Wine tasting with Moos.

My dear, dear friend, Moos, was in town this weekend visiting from DC. Moos was my law school war buddy. I swear, I would have never made it through those three years without her. After spending almost every waking minute together studying, procrastinating, or drinking wine, she became one of my very dear friends. (You may recall she was the friend with the beautiful Portland wedding.) Sadly, we now live on opposite coasts and don't get to see each other nearly enough. Lucky for me, she came to visit us this weekend!

After spending a summer studying in Paris and sampling French wines with our favorite oenophile, Maggie, Moos, Maggie, and I took a semester-long wine class with a few other friends. We then spent a lot of weekends 3L visiting wineries around the Finger Lakes.

So ... when Margaret suggested taking a day trip to Santa Barbara County to go wine tasting, I couldn't think of a more brilliant idea!!

Our first stop Sunday morning was the Summerland Beach Cafe for breakfast (Jackie's fave and the spot we took the Italians when they visited in the fall).




Mmmmm...omelette...


After breakfast, we hit the wine trail. Our first winery was Firestone Vineyard.




We showed up just in time to take a guided, historical tour of the winery.

Our group met by the cork tree. I touched it. It was squishy.


I was loitering in the back of the group, taking pictures and poking the squishy tree. Josh hollered for me to catch up!


More vines.


Big kegs. Just kidding. This is where the wine starts fermenting.


The owner's private tasting room, where a bottle of every wine the winery has ever produced is kept. Our guide informed us that it was uber-VIP. (The last person allowed in was Reagan when he was president.) Too bad.


Barrels and barrels of wine. Yum.




Next stop was Fess Parker. It was about this point in the trip we started talking about how we are starting our own winery after we win the lotto this weekend. Who wouldn't want to live surrounded by the beautiful hills and vineyards?


(The free wine wouldn't be so bad either.)




Inside Fess Parker.




Our wine pourer guy was extra nice and allowed us to sample a few more pinot noirs. Really delish. But the winner was definitely the Syrah. It was like butta.

Fess Parker was also premiering a wine called "The Last Frontier." Moos decided to channel Davy Crocket and try on some of the promo hats.

(She will love me for posting this, I'm sure.)




More pictures of Fess Parker's gorgeous vineyards.




Then, it was back on the road.




Our third winery was Foxen Winery. By far the cutest, most rustic winery we visited.






At this point, Josh started pouring all of his wine into Margaret's and my glasses (he was the DD), which caused us to be extra chatty with the girls behind the counter. Good times.

We thought we'd stop there, but Josh suggested we stop at one last winery, Tres Hermanas. Luckily for us, they had a special wine and food pairing deal. Food was an excellent idea.




Sadly, the pairing and the wine were somewhat underwhelming. They did give us Kit Kat bars at the end, which made up for the lackluster wine. But who are we kidding, I would have drunk anything by winery #4.

Four wineries. Time for dinner.

We decided to try the Hitching Post, made famous by that one wine movie.




Roasted garlic for appetizer. Delicious.


Blurry but tasty shrimp cocktail.


Salad.


My entree: filet mignon. The Hitching Post sprinkles what they call magic dust (more salt than psychedelic from what I could tell) which was delicious. (Moos had the ostrich which was also quite good.)




After a delicious meal, Josh piled two full and slightly tipsy girls into the car to head back home.


After a long drive home and a quick nap, we saw Moos off at LAX and then headed to bed. Despite being a little tired this morning, I couldn't help but be in a good mood. It was a wonderful weekend!

Another Saturday, Another BBQ.

What can I say, we are not very exciting around here these days. This is the first day since mid-March I haven't worked, and the thought of doing anything other than vegging out was definitely not appealing. So, when Bug called and suggested we BBQ some salmon, I was more than game.

I slept in and woke up with no alarm (which was glorious) and then helped Josh clean our house before Bug and her med school pals arrived. My dad and Cathy also came over, and we cooked up a delicious meal of salmon (caught by my mom in Alaska), asparagus, and salad.


Bug's dog, Pazzi, contemplating taking a plunge. In the background, you can see our roses are starting to bloom. It's amazing to me they have managed to survive living with Josh and me. Scrappy little things.


Other than this, there's really not much to report. God, I have been terrible about keeping this blog up. I just feel like nothing "blogworthy" has happened over here in awhile. Too much work leads to not enough fun, I guess.

Actually, one exciting thing has happened since I posted last: Josh and I found amazing flight fares roundtrip from LAX to Paris for $500, so we booked tickets for a week over New Year's Eve! So exciting -- wish it weren't so far away and we could leave right now! But, alas, I am stuck going back to the grindstone tomorrow morning. However ... since it still IS Saturday, so I am going to go make myself a margarita and sit in the hot tub!

Bug's 26th Birthday.

I cannot believe my little baby sister is 26. Holy Lord.

To celebrate, she had a get together with her med school friends on Friday night. Josh and I drove out there after work and hung out with a bunch of her pals. There were a ton of people (duh, everyone loves Bug!), and my sis was mouthy and bouncy as ever.

Saturday, we had a family bbq to celebrate her birthday. The weather was beautiful. That, plus family and a fridge full of beer and wine, what more could we ask for?

Grandma making her famous stuffed mushrooms.


Grandpa, drinking a beer by the pool.


