Last time I covered only the first day of our trip, so I'll try to cover a bit more ground with this post.

Sunday we spent in the city with our friend B. We started off with walking to Golden Gate Park to check out the new de Young museum which has a pretty spiffy new building with a free observation tower and nifty sculpture garden. We didn't actually go into the gallery portion of the museum but did wander around the building and grounds. The building itself is this funky ultra modern design and very cool.

Afterwards, we headed to the Haight area to have lunch at a taqureia and so I could stop in at both Kid Robot and Giant Robot (not related, well, related in merchandise, but not business-wise). I picked up a few vinyl toys at Kid Robot, but they were all out of the Aztec Dunny's which was a bit sad.

After lunch we went over to Japan Town so that I could pop into the Kinokuniya (disappointing), and to have desert at this crazy japanese crepe place where they've essentially taken a crepe and turned it into a waffle cone. Very tasty.

That night we went out to diner with B and his partner E to a place called Foreign Cinema which was a disappointment on many levels. First, their whole schtick is that they show foreign films on an outdoor screen, but when we were there, they were showing Bullitt which is not a foreign film, it was shot in San Francisco, for christ's sake.. That should have been a sign if they couldn't even get that right. Second, the place is expensive, overpriced is probably a better word. And worst of all, the food was so-so. I would have expected more for the money.

We spent the first half of Monday in the city as well, again with B. We went the San Francisco Center (I think it was called) so I could go to Maido, which while related to Kinokuniya, has a much better selection of pens. I bought two, a Sailor Ace ($16) and a Platinum Preppy ($4), both of which I will be reviewing over on my other site.

We then headed over to Valencia to check out the Pirate Supply Store, but they were closed all week. I guess we'll just have to try them next year.

We headed back to Menlo Park in the early afternoon to avoid traffic as it was the first night of Passover and the seder started at 6. They seem to be getting shorter each year (the seders) but that only gets us to the amazing food that much faster. S is an amazing cook.

Tuesday we mainly hung around the house helping set up for the second seder. We also went out to lunch in Palo Alto with A. We ate at Francis Ford Coppola's restaurant Cafe Rosso and Bianco, though we didn't know it was his restaurant when we went in. The food was pretty tasty and they had these cool wine machines where you could purchase tastes or glasses of a variety of wines using a special card. We didn't try it but it sure looked cool.

That's about it for now. Next time I'll cover our time in Wine Country, and probably the coast.

Labels: california, journal_entry, san_francisco

Even though this trip was low-key as far as our vacations go, it was still plenty busy.

When we got in on Friday night, A and family were all ready in bed so we were met by the elder Gs (Judge J and S), given good food and shown our room for the week. So it wasn't until the next day that we finally got to met Baby C for the first time. I think he was sleeping. Or breast feeding. Or one of those since he seemed to be in one of those two states the entire time we were there. Yes, I know, he's an eight week old baby, that's what they do. Baby C is actually a very quite little boy, hardly ever cries, just grunts when he wants his current situation to change. And cute. He's cute too.

Our first day of vacation was spent in Half Moon Bay. So two things about the car ride there:

1) There were six adults and two children crammed into a mini van with seven viable seats, which meant that Judge J (the elder G) was on the floor between the seat and the door. Irene was in the back of the van, not wearing her seat belt because, in her words "it just didn't work". So that's the situation when we approach a stop sign. On the other side of the intersection is two cops, one at the corner and one about 30 feet or so beyond him.

Now as soon as we went through the intersection I see the cop switch on his little radio and say something to the guy down the road and I knew it was all over for us. And sure enough, the second cop points to us and tells us to pull over. Apparently the first cop had spotted that Irene wasn't wearing her seat belt, which can net the driver a hefty fine. He starts asking questions, wants the registration and proof of insurance, so I open up the glove box and it is just full of wadded up papers and receipts and crap and I'm digging through all this stuff and Judge J is out of the car next to me and I'm handing him papers and trying to figure out what everything is and the whole time the cop is talking to J and getting fairly annoyed.

We finally manage to come up with the paperwork he's asked for and by this time it's pretty clear that he's going to give us at least one ticket and maybe more if he can. And the amazing thing to me is, he didn't even spot that Judge J was sitting on the floor when he first pulled us over. So as the cop is talking to J,Judge J strolls around the car and starts to talk to the cop and pulls out his little "I'm a judge card" from his wallet. The cop sighs, shakes his head and tells us to buckle up and be careful and off we go with out penalty. Amazing. But lucky for us.

2) You forgot about there was a second thing didn't you? Well this ones not as exciting. After the cop incident we're driving to Half Moon Bay and we pass a family fun farm thing were they offer pony rides and wouldn't that be fun for Young J (just so you can keep track there is Judge J, the grandfather, J the father, and Young J, the three year old son). So we stop and Young J gets his pony ride, feeds the goats at the petting zoo, and goes on what was apparently a pretty creepy train ride through some sort of miniture haunted wild west town. The farm was a kick and looked like it hadn't been updated since it opened in 1940-something.

