Today at work, I was tasked with creating an online profile for prospective students to interact with. The powers that be would like us to engage with students more effectively by sharing more about ourselves - hobbies, interests, details. So I've spent the last two hours looking up photos on the interwebs that help to illustrate some of my interests: travel, swimming, dancing, reading, family time, etc. As I was captioning some of the travel photos, I wanted to get specific with towns and locations.... and totally blanked. How could I not remember the name of the city where I learned to surf in Morocco? Or the park in Ireland where my legs nearly fell off because I was riding a bike up some MOUNTAINS (that had been mistakenly identified as mere "hills")? I was aghast at my own memory. Thank goodness I had this handy blog to fall back on; a quick jog down memory lane to reference Agadir as my surf Mecca, and Killarney National Park as the site of my near-demise. As I struggled to remember details of other trips - Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Phoenix, South Dakota, Florence, Boston, and on and on, I realized that I need to get my shit together and get this blog going again. For myself, as an online reference of the amazing trips I've been fortunate to take. So that's what I'm gonna do. I suppose I'll have to rename this little baby, since my hops are not exclusively across the pond, but I have to figure out how to do that now that the whole website is set up differently from when I was in college...
BUT, I've gotta start somewhere, and there's no time like the present. This (re)inaugural post will serve as a reminder to Future Kate that slacking when it comes time to write down the stories will only lead to lost adventures. Because if I don't remember it, who will?
Friday, December 23, 2016
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Long Meadow Ranch Farmstead and Golden Gates
Didn't end up eating another English muffin yesterday for breakfast. Instead, we went back to Sweetie Pies and had scones and tea (for me, coffee for Hagan). We had our first meeting of the day at 11 with the COO (chief operations officer) of Oxbow Public Market, Bart. He told us all about how he got involved with Oxbow (he and a friend started it), and answered all of our questions and more. Over the course of our chat he recommended that we stop specifically at the fish stand, a company called Konaloa, to talk to them about their sustainable fishing practices.
We talked to this guy, Kevin, for close to half an hour about how outrageously dedicated the company is to sustainable fishing His spiel: using huge trawling nets means that fishermen catch much more than just a particular type of fish. They catch sea turtles, sharks, and lots of fish that are really too young to be harvested, ether because of their size or because they're pregnant. Because of this indiscriminate fishing, the young fish are being wiped out along with older fish, so the population of fish that are left behind isn't enough to sustain the numbers that we're used to. Fish populations are dwindling. So Konaloa is dedicated to using sustainable fishing practices; TEDIOUS, time-consuming practices, but ones that ensure that there are fish left to make more fish. They do line fishing and harpoon fishing, ensuring that they're only bringing in the exact type and size of fish that they intend to. Additionally, they only catch "to order," meaning that their fish isn't sitting around in warehouses, waiting to be purchased; we're talking FRESH FISH. They pride themselves on the personal relationships that have formed between fishermen and the company itself, and they're dedicated to paying fair wages to fishermen (to the extent that they'll pay more per pound of fish to companies that will provide health insurance and guarantee a living wage to fishermen in places as far flung as Vietnam). He was totally passionate about the company that he's working for, and it carried over to what he was saying. The company is, like, the ultimate in green. Their fishing boats are required to bring back waste (like the boxes that carry bait) to be recycled, all of their shipping boxes are made of recycled paper printed with non-chemical ink, they don't use ice for packaging and shipping ice, and instead use food-grade gel freezer packs to keep fish cold. Fish that's being shipped from around the world is being shipped on commercial flights to ensure that they aren't adding to their carbon footprint by having private shipping, and a lot of their fishing is done in the Marshall Islands, so the fish is coming from the same waters that Japanese fish are coming from (AKA it's the bet quality fish that money can buy). Bottom Line: incredible quality fish, socially just business practices, sustainable methods, for, admittedly, higher priced fish. Cost, understandably, increases as value increases. Still a pretty cool business.
Sorry for that rant, but it was really cool.
We had a meeting with Laddie at Long Meadow Ranch at 2, and that was great, too. From what it sounds like, she and her husband just up and decided that they'd like to have a vineyard, so they bought 650 acres of land in the Valley back in the 80s as a summer home. They started with grapes and then found a whole grove of olive trees that they didn't know existed until they literally stumbled across them while out riding horseback on their property one day (the horse tripped). So they expanded their market to include olive oil. From there, they expanded to produce. They had a roadside market for people to stop in and purchase, but they had too much food to sell for that to remain a viable way to sell their whole crop. With all the natural abundance of their land, they decided to open a restaurant that would use their own grown products. That restaurant, called Farmstead, does just that. After chatting with Laddie for a good long while, we went in to sample this farm-fresh food for ourselves (she was super cool; we tried to convince her to sit and eat with us, but she had things to prepare for a presentation on local produce at the hospital today). It was nearly 3:30 by the time we went in to the restaurant, so it was pretty empty. Laddie asked the chef, Seamus, to come out to meet with us; he's from Arkansas (Fayetteville), so we chatted for a little while with him too. Also super cool.
Then we started to eat. And eat. And eat. Had cheese biscuits and honey butter, and asparagus covered in ricotta cheese and lemon to start with. Then progressed to gnocchi with lamb ragu (for Hagan), and a cheeseburger with rosemary roasted fries (for me). Add to the mix the Sauvignon Blanc that we enjoyed throughout, and it was a GREAT meal. Favorite, I think, in the time I was in Napa (Morimoto was AWESOME, but I could just see myself returning to Farmstead. It's more my kinda place; blue jeans welcomed).
After lunch we took the long way home. Which led us past a sign to Sonoma. Hagan decided I would be missing out if we didn't stop by, so we went and checked out some gorgeous, gorgeous homes. Then we were driving and he decided that it would be awful if I didn't get to see San Francisco, especially since we were already going in the right direction, so we went! We stopped at Baker Beach and had beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and took a nice long walk (I was still feeling full). Then into the city itself, where I got to see streetcars, Fisherman's Wharf (we stopped to buy some sourdough bread at Boudin), and the harbor Sea Lions. I was still stuffed (seriously) from dinner by the time we left around quarter to 9, so Hagan just munched on sourdough and some cheese that I had bought at Oxbow in the morning. Back to the House of Hagans, and to bed to read for a while before passing out.
Right now, I'm at the Sacramento airport, getting ready to leave, and our flight is boarding, so I'm going to do today's itinerary in a separate post (hopefully Phoenix has free wi-fi and I can post from there). See ya in Phoenix!
We talked to this guy, Kevin, for close to half an hour about how outrageously dedicated the company is to sustainable fishing His spiel: using huge trawling nets means that fishermen catch much more than just a particular type of fish. They catch sea turtles, sharks, and lots of fish that are really too young to be harvested, ether because of their size or because they're pregnant. Because of this indiscriminate fishing, the young fish are being wiped out along with older fish, so the population of fish that are left behind isn't enough to sustain the numbers that we're used to. Fish populations are dwindling. So Konaloa is dedicated to using sustainable fishing practices; TEDIOUS, time-consuming practices, but ones that ensure that there are fish left to make more fish. They do line fishing and harpoon fishing, ensuring that they're only bringing in the exact type and size of fish that they intend to. Additionally, they only catch "to order," meaning that their fish isn't sitting around in warehouses, waiting to be purchased; we're talking FRESH FISH. They pride themselves on the personal relationships that have formed between fishermen and the company itself, and they're dedicated to paying fair wages to fishermen (to the extent that they'll pay more per pound of fish to companies that will provide health insurance and guarantee a living wage to fishermen in places as far flung as Vietnam). He was totally passionate about the company that he's working for, and it carried over to what he was saying. The company is, like, the ultimate in green. Their fishing boats are required to bring back waste (like the boxes that carry bait) to be recycled, all of their shipping boxes are made of recycled paper printed with non-chemical ink, they don't use ice for packaging and shipping ice, and instead use food-grade gel freezer packs to keep fish cold. Fish that's being shipped from around the world is being shipped on commercial flights to ensure that they aren't adding to their carbon footprint by having private shipping, and a lot of their fishing is done in the Marshall Islands, so the fish is coming from the same waters that Japanese fish are coming from (AKA it's the bet quality fish that money can buy). Bottom Line: incredible quality fish, socially just business practices, sustainable methods, for, admittedly, higher priced fish. Cost, understandably, increases as value increases. Still a pretty cool business.