My little cousins came along with my aunt and uncle. They didn't leave the pool from 1pm until 8pm. They are so darn cute.

Hailey in her pink wayfarer knockoffs. So hip. :)




Vegging by the pool.


My dad and Uncle Frank were all over the bbq. They cooked up tri-tip and Italian sausage, which were so delicious.


Jackie and PJ.


Some excellent pool action shots by Jackie (featuring Josh in Hailey's glasses)






My grandpa and Ella, taking a break from the excitement.


Josh and PJ goofing off, as usual.


The Birthday Girl!




Grandma and Ella.


After dinner and birthday cake, the fam started packing up and heading back to their respective homes. Bug decided that she wanted to karaoke once the fam had left, so we loaded up in Jackie's minivan and headed to the best place we know of for karaoke.

Unfortunately, there was a cover band there instead. Boo. After a few more unsuccessful attempts, we finally found karaoke at the cheesiest dive bar (if you can even call it a bar) in the Valley: Canoga Bowl. Luckily (?) we were some of the only people, so Josh and Bug got to sing their hearts out. A few more drinks led to stellar performances by both. :)



We got home late and did a little night swimming before hitting the sack.

Today, I woke up and went to Connie's baby shower (I'm sure there will be a fabulous photo post from either Wan or WeeMo who were snapping away) and then to the mall with Bug and Josh. I have a little work to do tonight, and then time to turn in early -- it has been an action-packed weekend!

Happy Birthday to my fabulous baby sister -- I love you!

Monterey, Day Two.

Our hotel is right on the beach, and I fell asleep last night to the sound of the ocean. It was so rhythmic and relaxing, it made me (almost) understand why people buy those cheesy noise machines from Brookstone. But, there's no substitution for the real thing, and I slept like a baby.

(Actually, truth be told, when we first got into bed, we heard drunken college kids laughing, screaming, and daring each other to get into the ocean. Bug and I, the two grumpy old ladies that we are, reported their drunk asses to the front desk, and the cops came and broke up their party while we giggled in bed. Haha, yes, we're total tattletale kill joys.)

I woke up this morning to this gorgeous view from our window.


God, I love the ocean. Driving along PCH yesterday and waking up to this today, I cannot imagine living anywhere else.

We were up at the crack of dawn to get Bug to her 8:30 a.m. presentation on time. She was presenting her research to the board of a medical journal, and they totally ate it up. She did a really, really good job.

I totally snapped a picture. I am turning into my mother, God help me.


I was so proud. She is such a genius. We sat through other presentations (none as good as Bug's, of course) and then skipped out during the break after running into a sorority sister of ours who was also at the conference.

We strolled around the shops in Carmel and then headed back to Monterey where we changed and then took a cab to Cannery Row to do a little wine tasting.

We found a few tasting rooms, but this one on the water was my favorite. It may have been the views, or maybe the young kid behind the counter with a heavy hand and a willingness to forget how many tastes we had drunk.


Two tasting rooms in, and we were starving for lunch (yes, we were drinking before lunch). We went to a restaurant called Fish Hopper.


We had each probably had about three glasses of wine each, and so our judgment must have been somewhat impaired because we decided a huge, flaming volcano bowl for two was a good idea.


Hmm. It was not. I'm pretty sure we ruined the ladies' lunch next to us with our cracking up.


Also, I didn't take pictures of the food, just of Bug cracking up.






I was also feeling pretty good. I decided to "draw a doggie" for our server on the receipt. I don't know.


As if that stupid volcano drink weren't enough, Bug decided our next stop was another winery. Man, oh man. Our poor wine pourer guy (what would you call them? Wine barista? Wine tour guide? Hmm.), "Rafael." We called him by name, and Bug hustled him for some free glasses, which we got. Hilarious.

After all that, we decided to take a nap. We came back to the hotel and, as you might imagine, crashed. We are going to try and rally to go do something tonight, but these old bones aren't used to this much fun (and alcohol)!

Makin' our way to Monterey.

Another blogging drought, coming to a close. I still must catch up on my Google Reader -- which is like old take-out found in the back of the fridge -- I forgot about it for so long, I am afraid to open it ...

I have been looking forward to this weekend all. week. long. Bug has a medical conference in Monterey where she is presenting her research and invited me to join her for a sisters' weekend. I have never been one to turn down a free trip.

We left L.A. this afternoon (yes, I was actually able to leave in the afternoon), stopped in Camarillo for lunch, and made the long, beautiful drive north. The drive itself was relaxing. I am such a road trip junkie -- there are few things better than a nice, long drive -- and the weather was gorgeous, the hills green (by California standards, at least), and the ocean views divine.

As you can tell, I was happy to be outside. :)

We arrived in Monterey close to 9:00 p.m., checked into our hotel, and started our search for dinner. We decided on the Monterey Fish House.


We ordered scallops in a cream mushroom sauce for starters. This was my favorite thing we had. The scallops were tender and buttery. Delicious!


We each ordered Cioppino for dinner with garlic bread. It was very good.


Bug with a calamari.


For dessert, we had bananas flambe, made table side.






The final product -- so tasty!


After such a delicious meal, I am in a food coma. Tomorrow, Bug is presenting her research, I'll do a little work while she is in her conference, and then we are off to explore Monterey, Carmel, and hopefully do some wine tasting!