First Time Away- part 2

Sorry for the delay- Its been crazy getting back to normal. So back to vacation highlights....

On Friday, Tim came into San Fran and we spent most of the day at Golden Gate Park. They have a wonderful botanical gardens where we picked up lots of ideas for our yard and our pond. Every time we come out to Cali I get some great gardening ideas, but I have to try not to get too excited because the extreme heat and humidity of Gainesville means that we can't always have the same kinds of plants as Northern California. That was my biggest frustration with Sunset magazine- I would see amazing California gardens in there, and then everyone here would tell me how you just can't grow things like that here. But we try anyway.

We also checked out the De Young museum, where they were installing a new Maya Lin sculpture. If you aren't an artist, but the name sounds familiar, it is because her design won the competition for the Vietnam Memorial while she was a Harvard Architecture student. So it was a treat to see her new work be installed at the museum. I thought for a second that one of the installers might be Maya- this would have been my version of seeing some mega sports star in person. But unfortunately, a guard told me it wasn't her and when I got a little closer to her I realized that Maya would have been much older than the girl I saw.

To wrap up Friday we had drinks with Em and Ben at this great place called the Orbit Room (I lifted the photo from the Examiner- a bartender and his creation). They make tropical drinks with hand crushed ice and lots of fruit. Tim had the best bloddy mary of his life there I had a great Mai Thai. The drinks were wonderful (well worth the stomach pangs- I'm not supposed to drink hard alchohol) and the setting was a fabulous art deco building- enjoying good, fruity drinks and good architecture- I was in heaven. Tim and I spent the night at the Parc 55 hotel. It was nice and right on Union Square, but not historic or anything.

The next morning I trekked over to CB2 (http://www.cb2.com/). That's right- there IS a CB2 brick and mortar store and I was there. Actually it is store #3 in the US, the other two being in NY and somewhere else that is cold and urban. Tim and I tried out all their sofas and chairs so that I would be able to make decisions about potential dining chairs and sofas. Unfortunately, some of the chairs I liked the best visually were the least comfortable, so the search is back on for dining chairs. While we were in Union Square we went to H&M (http://www.hm.com/), a HUGE shopping fav of mine and I bought an absolutely enormous scarf. Seriously- its the biggest I have ever seen.

Then we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf to get on Em's party boat and watch the Blue Angels overhead. We nearly missed the boat, no pun, because of some crazy San Fran parking, but it was great once we were aboard. After the cruise we had bday cake and drinks on the lawn in front of the Ghiredelli building. Natalie (Em's sis who made a surprise visit) and I ran into one of the Blue Angels while sneaking into a nearby hotel lobby to use their ladies room. speaking of, thats my best traveling tip. If you are ever traveling in a big city and you need to use the restroom, but you are terrified of a public bathroom, your best bet is to walk in confidently to a hotel lobby. Walk in as if you are staying there and head for the ladies room. If you walk in a dont immediately see it, head for the hotel bar to give you time to figure out where it is. That can also throw off any suspicious bellmen. Of course, it helps if you are dressed up a little bit- I wouldn't try this if you are backpacking across Europe sporting some dreads and 50 pound pack.

So after we celebrated thouroughly, Tim and I headed to Windsor in Napa Valley to stay with a good family friend, Bill Sloan. We arrived around 9pm and went to bed soon after, completely exausted.

The next morning we enjoyed an awesome omelet with Sloan and his girlfriend Gail at Omelet Express in Windsor, then we headed for the Vino!!! We went to Sterling, of course, and took the Tram up the side of the hill to the winery at the top. It pretty touristy, but at only $20 a person, I recommend it. We also went to Clos Pegaus, a winery that features a great outdoor sculpture garden and it just happens to be my parent's favorite. We also zipped down to St. Helena to see the historic buildings at Beringer, then we enjoyed a nice picnic dinner at a little park there. We decided to skip Schramsberg because of their exorbitant tasting fee of $35 a person, plus we would have to wait until the next day, but they would charge our card that day. Um, no thanks, Schram- We'll just pick up a bottle at the Jonesville bottle shop and sip it by the pool when we get home. The Schramsberg is actually cheaper in G'ville than it is at the winery.

And finally, on Monday, Tim and I went up to Healdsburg, had lunch at a great French cafe and went back to St. Helena to meet up with Em and Natalie. We enjoyed a bottle of bubbly with them at Mumm, a gastronomic tasting at Robert Sinskey, a quick taste at Pine Ridge and then back to San Fran for dinner at Straights. At 11:30pm we boarded the red eye flight to ATL and on to Gville. We missed Davis so so much. It was heaven when we finally saw him. Jenn