Vacation and Surviving a 10-Mile Hike
Actually, I have to say that I did not just survive the hike, I kicked ass on it. Even the part we actually had to climb because the trail had washed out-and as it the trail lead along the side of a hill and there was no place to go (down was 40 feet down to some racks and a small stream) we climbed up. But I'm getting ahead of myself-let's start from the beginning of the trip, which was significantly different, as it started in a city.
The City, as people (and Eddie Izzard in his classic Dressed to Kill) call San Francisco. Actually, I started off in San Jose and let me say that for an airport in the heart of Silicon Valley, home to many extremely wealthy people, this is a crappy airport. You can see that they're improving it (and the new terminal looks to be very cool when it's done) but it's a crappy airport. And that's where I was when D picked me up and we headed north, after we stopped so she could pack.
Once in the city, we got lost. I don't know why this hotel is hard to find-it's right off the Embarcadero, it's pretty central and it's not that small-but the street it's on is small and hard to find (the hotel entrance is NOT on Embarcadero) so we didn't actually get into the room until 10:00 or so-and then went to find something to eat. The meal was good-but really heavy. I had empanadas filled with cheese and squash-the only problem was that they felt like each one weighed two pounds each-so I only ate one.
The next day, it rained pretty hard, which put quite the damper on our plans to walk on the Embarcadero, which is quite a nice walk when it's not pouring. Went ate and went back to the room and napped. But I really wanted to go to Banana Republic (the flagship store is in SF) so we dragged ourselves out into the rain and over to BR, planning on going directly to the restaurant afterwards.
BR was great-I found exactly what I was looking for and then dinner at Chez Panisse. Dinner at Chez Panisse is interesting. When I first went, I didn't know quite what to expect-some fancy place? An expensive SF restaurant? But while it is expensive (although less so in the cafe where we ate) and it's a little fancy, it's just great from beginning to end. The people who work there are really nice, the food is wonderful from beginning to end and it's all great. I had a salad of ricotta and roasted cherry tomatoes, an entree of roasted pork with crispy potatoes and burnt caramel ice cream with bittersweet chocolate sauce for dessert. And it was great from beginning to end. D didn't care too much for her shellfish stew-she said it was good, but I could tell she didn't care for it-but the crisp for dessert was great.
Sunday, we shopped. Not much to tell except that we both got some great deals at the resale stores.
And then we had dinner at SPQR. SPQR took the place of our beloved Chez Nous-and it's just not the same. It's pricier and more hip but is that worth it? I guess for the owners it is, but I still mourn the death of a cool neighborhood place to make way for this hip Roman bistro.
And how was the food? The crispy brussel sprouts (which I have never liked) were great. The chanterelles were great, the meatballs were great-for a place that I can't say I'm planning on going back to, we ate a lot. Our unhappiness at the death of Chez Nous was somewhat mitigated by the conversation we had with the two gay guys at the next table, which was fun. One of them, at least was chatty and funny-it was fun. But it was no Chez Nous.
Back to Palo Alto-not much to say other than it was rainy and cold all day and we had leftovers that I heated up-the leftover carbonara was good. And Tuesday more of the same except we went to Mandarin Gourmet (really good) and watched McCain's concession speech and Obama's speech to his supporters, which was even better.
Wednesday we headed up to Calistoga and we kicked off by wine and cheese and Domaine Carneros. Carneros is beautiful. You have to walk up some steps to get there, but the wide veranda overlooking the vineyard is beautiful-and the sparkling wine (can't call it Champagne) was great.
On to Calistoga, where we checked in and decided to eat in town. Calistoga doesn't have many restaurants, but they're all pretty good. We at at the Four Season's cafe-and we may have been the only ones there, which was odd because her bronzino and my crispy chicken with frites were great-and the creme brulee was one of the best I've ever had.
Thursday was spa and pool day-we had treatments and massages and laid by the pool. It was lazy and relaxing and awesome-and then dinner at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen in Yountville.