Sorry for that rant, but it was really cool.
We had a meeting with Laddie at Long Meadow Ranch at 2, and that was great, too. From what it sounds like, she and her husband just up and decided that they'd like to have a vineyard, so they bought 650 acres of land in the Valley back in the 80s as a summer home. They started with grapes and then found a whole grove of olive trees that they didn't know existed until they literally stumbled across them while out riding horseback on their property one day (the horse tripped). So they expanded their market to include olive oil. From there, they expanded to produce. They had a roadside market for people to stop in and purchase, but they had too much food to sell for that to remain a viable way to sell their whole crop. With all the natural abundance of their land, they decided to open a restaurant that would use their own grown products. That restaurant, called Farmstead, does just that. After chatting with Laddie for a good long while, we went in to sample this farm-fresh food for ourselves (she was super cool; we tried to convince her to sit and eat with us, but she had things to prepare for a presentation on local produce at the hospital today). It was nearly 3:30 by the time we went in to the restaurant, so it was pretty empty. Laddie asked the chef, Seamus, to come out to meet with us; he's from Arkansas (Fayetteville), so we chatted for a little while with him too. Also super cool.
Then we started to eat. And eat. And eat. Had cheese biscuits and honey butter, and asparagus covered in ricotta cheese and lemon to start with. Then progressed to gnocchi with lamb ragu (for Hagan), and a cheeseburger with rosemary roasted fries (for me). Add to the mix the Sauvignon Blanc that we enjoyed throughout, and it was a GREAT meal. Favorite, I think, in the time I was in Napa (Morimoto was AWESOME, but I could just see myself returning to Farmstead. It's more my kinda place; blue jeans welcomed).
After lunch we took the long way home. Which led us past a sign to Sonoma. Hagan decided I would be missing out if we didn't stop by, so we went and checked out some gorgeous, gorgeous homes. Then we were driving and he decided that it would be awful if I didn't get to see San Francisco, especially since we were already going in the right direction, so we went! We stopped at Baker Beach and had beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and took a nice long walk (I was still feeling full). Then into the city itself, where I got to see streetcars, Fisherman's Wharf (we stopped to buy some sourdough bread at Boudin), and the harbor Sea Lions. I was still stuffed (seriously) from dinner by the time we left around quarter to 9, so Hagan just munched on sourdough and some cheese that I had bought at Oxbow in the morning. Back to the House of Hagans, and to bed to read for a while before passing out.
Right now, I'm at the Sacramento airport, getting ready to leave, and our flight is boarding, so I'm going to do today's itinerary in a separate post (hopefully Phoenix has free wi-fi and I can post from there). See ya in Phoenix!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Culmination: Morimoto
Yesterday was extremely successful, I would say. Day started off with us heading back to Oxbow to try out the world's best english muffins (as rated by foodies on the Travel channel, so I'm taking their word for it) at the Model Bakery. The breakfast sandwich (scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, cheddar cheese on the world's best english muffin!) was just... awesome. Muffins were worth the hype. They were thick and gooey and yumm. Also had a really great cup of chai tea which was just beautiful. Since we were there, we trolled around the market for the second time in as many days, and spent a chunk of time at Whole Spice again, this time to purchase some spices for ourselves. Hagan and I both bought some of this Napa Valley Rub, and he bought some other chili bbq rubs that I stayed far away from (the girl working said they were HOT. Not my cuppa tea). We left the market and walked down the street a bit (not even a full block, really) to the Copia co-op garden. It's this big community garden that's rented out by a bunch of local restaurants so that they can serve fresh grown, fresh picked local produce.
Around that time it started to rain, so, back we went to the car, this time to head "up-valley." We were making our way up to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and the Beringer Winery (oldest continuously running winery in Napa). We stopped along the way at Dean & Deluca's, a winery and also store that sold all kinds of locally produced foodie things. Think artisan jams, cheeses, chocolates, plus local produce and wines. They had a pretty neat selection of cooking ware, including these large pink salt slabs. Hagan and I had been wondering aloud what a person would DO with such a salt slab (besides feed it to your horse or local deer), when the butcher (I forgot, locally raised meat products, too) came up and informed us: generally people use it as a serving tool. The salt maintains its temperature really well, apparently, so you can use it as a heat source or a cold source depending on what you're serving (hot pad to keep warm food, warm; cold pad to keep cold food, cold (like sushi)). Apparently salt is naturally anti-microbial, so you only have to wipe it down with a cool cloth to maintain it ("just," he said, "don't stick it in the dishwasher." He was serious. I wonder how many people pay for those and do that very thing, only to have their salt slab melt away. Silly people). Anyway, that was kinda cool. I bought some farm fresh raspberries that were dying to be eaten and literally just melted in my mouth (they didn't make it out of the car), and some chocolate covered cherries that I've been trying to hold off on eating... we'll see if they make it back to Arkansas.
Left Dean & Delucas and made it up to Beringer Winery. It's on this BEAUTIFUL property, and claims to own 2,000 of the 45,000 acres of land used in the valley to grow grapes. Pretty big deal considering there are wineries everywhere you turn. We passed a bunch of big names on our way, including Sutter Home and Robert Mondavi Winery (apparently he's the biggest name in wine around here. Maybe around everywhere. I dunno, I'm not a wino), and then arrived at the beautiful Beringer Estate. You need to see pictures of this house. So many around here are Victorians, but this one was just... wow. We did a little self-guided tour of part of the property, and were luckily inside when the next wave of rain hit, this time accompanied by hail. It was doing that all day; rain lightly, stop, rain heavily/hail, stop, drizzle, stop, etc. And it was especially confusing because the "stop" points were sunny and beautiful. Strange weather. We left during a dry spell and continued up the highway to the CIA. Yet another beautiful building (though not as beautiful as the Rhine House at Beringer). We went into the little visitors area and checked out all of these old cork screws (cork screws have changed over time, and the grips can be pretttty weird. Like the one made from a goat's foot. Or the one shaped like a human foot. Or the large collection made from various types of animal horn), and then spent a good deal of time in the store admiring all of the tools. Holy cow. It was making us salivate. About that time we realized it was 2:30 and probably past time for lunch (though we did have a late breakfast), so onwards we went.
Hagan worked at this hoity toity resort in the summer, called Meadowood, so we went there for lunch. When we were arriving, we turned down this unmarked road going through a vineyard. I was looking at Hagan like he had three heads and asked why we were going down a shady little side road, wouldn't there be a sign saying "Meadowood?" He laughed and informed me that such a sign would go against all that Meadowood stands for (mainly, privacy and peace for its clientele). We had to pause at a gatekeeper's house before being allowed on the property (only pause because Hagan knows the guy from having worked there in the summer), and up we went. It's BEAUTIFUL. Tucked up in the foothills on the side of the Valley, it has all those great foresty, woodsy, damp smells. We passed two pools, a spa and multiple tennis courts before reaching the grill. At Meadowood, there's a grill (where we ate) and a restaurant (that has 3 Michelin stars, one of 2 restaurants in the American West that has so many; where we did NOT eat). Grill looks out over the golf course and croquet lawn (yeah, my thoughts exactly). I got to meet a bunch of Hagan's former co-workers, and we had a wonderful lunch in a nearly empty grill with a beautiful view. I had some tasssty fish and chips (though the batter could've used some more flavor. I'm being picky, though, because I was spoiled last semester). I had exactly 12 french fries. They were uniform in size, and were stacked Jenga-style in the corner of my plate. I am not making this up. Each level had been salted before the next row was added. Yeah.
After lunch we had to scoot without dessert because of a last-minute meeting that we had set up in the morning. A woman from the St. Helena Farmer's Market (St. Helena is another town in the valley, where French Laundry and Chef Keller's other restaurants are located) had emailed Hagan in the morning, agreeing to meet with us. So off we went to the Napa Valley Roasting Company to meet with Amanda over coffee (more chai tea in my case). She was pretty great, and we had a nice time chatting with her. We were telling her about meetings we have set up for today and she was saying how they would be able to give us really good info of the sort we seem to be looking for. So that was encouraging.
