Yoga...
...soothes the soul =).
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Is it age???
I've been a pretty regular routine lately...get up for work around 5:30ish heading out about 6:30 and going to bed around 10:30ish. As young people...we should be able to keep a decent sleep schedule during the week and party hard on the weekends...right?!?
I think I'm getting older and I don' t like it!! Matt and I went to Universal this weekend to use our coupons...yes, that's right, we went because it was free :D...sign #1 of old age...using coupons. Then mid-day I needed some Advil...sign #2 of old age...not able to handle the loud noises and scary rides. I can brave the elements of nature, but I cannot brave a rather tame ride with ease as my horrified face displayed on the big screen...sign#3 of old age...rides are getting harder to love. We took a stroll through City Walk after the park closed and ate sushi at Wasabi. Yummmmm...Yellowtail!! =) Then we decided to head home and got in a bit after 9, all the way home I was yawning and poor Matt lost his company for a good portion of the ride...sign#4 of old age...passing out mid-conversation and still being incredibly sleepy prior to 10:00. Needless to say, I was passed out about 10...all cozy in bed...wondering what to do to fight the "aging" process!!!
Despite my end of the day exhaustion...I enjoyed the Universal trip with my favorite guy =). We managed to plow through nearly everything there was to do due to the fairly light crowds. We really lucked out =).
I think I'm getting older and I don' t like it!! Matt and I went to Universal this weekend to use our coupons...yes, that's right, we went because it was free :D...sign #1 of old age...using coupons. Then mid-day I needed some Advil...sign #2 of old age...not able to handle the loud noises and scary rides. I can brave the elements of nature, but I cannot brave a rather tame ride with ease as my horrified face displayed on the big screen...sign#3 of old age...rides are getting harder to love. We took a stroll through City Walk after the park closed and ate sushi at Wasabi. Yummmmm...Yellowtail!! =) Then we decided to head home and got in a bit after 9, all the way home I was yawning and poor Matt lost his company for a good portion of the ride...sign#4 of old age...passing out mid-conversation and still being incredibly sleepy prior to 10:00. Needless to say, I was passed out about 10...all cozy in bed...wondering what to do to fight the "aging" process!!!
Despite my end of the day exhaustion...I enjoyed the Universal trip with my favorite guy =). We managed to plow through nearly everything there was to do due to the fairly light crowds. We really lucked out =).
Monday, September 10, 2007
Napa and Sonoma
I don't typically take advantage of my three day weekends from the standpoint of travel. This is probably because it is simply exhausting coming back to work with only hours between excitement and the grind of the job, but the experience is always worth the exhaustion =).
Photos =)
Matt and I drove up Friday night to get a head start on our weekend. Saturday was a bountiful breakfast with his brothers, a merry meeting of his mom, a tour of Santa Rosa and a nice sense of where Matt grew up =). We hit some of the Sonoma County wineries that day including Ferrari-Carano, Rosso & Bianco (Francis Ford Coppola's winery) and finished off with the ever wonderful Korbel. Ferrari-Carano had some gorgeous landscaping complete with an intricate garden and warthog statue =) plus, they had my favorite of the Muscato's from the trip. Too bad they were the first and I didn't want to bring home too much wine! =) We took an enlightening tour at Rosso & Bianco which also had some amazing views, although they're scheduled to go under construction soon to reveal an incredibly lavish premises after completion. It should be nice. I brought home a bottle of Pinot Gris which came with our tour. Our final stop Saturday had the most delish of the tastings!! Korbel offered a champagne tasting and if I had the money, I would have bought them all =). The actual winery was not the most scenic, but the champagne was worth the stop. Matt and his mom did the wine tasting and quite favored the cream sherry. It had a bit of a bite for me but came with a lovely after taste =).
They also drove me all around town so I could see some downtown areas, the Schulz museum, and the ice rink, all of which had Peanuts statues outside. In the midst of wine tasting, we broke for some light hiking through Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve with the beautiful redwoods surrounding us. Loved it! Oooooh and we ate dinner at The Tides which overlooks Bodega Bay where "The Birds" was filmed!! We drove by all sorts of locations for the film...it was pretty crazy.
