I Left My Heart In Seattle And The Wine In San Francisco

Have you noticed a weekend getaway is never otherwise discussed as a 'vacation?' That's cuz it isn't one.. no no.. truly, it's just time enough to get there and get back, hence the term 'getaway' cuz really, it only allows you time enough to breathe in the air, try the food, maybe have a nap and get thru the all the rolling eyes in airport security on your way home. That's how I felt when I left California last week. I just wasn't ready to go.

This visit to the bay area is the one and only time I am victim allowed the privilege to ride with Scott in his bright blue jeep. God love a jeep, you know? It's wind-in-your-hair sexy.. right? Yeah.. not so much. Honestly. First of all, he'd removed the doors, which he always does in the summer (and I use the term 'summer' loosely for the San Francisco area - but to his defense, he does live in Oakland so it's warmer there).. so you know.. there's that.. risking death factor.. well, that's IF he hadn't strapped me in like they do when you ride a roller coaster. Actually, it's better than that even - more like, um.. the space shuttle. Because really, people drive like they're training for the Indy 500 in California.. and in their new cars where apparently, there are no turn signals built in.. but now that I think about it, I never once saw a miles per hour sign. I think it's just suggested anyway. But if there were to be some sort of accident in the jeep due to the insanity that is a California driver, I think no matter what happened to my lower half, my upper body and internal organs would be completely unharmed and hey, there's always someone I can make happy with the harvesting of my organs. Tho.. um.. that sounds.. not in the way I meant it..

So the trip south started fine - there was no confiscation of any type of dangerous lip glossing materials cuz I'd checked them all. Hahaha airport security! AND they allowed me to bring chapstick on board - NOT that they were checking thru the gate like they said they'd do. Tho they say you can't bring any type of liquids on board, I saw many a woman's bag large enough to hide a bottle of water, like the one I was forced to throw away just minutes after purchasing in a kiosk beyond security and near the gates cuz I had not a bag in which to conceal it. Hmph. But then we were in the air and I flipped open the snazzy new Mac of mine and watched Good Night, and Good Luck, which I can't recommend enough.

Lalala.. flyflyfly.. Scott picked me up.. drivedrivedrive (you can't go anywhere in California without it NOT taking 30 minutes at minimum to get there - I say California needs to find their own source of oil cuz clearly they are hogging it - hello!).. waitwaitwait (Scott had to work for a couple more hours) and THEN we were off to dinner with his friends.

Scott and his friends are beer enthusiasts.. so where do you go for good beer in the city? Why The Schnitzelhaus of course! Um.. I had the wine, but have never officially had any schnitzel that I knew of.. and seriously, you should go there. And listen to the German waitress cuz tho she's quite sassy, she knows what she's talking about. Mmmmmm!

Saturday's purpose was wine tasting so to prepare for that, we hit our traditional Berkely stop for breakfast, Picante, which was the cheapest place we ate all weekend (did I mention San Fran is expensive?!) and I indulged in not one, but TWO cups of the Cafe de Olla, which never disappoints and again, I asked for the recipe. It may just be orange peels, cinnamon, cloves and brown sugar, but it's special brown sugar and I live for this trip SOLELY to partake of this amazing coffee, but don't tell Scott that. Then, off we went to pick up our friend Anne-Marie and headed to Alexander Valley, tastebuds warmed up, ready and waiting!

Healdsburg area wineries were the desitination this time cuz last year we visited a nice portion of the ones in Sonoma. We tried Jordan Winery first, but they only allow tastings by appointment! Well, la-dee-da, said we.. even tho it was a massive and incredibly beautiful estate.



And we said hello to this little guy cuz it certainly wasn't his fault (the gecko, um.. not the statue's 'little guy'.. ahem).

So instead, we hit Stryker, pun intended, of course, cuz mostly we liked the name and I ended up with a lovely bottle of their 'Old Vine' Zinfandel which was rich and full-bodied. So far so good!

Next stop was the Robert Young Estate Winery, which obviously held a long family history and tho the 2002 Scion was fabulous, it was also $55 a bottle. Um.. ow. So we took a picture of this curious llama instead. For free. We made sure to stay spitting distance away at least.

We went back to the cute town of Healdsburg for the tasting at Lake Sonoma Winery cuz we were suddenly on a NEW and EXCITING mission for bubbly! Last year we started our tastings with Gloria Ferrer sparkling wines and were pretty disappointed by their lack of um.. sparkle. But ohhh.. this may have been worth the wait. And I may even have bought a sexy little bottle for a friend's upcoming wedding. I wanted a bottle of their 'old vine' zinfandel (and why you have to put it in quotes, I don't know, but everyone seemed to have some sort of 'old vine' stuff. I don't get it. Wine is beyond my understanding. I just like it. A lot.), which was really more like a yummy dessert wine without the too-syrupy-sweet factor, but I refrained for fear of the havoc already wreaked on my pocketbook. I'm kicking myself now, but I really couldn't be responsible for my choices made at that time cuz honestly, I was basically lit before we arrived.