After our meeting, Hagan and I were both wiped. We had been doing a lot of driving and standing, and so we headed back to the House of Hagans around 5. We played with doggies and ate that ganache from the previous night (tassssstyyyyyy, but a little dry. We probably should've eaten it the night before). Then we chilled out. I read books and Hagan did, too. He also made dinner reservations at Morimoto, a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar owned by Iron Chef Morimoto. HO-LY COW.
I cannot rave enough about the meal we ate. We sat at the sushi bar, first of all, so the whole time we were eating, we were watching these guys preparing sushi right in front of us. We started off with some edimame (soy beans, I think they're steamed, and served salted in their pods), and then each of us ordered sushi. I had the chef's combination, so I was presented with 10 pieces of whatever sushi the sushi chef felt like preparing for me, plus a barbecue eel roll. We finished with desserts; I had chocolate and banana fried ice cream, and I could have died on my chair and been content. This ball of banana ice cream had been dipped in chocolate that was then rolled in rice crispies and then deep fried. It was served on a bed of bananas sauteed in what I would guess was brandy, and the server brought out a little pitcher of warmed caramel to pour over it. Next to it was a little pile of chocolate (think the consistency of boxed chocolates that have the gooey chocolate center), topped with a little fried cookie. I repeat: HOLY COW. The only other way you're going to understand my joy is if you had been there and seen the blissed out faces I was making while eating this food. The fish melted in your mouth. Like, MELTED. And the dessert. UGH. SO GOOD. Besides the food, the service was phenomenal Our waiter was so friendly and easy to ask questions of, which was nice since maybe a quarter of the menu was fish we hadn't heard of. GREAT food experience.
Back to Hagan's and back to reading before heading to bed. Now it's about time to head out. It looks like today is going to be a rain all day situation, not an on and off deal, so I need to get myself prepared. And anyway, my belly is about ready for another whack at the world's best english muffin :)
Around that time it started to rain, so, back we went to the car, this time to head "up-valley." We were making our way up to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and the Beringer Winery (oldest continuously running winery in Napa). We stopped along the way at Dean & Deluca's, a winery and also store that sold all kinds of locally produced foodie things. Think artisan jams, cheeses, chocolates, plus local produce and wines. They had a pretty neat selection of cooking ware, including these large pink salt slabs. Hagan and I had been wondering aloud what a person would DO with such a salt slab (besides feed it to your horse or local deer), when the butcher (I forgot, locally raised meat products, too) came up and informed us: generally people use it as a serving tool. The salt maintains its temperature really well, apparently, so you can use it as a heat source or a cold source depending on what you're serving (hot pad to keep warm food, warm; cold pad to keep cold food, cold (like sushi)). Apparently salt is naturally anti-microbial, so you only have to wipe it down with a cool cloth to maintain it ("just," he said, "don't stick it in the dishwasher." He was serious. I wonder how many people pay for those and do that very thing, only to have their salt slab melt away. Silly people). Anyway, that was kinda cool. I bought some farm fresh raspberries that were dying to be eaten and literally just melted in my mouth (they didn't make it out of the car), and some chocolate covered cherries that I've been trying to hold off on eating... we'll see if they make it back to Arkansas.
Left Dean & Delucas and made it up to Beringer Winery. It's on this BEAUTIFUL property, and claims to own 2,000 of the 45,000 acres of land used in the valley to grow grapes. Pretty big deal considering there are wineries everywhere you turn. We passed a bunch of big names on our way, including Sutter Home and Robert Mondavi Winery (apparently he's the biggest name in wine around here. Maybe around everywhere. I dunno, I'm not a wino), and then arrived at the beautiful Beringer Estate. You need to see pictures of this house. So many around here are Victorians, but this one was just... wow. We did a little self-guided tour of part of the property, and were luckily inside when the next wave of rain hit, this time accompanied by hail. It was doing that all day; rain lightly, stop, rain heavily/hail, stop, drizzle, stop, etc. And it was especially confusing because the "stop" points were sunny and beautiful. Strange weather. We left during a dry spell and continued up the highway to the CIA. Yet another beautiful building (though not as beautiful as the Rhine House at Beringer). We went into the little visitors area and checked out all of these old cork screws (cork screws have changed over time, and the grips can be pretttty weird. Like the one made from a goat's foot. Or the one shaped like a human foot. Or the large collection made from various types of animal horn), and then spent a good deal of time in the store admiring all of the tools. Holy cow. It was making us salivate. About that time we realized it was 2:30 and probably past time for lunch (though we did have a late breakfast), so onwards we went.
Hagan worked at this hoity toity resort in the summer, called Meadowood, so we went there for lunch. When we were arriving, we turned down this unmarked road going through a vineyard. I was looking at Hagan like he had three heads and asked why we were going down a shady little side road, wouldn't there be a sign saying "Meadowood?" He laughed and informed me that such a sign would go against all that Meadowood stands for (mainly, privacy and peace for its clientele). We had to pause at a gatekeeper's house before being allowed on the property (only pause because Hagan knows the guy from having worked there in the summer), and up we went. It's BEAUTIFUL. Tucked up in the foothills on the side of the Valley, it has all those great foresty, woodsy, damp smells. We passed two pools, a spa and multiple tennis courts before reaching the grill. At Meadowood, there's a grill (where we ate) and a restaurant (that has 3 Michelin stars, one of 2 restaurants in the American West that has so many; where we did NOT eat). Grill looks out over the golf course and croquet lawn (yeah, my thoughts exactly). I got to meet a bunch of Hagan's former co-workers, and we had a wonderful lunch in a nearly empty grill with a beautiful view. I had some tasssty fish and chips (though the batter could've used some more flavor. I'm being picky, though, because I was spoiled last semester). I had exactly 12 french fries. They were uniform in size, and were stacked Jenga-style in the corner of my plate. I am not making this up. Each level had been salted before the next row was added. Yeah.
After lunch we had to scoot without dessert because of a last-minute meeting that we had set up in the morning. A woman from the St. Helena Farmer's Market (St. Helena is another town in the valley, where French Laundry and Chef Keller's other restaurants are located) had emailed Hagan in the morning, agreeing to meet with us. So off we went to the Napa Valley Roasting Company to meet with Amanda over coffee (more chai tea in my case). She was pretty great, and we had a nice time chatting with her. We were telling her about meetings we have set up for today and she was saying how they would be able to give us really good info of the sort we seem to be looking for. So that was encouraging.
After our meeting, Hagan and I were both wiped. We had been doing a lot of driving and standing, and so we headed back to the House of Hagans around 5. We played with doggies and ate that ganache from the previous night (tassssstyyyyyy, but a little dry. We probably should've eaten it the night before). Then we chilled out. I read books and Hagan did, too. He also made dinner reservations at Morimoto, a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar owned by Iron Chef Morimoto. HO-LY COW.
I cannot rave enough about the meal we ate. We sat at the sushi bar, first of all, so the whole time we were eating, we were watching these guys preparing sushi right in front of us. We started off with some edimame (soy beans, I think they're steamed, and served salted in their pods), and then each of us ordered sushi. I had the chef's combination, so I was presented with 10 pieces of whatever sushi the sushi chef felt like preparing for me, plus a barbecue eel roll. We finished with desserts; I had chocolate and banana fried ice cream, and I could have died on my chair and been content. This ball of banana ice cream had been dipped in chocolate that was then rolled in rice crispies and then deep fried. It was served on a bed of bananas sauteed in what I would guess was brandy, and the server brought out a little pitcher of warmed caramel to pour over it. Next to it was a little pile of chocolate (think the consistency of boxed chocolates that have the gooey chocolate center), topped with a little fried cookie. I repeat: HOLY COW. The only other way you're going to understand my joy is if you had been there and seen the blissed out faces I was making while eating this food. The fish melted in your mouth. Like, MELTED. And the dessert. UGH. SO GOOD. Besides the food, the service was phenomenal Our waiter was so friendly and easy to ask questions of, which was nice since maybe a quarter of the menu was fish we hadn't heard of. GREAT food experience.
