sonoma, muir woods, and the golden gate bridge

So far it has been a whirlwind of a vacation. We have packed in about a week's worth of vacation in two days. Two days ago we ate at La Note for breakfast, shopped around Berkeley, ate at Chez Panisse for lunch, tasted at The Cheese Board, explored Berkeley campus, did a tour of the Pyramid brewery, and ate dinner with Shawn and Mandy. We got to see little Sutton for the first time and that was exciting. Thanks to Rick (Claire's Dad) we got to enjoy a nice dinner out with them.



Then yesterday we headed up to Sonoma. Beforehand we checked out the Alameda Aniques by the bay.


It had an awesome view, and Claire was in heaven with billions of vendors selling old antique stuff.


Surprisingly, even I enjoyed myself. Then we began our tasting at about 8 wineries (I think that would make Howie proud). Our favorites were Kaz and Imagery. Imagery does a unique artists' label for each bottle and Kaz is the smallest in Sonoma. Both had great wines and at Kaz the winemaker is the pourer so it was fun to chat with him. Before anything we stopped at Cornerstone Gardens, which is about 15 different intepretations of the word "garden". It includes a dead tree covered in blue christmas balls.




After that we had some amazing and delicious sandwiches at Angelo's Deli. That place is a great cheap lunch stop in Sonoma. From there on out we did our winery tour.



At Benzinger we did a awesome tram tour and then by about 6 we were worn out and ready to head back to our hotel in Tiburon. The hotel turned out to be awesome. It had a 2 person Jacuzzi tub in the room. Very sweet!

For our last stop of the day we headed over to Sausalito for Sushi. Although it was slightly disappointing food it was still good to get some food before bed (We might have made a stop afterwards at In-N-Out Burger for a burger and a shake). Today we are off to Fred's coffee for breakfast, and then we are sightseeing at Muir woods, Sausalito, and the Golden Gate bridge. By tonight we will be in San Francisco. Woo Hoo!

sonoma

Its 6am day 3 and we are about to be off to Alameda Antiques by the Bay. Nothing there under 20 years old. Claire is excited. Then we are off to Sonoma for the day for some wine tasting.

I don't have pictures up yet for yesterday but we did a lot of shopping at CB2 and Urban Indigo and a few other places. We had breakfast at La Note, lunch at Chez Panisse (INCREDIBLE, in the top 5 meals of my life), and dinner with the awesome Shawn and Mandy at Levende East. It was a good day, a very good day. I should be back soon with more pictures.

twin peaks and dosa

We got to San Francisco at around 7pm on Friday night. On the recommendation of our fellow passenger and San Franciscan (who was once a Texan, and also had a very unique proffesion) we rushed through renting the car to get to the top of Twin Peaks to catch a great view of the city. If you can't tell from the following pics then let me just tell you it was AMAZING. It was the perfect start to our vacation and I couldn't have found a better view of this city.


After traversing the steep hills to get to Twin Peaks we made our way down into the mission for our planned dinner at Dosa (Indian Food). It was excellent food. We started with a teeny-tiny $9 cocktail, it is expensive here! Then we had a couple soups, one was a spicy tomato broth, the other a creamy, smoky cauliflower dish. Of course we had to actually have the dosa at Dosa. So we went with the traditional masala dosa and added an extra 5 chutneys. All in all it was delicious and we were stuffed and exhausted. We were going to attempt dessert but both were way too full. So we headed across the bay bridge to our hotel in emeryville. Then it was night night.

Today we are off to La Note for breakfast, then we are gonna check out all the shops in Berkeley. Were also gonna hit up the Berkeley Campus, the gate at Pixar, just for a picture, Pyramid Alehouse, Chez Panisse, Beard Papas, The Cheeseboard, and CB2. By the end of the night I am sure we will be exhausted but it will probably be our only chance to see Shawn and Mandy, so we are having dinner with them at Levende East.

california here we are

We arrived safely in San Francisco today. Now we have 8 more days! I couldn't be more excited to be off from work and at a place that has so much going on as far as shopping, food, tourism, culture, and a just plain cool factor. Not only are we going to SF but we are doing one day stops in Berkeley, Sonoma, and Saulsalito/Muir Woods. I have a about a billion places that I want to eat and Claire has a billion she wants to shop at so combine we have a jam packed 8 days. If you are really curious you can check out our google map for our trip. Just go here. Don't be too shocked. If you know Claire and I you know we had to plan every detail of the trip and this map is proof. I think we both plan on trying to update while there and allow you to travel with us through photos!