With our dink-y, yuppie jet-set lifestyle, it's murder trying to find a minute to update this blog...or could it be that I'm just lazy and can't face the computer after a long day at work, and finally made a superhuman effort tonight...OR is it that the resident Guitar Hero just happens to be out tonight?
No comment.
San Francisco. Sonoma Valley. Napa Valley.
Three wonderful places to visit, and we made the most out of them in our 9-day First Anniversary Extravaganza! It started slowly, since I was recovering from a crippling bout with a sinus infection, a lung infection, and my personal favourite, pink eye (hot!), but I perked up fairly quickly once I had a sunbeam on my face and a glass of wine in my hand.
Note: due to the pink eye, I'm not wearing any makeup in these shots. You have been warned.
Above, this is me on our first day in San Fran. Notice the glowing whiteness of my upper chest. That soon turned an angry red, and peeled off a week later. Sure, it's no pink eye, but it's pretty attractive, nontheless. We bought sunscreen at the end of the day.
The hills there are CRAZY. Everything is on a steep angle, and the houses are packed so tightly together! I can't imagine what kind of settlers would have looked at this area and decided it would be a good place to build a home. Observation: San Franciscans have excellent calves. On the right is Lombard Street, which is serpentine -- it's too steep to drive straight down, and the sidewalk is a long flight of steps.
Aaah... this is what I remember from last year in Australia: gnarly dudes, the term used for mature grapevines. And another beautiful day.
This is Sonoma, a quaint, small town with amazing food (overall favourite meal was at the girl and the fig), beautiful picnic spots, and a fun farmers' market on Tuesday nights, where we mixed with the locals on the lawn of City Hall and partook of such gourmet delights as drinking a bottle of wine in plastic cups in public and eating corndogs.
Napa was gorgeous too, but much larger, harder to get around, and commercialized. Luckily, we had signed up for Platypus Tours (awesome FAQ, worth a read), and we were chauffered around with 4 other couples for two days. This is where it got slightly more silly than the corndog night. For your consideration:
Casa Nuestra, which was my favourite winery -- everything was delicious, the staff was amazing, the prices were reasonable, and best of all, there were pictures of Elvis on the walls -- was home to two goats (we bought a bottle of their Two Goats to drink with lunch...and on the coach...).
Now, after seeing the label on the bottle (let's
take a moment to look more closely, shall we?) I should have known better, but hey, this was the second winery, I wanted a picture with the goats, and...and one tried to eat my hair.
This was taken right after his first attempt. As you can see, neither of us is very impressed.
The next day ended with a tour of a winery in an amazing reproduction of a 13th- and 14th century Italian castle, Castella di Amorosa. Incredible architecture, beautiful designs, unbelievable view, just classic all around, and the perfect way to end the fourth day of wine tasting and touring. Really, it was stunning, and... hey Karen! Can you fit in that little hole?
To sum up: Awesome, fantastic, wonderful. Oh, and I'm continuing my aspirations as a tourism brochure photographer. Click on this baby. It's worth millions.
And, of course, the homecoming. Booooo!
Who knows where the next trip will take us? Perhaps the exotic, far reaches of Red Deer...
1 comment:
Love the goats! Glad to see you had a great time.
jenny
Post a Comment