Back to Hagan's and back to reading before heading to bed. Now it's about time to head out. It looks like today is going to be a rain all day situation, not an on and off deal, so I need to get myself prepared. And anyway, my belly is about ready for another whack at the world's best english muffin :)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Cooking with Julie
So here I am in Napa! Our flights were pretty uneventful. Flew through Las Vegas and were delayed about 50 minutes (to be expected. At this point I only expect my flights to both be on time about 50% of the time. I say "both" because I've also discovered that I can't fly direct practically anywhere I ever want to go unless it's to London or within Europe. That's just my life.), so that was pretty boring. Gambling age in Vegas is 21, so no drinking AND no gambling which left me with the same boring layover that I would've had to deal with in any other airport. We got in to Sacramento around 11:20 and Hagan's dad and brother, Kevin, picked us up. I was out of it for most of the trip to Napa, but tried to participate in conversation when possible; I had completely ignored the fact that we were going to be changing time zones by 2 hours this time (leaving me 3 hours from home time, 2 from Hendrix time), and I'm not exactly a giant bowl of fun by the time 2 in the morning rolls around normally, let alone after I've been chilling in airports for hours. Arrived safely at Hagan's house (AKA the House of Hagans as my friends at school have been calling it), met the doggies and then went promptly to bed.
Woke up early yesterday morning to get to our cooking class with plenty of time. Left the house a few mins after 8 and went to a bakery called Sweetie Pies that was delicious. I had a lemon poppy seed scone that had a lemon glaze over it and it was so, so good. Then we were off to the Oxbow Public Market to meet up with Julie, our cooking teacher. Oxbow is the local farmer's market, I guess, but it's way fancier than just that. The vendors have permanent stores set up inside with all kinds of delicious things to eat, and we visited most of them to buy supplies for the meal we would be cooking with Julie Logue-Riordan. Started off at the Cheese vendor and sampled a bunch of locally produced cheeses, some from cow milk, others from goat milk, and basically just fell back in love with cheese (I did at least). From there, The Fatted Calf to buy prosciutto and a cured bacon. Then back inside for produce: asparagus, nectarines, artichokes. On to the Five Dot Ranch stand just to admire the cuts of beef on display (we didn't buy any, but I WANTED TO), and then across the way to the spice stand. I guess I'm just a simple girl, but I always thought that there was only one kind of salt. Two if we want to count sea salt as a separate thing. Boy, was I wrong. There were black salts and white salts and pink salts and grey salts, bright red salts, blueish salts, purple salts. Salts made with truffles, salts made with hibiscus. It was mind blowing (don't even get me started on the 2394823596234 varieties of curry). We bought some Black Cypruss salt, a flaky black salt that looked kinda like flakes of obsidian to me, and some red hibiscus salt that was more powdery (finer grains, I guess) than your average kosher salt. Visited Annette's, the chocolatier at Oxbow, and tried to not give in to my desire to buy the ridiculously expensive chocolate covered almonds. I was successful... for now. Stopped at the Olive Press, an olive oil company, and talked to the lady about their various types of oil. One of them, Mission, is pressed from a local olive. It was originally a European variety, but it has mutated and spliced with other local plants over time and become its own local variety (pretty neat).
Anyway, successful trip to Oxbow. We left around 10:30 to head over to Groth's Winery for our wine tasting. We sampled two white wines and two red, plus had a sampling of the foods we bought at Oxbow to see which wines best paired with them (some of the cheese, prosciutto, and two types of chocolate). Whites were Saugivnon Blanc, Chardonnay, Reds were both Cabernet Sauvignons mixed with Merlot (two different percentages and vintages). I've decided that I'm a white wine drinker.
After the tasting, we headed to Julie's house to start cooking! Rachel and Susan, the mother/daughter duo that was also in our cooking class, were from suburban New York. Total Jews, as Hagan put it (he's allowed, since he's also Jewish). Though Hagan also seems to think that every person who lives in New York is Jewish. I digress.
Menu:
Herb Salad with Tangerines
Frico Baskets
Vanilla Vinaigrette
Fresh Egg Pasta
Sauce with Asparagus, Lemon and Cream
Queen of Napa cake
We started out by taking a tour of Julie's garden and gathering leafy things for the salad and for garnish. Got lemons, chives, plus all the salad greens straight from her garden. Then we moved on to making our egg pasta dough as a group, and then broke up to make the individual dishes. Hagan and I were on cake and pasta sauce duty, while Susan and Rachel had salad and dressing, as well as finishing the pasta prep (rolling it out and cutting into pasta shape). Alicia, the cooking helper, prepped most of the ingredients/implements of destruction (or construction? or instruction?) and was on duty for wine refills. She was so sweet and nice and wonderful. She was flitting around the whole time taking pictures in between taking care of all our dirty cooking implements, and started doing videos after I mentioned our Cooking Local project. She got so excited about it, and really took the time to focus on Hagan and me, along with the promise that she would email the pictures and videos to me. Kick ass!
Anyway, we cooked and ate all day and it was wonderful. Meal turned out fantastically, I learned how to blanch almonds (among other things), and I have a new appreciation for how a good knife can make SUCH a difference in prep time. We finished at Julies after 5 (LONG day for her), stuffed to the gills with delicious, local food.
After leaving, Hagan took me on a grand tour of the Valley. We went to his family's ranch (where his sister, Jen, lives and takes care of her horses and the many others that stable there), and then up to Yountville to drive by The French Laundry and Bouchon, two restaurants owned by Chef Thomas Keller. French Laundry has literally been ranked as the top restaurant in the world more than once, and is consistently rated as one of the top 10. Legit. We will not be dining there, as we would like to have money to pay for more than one meal in our time here, but we still checked it out. Awesome. Stopped by Bouchon's bakery before we left and bought a little chocolate ganache that we have yet to eat. Will give you an update once its deliciousness has crossed my lips.
Hagan's dad called right after we left Julie's house, asking us to dinner, so we eventually headed back down to the homestead to meet up with his dad and step mom. We went to a place called Norman Rose Tavern for a late dinner and ate some more tasty food. Unfortunately, the lead in to that food eating was preceded by nearly an hour wait to be seated. The servers were really nice about it, but their guesstimates for when we would be seated weren't so hot. Had a yummy blue cheeseburger made from Five Dot Ranch beef, with grilled onions on top, and some REALLY good fries. Johnny (Hagan's step mom) and I were joking about the fries while we were waiting to be seated, saying that if the fries were good, it would all have been worthwhile; it was worthwhile.
We arrived at the tavern around 7:30, were seated close to 8:30, were out and back at Hagan's house close to 10. I was wiped out, and Hagan seemed tired too, but we had promised his best friend, Andrew, that we'd be over to visit. So we headed out to Andrew's house and I met him, Angela and Rachel, three of Hagan's best friends from home. They were all so nice, but I kept falling asleep on the couch so we left and headed back to his house. STRAIGHT to bed, and had an awesome night's sleep.
While we were at the ranch, the rain that had been promised started up and continued up through to this morning. Hagan has ever-so-patiently been waiting for me to finish with this post before we leave for breakfast. Today is looking to be pretty unstructured. We're gonna go to another bakery for breakfast and then head to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) to check things out there and maybe talk with some people. We've got two meetings scheduled for tomorrow, but today is more about just roaming and visiting restaurants and talking to anyone who will talk to us about sustainable, local farming.
Food calls!
