Pizza and the Park

So years ago, our friends the Delavigne's took us out for pizza. This was a big deal, because Ken is a conniseur of New York style pizza, having lived there for many years. He even went so far as to have someone ship him water from New York in an attempt to recreate his own recipe for pizza out here in California. So he's SERIOUS about his pizza. When he said they wanted to take Faith and I out to a restaurant he found, there was no doubt we were in for a treat. And the restaurant... Amici's East Coast Pizzeria in Redwood Shores. That was the bigging of many trips to Redwood Shores for a pizza fix, but when we moved to Morgan Hill, it became a very out-of-the-way trip that was really hard to justify. Thankfully, the clouds rolled back, the sky parted, and we were given an Amici's in downtown San Jose finally.

To initiate it, we took a quick trip with our friends the Qualls, to enjoy some pizza and then let the kids enjoy working off some energy at the Guadalupe Park nearby.

What was left of our large Hot Italian Sausage and Mushroom.

While we were waiting, Iain drew up his perfect pizza, which is funny because he's never even had anchovies.

Amber riding on one of the carousel horses at the park.

Allison and Alexis riding on the carousel, under Rick's careful supervision.

Napa Getaway - Day 2

Day 2 of our getaway was actually day 3 of the trip, because Saturday was spent almost entirely devoted to Larissa's wedding. I do have to say the wedding was beautiful. It was held at a hillside home/inn in the hills above Calistoga. I don't think they hold weddings there normally, but use it more for corporate retreats. That's probably why they had the heli-pad, which made a nice place to have the actual ceremony, though the concrete pad radiated a lot of heat. You couldn't beat the view though, as it looked out over the valley.

Well, anyway our plan was to get an early start on Sunday to enjoy the day, but we were pretty tired from the night before, so we didn't get out of the hotel until checkout time at 11am. We jumped back on 29 and stopped in at V. Sattui vineyards first, which is a great place to visit for lunch, but we had a late breakfast so we just went for the tasting.

 

Our second stop was a bit of a risk, since I'd just found out about the place that morning, but Faith's really into the sweeter dessert wine, so I found that there was a place called Prager Port Works just up the road. It's a really small place tucked in behind Sutter Home winery, but we found that it's definitely worth seeking out. The building is really small, and you don't go for the ambiance (unless you like dollar bills as wallpaper), but the reason to go is obviously to try the ports. The tastings are $10 a piece and include a glass. Given that they were only tasting 4 wines, this could be considered a little steep, but once you taste them it becomes clear that it's a good deal. I'll have to admit I wasn't a big fan of the zinfandel, but that was followed by two ports and a late harvest reisling. Faith liked the reisling and I liked the white port, so we each picked up a bottle.

 

Since we were there, we stopped in at Sutter Home real quick, and Faith took the picture of me with the big bottle! Hmmm, I wonder if Prager's Port comes in a bottle that big...

 

After that we hopped over to the Silverado Trail and checked out a few places there, though I think the most impressive part was the view.

We were finally starting to get a little hungry, so we went looking for a place to eat, but were reminded that it was Sunday and it was too late for brunch, but too early for dinner. Eventually, we ended up in Yountville at the Napa Valley Grille, which I didn't know anything about, but seemed reasonable, since we were getting really hungry. Once we were seated we checked out the menu and started to worry. The menu included a lot of "healthy organic" faire, and I have nothing against eating things that are good for me, but I tend to find that "healthy and organic" is usually just another way of saying "tasteless and overpriced". But since we were hungry, we decided to tough it out. Faith ordered a pork chop dish, and I ordered something called Beef Steak Tomatoes, which sounded reasonably good from the menu description. When the food arrived we got really worried again, as neither of us are big fans of the "fancy presentation of very little food" culinary school.

