A NorCal Weekend Excursion
Andrew’s sister, Katherine, and her boyfriend, Patrick, visited us from Florida this weekend, and we did our best to show them the best NorCal has to offer. When Katherine visited us a couple of years ago, it rained the entire time she was here—it was the most rain we’d ever seen before, or have seen since. Fortunately, the weather cooperated this time, refraining from both rain and the 100s.
Friday, we took a day trip to Tahoe, where we all swam in the lake and had a picnic lunch on the sand. The afternoon grew windy, and there were kite surfers in the water, some of them becoming airborne for several seconds at a time. Before heading down the mountain we showed Katherine and Patrick around the Cal Neva. Andrew and I provided our usual contribution to its upkeep and bankruptcy proceedings via the Lucky Duck, Triple 7s, and Wheel of Fortune quarter slots, while Patrick had some ridiculously good luck, at one point winning sixty quarters with his first spin.
Belly in Tahoe
Katherine and Patrick in Tahoe
Saturday, we took them to the farmer’s market, where they were suitably impressed by the summer bounty, and then headed to Sonoma for some wine-tasting (and winery-sitting, for the pregnant among us). We picked up lunch at the Basque Café in the central Sonoma square, then had a picnic at Chateau St. Jean. After wine-tasting there, we went to Matanzas Creek for more wine-tasting and a stroll through the winery’s lavender fields. Next we relaxed at the Wolf Café in Glen Ellen before having dinner at The Fig Café, my and Andrew’s favorite restaurant. The food was, as usual, delicious—I had slow-roasted pork with fennel and apricot stuffing over white bean and cured olive ragout. We spent the night in Santa Rosa.
At Chateau St. Jean
Lavender fields at Matanzas Creek
In the morning, we had breakfast at the Omelette Express, then drove to Guerneville for a stroll through the redwoods at Armstrong Redwoods State Park. It was so peaceful that I suggested to Andrew we arrange a redwoods-based birth; this was not met with enthusiasm. However, we saw a family with a baby who looked so brand-new that it was entirely conceivable that he or she was, indeed, just born in the redwoods. The group’s mood was celebratory—so who knows.
We then headed to Bodega Bay, where Patrick swam in the numbingly cold Pacific while we looked on, shivering. After lunch at a little crab shack, we headed home.
It was a really fun weekend; and of course, now that our guests are gone, the temperatures are slated to rise back into the 100s this week, so our complaints about the temperature will fall on unsympathetic ears.
Friday, we took a day trip to Tahoe, where we all swam in the lake and had a picnic lunch on the sand. The afternoon grew windy, and there were kite surfers in the water, some of them becoming airborne for several seconds at a time. Before heading down the mountain we showed Katherine and Patrick around the Cal Neva. Andrew and I provided our usual contribution to its upkeep and bankruptcy proceedings via the Lucky Duck, Triple 7s, and Wheel of Fortune quarter slots, while Patrick had some ridiculously good luck, at one point winning sixty quarters with his first spin.
Belly in Tahoe
Katherine and Patrick in Tahoe
Saturday, we took them to the farmer’s market, where they were suitably impressed by the summer bounty, and then headed to Sonoma for some wine-tasting (and winery-sitting, for the pregnant among us). We picked up lunch at the Basque Café in the central Sonoma square, then had a picnic at Chateau St. Jean. After wine-tasting there, we went to Matanzas Creek for more wine-tasting and a stroll through the winery’s lavender fields. Next we relaxed at the Wolf Café in Glen Ellen before having dinner at The Fig Café, my and Andrew’s favorite restaurant. The food was, as usual, delicious—I had slow-roasted pork with fennel and apricot stuffing over white bean and cured olive ragout. We spent the night in Santa Rosa.
At Chateau St. Jean
Lavender fields at Matanzas Creek
In the morning, we had breakfast at the Omelette Express, then drove to Guerneville for a stroll through the redwoods at Armstrong Redwoods State Park. It was so peaceful that I suggested to Andrew we arrange a redwoods-based birth; this was not met with enthusiasm. However, we saw a family with a baby who looked so brand-new that it was entirely conceivable that he or she was, indeed, just born in the redwoods. The group’s mood was celebratory—so who knows.
We then headed to Bodega Bay, where Patrick swam in the numbingly cold Pacific while we looked on, shivering. After lunch at a little crab shack, we headed home.
It was a really fun weekend; and of course, now that our guests are gone, the temperatures are slated to rise back into the 100s this week, so our complaints about the temperature will fall on unsympathetic ears.
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