Woke up early yesterday morning to get to our cooking class with plenty of time. Left the house a few mins after 8 and went to a bakery called Sweetie Pies that was delicious. I had a lemon poppy seed scone that had a lemon glaze over it and it was so, so good. Then we were off to the Oxbow Public Market to meet up with Julie, our cooking teacher. Oxbow is the local farmer's market, I guess, but it's way fancier than just that. The vendors have permanent stores set up inside with all kinds of delicious things to eat, and we visited most of them to buy supplies for the meal we would be cooking with Julie Logue-Riordan. Started off at the Cheese vendor and sampled a bunch of locally produced cheeses, some from cow milk, others from goat milk, and basically just fell back in love with cheese (I did at least). From there, The Fatted Calf to buy prosciutto and a cured bacon. Then back inside for produce: asparagus, nectarines, artichokes. On to the Five Dot Ranch stand just to admire the cuts of beef on display (we didn't buy any, but I WANTED TO), and then across the way to the spice stand. I guess I'm just a simple girl, but I always thought that there was only one kind of salt. Two if we want to count sea salt as a separate thing. Boy, was I wrong. There were black salts and white salts and pink salts and grey salts, bright red salts, blueish salts, purple salts. Salts made with truffles, salts made with hibiscus. It was mind blowing (don't even get me started on the 2394823596234 varieties of curry). We bought some Black Cypruss salt, a flaky black salt that looked kinda like flakes of obsidian to me, and some red hibiscus salt that was more powdery (finer grains, I guess) than your average kosher salt. Visited Annette's, the chocolatier at Oxbow, and tried to not give in to my desire to buy the ridiculously expensive chocolate covered almonds. I was successful... for now. Stopped at the Olive Press, an olive oil company, and talked to the lady about their various types of oil. One of them, Mission, is pressed from a local olive. It was originally a European variety, but it has mutated and spliced with other local plants over time and become its own local variety (pretty neat).
Anyway, successful trip to Oxbow. We left around 10:30 to head over to Groth's Winery for our wine tasting. We sampled two white wines and two red, plus had a sampling of the foods we bought at Oxbow to see which wines best paired with them (some of the cheese, prosciutto, and two types of chocolate). Whites were Saugivnon Blanc, Chardonnay, Reds were both Cabernet Sauvignons mixed with Merlot (two different percentages and vintages). I've decided that I'm a white wine drinker.
After the tasting, we headed to Julie's house to start cooking! Rachel and Susan, the mother/daughter duo that was also in our cooking class, were from suburban New York. Total Jews, as Hagan put it (he's allowed, since he's also Jewish). Though Hagan also seems to think that every person who lives in New York is Jewish. I digress.
Menu:
Herb Salad with Tangerines
Frico Baskets
Vanilla Vinaigrette
Fresh Egg Pasta
Sauce with Asparagus, Lemon and Cream
Queen of Napa cake
We started out by taking a tour of Julie's garden and gathering leafy things for the salad and for garnish. Got lemons, chives, plus all the salad greens straight from her garden. Then we moved on to making our egg pasta dough as a group, and then broke up to make the individual dishes. Hagan and I were on cake and pasta sauce duty, while Susan and Rachel had salad and dressing, as well as finishing the pasta prep (rolling it out and cutting into pasta shape). Alicia, the cooking helper, prepped most of the ingredients/implements of destruction (or construction? or instruction?) and was on duty for wine refills. She was so sweet and nice and wonderful. She was flitting around the whole time taking pictures in between taking care of all our dirty cooking implements, and started doing videos after I mentioned our Cooking Local project. She got so excited about it, and really took the time to focus on Hagan and me, along with the promise that she would email the pictures and videos to me. Kick ass!
Anyway, we cooked and ate all day and it was wonderful. Meal turned out fantastically, I learned how to blanch almonds (among other things), and I have a new appreciation for how a good knife can make SUCH a difference in prep time. We finished at Julies after 5 (LONG day for her), stuffed to the gills with delicious, local food.
After leaving, Hagan took me on a grand tour of the Valley. We went to his family's ranch (where his sister, Jen, lives and takes care of her horses and the many others that stable there), and then up to Yountville to drive by The French Laundry and Bouchon, two restaurants owned by Chef Thomas Keller. French Laundry has literally been ranked as the top restaurant in the world more than once, and is consistently rated as one of the top 10. Legit. We will not be dining there, as we would like to have money to pay for more than one meal in our time here, but we still checked it out. Awesome. Stopped by Bouchon's bakery before we left and bought a little chocolate ganache that we have yet to eat. Will give you an update once its deliciousness has crossed my lips.
Hagan's dad called right after we left Julie's house, asking us to dinner, so we eventually headed back down to the homestead to meet up with his dad and step mom. We went to a place called Norman Rose Tavern for a late dinner and ate some more tasty food. Unfortunately, the lead in to that food eating was preceded by nearly an hour wait to be seated. The servers were really nice about it, but their guesstimates for when we would be seated weren't so hot. Had a yummy blue cheeseburger made from Five Dot Ranch beef, with grilled onions on top, and some REALLY good fries. Johnny (Hagan's step mom) and I were joking about the fries while we were waiting to be seated, saying that if the fries were good, it would all have been worthwhile; it was worthwhile.
We arrived at the tavern around 7:30, were seated close to 8:30, were out and back at Hagan's house close to 10. I was wiped out, and Hagan seemed tired too, but we had promised his best friend, Andrew, that we'd be over to visit. So we headed out to Andrew's house and I met him, Angela and Rachel, three of Hagan's best friends from home. They were all so nice, but I kept falling asleep on the couch so we left and headed back to his house. STRAIGHT to bed, and had an awesome night's sleep.
While we were at the ranch, the rain that had been promised started up and continued up through to this morning. Hagan has ever-so-patiently been waiting for me to finish with this post before we leave for breakfast. Today is looking to be pretty unstructured. We're gonna go to another bakery for breakfast and then head to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) to check things out there and maybe talk with some people. We've got two meetings scheduled for tomorrow, but today is more about just roaming and visiting restaurants and talking to anyone who will talk to us about sustainable, local farming.
Food calls!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...
The blog has been resuscitated. Revived. Imbued with new life. Good timing, considering it's Lent and all. Back by popular demand (really just M&D & Aunt Mares), I'm going to keep track of my spring break travels on this bad boy.
In case you didn't know, I'm headed out to Napa, California for spring break this year. My friend David Hagan (from here on out, "Hagan" only), lives there with his dad and brothers when he's not at Hendrix with me, and he had a brilliant idea for an Odyssey trip: head to Napa!
I don't recall if I ever explained the Odyssey concept during the London semester, but here's a brief summary: Hendrix College really wants its students to get their hands dirty with learning. To go out and experience things first hand, and to encourage us to spend time doing the things we're passionate about. So in the interest of encouraging that sort of "experiential learning," Hendrix has developed a program that it calls the Odyssey Program. Hendrix students are required to fulfill 3 Odysseys during their time here as students. There are 6 categories of projects, and students must fulfill Odysseys from three separate categories to receive credit. Those categories are (drum roll, I need to hear some cheers, I don't know if I can remember all six but here goesssss!): Artistic Creativity, Global Awareness, Service to the World, Undergraduate Research, Professional and Leadership Development and Special Projects. They can be as simple as taking a class (I got credit for taking an acting class) or participating in an activity (band, choir, athletic teams), or as onerously tricky and difficult as we want to make them (traveling to Cambodia to work in orphanages, working to save the sea turtles in Greece, studying abroad for a semester).
Hagan's idea falls somewhere in the middle of that range, closer to the tricky end than the simple end of the spectrum. Our proposed idea was to travel to Napa in order to study "Cooking Local;" how using locally grown products can impact the quality of cuisine. So we're traveling out to Cali to take a cooking class, meet with a bunch of world-class chefs (hopefully!) to talk about local produce, go to some vineyards to learn about how wine fits into all this, and eating a LOT of AMAZING food. Seriously. Some of the top restaurants in the world are housed in Napa. No McDonald's on this trip.
Our cooking class meets at the local farmer's market to buy the goods we'll be cooking with. Then, apparently, off to a local winery to choose a wine that will best compliment the meal we'll be cooking. From there, back to the kitchen to get our hands dirty (Hendrix will be SO proud!). That's tomorrow, Tuesday. Weds and Thursday we'll be gallivanting around meeting with chefs and eating their food. We may or may not do a quick trip to San Francisco (I would guess not because we're only arriving late tonight and leaving Friday afternoon, but we shall see).
I just did the weather check, and weather.com is calling for icky weather. Temps in the 50s all week, plus rain. Thank goodness we'll have food and wine to keep us warm :)
Flight is at 5:30 Arkansas time, arrival in Sacramento around 11 if memory serves (we're flying Southwest). Can't wait!!!!!!!