Only two more people.. stay with me!


We only had about 45 minutes left before all the wineries closed in the area, so the next stop, was by far my favorite, even tho we barely bothered with the wine. Roshambo Winery was instantly different from all the other winery atmospheres we'd come across. It felt bright and hip and there's an immediate sense of sass, which of course, you know would appeal to me.

The first thing we saw was this larger than life characature cut out of a girl in boots and vivid red skirt with boxing gloves and a motto in large letters on the wall that says, "Fighting for fun in a winey world." Not to mention we quickly noticed there was no one, and I mean, NO ONE, older than we were in the entire winery. We'd stumbled across a new idea obviously. And tho we drank our samplings quickly, and they were good, we were more preoccupied with that female characature we saw when we first came in as all of us started to notice.. um.. she sorta looked a lot like me.. like.. a lot a lot. And after I read up on the owner, Naomi Brilliant (her married name.. but damn, what luck!), it's supposed to be her, and we don't really look alike.. and mind you, I'm was not in fighting shape (see: will be gym'ing it harder to get ready for this wedding I'll be in for all of 5 minutes) but still.. see for yourself.


Our last winery was Rabbit Ridge, and I'm barely going to mention them cuz the wine didn't suck, but they weren't very nice as they were trying to close being ten minutes to 5pm - and we felt sort of rushed and in their way. I did get a bottle there tho and away we whisked our saucy selves back to the city.. carefully for dinner.

We had in mind to whip up a fabulous meal and oh did we tho basically we ended up with an eclectic menu of fresh rolls, salmon, chicken, asparagus and caprese salad enough for an army. I blame the mad proportions on the drinking all day, but it was a decadent end to a decadent day - even if Scott forced the bunny to partake - tho it doesn't look as tho he was fighting it.


I haven't even gotten to the race - and I'll just touch on it quickly, but it was much different than the Wine Country Classic we usually hit in June. This was the Indy Racing League's Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway, one of the more challenging tracks, and one of the big draws was Danika Patrick, who I was really excited about. And tho the whole race - 80 laps - wasn't as thrlling as I'd have liked it to be, I learned a lot about it from Scott while watching the cars go round and round. Apparently, there is some strategy to refueling and re-tiring, or whatever it's called, and the girl was in third place solidly for a long time until she was forced to pit for fuel very near the end of the race. Ugh - it killed me cuz after that she couldn't get past 8th as there was really only one corner out of the 11 to pass and make headway - and we sat with a perfect view of it - tho this is a crappy shot cuz the corner was actually more to the right and it looks as tho I've cut it out - damn! But this was right before the race began (pics of the actual cars moving would've been all blurry and given you headaches - see? I'm looking out for you!).



So holding steady at the front, Marco Andretti, Mario's barely-legal grandson, beat Danika to first with his car running on fumes a 'different' pit strategy they said. Oh and I guess I should mention by doing that he also became the youngest winner in IndyCar Series history - like ever. Never mind that he wasn't even old enough to drink the winning wine toast and it had to be substituted with sparkling cider.. but ok, yes, he has some skills.. still, next time, Danika.. it'll be yours! I'm sure of it!

On our way back to Scott's 'hood pad', we met some of his friends at this small-town divey bar they discovered well outside the city with an extensive imported beer list, but since it was overtaken by a large group of leather-clad and, for lack of a better word, dirty, motorcyclists and their um.. seen-better-days girlfriends, it felt more like we'd walked into the movie, Roadhouse, and I swear I was looking for a disheveled Patrick Swayze to come out and kick some ass. Yet Scott seemed intrigued, so I thought ok, how bad can it be.. until one of the guys called after another shouting, 'Hey, Coyote!', I had to confirm with Scott that that's what we just heard, he agreed we did, we watched Coyote and his friend have some intense words where alpha-male-ness seemed to be battling out the importance of something to do with all their bikes, Coyote clearly reigning the leader and I think that's when I asked Scott if he we could maybe eat somewhere else.. he obliged and I was ever so grateful.

Scott dropped me off the next morning at the Oakland airport where, somehow, I FORGOT to check those dangerous lipglossy materials and THEY DIDN'T NOTICE! Gotta say my lips were loving the flight home, oh yes they were! And once in the air, I loaded the Mac with the next movie of choice, Elizabethtown, which was cute, if not a tad too long (like I have room to talk here), and waited my arrival back home.

There you have it.. an overdue post about an overdue vacation, and fantastically lengthy, but I'm sure y'all skimmed it anyway understand. And I raise a glass of gorgeous California red to you, my lovelies. Hope you have some good and detailed stories for me this week. Mwah!