The Honeymoon, Part 2
So, when last we left our intrepid heroine (now howling with laughter at having described herself as such), we were finishing up our first week in Sonoma and getting ready to head to San Francisco for the weekend.
So, on Friday we decided to go adventuring before we went down to SF, since paladin wanted to cross the Golden Gate roughly at sunset for the fabulous view. Accordingly, we packed up all our stuff and piled ourselves into the car and headed out to the coast. We turned north and drove up Highway 1, stopping along the way to make friends with seals.
No, really, we made friends with a seal.
Highway 1 runs along the coast (it is a stunningly gorgeous drive, but oh, my God, help, the heights. THE HEIGHTS. It is a good thing paladin was driving.) There are dozens of tiny beaches along the way where you can stop and dip your toes in the water, which we did. We were somewhere south of Pebble Beach but well north of Bodega Bay and we crept down the side of this cliff (there were steps cut in it, I did not do anything quite THAT stupid) to have some snacks while watching the water. An older couple was already down there, having their lunch, and they pointed out a seal that had just come up on the beach and was lying there. We sat down, and the seal came right up to us, making adorable faces and flopping around. At one point she was only about three feet away. I have like ten minutes of video of this seal being ludicrously adorable. We think she wanted food, but were fairly sure that what we had (cheese and grapes) was not good seal food. In googling, we discovered that it is illegal to feed the seals, and so we did not, but we did admire her friendliness. We finished our snacks and carefully edged past her and went up to the top of the cliff where we had parked, and walked around taking water photos. When we headed back to the car, we looked down to the beach again and she had flopped a few feet away from the older couple we'd seen before, for all the world like she was their dog or something. SO FUCKING CUTE I MADE FRIENDS WITH A SEAL OMG. (I did not pet her; I am smarter than that. mostly. I wanted to but I know better.)
We continued north to Gualala, which is mostly notable for being where we turned around. On the way back down we stopped off and investigated Fort Ross, which was pretty neat. I had no idea that there had been significant Russian settlements in California (I knew they'd settled in Alaska, but not further south.) So that was pretty cool. Then it was back down the gorgeous but terrifying cliffs of Highway 1 and we did in fact come into San Francisco right about sunset, with me frantically snapping photos in all directions. We got a little turned around getting to our hotel (and ended up driving past the Twitter headquarters), and discovered that we had inadvertently booked a room in not-the-best area, being at about Market and 9th, but the hotel itself was quite pleasant. We got a recommendation from the information guy for a seafood restaurant called Scoma's (I was desperately in the mood for good shellfish), so we took a cab down to Pier 47 of Fisherman's Wharf, where I had a prix fixe of exceptional lobster bisque, scallops in a saffron cream sauce with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach, and chocolate gelato. Paladin had a mixed grill, which was shrimp and salmon and swordfish and some other stuff. It was all delicious. We wandered the Wharf a little bit and then headed back to the hotel.
Saturday we roamed all over SF. We started out with breakfast at Starbucks since the hotel didn't have a breakfast included, and then we wanted to go to Fisherman's Wharf, but a cab had been very expensive the night before. Therefore, we decided to walk. We walked all the way Stockton, which is to say straight through Chinatown. It being Saturday, everyone was out with open-air shops. It was fascinating, although we didn't buy anything. (I sort of wish we had bought some bao.)
Once we got to the wharf, we queued up for the Aquarium of the Bay. It is really damn cool - I loved walking through the tunnel to see the fish and the sharks swimming around us. We went up to see the otters. THREE OTTERS. IN A PILE. ASLEEP. (They were really cute asleep; they would have been cuter awake and playing, but they were still really cute.) Also I got to pet a ray! I had no idea they were so soft and delightful. After that we had a quick lunch at Wipeout Grill, then met up with
owlmoose and her husband for tea. That was thoroughly fun, and then afterward (at
owlmoose's suggestion) we visited the Ferry Building, and then walked back up Market to our hotel. With a total of about 8 miles of walking that day, we weren't up for venturing far for supper, so we got some appetizers at the hotel restaurant and called it good.