Will try to take lots of pics, but don't hold your breath for them going up until next week; I'm taking the netbook (read: mini-laptop), and it doesn't like to post pictures. My words, however, will be all yours for the perusal. Enjoy, dear readers.
In case you didn't know, I'm headed out to Napa, California for spring break this year. My friend David Hagan (from here on out, "Hagan" only), lives there with his dad and brothers when he's not at Hendrix with me, and he had a brilliant idea for an Odyssey trip: head to Napa!
I don't recall if I ever explained the Odyssey concept during the London semester, but here's a brief summary: Hendrix College really wants its students to get their hands dirty with learning. To go out and experience things first hand, and to encourage us to spend time doing the things we're passionate about. So in the interest of encouraging that sort of "experiential learning," Hendrix has developed a program that it calls the Odyssey Program. Hendrix students are required to fulfill 3 Odysseys during their time here as students. There are 6 categories of projects, and students must fulfill Odysseys from three separate categories to receive credit. Those categories are (drum roll, I need to hear some cheers, I don't know if I can remember all six but here goesssss!): Artistic Creativity, Global Awareness, Service to the World, Undergraduate Research, Professional and Leadership Development and Special Projects. They can be as simple as taking a class (I got credit for taking an acting class) or participating in an activity (band, choir, athletic teams), or as onerously tricky and difficult as we want to make them (traveling to Cambodia to work in orphanages, working to save the sea turtles in Greece, studying abroad for a semester).
Hagan's idea falls somewhere in the middle of that range, closer to the tricky end than the simple end of the spectrum. Our proposed idea was to travel to Napa in order to study "Cooking Local;" how using locally grown products can impact the quality of cuisine. So we're traveling out to Cali to take a cooking class, meet with a bunch of world-class chefs (hopefully!) to talk about local produce, go to some vineyards to learn about how wine fits into all this, and eating a LOT of AMAZING food. Seriously. Some of the top restaurants in the world are housed in Napa. No McDonald's on this trip.
Our cooking class meets at the local farmer's market to buy the goods we'll be cooking with. Then, apparently, off to a local winery to choose a wine that will best compliment the meal we'll be cooking. From there, back to the kitchen to get our hands dirty (Hendrix will be SO proud!). That's tomorrow, Tuesday. Weds and Thursday we'll be gallivanting around meeting with chefs and eating their food. We may or may not do a quick trip to San Francisco (I would guess not because we're only arriving late tonight and leaving Friday afternoon, but we shall see).
I just did the weather check, and weather.com is calling for icky weather. Temps in the 50s all week, plus rain. Thank goodness we'll have food and wine to keep us warm :)
Flight is at 5:30 Arkansas time, arrival in Sacramento around 11 if memory serves (we're flying Southwest). Can't wait!!!!!!!
Will try to take lots of pics, but don't hold your breath for them going up until next week; I'm taking the netbook (read: mini-laptop), and it doesn't like to post pictures. My words, however, will be all yours for the perusal. Enjoy, dear readers.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Eataly
So. We're going back a-ways here, and I'll do my best to keep things in the proper sequence (and to just remember what the heck I've been doing the past few days).
I left off in Desenzano del Garda, at the Villa Rosa hotel. After M&D returned to the room, we went to check out the hotel bar and to watch the Naples/SomeCityInSicily football (soccer) match. The barman was from Napoli, so we had a team to root for, which was kinda nice. Dad called it a night a little bit before Mom and I did, so we got a free drink from the barman when Napoli won :)
Half-way through the previous day, the weather had turned pretty blah. Snow, wind, general cold. That weather followed us for a while, and our first full day on Lake Garda was besmirched with fog and cold. We should have been able to see the Alps ("Alpies" as Dad's been calling them), but basically couldn't the whole time we were there. For our day on Garda, we took the car down a few towns to Sirmione, found on a thin peninsula at the southern base of the lake.
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| Mom made friends with some birds we found on the way into Sirmione |
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| View down the peninsula |
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| Dad with the sign |
You get into the historic center of Sirmione by walking (only people who live there or are staying in hotels on the peninsula may drive) across the drawbridge of this fantastic castle. The whole town is full of winding streets and hills, so we trekked around for a bit before finally wending our way up to the Grottoes of Catullus, some ancient ruins of a Roman villa in Sirmione.
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| Dad and Mom with the castle |
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| Me, too |
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| Alongside the moat |
Catullus was a Roman poet in the 2nd century AD, and historians are pretty certain that the ruins we visited could not have been his (they were built in the first century BC, so well before Catullus' time), but the name has stuck over all these years. There was a little museum describing the archaeological excavations that have taken place on the grounds and in the lake around there, and then we spent a good chunk of time freezing our butts off (or maybe that was just me) wandering around with the cats that live on the grounds. If it weren't for the foggy mess outside, we'd have had some spectacular views of the lake and surrounding mountains, but alas, we missed out. The bits of view that we DID catch in between clouds were incredible. Still worth it.
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| Cat |
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| Just some ancient ruins. No big. |
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| The grottoes were all based around an olive grove, so there were olive trees hanging out all over the place. |
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| "Look, my head fits through the bars!" |
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| Yup, even castles get Christmas lights in Italy |
Back to the hotel to look about finding food, and we hit upon a plan: dinner at the Irish pub Mom had passed the night before during her wanderings. So off we went to find The Fiddler of SomethingorOther. Had some great pints of Guinness (the last Guinness that I assume I'll have on tap til I turn 21... doubt I'll be returning to Europe before then...bummerrrrrrrr!) and bruschetta for dinner, and then off to bed.
Wednesday morning we enjoyed our last breakfast at Villa Rosa (NB: they had great breakfasts. If you ever think you might want to go there, make sure there's not a wedding going on. Because Italian weddings are LOUD especially if you're in the hotel room right above the ballroom. But the breakfasts made it almost worthwhile. Think fresh-squeezed OJ, every variation of coffee/cappuccino/hot chocolate known to man, and really, really, really good bread) and then were off towards Venice. Plan for the day was to drive to Verona (en route to Venice), stay there for a while, and then on to the hotel in Venice for sleeps. This plan worked-ish. Emphasis on the ish.
Plan worked in the sense that we DID those things. Failure lay in the fact that we A. didn't have a map of Venice and were totally winging it B. couldn't find parking and C. it was raining (out of our control, but still annoying) as the clouds had been threatening for a few days (they followed us from Desenzano). Points A, B and C led to the obvious: we were at each other's throats. Not so nice for a family vacation (or a 30th anniversary vacation crashed by the daughter, but let's not quibble over terminology). In any event, we didn't kill each other AND we got to see a lot of churches from the car as we drove around in circles trying to figure out where the hell we were. I can't stress enough how awful being lost in an Italian city IN A CAR is. Italian drivers are all crazy (though I'll admit they're exceedingly patient with lost drivers who are blocking up traffic works), and signs are (this is a repeat, but a necessary one) NOT GOOD. You'll be IN an intersection when you see signs explaining the street name, directional signs etc. Ridiculously confusing. Anyway, we finally found a parking spot right next to the Duomo (so we got to see that), and wandered around until we (by "we" I mean "Dad") found the casa de Guilietta! AKA Juliette's house. AKA the famous balcony from Romeo and Juliette. That's right, the Capulets lived in Verona (come on, star crossed lovers in Verona. You remember), and we went to their house. The parking spot that we had chanced upon was a 1 hr spot, so we headed out pretty quickly after seeing the courtyard of her house (of course you've got to pay to go into the house. Who cares? We saw the balcony), and got the hell out. It was a frustrating experience, but we survived. Missed the Arena (3rd largest in Italy after the Coliseum and... another one...), but we didn't kill each other. Mission: success.