Cindy's is nice but I can't take the back room. It's prim and fussy and ANNOYING. The food is great though-and my grilled and marinated hangar steak was awesome. No dessert because every time we get a dessert there, it invariably disappoints.
To be continued...
The City, as people (and Eddie Izzard in his classic Dressed to Kill) call San Francisco. Actually, I started off in San Jose and let me say that for an airport in the heart of Silicon Valley, home to many extremely wealthy people, this is a crappy airport. You can see that they're improving it (and the new terminal looks to be very cool when it's done) but it's a crappy airport. And that's where I was when D picked me up and we headed north, after we stopped so she could pack.
Once in the city, we got lost. I don't know why this hotel is hard to find-it's right off the Embarcadero, it's pretty central and it's not that small-but the street it's on is small and hard to find (the hotel entrance is NOT on Embarcadero) so we didn't actually get into the room until 10:00 or so-and then went to find something to eat. The meal was good-but really heavy. I had empanadas filled with cheese and squash-the only problem was that they felt like each one weighed two pounds each-so I only ate one.
The next day, it rained pretty hard, which put quite the damper on our plans to walk on the Embarcadero, which is quite a nice walk when it's not pouring. Went ate and went back to the room and napped. But I really wanted to go to Banana Republic (the flagship store is in SF) so we dragged ourselves out into the rain and over to BR, planning on going directly to the restaurant afterwards.
BR was great-I found exactly what I was looking for and then dinner at Chez Panisse. Dinner at Chez Panisse is interesting. When I first went, I didn't know quite what to expect-some fancy place? An expensive SF restaurant? But while it is expensive (although less so in the cafe where we ate) and it's a little fancy, it's just great from beginning to end. The people who work there are really nice, the food is wonderful from beginning to end and it's all great. I had a salad of ricotta and roasted cherry tomatoes, an entree of roasted pork with crispy potatoes and burnt caramel ice cream with bittersweet chocolate sauce for dessert. And it was great from beginning to end. D didn't care too much for her shellfish stew-she said it was good, but I could tell she didn't care for it-but the crisp for dessert was great.
Sunday, we shopped. Not much to tell except that we both got some great deals at the resale stores.
And then we had dinner at SPQR. SPQR took the place of our beloved Chez Nous-and it's just not the same. It's pricier and more hip but is that worth it? I guess for the owners it is, but I still mourn the death of a cool neighborhood place to make way for this hip Roman bistro.
And how was the food? The crispy brussel sprouts (which I have never liked) were great. The chanterelles were great, the meatballs were great-for a place that I can't say I'm planning on going back to, we ate a lot. Our unhappiness at the death of Chez Nous was somewhat mitigated by the conversation we had with the two gay guys at the next table, which was fun. One of them, at least was chatty and funny-it was fun. But it was no Chez Nous.
Back to Palo Alto-not much to say other than it was rainy and cold all day and we had leftovers that I heated up-the leftover carbonara was good. And Tuesday more of the same except we went to Mandarin Gourmet (really good) and watched McCain's concession speech and Obama's speech to his supporters, which was even better.
Wednesday we headed up to Calistoga and we kicked off by wine and cheese and Domaine Carneros. Carneros is beautiful. You have to walk up some steps to get there, but the wide veranda overlooking the vineyard is beautiful-and the sparkling wine (can't call it Champagne) was great.
On to Calistoga, where we checked in and decided to eat in town. Calistoga doesn't have many restaurants, but they're all pretty good. We at at the Four Season's cafe-and we may have been the only ones there, which was odd because her bronzino and my crispy chicken with frites were great-and the creme brulee was one of the best I've ever had.
Thursday was spa and pool day-we had treatments and massages and laid by the pool. It was lazy and relaxing and awesome-and then dinner at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen in Yountville.
Cindy's is nice but I can't take the back room. It's prim and fussy and ANNOYING. The food is great though-and my grilled and marinated hangar steak was awesome. No dessert because every time we get a dessert there, it invariably disappoints.
To be continued...
posted by SHbookworm at 7:02 AM
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