Sunday we lazed around and slept in, then ventured to Golden Gate Park. We went to the Japanese tea garden, which was really interesting and fun to wander. After that it was time for lunch (having stopped to get chocolate ice cream for breakfast because we forgot to eat before leaving the hotel and we were hungry....shut up we are adults we do what we like.) Apparently food trucks are a thing! We had delicious Indian food from one, and fun conversations with two ladies who happened to sit down at the same picnic table. We then ambled back to our car and headed out. It took us an hour just to get onto the Golden Gate Bridge, but then we were on our way to Calistoga. Unfortunately, we were a little too excited about finally having open road and of course our rental car had Arizona plates, so we got pulled over by the CHP. Holiday weekend speeding ticket quotas, I guess, since everybody else was going just as fast.
In any event, we arrived in Calistoga and checked into our utterly delightful hotel, and then we walked their charming little downtown area. We decided on Italian for dinner and went to a place called Boskos, which was absolutely delicious. We were also pretty excited that they let us compose our own flights of wine and beer. :) It was absolutely delicious.
Monday we didn't do much--we played games, and shopped a little in Calistoga, and then went down to Napa Valley itself to pick up a couple of necessities that I had foolishly not included and rather needed. It felt kind of ghoulish walking around downtown, because of the earthquake that had hit while we were on the train on our way out here. A lot of the sidewalk was still walled off with chain-link fencing, and many shops were boarded up. The streets were sort of chillingly empty. I felt intrusive. :/ We came home and drank juice and ate Thai food on the porch of our inn, which was a lot of fun, and then we went and splashed around in the pool.
Tuesday we did a four-winery tasting tour. It was a lot of fun because all of the wineries were very small (like, "make 2000 cases of wine a year" type of small), and one of them gave us a class in how wine tasting works and how to know which wines to pair with food and what kind of food should be paired with what wine and why, which was really awesome. (I was desperately sad that I didn't particularly care for the wines of that place--too dry for me--because it was really great and I wanted to support them, but it was not to be.) By the end of it I was pretty solidly wrecked, which of course meant it was a great idea to get a cocktail with dinner. (it was not a great idea; I regretted it Wednesday morning.) We came home via bus and collapsed into a pile of tipsy.
Wednesday we did a tour of Castello di Amorosa, which was really cool. It is a Tuscan-style castle built in Napa Valley. You can do a guided tour and wine tasting for $35, which was fantastic. The tour was really great and we took approximately ten million pictures. Also it the only place in the Valley that apparently thinks dessert wine is worth making, so we bought half a case there oops. (Yes, I'm awful at wine and I like sweet things.) That was a really great way to spend our day. We came back and got a late lunch of Chinese food, and then relaxed a lot for the afternoon.
Thursday was my birthday! We did a very quiet day - including a spa visit (massages for both of us, and a mani/pedi for me that of course I managed to chip the manicure the same fucking day like a champion.) The rest of the day was flopping, playing video games, and packing for the trip home. We went out to the local bar (which had stellar food) for dinner and I had pasta alfredo with mushrooms, asparagus, and shrimp that was absolutely divine, and watched the first half of the Green Bay/Seattle game. It was going reasonably okay when we left at halftime, and it was all downhill from there. (The NFL does insist on scheduling teams I like to lose on my birthday. THANKS, GUYS.)
We got back to the Amtrak station in Davis at about 8:30 Friday morning, thinking the train was at 9:30. It was not. It was in fact at 10:30, but at least the weather was beautiful, so we enjoyed sitting outside in the warmth. The train ride back was not quite as nice as the ride out, but we managed. I swore a lot at Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (sixth dungeon boss and the seventh dungeon in general can fuck themselves straight off a cliff.)
Our train arrived in Chicago only about 30 minutes late, so we caught the commuter rail back home, assured the cats we were not dead, went to the grocery store, and then came home to collapse and unpack and stare like zombies at Sunday Night Football. Yesterday I went back to work and started out by triaging 600 emails, which I had wrangled down to 25 that needed action by the time I left (and had already acted on some of those.) AND THAT WAS MY HONEYMOON.
Today,
wrenbow graciously helped me wrangle boxes so I can start The Packening, because FML but I hate moving, and
wrenbow is a delight and a darling whom I don't half deserve. And then we flopped with
tuberose and it was cathartic and good.