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| St. Xeno's in Verona |
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| One of many Madonna & Child frescoes throughout St. Xeno's |
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| THE BALCONY. I wonder how Romeo managed to climb up... |
Trip from Verona to Venice was uneventful: we didn't get lost, and we only made one wrong turn (signs were IN THE INTERSECTION. How are you supposed to read the signs and drive safely when the sign is MID-TURN?) that we knew was wrong as we made it. Arrived safely in Venice (on the mainland, technically in Oriago) at the hotel Villa Dolcetti. GO THERE SOMEDAY. Diego, the guy who owns it, was wonderful. For example: this morning we bashed the French with him. Or, not really BASHED, just acknowledged that the French feel that they are superior in every way to every other country, and how French people refuse to acknowledge inferior spoken French by pretending to not understand. It was fun/funny :) But breakfasts were lovely, and he decorated the cappuccinos before delivering them to the table, so M&D got to admire his artwork while I sipped my teas.
In any case, we settled right in for a wait til the local restaurants opened so we could grab some dinner. We went to a pizzeria (pizzerias in Italy are more like restaurants than the American idea of what a pizzeria is) and I had GREAT GREAT GREAT spaghetti. It was a seafood spaghetti, with mussels and clams and squid, but the dish was covered with pizza dough, so it looked kinda like a calzone, but when you cut it open, it was SPAGHETTI DELICIOUSNESS. Dad tasted it and almost gagged, but he's a wimp when it comes to non-fish/shrimp seafood. It was AMAZING. The house red wine was also good :) Our waiter was lovely, and we had tiramisu for dessert (tiramisu with nutella, actually. The waiter recommended it, and it was gooooood). Great dinner.By the time we got back to the hotel, we were about ready to crash. So we did! Straight to bed, with plans for an early morning the next day.
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| M&D in Villa Dolcetti on the couch outside of our room |
Experienced our first breakfast on Thursday, and then headed for the city. It would have been silly to drive to the islands and pay for parking, so we took the public bus. It was quick, efficient and clean. We arrived in the city and started wandering. It took a while for me to convince Dad that I was serious when I said that I didn't care to look at maps, that I was just going to wander and wander and get lost and enjoy every second of it, but he finally believed me and stopped taking map-check breaks every few minutes. About 2pm an amazing, wonderful, incredible, lovely thing happened: the sun came out. We sat by a cistern in the city for probably a half hour, just basking in the sun when it finally showed its face. Wonderful :)
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| Tight fit... |
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| Proof that at least Dad and I were in Venice at the same time |
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| Nerd |
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| Basking in sunlight |
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| Just one of the many, many, many, many churches in Venice |
We didn't make it to St. Mark's Square (Piazza de San Marco) til evening because we were so busy poking our noses down little alleyways and over cool looking bridges, but it was well-worth it when we finally made it. After some difficulties with Dad's not being allowed to take his backpack into the basilica, we all made it inside to see that BEAUTIFUL building. I SO wish I had pictures to post of the inside, because the whole thing is covered with mosaics. INCREDIBLE. Truly, truly wondrous. The floors are all different geometric patterns, and the walls and ceiling are completely covered with mosaics of various saints and Jesuses and Marys and Baby Jesuses and angels and cherubs and patterns. It was just... breathtaking. That's probably the best word for it. Breathtaking. We wandered around for a while and then peaced out; we were hungry! We found a little place on our way out of the city and grabbed some more pasta, and then had gelato while we wandered around to find the bus back to Oriago. Great day.
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| St. Mark's (from the side) in the evening |
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| View from the Piazza |
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| Venice at night |
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| M&D on the Rialto Bridge |
Friday was Venice, Round 2, but first we wanted to make sure we knew where to go to get to the airport, so we took our little car out for a spin and headed for Marco Polo Airport. Once we had that sorted, it was back into Venice for another day. We had to find a bank to replenish funds, so that was a fun adventure of wandering, looking for an ATM, and then we wandered some more. We ate lunch (side note: Dad was incredibly resourceful the past two days in that he planned ahead and packed us sandwiches for lunch. So we got to nom on sandwiches as soon as we got hungry. Win!) in a park near the Jewish Ghetto (literally, maps say "ghetto"), and we got to hang out with some pigeons that followed us. After lunch, back to wandering.
Venice is just. Whew. To m way of thinking, the whole city is reflected in St. Mark's Basilica; it's breathtaking. Every alley had some hidden beauty, whether it's in the statues that are everywhere, or the ornate doors, or the faces found over doorways, or the windows, or the bridges... UGH, the BRIDGES are GORGEOUS. They catch you off guard at times with how beautiful they are. And we were SO lucky in that the sun stuck around for Friday, too. From the time we woke up, it was sunny (and warm in the sun!). I wore my SUNGLASSES. THAT sunny. It was great.
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| Venetians hang their laundry out their windows. Mom wishes she could do that. |
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| This little boy was cruising around, chasing the pigeons |
So we wandered on, ended up back at St. Mark's around sunset, and headed for the Bridge of Sighs. I left Mom and Dad to it while they did their romantic wander across the bridge, and admired the sunset. Or, that's what I thought I was doing. In fact, they discovered that the bridge that we THOUGHT was the Bridge of Sighs was an imposter. So we went in search of, and found, the real one.
After their successful finding of the bridge (Dad keeps telling me that I have to watch some movie that features said bridge. He claims he will kidnap me for an evening so that I will be forced to watch it. Apparently, it is baffling to him that I could have not seen it already, and is generally a situation that needs to be rectified. Typically, I can't remember what it's called now, but I'll go along with it), we went back towards the Piazza de San Marco. Reason being that Mom wanted to do the bell tower museum in the basilica, and Dad, well, didn't. So Mom and I went up and admired the mosaics from THIS CLOSE (seriously. You're up on the second floor of the building... can you call it a floor?... where there's a museum dedicated to explaining how the mosaics came to be and how they have been restored, and showing examples of mosaics that have been removed from the walls in certain parts of the building, but you're also totally up close and personal with the mosaics. SO cool), and we were the last ones inside, so the guard was literally shepherding us along, locking the doors behind us as we passed through. Last bit of the museum allowed visitors out onto a balcony overlooking the piazza, so we got to stick our noses out there to see the moon and stars shining over it all. Gorgeous.
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| Bridge of Sighs |
We met up with Dad outside the basilica where he was patiently, half-frozen-ly, waiting for us. He told us about how he befriended some pigeons and had them taking peanuts out of his hand and, eventually, his lips. Pigeon kisserrrrrrrrrrr!
We headed for dinner and gelato, and I bought a beautiful, soft pair of grey leather cashmere lined gloves that I'm slightly obsessed with. They're SWEET. Seriously. Back to the hotel to shower, pack and sleep.
Today has been all travels. We were up early and got to chat with Diego over our last breakfast, and then headed for the hills. Trip to the airport went smoothly (having practiced it yesterday), and we had some delicious Pret sandwiches in the Heathrow airport for lunch (flew from Marco Polo in Venice to Heathrow in London to Philly). Now I'm sitting in my business class seat to Philadelphia and loving itttttt. I upgraded before I left home. As Mom put it, it was a very expensive toothbrush (I got a little travel pack(so did M&D) with socks, pen, toothbrush, ear plugs, etc in it). BUT I had a reclining seat, and noise-cancelling headphones, and wine with dinner, so it was worthwhile (you'll notice that now I'm home).
Uncle Tom played the knight in shining armor, rescuing us from the clutches of the dastardly Philadelphia Airport. Home safe and sound :)
At this point, it would be appropriate to include some sort of closing paragraph, summarization of my feelings thing. I just don't have it in me though. So, instead, here's to Venice. And Strasborg. And Baveno. And Desanzano. And Stresa. And Zurich. And Sirmione. And, above all, here's to London. Cheers.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
From Zurich down to Garda
We arrived in Zurich and were thanking our lucky stars that we didn't book trains with only 9 minutes in between arrival/departure because we would've missed train #2. There was a Christmas market going on in the train station, so we wandered around for a while checking out the various booths and then got some yummy, spicy hot dog/sausage things to nom on until our train to Milan arrived.
