difficult to come by, even though it was only about 9pm!
Reaching our hotel decided we’d wrap up our night with one last big hurrah and stopped back at the Italian restaurant for a slice of cheesecake. It was delicious and just the perfect ending to a wonderful trip – and a truly memorable honeymoon!

Though it has been SO much fun, we are actually anxious to get back to our home, our cats and our usual routines. Traveling is wonderful, but there really is no place like home!

honey-mooning -- day 5

Woke up early this morning, looking forward to getting out and enjoying the sunny day! Hopped a bus near our hotel and rode it out to the Golden Gate park. The ride took a while, but allowed for lots of interesting people-watching!

Once we reached the park, we explored the botanical gardens. They are immense and beautiful! There are numerous different gardens, with plants native to certain parts of the world such as New Zealand, and Chile arranged in sections – so you could wander from one part of the world to another (botanically speaking) in a matter of minutes! It was neat to see how the differences and also the commonalities in plants throughout the world.

Our next stop was the Japanese Tea Garden. It was just amazing, containing a waterfall, pagoda, ponds, bridges and even a little tea house overlooking a stream. It was truly a peaceful place. I could have spent hours there! But we were excited to keep moving on and seeing more of the beautiful gardens.

Wandering along we came to the conservatory gardens. We decided not to tour the conservatory itself, just the grounds. There were huge gardens with colorful arrangements of annuals, creating diamonds and other geometric shapes using different colors and plant types. There was also a huge dahlia garden with more varieties of dahlias than I even knew existed! They are so interesting and other-wordly! Some of the dahlias were big, colorful balls, others were spikey orbs and still others were more delicate yet, with a spiral of wispy petals flowing out from the center.

On a hill near the conservatory we stopped to admire a garden of succulents and enjoy the vista. The sun was starting to intensify and it felt wonderful basking in its heat.

We walked the remainder of the garden, loosely following JFK drive until we came to Haight street. We stopped at Amoeba Records to shop for used CDs then holed up in a wonderful little Mexican place for tacos and burritos. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering down Haight street, popping in on various vintage stores, clothing stores and of course, the Fluevog shoe store.

Returning toward home, we took a bus down to Market street and 4th street, near Union Square. We did more window shopping in some of the upscale boutiques and specialty stores such as Betsey Johnson, Paul Frank and Puma. By this time our feet were getting tired so we headed back to our hotel to do some quick research on restaurants for dinner.

We ended up picking an Indonesian restaurant near our hotel for dinner and it was wonderful! For an appetizer we shared roti (a buttery bread), which came with a dipping sauce that tasted like coconut milk and curry. It was divine! I ordered ginger tea, which was spicy and sweet – a perfect balance. Chris got the Thai iced tea, which was strong and rich, mixed with condensed milk or cream.

For dinner, I got a huge bowl of lemon grass soup, which had noodles, chicken and egg as well as plenty of green onion and garlic. Just what I needed to warm me up as the night grew chilly! Chris ordered a sweet and sour Tempeh and Tofu dish that had a bit of smoky, bar-be-que flavor and was loaded with tasty green beans and tomatoes. We were really pleased!

Finally, we experience a bit of San Francisco night-life! We went to the Tonga room, one of San Francisco’s original Tiki bars, which opened in the 1940’s. They serve tasty but not overly strong tiki drinks and best of all there is a rain shower INSIDE the restaurant every half hour. There is a pool in the center of the restaurant with a “boat” floating in the middle (where bands perform) and surrounding the pool is a porch, with tables that have straw canopies and on the other side it looks like a porch with a thatched roof. We sat at the bar so that we’d have a good view of the pool/boat for the rain shower. (The rain only occurs over the pool – so no one gets wet!) It was really neat!

We also stopped by Harry Denton’s Starlight lounge before heading home. The starlight lounge is on the 21st floor of the Sir Francis Drake hotel and has huge windows with expansive views of the San Francisco skyline. It was really foggy tonight – making it mysterious and fun to watch the fog drifting between the buildings/sky scrapers. It was also good people watching as they have a dance floor and live band. Tonight the band was playing funk music and there was quite a crowd dancing and having a good time. It was fun to watch and even better to step out onto the dance floor for a while too!

honey-mooning-- day 4

Today was our last day in Napa Valley, but our first day in San Francisco, so it was both bittersweet and exciting.

We began our day as we have the last couple, by having an excellent breakfast at Churchill Manor, and then it was off to St. Helena to do some shopping. First on our agenda was the Coach outlet, followed by the Napa Valley Olive Oil Mfg. Co. Then it was back to Napa to pick up our bags and wine and head off to Carneros.

We decided to add two final wineries to our agenda Viansa, and Roche, both of which are at the tail end of the region and whose wines are available only through their tasting rooms.

Viansa came first and as we entered the grounds we were blown away. In addition to olive trees and grape vines everywhere, they had a large area of wetlands and beautiful gardens. Viansa concentrates on Italian varietals and grows many grapes not grown anywhere in the Napa valley or outside of Italy for that matter. Our wine expert Josh was great help in navigating the enormous list that is available for tasting. After discovering what we enjoyed he suggested several others and gave us an additional blind taste that turned into one of our favorites. In the end though we could have purchased a few cases we ended up with two bottles, a 2003 Dolceterra and a 2002 Prindelo. A couple we considered but decided against for the time being were the 2002 Samuele and our only white of the tasting a 2003 “Pierina” Vernaccia. After tasting we picked up lunch in their great deli/marketplace and ate overlooking the gorgeous estate. The owners along with Ducks Unlimited recreated a wetland on 90 acres of land on the estate and it makes for a very picturesque landscape.

Next we came to Roche Winery, either the first or last winery of Napa/Sonoma depending on your direction of travel. On a former cattle ranch this boutique/cult winery manufactures about 8,500 cases of wine a year, and only sells through its tasting room. Dale, the gentleman in charge of tastings, was very fun and informative. We tried a large number of wines for the size of the winery, but fell in love with their 2003 Estate Chardonnay and the 2002 Carneros Pinot Noir both of which we decided to bring home. We were also tempted to join their Club Carneros, which gives you quarterly shipments of 3 bottles of wine—new releases, special wine club only wines and the like. At Roche we had one of our most memorable wine tasting moments, we were able to do a barrel tasting of three wines that they are currently selling as futures—a 2004 Pinot Noir, 2004 Merlot, and 2004 Syrah. They will not be bottled for a few months yet and so their taste may be altered slightly by the aging and bottling processes, but you got a great idea of where the wines were headed.

With this our Napa vacation came to an end and we began our San Francisco vacation.

We took the 101 past San Rafael and Sausolito then into San Francisco. As we came over the mountain edge on the highway by Sausolito we were greeted with an amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance with wisps of fog coming over the mountain above us—wow. After a drive through SF, we arrived at the Andrews Hotel and were greeted with a bottle of Champagne in our room. We got settled, drank our champagne and were off. We went to the Levis store at Union Square and then to the Millennium for dinner. Millennium is an upscale vegan/vegetarian restaurant near our hotel. We sat at the bar and had one of the most amazing meals ever! We started with rosemary roasted new potatoes and a corn puree soup. Liane had a black bean torte and I had a pasta dish with a cashew cream-vodka sauce with white beans and nuts. For dessert we had an amazing chocolate torte with a cashew crust and white mousse topping. Then it was back to the hotel to relax.

Liane decided to call it a night and I took a walk to the top of Nob Hill and I was able to see the fog rolling across the city. Then it was back to the hotel and to sleep to prepare for the next day.