san francisco

Hello, hello! It's here - the final chapter in the anniversary trip recap story!

On Monday morning, Mr. M and I checked out of our cute little cottage, grabbed coffee and muffins for the road, and pointed our Jetta towards San Francisco. On our way out of the valley, Mr. M insisted that we stop by the Mom-and-Pop store with the tasty beef jerkey- meaning that we both began AND ended our time in wine country with beef jerkey. Ha- how very appropriate for Mr. M.

We crossed the Golden Gate and were back in SF before we knew it. We checked back into our hotel, valeted the car, and set out for some exploring in Union Square. This area is filled with tons of shopping- you could easily spend the entire day here.

Next we headed to Tadich's Grill for lunch. This is California's oldest restaurant and serves up authentic San Francisco food. This is a local favorite, and I would definitely recommend it!

After lunch, we walked down to the Ferry Building. This place has a wonderful marketplace full of handmade arts and crafts, books, fresh flowers, wines, cheeses, meats, breads, pastries, etc. On my first trip to San Fran a couple of years ago, we picked up all sorts of picnic items here, which was so fun! Anyway, back to the most recent trip- we wandered around taking in all the shops at the marketplace until we worked up our sweet tooth. We stopped at Miette for some goodies- aka coconut cake!






After dessert we enjoyed walking around the piers and talking in the sights along the water. We eventually caught the cable car through the city and hopped off in the Nob Hill neighborhood. This area is absolutely gorgeous and filled with so many landmarks. We saw the Mark Hopkins, Huntington Park, and Grace Cathedral.







After a full day being out and about in San Fran, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We had reservations at BIX Supper Club. This was the perfect end to a perfect trip. Not only was the food delicious, but the live jazz, mahogany bar, and plush atmosphere made you feel as if you had stepped back into a real Speakeasy of the 1920's. The cocktail menu is superb- give the Hemingway or Blood Orange Margarita a try. Also, the steak tartare was ah-maz-ing. So cool and such a romantic atmosphere!

Thanks for indulging me while I "scrapbooked" our trip! Can't wait to return!

wine country - day 3

And here we are again- another trip recap post. Sunday was our last full day in wine country, and we packed a lot in!

We started the day at Domaine Chandon. They offer a fabulous tour, and their sparkling wine just cannot be beat.

After a fun time at Chandon, we made our way to Auberge du Soleil for some lunch. We dined on the terrace, where you are treated not only to great food, but also some pretty incredible views of the valley. The Ahi Tuna Tartare appetizer is a MUST!

After a tasty lunch, our next stop was Rubicon Estate. Clint especially enjoyed this place, since it is owned by the Coppola family (director of the Godfather). It was an absolutely beautiful estate!

We headed just a few feet down the road, and I whipped it into Hall Winery. This was an unplanned stop, but I love Hall cabernets so I just HAD to stop. Another fun, spur-of-the-moment stop!

Back in the car, we headed to Frank Family Vineyard. This place was too cool! The owner is a former Disney executive, with ties to classics like "The Little Mermaid", "Father of the Bride", "Home Improvement", "Desperate Housewives", etc. For tv and movie buffs like Clint and myself, this place was so much fun- tons of memorabilia (and GREAT wine!). This is Oprah's favorite vineyard, and she frequently orders cases of wine for her parties from here. The owner Rich Frank also has a son who is involved with the production of one of my current favorite shows- "Smash".

Our final stop of the day was Beringer. If you have every walked into a grocery store, you must have heard of Beringer. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff they sell in supermarkets, but the grounds were just so pretty we had to visit. Plus many of the Beringer vineyard-only wines were surprisingly very good!

On the other days, we headed back to the cottage to get ready for dinner. Sunday we did not have dinner reservations and since it was the last day, we wanted to make sure we got in a couple of extra vineyards. It was such a fun last day exploring wine country! We ended this evening by popping into Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen for dinner. You might recall that we had lunch at Mustard's Grill. Cindy's is owned by the same people, and since we loved Mustard's so much, we decided to give it a shot. As a starter, we had Oysters Bingo. I enjoyed the quail with apricot barbeque sauce for my entree, while Clint had the prime rib. Both were DE-LISH-US. For dessert, we shared the Campfire Pie: a ridiculously amazing concoction of toasted marshmallow fluff, fudgy chocolate, and oreo crust. Fabulous meal to end our stay in wine country!

That's all for now folks! Hope no one is getting sick of these recaps- I think these posts, even the minor details, will be something I will read down the road and smile about. Good news for anyone ready for a change of subject- I plan to do just one more post to sum up everything we did in San Francisco now that I've covered wine country.


Enjoy Tuesday!

wine country - day 2

Hey everyone! Welcome to the second recap post about our anniversary trip!

Saturday was our only rainy day in wine country, but that didn't put a stop to our fun. We grabbed breakfast at Starbucks, bought an extra raincoat at the Target in Napa, and headed to Mumm. The tasting room at Mumm is walled with windows on three sides and overlooks the vines- gorgeous even in the morning rain. We both enjoyed a flight of sparkling wines here. We both really loved the Santana- yep, THAT Santana. The guitar genius joined forces with Mumm to develop his very own bubbly and it is oh-so-yummy. Mumm is also where I stumbled upon my very cute hot air balloon ornament. Fun start to the day!

All of the coasters at Mumm featured fun quotes like this one.