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1097251.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.
So, on Friday we decided to go adventuring before we went down to SF, since paladin wanted to cross the Golden Gate roughly at sunset for the fabulous view. Accordingly, we packed up all our stuff and piled ourselves into the car and headed out to the coast. We turned north and drove up Highway 1, stopping along the way to make friends with seals.
No, really, we made friends with a seal.
Highway 1 runs along the coast (it is a stunningly gorgeous drive, but oh, my God, help, the heights. THE HEIGHTS. It is a good thing paladin was driving.) There are dozens of tiny beaches along the way where you can stop and dip your toes in the water, which we did. We were somewhere south of Pebble Beach but well north of Bodega Bay and we crept down the side of this cliff (there were steps cut in it, I did not do anything quite THAT stupid) to have some snacks while watching the water. An older couple was already down there, having their lunch, and they pointed out a seal that had just come up on the beach and was lying there. We sat down, and the seal came right up to us, making adorable faces and flopping around. At one point she was only about three feet away. I have like ten minutes of video of this seal being ludicrously adorable. We think she wanted food, but were fairly sure that what we had (cheese and grapes) was not good seal food. In googling, we discovered that it is illegal to feed the seals, and so we did not, but we did admire her friendliness. We finished our snacks and carefully edged past her and went up to the top of the cliff where we had parked, and walked around taking water photos. When we headed back to the car, we looked down to the beach again and she had flopped a few feet away from the older couple we'd seen before, for all the world like she was their dog or something. SO FUCKING CUTE I MADE FRIENDS WITH A SEAL OMG. (I did not pet her; I am smarter than that. mostly. I wanted to but I know better.)
We continued north to Gualala, which is mostly notable for being where we turned around. On the way back down we stopped off and investigated Fort Ross, which was pretty neat. I had no idea that there had been significant Russian settlements in California (I knew they'd settled in Alaska, but not further south.) So that was pretty cool. Then it was back down the gorgeous but terrifying cliffs of Highway 1 and we did in fact come into San Francisco right about sunset, with me frantically snapping photos in all directions. We got a little turned around getting to our hotel (and ended up driving past the Twitter headquarters), and discovered that we had inadvertently booked a room in not-the-best area, being at about Market and 9th, but the hotel itself was quite pleasant. We got a recommendation from the information guy for a seafood restaurant called Scoma's (I was desperately in the mood for good shellfish), so we took a cab down to Pier 47 of Fisherman's Wharf, where I had a prix fixe of exceptional lobster bisque, scallops in a saffron cream sauce with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach, and chocolate gelato. Paladin had a mixed grill, which was shrimp and salmon and swordfish and some other stuff. It was all delicious. We wandered the Wharf a little bit and then headed back to the hotel.
Saturday we roamed all over SF. We started out with breakfast at Starbucks since the hotel didn't have a breakfast included, and then we wanted to go to Fisherman's Wharf, but a cab had been very expensive the night before. Therefore, we decided to walk. We walked all the way Stockton, which is to say straight through Chinatown. It being Saturday, everyone was out with open-air shops. It was fascinating, although we didn't buy anything. (I sort of wish we had bought some bao.)
Once we got to the wharf, we queued up for the Aquarium of the Bay. It is really damn cool - I loved walking through the tunnel to see the fish and the sharks swimming around us. We went up to see the otters. THREE OTTERS. IN A PILE. ASLEEP. (They were really cute asleep; they would have been cuter awake and playing, but they were still really cute.) Also I got to pet a ray! I had no idea they were so soft and delightful. After that we had a quick lunch at Wipeout Grill, then met up with
owlmoose and her husband for tea. That was thoroughly fun, and then afterward (at
owlmoose's suggestion) we visited the Ferry Building, and then walked back up Market to our hotel. With a total of about 8 miles of walking that day, we weren't up for venturing far for supper, so we got some appetizers at the hotel restaurant and called it good.