 

After Faith and I gave each other the "Oh man, what did we get into here?" look, we decided to dig in. I'll admit that when I'm served not much food for the price of a very nice entree, I expect the food to be very good. And in this case... it was. Moreover, those that know me know I'm not a little guy, but I'll admit that this tiny little plate actually filled me up. In the end, I had no choice but to give the Napa Valley Grille a 'thumbs up'.

Following our lunch, we did a little shopping here and there, and then grudgingly accepted that our getaway was over, and headed back to Atwater to pick up the kids. But I have no doubt that we'll be back.

 

Napa Getaway - Day 1

So Friday was the first of our two day getaway. Even though we were gone on Saturday too, that was pretty well taken up with wedding stuff, so I only count it as a two day getaway. We drove into Napa and had lunch at a downtown restaurant, and then got right on the road literally - Highway 29. Rather than work our way up the highway, we drove up to our first stop - Franciscan Winery - and then worked our way back down. I'm not too impressed with Franciscan's wine, but their grounds are beautiful, as evidenced by the picture of Faith in front of the fountain.

 

After that short stop, we headed back down into Rutherford for a stop at one of our favorite wineries - Grgich Hills. I've been a fan of their Chardonnay since 1996, when I took Faith on our first 'fancy date' to a restaurant called La Foret. It was there the waiter recommended the '94 Grgich Chardonnay, and I've been hooked ever since.

Well, this turned out to be a very special trip. We did the usual tasting ($10 per person and keep the glass) but that turned out to be a great deal. Our server, Hank, showed us the five wines they were tasting, but by the end I think we'd tried 10 or 12 different vintages. On top of that we got to meet the owner, Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, and get our picture with him. He told us a little about the winery, and gave us some pointers on how he chooses the wines he really likes. We decided to buy a couple bottles, which Mike was nice enough to sign for us as well. All in all, a pretty cool experience.

 

After Grgich Hills, we were pretty excited, so we decided to head down to another favorite winery - Niebaum/Coppola. I think their wine is good, but what we really wanted to see were the grounds. Faith thought they were beautiful when we were there last (6 or 7 years ago), and I wanted to look at the film history display they had in honor of Francis Ford Coppola.

I guess things change though. We first were greeted with the fact that the winery is now just called Rubicon Estate, and then we found that they're charging $25 per person for a "VIP experience". Well, it was late in the day, and Faith and I just wanted to take a quick look, not have an 'experience', so we skipped it an moved.

Our last wine stop of the day was at Mondavi, which also has beautiful grounds. (and they don't charge at the entrance) We got there just before closing (4:30?) so we just took a quick look around and Faith went through the gift shop. It seems they were setting up for a concert on Saturday, but it was no one we'd ever heard of and we had the wedding to go to anyway. The following weekend had a show scheduled with Dave Brubek, which might've made me skip the wedding.

After a busy day of tasting wine, we decided it was time to go check into our hotel - The River Terrace Inn, and then look for a place for dinner. Our hotel was a beautiful location right on the Napa River. Once we were checked in and settled, we started looking into places to eat dinner. Our first thought was to go to Mustard's Grill, but they didn't have an opening until 9:45pm, and my stomach wasn't going to wait that long. We read about a few other places, but in the end we decided to try out the cafe inside the hotel, or rather on the terrace of the hotel overlooking the river.

 

Well, that turned out to be a good decision. We sat outside next to the fire pit (yeah, it even gets cool at night in August) with a view overlooking the river. We had an appetizer of bruschetta, and laterFaith ordered a chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto and asiago cheese, and I ordered walnut glazed duck. All the food was fantastic.

All in all we had a fantastic first day, and we were looking forward to our next 'getaway day' following Larissa's wedding on Saturday.

 

Weekend Getaway

So in an unprecedented move, Faith and I actually had a weekend getaway. One of the girls from our church that Faith has known forever got married on Saturday in Calistoga (north end of Napa Valley), so we dropped off the kids with my folks in Atwater for the weekend and headed up to Napa for a little R&R. Once I finish downloading the pictures from the camera, I'll post details to follow.