We hopped back in the car and headed on down the road. Next stop- Frog's Leap. This place was another favorite! So so so pretty and "homey". The entire property was gorgeous but my favorite part was the big red barn. We had our tasting in there, upstairs in the loft. The loft had nice adirondack chairs with warm throws/blankets in each one and outdoor heaters. To the side of the sitting area was a wine tasting bar. Very rustic and cozy. The main building on the property was also beautiful, and we met the sweetest cat there camped out by the fireplace. The property is not only a winery, but a full-fledged farm, complete with vegetables and chickens. The whole experience was just so inviting that I told Clint I wanted to move in!


The main house on the property.

Inside the main house.

This was the sweet kitty- Terra. He's got the life!

This was the view down from the barn loft. Look at all that wine.

After a wonderful visit at Frog's Leap, we were famished. We headed to Mustards Grill for lunch, and lemme tell you- the onion rings are TO.DIE.FOR. Following a very satisfying lunch, we headed to Plumpjack Winery. Here we tried both Plumpjack wines and CADE wines, which is like a sister vineyard. Both were very nice wines, and this wrapped up another successful day in wine country.





Our day wasn't quite over, though. We closed things out with another amazing dinner, this time at Bouchon. I love French cuisine! We enjoyed another great local bottle of wine and started with an appetizer of pate. For our main courses, Clint had the esturgeon and I enjoyed the trout almondine. Clint's lamb at Bottega probably won at our first dinner, but my trout won this night. Finally, we enjoyed a delicious pot de chocolat for dessert.

Ready for dinner yet again.

On a side note, I'm not sure how this factors into the daily recap, but I did want to share the resort where we stayed in Sonoma. Definitely recommend it!

Front entrance

Pool and hot tub area

Our cottage- my favorite part was the fireplace!

Cottage #5 - our home away from home!

The more I do these recaps, the more I am ready to go back. I doubt I could convince Mr. M to take a 1.5 year anniversary trip!

wine country- day 1

Greeting friends! As promised, let's rewind and talk anniversary trip. As most of you know, Mr. M and I ventured out to California to celebrate our first year of marriage. We arrived in San Francisco Thursday, got our rental car (a sweet VW Jetta- There's something so perfect about driving a Volkswagon around the streets of San Francisco. Only thing that would top that would be a VW Bug, instead of a Jetta. Anywhooo back on topic..). Thursday was predominantly a travel-get settled in-get slightly acquainted with the area type of day.

Airport pic - au revoir!

Friday morning we were up and at 'em early. We grabbed a cup of coffee, had the valet bring the Jetta 'round, and we were off to wine country. We made a pit-stop at the Golden Gate bridge. It was an overcast morning, and the fog across the bay was so pretty. And can we talk about what a cool experience it is to actually DRIVE across the GG?? So much fun!

We hopped back in the car and continued our journey to wine country. The drive out of the city is absolutely gorgeous. As we pulled into Sonoma, it will come as no surprise to most people who know Mr. M that our first stop was a Mom-and-Pop shop on the side of the road that sold homemade beef jerky. Yes, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that our first wine country purchase was not a cold glass of bubbly. However, our second purchase was indeed just that! After the beef jerky stop, we visited Gloria Ferrer. We did the tour here to see how making sparkling wine differs from making still wine. Very interesting and informative. The caves and vineyards were like a scene from a magazine- such a pretty first winery to visit.

Wine cave- during the right season, this place is chock full of barrels.

Bottling production line

After Gloria Ferrer, we headed to check into the resort where we would be staying for the next few days. By this point, it was lunch time and we were starving. Mr. M doesn't ask for much, but he did request that we make it a point to eat at an In-N-Out sometime during our trip. Luckily, there is one in Napa and we stopped by for a bite on our way to our next vineyard.

nom nom nom

Fully re-charged from lunch, our next stop was Domaine Carneros. They have such a beautiful chateau. Since it was a little chilly, we opted to sit by the warm fire inside, rather than on the terrace for our tasting.

Clint's red sampler

My sparkling sampler

Our last winery of the day was B.R. Cohn. We love this place- it has such a "homey" feel. It's pretty, but it's also so much fun. The manager of the Doobie Brothers owns the vineyards, so the DB gold records are on display in the main tasting area. The property includes the main tasting building, a gourmet foods shop (where they sell delicious olive oils), and a cigar bar. The front lawn displays sculptures of the owner's classic car collection. Inside the cigar shop, they only pour the "car wines". Like the sculptures, these wines are a tribute to the owner's classic cars. It's a very "manly" place so Clint this was Clint's favorite stop of the day.

Some of the Doobie Brothers' gold records

Last, but certainly not least, we ended our first full day with a mouthwatering dinner at Bottega. This was easily Clint's favorite meal of the trip- so so so good! Another reason Clint loved this place- it's also where he discovered his favorite beer. Yes, I'm one of those people who even likes to document what we ate, but I did not go so far as to actually take pictures of our food. Well, except for our dessert. Sorry! We started our meal with an appetizer of prosciutto that we wrapped around a pasta fritta and dipped into a whipped pomegranate sauce. I'm not the best when it comes to food descriptions- but trust me, it was DELICIOUS. And also very unique. Clint had the lamb with potatoes and pesto and raved about it. I tasted it, and I'll admit that his raves were warranted. I chose the roasted veal with wild arugula. Also- delicious. Finally, we completed the meal by sharing a beautifully-presented tiramasu.

Leaving our cottage for dinner.

Schwew! That wraps up my first recap post. I'm both exhausted and longing to hop on a plane...

See ya at the next recap post! Have a good Tuesday!