Half Moon Bay itself is a cute little town where we stopped for lunch before heading for the ocean. Really, though, all the excitement happened on the way there.

Well, I think that's probably enough for now. I'll post more later. And I'm still hoping to get photos up this weekend in between household projects.

Labels: california, journal_entry, san_francisco, wine

We got home yesterday afternoon around 4. Spent most of the night decompressing and sorting through receipts and finances.

I'll have a longer post about the trip up sometime this week, with photos to hopefully come this weekend.

We had a great time, and did a lot of running around (as usual).

Labels: california, journal_entry, san_francisco

Ravenswood
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california, sonoma, wine

Blackstone
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california, sonoma, wine

Valley Of The Moon
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california, sonoma, wine

Clos Pegase Winery
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california, napa, wine

Napa Wineries 3
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california, napa, wine

Napa Wineries 2
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california, napa, wine

Napa Wineries
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california, napa, wine

Ah Vacation
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california

The Mission
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california

Giant Totoro
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

In Japan town.

Labels: california

Scary
Originally uploaded by fauxbro.

Labels: california

On Friday, we head for San Francisco and our first real vacation in months (six, to be exact). We'll be there for 10 days and will be spending most of that time in Menlo Park and SF proper, but towards the back half of the trip we'll be heading up to Gualala (to visit Irene's cousins) by way of Napa and Sonoma.

We have a few favorite wineries that I'm sure we'll hit, and probably check out a few new ones as well. I'd love to hit the Broman Cellars winery (no relation), but as far as I can tell, they don't take visitors.

Our very favorite, Valley Of The Moon, will be a definite stop, but due to the new draconian FAA regulations and my aversion to checking bags, we won't be buying any bottles. We still have a few in our stock because I hoard this stuff like gold, dolling out on special occasions only. It's not so easy to find in Seattle. The QFC in the Broadway Market carries one varietal, but that's about it.

We're planning on staying overnight somewhere in Wine Country, probably in Calistoga so we can indulge in a mud bath.

Anyway, I'll probably be posting some cam phone pictures from the road, and maybe a post or two. And I will definitely have photos to put up when we get back.

And then it's just over a month until we head to France.

Labels: california, napa_valley, san_francisco, sonoma, wine

In two weeks we are headed to San Francisco where we will spend 10 fairly low key days and we are both very ready for a vacation because we haven't had any extended time off since September.

Planing for San Francisco has been pretty minimal as it's an entirely different sort of journey than the one we'll be taking in May. This trip is all about visiting friends and family, relaxing and probably an excursion to Napa and Sonoma with a possible overnight stay in Calistoga. But really there isn't much required in the way of pre-trip planning apart from the rental car and a few emails and phone calls to people to let them know we're coming. And since I've put Irene in charge of finding us a place to stay in the wine country, my work is done.

Which is good, because most of my attention has been focused on France. And now with two months until we leave, the planning is winding down as the itinerary is fixed, the apartment in Paris and the car for Provence have both been rented, and hotels have been booked for Avignon and Vaison-la-Romaine. It remains only to book hotels for Nice and the Luberon (and I'm in the process of doing that) and to contact the apartment people and arrange the details of our arrival.

One thing that pleases me about this trip is that even though we will be packing a lot in, we won't be switching hotel as often as we might. We will have a minimum of two nights at two hotels and three and four nights at the others. This allows us to feel like we have a little bit of a base from which to explore the area. The logistics were tricky at first, but I feel like of got everything pretty solidly nailed down.

I really do enjoy the whole planning process and lately I've been listening to the A Year In Europe podcast and dreaming about what it would be like to drop out of life for a year and spend it traveling. And although it doesn't seem feasible right now, some day I would love to do it. Although I think I would probably broaden the scope a bit and make it more of a round the world trip.

For now though, I'll just have to settle for the two or three weeks at a time we can manage.

Labels: california, france, paris, provence, san_francisco, travel planning

With all my posting about and planning for our France trip I have neglected to mention our other upcoming trip.

Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and bought our plane tickets for our trip to San Francisco in April. I'd been holding out in the vain hope that prices would drop a little, but as the exact opposite was happening, I decided we'd better just go ahead and get them before it was too late. We try to go down to SF every year for Passover, and mostly we do. We had to skip it the year we went to Eastern Europe, of course, but you have to have priorities.

No definite plans yet apart from Passover, but we have other friends in the city we will visit. Wine tasting will probably be on the itinerary again, and we will most likely go visit Irene's cousins up the coast as well. Sadly due to the ridiculously restrictive new airline reservations, we will probably not be bringing back any wine with us.

Maybe we'll go get a mud bath again, that was lots of fun.

Labels: california, san_francisco, travel planning

National Geographic Traveler offers a number of interesting podcasts, one of which is a series of walking tours narrated by Rudy Maxa of PBS' Smart Travels.

Destinations covered include a wide range of cities including Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

I haven't listened to them yet, but I'll check out one soon and write a little review.

To subscribe to this podcast in iTunes click here.

Labels: amsterdam, audio_tour, california, dc, europe, france, iPod, new_york, paris, san_francisco, united_states