So, my favorite of the wineries came on Sunday in Napa Valley. Our first stop was Castello di Amorosa...Castle of Love (literally translated admiration). OMG!!! We took a tour of the intricate castle which had wondrous views of the valley in all directions and had probably the most informative wine tour of the entire trip. We tasted wine from the barrel in the cellar and also did our tasting down there. The Fantasia came home with me, being my favorite of the sweet wines...but the Rose is their most popular and is nearly sold out! No worries...Matt brought me home a bottle from his last trip...we still have yet to crack it open, but I'm sure we'll thoroughly enjoy it when we do =). Mmmmm =). Interestingly enough, they don't distribute the wines there and thus they can only be purchased on site or through the web. Sterling was next and while the line was like waiting for the now nonexistent sky buckets at Disneyland, we eventually sat in a bucket and rode to the winery at the top of the hill. We took our self guided tour and found our way to the best views in all of Napa. From Sterling you could see the castle and the green valley for miles, it was simply breathtaking =). The wines were not my favorite and I thought highly overpriced for the flavor. We drove through the rest of the valley heading south and made our final stop at V. Sattui for a quick tasting and a bottle of the family red for my dad =). They had gobs of award winning wines there! Did some final touring of the beauty of the rolling hills covered with grapes and called it a night after a few rounds of dominoes...which I apparently am fairly good at! (ok, ok...it was luck =))
Monday we headed home through the scenic San Fran. Unfortunately the fog was still rolling through when we got there so visibility was low, but we walked partway across the bridge and then hopped in the car, destination, Golden Gate Park. It was so big and we had so limited time. We were able to visit the Japanese tea garden and took a stroll through the rose gardens. It made me realize how nice it would be to have a park in our suburbia...soon enough =). On the way out we stopped at the mall for some food court food and then off for a looooooooong ride home =). Good good times =).
Photos =)
Matt and I drove up Friday night to get a head start on our weekend. Saturday was a bountiful breakfast with his brothers, a merry meeting of his mom, a tour of Santa Rosa and a nice sense of where Matt grew up =). We hit some of the Sonoma County wineries that day including Ferrari-Carano, Rosso & Bianco (Francis Ford Coppola's winery) and finished off with the ever wonderful Korbel. Ferrari-Carano had some gorgeous landscaping complete with an intricate garden and warthog statue =) plus, they had my favorite of the Muscato's from the trip. Too bad they were the first and I didn't want to bring home too much wine! =) We took an enlightening tour at Rosso & Bianco which also had some amazing views, although they're scheduled to go under construction soon to reveal an incredibly lavish premises after completion. It should be nice. I brought home a bottle of Pinot Gris which came with our tour. Our final stop Saturday had the most delish of the tastings!! Korbel offered a champagne tasting and if I had the money, I would have bought them all =). The actual winery was not the most scenic, but the champagne was worth the stop. Matt and his mom did the wine tasting and quite favored the cream sherry. It had a bit of a bite for me but came with a lovely after taste =).
They also drove me all around town so I could see some downtown areas, the Schulz museum, and the ice rink, all of which had Peanuts statues outside. In the midst of wine tasting, we broke for some light hiking through Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve with the beautiful redwoods surrounding us. Loved it! Oooooh and we ate dinner at The Tides which overlooks Bodega Bay where "The Birds" was filmed!! We drove by all sorts of locations for the film...it was pretty crazy.
So, my favorite of the wineries came on Sunday in Napa Valley. Our first stop was Castello di Amorosa...Castle of Love (literally translated admiration). OMG!!! We took a tour of the intricate castle which had wondrous views of the valley in all directions and had probably the most informative wine tour of the entire trip. We tasted wine from the barrel in the cellar and also did our tasting down there. The Fantasia came home with me, being my favorite of the sweet wines...but the Rose is their most popular and is nearly sold out! No worries...Matt brought me home a bottle from his last trip...we still have yet to crack it open, but I'm sure we'll thoroughly enjoy it when we do =). Mmmmm =). Interestingly enough, they don't distribute the wines there and thus they can only be purchased on site or through the web. Sterling was next and while the line was like waiting for the now nonexistent sky buckets at Disneyland, we eventually sat in a bucket and rode to the winery at the top of the hill. We took our self guided tour and found our way to the best views in all of Napa. From Sterling you could see the castle and the green valley for miles, it was simply breathtaking =). The wines were not my favorite and I thought highly overpriced for the flavor. We drove through the rest of the valley heading south and made our final stop at V. Sattui for a quick tasting and a bottle of the family red for my dad =). They had gobs of award winning wines there! Did some final touring of the beauty of the rolling hills covered with grapes and called it a night after a few rounds of dominoes...which I apparently am fairly good at! (ok, ok...it was luck =))
Monday we headed home through the scenic San Fran. Unfortunately the fog was still rolling through when we got there so visibility was low, but we walked partway across the bridge and then hopped in the car, destination, Golden Gate Park. It was so big and we had so limited time. We were able to visit the Japanese tea garden and took a stroll through the rose gardens. It made me realize how nice it would be to have a park in our suburbia...soon enough =). On the way out we stopped at the mall for some food court food and then off for a looooooooong ride home =). Good good times =).
