From May 14-21, 2011 we were lucky enough to visit one of our favorite corners of the USA, San Francisco and Napa Valley.
Saturday
We flew out from CWA to San Francisco on Saturday and flights were fine. We had a chance to visit with some colleagues on the ride in from the airport and got to our hotel early and walked around Union Square for a while, having a pretty non-descript lunch at Urban Tavern on the other side of Union Square.
The Westin Market Street is a fine hotel, and Ducca bar is a nice little spot there. We've stayed there a few times now. The workout room is nice and the placement on 6th floor means no great view, but we had a corner room with some additional space. I would like to stay somewhere else, but there's nothing wrong with the Westin Market Street.
After a little rest and walk around the area, we got ready to go out for dinner and on our way out had a drink downstairs in Ducca. I had a Perroni and Nicole had a way too much alcohol pommegranite martini. The couple next to us were heading to a gay wedding and just stopping in for a drink - the bartender said to her "Oh you are so lucky - I really want to go to one of those!" This was a very San Francisco moment.
After a nice walk up to Chinatown from our hotel, we stopped for dinner at Oriental Pearl. Great choice. Warm, friendly, dumpy looking from the outside, but then you really enjoy the food. We had vegetable pot stickers, and I enjoyed Yee Mein Noodles with Special Garlic Soy Sauce, and Nicole had Kung Pow Chicken. Great spot, great food. Then a nice walk back to the hotel in the cloudy, cool (but not rainy) conditions. Stopped in a few inviting shops to search for nuggets of cheesy Chintatown goodness and can't recall if we bought anything. A good time for sure.
It was a long day, with a 445 am CST wake up call and in bed at 10 pm PST, but it was good to be in SF again!
Sunday
Sunday was my first day in the INTA meetings for this trip and involved a few meetings, though began with a good workout in the hotel's room there. We've stayed at this same hotel 3 times now and this is the first time we even thought about taking advantage of the smallish but nice enough workout room. Changes in lifestyle for the better indeed.
In a funny note from one of my meetings for work, I met with one of my colleagues from Europe who was staying at The Cleft Hotel (very modern, funky hotel lobby a couple blocks west of Union Square) and while he had been in town only 24 hours or so, he said they'd already eaten twice at David's Delicatessen immediately across the street. This is a non-descript Jewish deli which looks like a run of the mill diner, but my European colleague mentioned it was an experience they don't get in his home country. "They re-fill your coffee" he said with a degree of understated disbelief.
After the morning meeting I rode the famous San Francisco trolley up Powell Street all the way past Union Square and on to California Street. Got a couple videos of the trolley at the base of Powell Street being turned around - they don't turn so the tracks underneath them are turned on a circle that rotates while being pushed by hand by city workers. Interesting little nugget. Some good pictures too from the top of California Street looking down the sequence of cascading hills all the way to the Financial District and ultimately the bay with the Bay Bridge in the distance.
Stopped into an Irish bar, Johnny Foley, for lunch (I think that's the 2nd time I've been in that same bar in SF). It seems to be a thing with me that if I'm at a seminar in a big city that I try to stop in for lunch at an Irish pub somewhere (Boston, NYC, now SF twice).
Later we met Steve and Jayne (Nicole's friend from college who lives in SF) for dinner at the very hip Flour + Water restaurant in the Mission District. They picked us up and we had to get there right when it opened just to get a table as it was very hard to get a reservation from the few tables they actually do take reservations for.
Later that night, we had a chance to visit the Four Seasons hotel bar, which was very nice and just next door to our hotel. I had a very nice glass of wine, the name of which escapes me and Nicole had a nice pommegranite martini which she enjoyed. Four Seasons hotels are always nice and just not worth the price to stay there - so we end up having a drink there and get all the San Francisco chic we can handle for an evening.
Monday
On Monday, I was in a conference and meetings for most of the day, and I did get a chance to visit Johnny Foley's near Chinatown, as my annual pilgrimage to an Irish pub at a conference for lunch. Guiness at lunch is just plain yummy, otherwise it is forgettable. Nicole had fun with her friend Jayne who took the day off to join her on a walking tour of the 1906 earthquake sites, as well as doing getting a little retail therapy in.