The train from Zurich to Milan was only a few minutes late (everything was screwy because of the snow), and the scenery was BEAUTIFUL. We were traveling through the Gotthard Pass in the Alps, so we were surrounded by these incredible views the entire trip. According to Dad, they've just finished blasting a hole in the mountain that's going to be a tunnel eventually, once they get the track laid. So trains going through the pass will soon be a thing of the past. Pretty cool that we got to do it before the tunnel opens :)
We arrived in Milan safely, and Phase Two began: Find Rental Car. We had to take a bus from the train station to get to the airport where we would pick up the car, which wasn't too bad. Then we had to find the Hertz counter inside the airport. Slightly trickier, but we managed. Grabbed some airport grub, just in case we took longer than anticipated to get to Stresa, and then went out to hunt down our car in the parking garage. Again, we managed with some difficulty, but still managed.
Next, Phase Three: drive to Baveno. More like "Phase Three: The Stooges." Though in our defense, Italian road signs are NOT well lit, and we were driving in the dark at this point. Long story short, it took us somewhere in the realm of three hours to make a 60 mile drive. On superhighways. Our constant refrain was, "Well, if we get lost AGAIN, we can just follow signs back to the airport and try, try again!" That alternated with, "Thank GOODNESS we ate, or we would be MISERABLE." In any event, we made it in one piece and without stress levels being too outrageous.
Our hotel was called Hotel Splendid, and splendid it was.
Mom and I went out for a late-night wander around the hotel grounds when we first arrived. The place is right on the water of Lake Maggiore in Baveno, so we were checking out the lake and the beach and the various docks that we encountered. Finally wandered back to play with the buttons in our hotel room and head to bed.
Next day we all slept til 11ish. This was on account of A. our exhaustion and B. the fact that we had a metal, mechanized shutter to cover the sliding door that led out to our balcony. Sweet, right? Anyway, this shutter basically blocked out all vestiges of light and let us sleep as long as we wanted to. We were awakened by a small child's screams. As Dad put it, "who let the crumb-grubbers in?" Eleven o'clock was plenty of sleep though, and we got off to a leaisurely start.
Initial plan was to take a ferry around the Borromean Islands that are right off of Stresa (town next to Baveno), but we nixed that and decided to just wander along the promenade by the water. Good decision, it turns out, because it started snowing and got very cold and windy. It was a great walk though.
We had a great wander along the water and then headed back into town for mass at 6. It was difficult to say the mass parts in english when they were being said in Italian, but it was calming, being in church. After mass we headed to a bar/pub/restaurant place for some dinner. We went at my request, basically because they served Guinness. And a damn good pint of Guinness it was; well-poured. We hung out for a while and had a nice exchange as we were leaving with some of the men who had been there all night with us. They thought we were British (I'm pretty sure because they assumed ignorant Americans wouldn't be TRYING so hard to speak Italian), but we had a nice chat with them and further butchered their language, I'm sure, but they seemed to appreciate our efforts (side note: Dad's been GREAT with his Italian. Mom and I kinda keep to the side, but he's right out there, chit chatting away. True, he's had some moments of "Fr-italian," but on the whole, excellent effort has been made).
Back to the hotel for bed. Woke up early and I went to the hotel's gym for an early morning work out. Normally they charge for use of the gym and health club, but because it's the dead of winter and half of Baveno is closed down for the season anyway (seriously, at least half of the hotels are closed, windows boarded up and looking sketchy, but it's just bc it's winter. They all open up again in May for the start of tourist season), they made it fo' FREE.
Anyway, had a GREAT workout, and floated in the jacuzzi for a while, and hung out in the steam room, and the sauna, and jammed to the Spanish version of "Hotel California" that was playing, and basically loved every second. There was this room that looked like it had sand on the floor, and lounge chairs, and I went in to vegetate for a while only to discover that the sand was bath salts! So I scrubbed my feetses for a while. So good. And then when I was finished, I took a shower in one of those incredible ones with the foot-diameter shower heads that rains on you, and had horizontal jets that shot at you while you sing in the shower. Best part? I HAD IT ALL TO MYSELF (not just the shower. We're talking the shower, the workout room AND the whole health club, so the jacuzzi and sauna and steam room. When I'm rich, after I buy M&D that house in Stresa, I'm going to build a steam room into my house. It was THAT good) Glorious. GLORIOUS. Finally went back upstairs, 50 minutes later than I had told M&D to expect me, and got myself together to leave.
Clampett-style, we lugged our baggage downstairs and headed for the hills. Stopped for breakfast at a restaurant we had found the day before, and ended up eating lunch instead. I had this amazing risotto with lake fish that was served in a hollowed-out gourd, and Mom had a sweet cheese platter, and Dad had a Meat&Cheese salad. Yum! It was snowing the whole morning, and continued to do so after we left the restaurant and started our drive to Lake Garda.
Made it here (Desenzano del Garda) safely, and checked in to the Hotel Villa Rosa without too much fuss. I was going through blog-withdrawal (really just internet withdrawal), so I just paid for some internets to get these babies posted. Because apparently Wi-Fi is never free in Europe, unless you're staying at a youth hostel. Mom and Dad both went for walks around town while I vegged out in here, and I think I may swap them out and go for a wander myself! Tomorrow: Garda.
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| Hanging in the train station |
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| Swarovski Crystal-decorated Christmas tree in the station |
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| We quickly realized that Zurich is German-speaking Switzerland, not French-speaking. |
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| View from the train |
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| Incredible |
Next, Phase Three: drive to Baveno. More like "Phase Three: The Stooges." Though in our defense, Italian road signs are NOT well lit, and we were driving in the dark at this point. Long story short, it took us somewhere in the realm of three hours to make a 60 mile drive. On superhighways. Our constant refrain was, "Well, if we get lost AGAIN, we can just follow signs back to the airport and try, try again!" That alternated with, "Thank GOODNESS we ate, or we would be MISERABLE." In any event, we made it in one piece and without stress levels being too outrageous.
Our hotel was called Hotel Splendid, and splendid it was.
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| Splendid... Hotel Splendid |
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| Every bathroom needs its own mosaic swan, and this was ours. |
Next day we all slept til 11ish. This was on account of A. our exhaustion and B. the fact that we had a metal, mechanized shutter to cover the sliding door that led out to our balcony. Sweet, right? Anyway, this shutter basically blocked out all vestiges of light and let us sleep as long as we wanted to. We were awakened by a small child's screams. As Dad put it, "who let the crumb-grubbers in?" Eleven o'clock was plenty of sleep though, and we got off to a leaisurely start.
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| View we woke up to (once the iron curtain was lifted) |
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| Mom and Dad with the Alps in Stresa, Italy |
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| The Alps over Lake Maggiore |
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| Mermaid in the Alps!? |
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| Cool tree + Cool Street Lamp + Cool Place = Cool Picture |
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| When I'm rich, I'm buying this house for M&D and fixing it up so they can have a bungalow on the beach in Italy |
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| Another view, but without the excellent red berries |
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| I was there, too |
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| Memorial to the victims of 9/11/01 |
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| I was obsessed with those trees |
Back to the hotel for bed. Woke up early and I went to the hotel's gym for an early morning work out. Normally they charge for use of the gym and health club, but because it's the dead of winter and half of Baveno is closed down for the season anyway (seriously, at least half of the hotels are closed, windows boarded up and looking sketchy, but it's just bc it's winter. They all open up again in May for the start of tourist season), they made it fo' FREE.
Anyway, had a GREAT workout, and floated in the jacuzzi for a while, and hung out in the steam room, and the sauna, and jammed to the Spanish version of "Hotel California" that was playing, and basically loved every second. There was this room that looked like it had sand on the floor, and lounge chairs, and I went in to vegetate for a while only to discover that the sand was bath salts! So I scrubbed my feetses for a while. So good. And then when I was finished, I took a shower in one of those incredible ones with the foot-diameter shower heads that rains on you, and had horizontal jets that shot at you while you sing in the shower. Best part? I HAD IT ALL TO MYSELF (not just the shower. We're talking the shower, the workout room AND the whole health club, so the jacuzzi and sauna and steam room. When I'm rich, after I buy M&D that house in Stresa, I'm going to build a steam room into my house. It was THAT good) Glorious. GLORIOUS. Finally went back upstairs, 50 minutes later than I had told M&D to expect me, and got myself together to leave.
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| Snow on palm trees!?!? |
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| Restaurant for breakfast/lunch and a view up the hill in Stresa |
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| He wanted to say goodbye to us |
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