Sunday we lazed around and slept in, then ventured to Golden Gate Park. We went to the Japanese tea garden, which was really interesting and fun to wander. After that it was time for lunch (having stopped to get chocolate ice cream for breakfast because we forgot to eat before leaving the hotel and we were hungry....shut up we are adults we do what we like.) Apparently food trucks are a thing! We had delicious Indian food from one, and fun conversations with two ladies who happened to sit down at the same picnic table. We then ambled back to our car and headed out. It took us an hour just to get onto the Golden Gate Bridge, but then we were on our way to Calistoga. Unfortunately, we were a little too excited about finally having open road and of course our rental car had Arizona plates, so we got pulled over by the CHP. Holiday weekend speeding ticket quotas, I guess, since everybody else was going just as fast.
In any event, we arrived in Calistoga and checked into our utterly delightful hotel, and then we walked their charming little downtown area. We decided on Italian for dinner and went to a place called Boskos, which was absolutely delicious. We were also pretty excited that they let us compose our own flights of wine and beer. :) It was absolutely delicious.
Monday we didn't do much--we played games, and shopped a little in Calistoga, and then went down to Napa Valley itself to pick up a couple of necessities that I had foolishly not included and rather needed. It felt kind of ghoulish walking around downtown, because of the earthquake that had hit while we were on the train on our way out here. A lot of the sidewalk was still walled off with chain-link fencing, and many shops were boarded up. The streets were sort of chillingly empty. I felt intrusive. :/ We came home and drank juice and ate Thai food on the porch of our inn, which was a lot of fun, and then we went and splashed around in the pool.
Tuesday we did a four-winery tasting tour. It was a lot of fun because all of the wineries were very small (like, "make 2000 cases of wine a year" type of small), and one of them gave us a class in how wine tasting works and how to know which wines to pair with food and what kind of food should be paired with what wine and why, which was really awesome. (I was desperately sad that I didn't particularly care for the wines of that place--too dry for me--because it was really great and I wanted to support them, but it was not to be.) By the end of it I was pretty solidly wrecked, which of course meant it was a great idea to get a cocktail with dinner. (it was not a great idea; I regretted it Wednesday morning.) We came home via bus and collapsed into a pile of tipsy.
Wednesday we did a tour of Castello di Amorosa, which was really cool. It is a Tuscan-style castle built in Napa Valley. You can do a guided tour and wine tasting for $35, which was fantastic. The tour was really great and we took approximately ten million pictures. Also it the only place in the Valley that apparently thinks dessert wine is worth making, so we bought half a case there oops. (Yes, I'm awful at wine and I like sweet things.) That was a really great way to spend our day. We came back and got a late lunch of Chinese food, and then relaxed a lot for the afternoon.
Thursday was my birthday! We did a very quiet day - including a spa visit (massages for both of us, and a mani/pedi for me that of course I managed to chip the manicure the same fucking day like a champion.) The rest of the day was flopping, playing video games, and packing for the trip home. We went out to the local bar (which had stellar food) for dinner and I had pasta alfredo with mushrooms, asparagus, and shrimp that was absolutely divine, and watched the first half of the Green Bay/Seattle game. It was going reasonably okay when we left at halftime, and it was all downhill from there. (The NFL does insist on scheduling teams I like to lose on my birthday. THANKS, GUYS.)
We got back to the Amtrak station in Davis at about 8:30 Friday morning, thinking the train was at 9:30. It was not. It was in fact at 10:30, but at least the weather was beautiful, so we enjoyed sitting outside in the warmth. The train ride back was not quite as nice as the ride out, but we managed. I swore a lot at Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (sixth dungeon boss and the seventh dungeon in general can fuck themselves straight off a cliff.)
Our train arrived in Chicago only about 30 minutes late, so we caught the commuter rail back home, assured the cats we were not dead, went to the grocery store, and then came home to collapse and unpack and stare like zombies at Sunday Night Football. Yesterday I went back to work and started out by triaging 600 emails, which I had wrangled down to 25 that needed action by the time I left (and had already acted on some of those.) AND THAT WAS MY HONEYMOON.
Today,
wrenbow graciously helped me wrangle boxes so I can start The Packening, because FML but I hate moving, and
wrenbow is a delight and a darling whom I don't half deserve. And then we flopped with
tuberose and it was cathartic and good.
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1097251.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.