That evening I was able to join Nicole for dinner at Fino's. This place is locaetd in the St. Andrew's Hotel and has a great atmosphere - we should know, because this is the 3rd time we've been there. Each time we go to San Francisco we end up there and we are always impressed. Food there is great and the service has been outstanding on each our visits too.
After that I attended the MERITAS IP section hosted party at the Slide nightclub, which actually had a basement bar accessible by an actual slide. The place was a former firehouse or laundramat, I forget which. In any case, I had a good time talking HBO programming with attorneys from Canada, the US and England, and we all agreed The Sopranos was outstanding (though most hated the ending while I kind of liked it). Then, it was on to the Merchant & Gould hosted event at Infusion night club, just a few blocks away. The place was absolutely packed and I had a chance to meet several of the attorneys I work with at Merchant & Gould, as well as our European counsel who I had a chance to catch up with on my way out. Lots of people, packed dance floor, and tons of free drinks. Left some good tips as I recall ($20 for one drink I think to one particularly friendly/attractive member of the bar staff). I'm pretty sure she liked me...
Late night, home to the hotel sometime after 12:30, and the end of my INTA portion of the week. Now, on to the vacation!
Tuesday
We woke up on Tuesday morning and we couldn't pick up our rental car at the airport until afternoon, so we took a nice walk down to Ferry Plaza, checking out the few stands that were braving the cool, rainy weather to sell some stuff outside. Mostly, we wandered around the food shops inside that place, which are pretty cool. Lunch was a quick sandwhich from Acme Bread Company, some yummy combinations with good cheese and fresh arugula. A little sorbet and light stuff and we were on our way back to the hotel to get the bags, and on to the airport to pick up the car.
Eventually drove up to our place in Yountville. We stayed at Napa Valley Lodge. Nice room, view out to the vineyards, a nice woodburining fireplace that we used each night as we dozed off reading in bed. Good choice, definitely worth checking out as it is a little more affordable than the other options in Yountville. Speaking of Yountville, the street looked the same as it did when we stayed down the road on our honeymoon 9 years earlier. Very quiet, filled with great restaurants and little parks and gardens, all within walking distance. The place just screams wine country.
We did check out the St. Helena Olive Oil Company and spent far too much money on products (sauces, olive oil, etc.) that we had shipped back and realized only then that they weren't as great as they seemed when we were just excited to be in Napa Valley again. Stopped by the Oakville Grocery store and picked up a little wine for the room, all in search of the right balance of excessive drinking and great food that makes me feel like we're in a Napa Valley remake of Sideways.
As the rain poured steadily and heavily in the early evening we headed down to Botegga. This place was not there when we visited last time, but it was a great addition to the neighborhood. Very wam, inviting indoor/outdoor areas make the atmostphere great, and as we would find out the food was great too. It was absolutely packed, so we sat at the bar that night and that was fine. Nicole had the special, which was a rigatonni with rabbit and a bosco salad, whilst I enjoyed the minestrone soup (perfect considering the dreary weather outside) and a potato dough ravioli. We enjoyed a 2007 Cakebread Syrah with the meal, which was very good. We went back to the hotel as the rain continued to pour, putting a fire on in the fireplace and curling up with good books in a cozy bed.
Nice to be back in Napa Valley.
Wednesday
A day of wine tasting, finally. We started at Beaulieau Vineyards (BV) and went to Cakebread Vineyards in the morning. Loved Cakebread, nice tasting room and enjoyed some good wine with a couple visiting from Texas. One of the great joys about Napa Valley is everybody there, it seems, is there for the same reason - some good wine, great food, and everybody seems to be so aware that they're living the dream there. Makes tastings with perfect strangers a lot of fun.
Lunch at Pacific Blues in Yountville - just the way we left it. Simple better than bar food and no fuss kind of place on a street full of outstanding and higher end restaurants. Lunch on the deck was great as the weather finally was turning into what we were hoping for, comfortable and sunny.
Afternoon visit to Duckhorn Vineyards. Some good pictures of several lovely glasses on the wrap around porch. Great little stop there.
We drove around much of the afternoon as well. Lots of little areas to explore, including some out of the way rural areas just off the main highway in the valley.Dinner at Rutheford Grill, which was probably the best dinner we had all week. That was a great place. I had some amazing spinach enchiladas and a little Trinchero Clouds Nest Vineyard cab went well with it and Nicole's steak was good too. Back to the room and another roaring fire in our fireplace at the end of the day. Nice way to wrap up another day in wine country.
ThursdayGreat visit to our absolute favorite winery - Caymus. Had one of their Cabernets (forget the vintage - remember the price -$144!) and we fell in love. Tasting with a group of doctors and their wives who really knew their wine in a great little room off the main entry to the winery. Ended up buying some of their zinfandel and having it shipped back along with some great cabernet too. Loved Caymus.
Great lunch at Tra Vigne - pizza for lunch in a great little courtyard outside the restaurant.Afternoon drive up Howell Mountain area, some amazing little houses out in the sticks. Hills, basically one way roads and gorgeous little hidden lake, Hennessy Lake.
Bottegga for dinner again, with a little stop for appetizers at Mustard's Grill. Mustard's would be good, but we kind of opted out of it instead of giving it a fair shot at dinner, so that might be a good place but I'm not really sure. ZD cabernet for dinner and some time outstide Bottegga.Friday
Most interesting day, Robert Louis Stevenson's State Park. Hiking around in some beautiful areas and great vistas. Stumbled on a spot where Robert Louis Stevenson himself once had a cabin while writing Silverado (not a book I'd ever heard of). We were by ourselves and had a nice picnic with a little half bottle of something yummy (2009 Frog's Leap zinfandel), a couple simple sandwhiches from Dean and Delucca and it became one of the best memories of that trip. Funny how you stumble into an experience like that on a day after you check out of your hotel and you're already thinking about flying back on Saturday. Of all the great food, great wine, amazing views, sunshine, San Francisco craziness, etc., the feeling of that little picnic with Nicole and I will be the thing I remember and cherish the most from that trip. That's the magic of travel.Drive back down from Napa to San Francisco was traffic ridden and somewhat stressful as the rental car seemed to really exacerbate my blind spot - wide rear window placements made it hard to see. Lots and lots of cars. Did I mention that traffic? Stayed at a blah hotel in some random corner of SF, but near to the airport. Mentally prepped for a return home to see AJ and enjoy being back in Wisconsin.
Conclusion
All in all, a great trip. A little work, a little wine, a little food (ok lots of food), and some good times. Now, we're counting down the days to our next big trips....until then...
Ferry building on a grey Tuesday morning.
Grey views of Bay Bridge from behind the Ferry Building.
More Ferry Building. Gosh, some guy likes random views of the Ferry Building.
Beautiful entrance to Duckhorn Vineyards. Thank you for serving yummy wines on a gorgeous day.
More good times at Duckhorn. Lots of empty glasses (just samples, no full glasses people).
Beautiful vineyard view taken just outside the entrance to Caymus Vineyards.
Tasting room at Caymus. Good wine, nice little room.
Um, sign at Caymus. Yep, we did go there.
Didn't do the winery tour here, but love the grounds surrounding this gorgeous old house.
Our picnic at the Robert Louis Stevenson park - our little spot just a mile up the trail from the main park road, just us, and the lingering history of RLS himself as he had a small shack in this clearing while he researched his book Silverado.
The marker in the clearing telling us about RLS himself and his time there.
Views from trail at RLS park.
More Napa Valley views. Sigh.
Gotta have the trolley when you're in SF!
View from the street just outside Oriental Pearl, with the Transamerica Building in the background. Chinatown is fun, especially for a welcome to SF dinner on our first night in town.
Some evening glow in Chinatown.
More in Chinatown on a Saturday evening.
Chinatown entrance gate - you can see Nicole just on the right-hand side of the photo next to the don't walk signal.
