An Ultimate Return

I got Mom, Hollie, Mike, and Matthew to the airport this morning by 6:30a and rushed home to make final preparations for the start of the Live Ultimate Run.  And thus, after a long hiatus, I made a triumphant return to the road race circuit. 

This race was challenging for two reasons: I didn’t get a full night sleep and, Ali and I took the family on the official Mills in the Hills Napa Valley excursion yesterday!  Today’s endeavor was a 10k race.   Under other conditions, I might aim to finish under 50 minutes but not today, my friends, not today.  Instead, I set a more modest goal of 1 hour.  Good thing I did too!  My official race time was 59:52.9.

Overall, I enjoyed the race.  Anytime there’s a flat course, a good time, a medal, and a cool t-shirt…the race is sure to get high marks in my book.  You may (or may not) have noticed that I need a tan.  7 days 'til Maui!  ...actually, I'm pretty sure that's not gonna do a whole lot in the "tan" department.

Mills in The Hills

The vineyard reservations were booked in May.  The commemorative water bottles were designed and fabricated even earlier.  Wifey and I (OK…mostly Wifey) have been planning this day for MONTHS.

When it finally arrived, we were more than ready to go.  So we picked up the Mom, Hollie, Matthew, and Mike at their San Francisco abode, headed north across the Golden Gate Bridge, and made a beeline for Napa.

Our first stop was a “mule ride” (er…tour) and tasting at The Terraces at Quarry Vineyards.  We did two tastings; balsamic first then wine.  We sampled the vinegars in a small stone building amongst the wines.  It was one of the day’s favorite memories.  Atlas was a late addition to the photo (lower-left of picture).

I don’t recall exactly but I believe we tasted 10-, 15-, and 20-year-old balsamic vinegar.  Each was infused with something different and they were fantastic.  The process of aging was truly fascinating too.  After the vinegar, we ducked into the air-conditioned tasting room and sampled a few wines.  If I’m not mistaken, the wines from The Terrace’s were everyone’s favorite…except Matthew who dislikes all wines.  Abigail, our host, promptly came to his rescue and delivered a growler of Russian River.

Our second stop was at Gott’s Roadside for lunch.  Just a quick stop though, we had a picnic table reserved at the Rutherford Hill winery where we could enjoy the scenery as we gorged on burgers and fries.

After lunch we were whisked off to Ali and my favorite winery by our most attractive chauffer.  Vine Cliff was the vineyard highlight of our first trip to Napa in 2010 and we were excited to show-off our little treasure to the fam.  By the time we arrived, temps were in excess of 105 degrees.  Blah.  Fortunately, the wine caves were a more comfortable 55.  Still, the day was getting long.  After the tasting at Wine Cliff, we rushed back to San Francisco and grabbed pizza and pastries from our favorite two North Beach restaurants Tony’s and Mara’s.

I hope everyone else enjoyed the day as much as Wifey and I did.  We were beyond happy to show you around SF and felt fortunate to get everyone in one place at the same time.  Many thanks to my wonderful wife for, once again, making the perfect plan.

To Jail (and Back)

One of the great things about playing host to family and friends is the opportunity to do the touristy things at which residents otherwise scoff.  Since Mom, Matthew, Hollie, and Mike were in town, Ali and I jumped at the chance to follow in Nick Cage’s footsteps by partaking in the night tour at Alcatraz.

Tickets are difficult to come by.  We, fortunately, secured our tickets several months ago.  My first impression of Alcatraz Island was: wow, this thing is much smaller than it looked in ‘The Rock.’  Measuring-in at a measly 12 acres makes Alcatraz about the size of 10 soccer fields.

The tour was a lot of fun.  The cells were truly tiny.  There was no room for claustrophobia within those walls.  Each one was mysterious and intriguing from a distance.  Standing inside of one evoked very different emotions though!  I posed for a picture from inside of “the hole” but got the heck out of there before anyone could make a prank out of it.

The cellblocks are the undisputed main attraction but the rest of the island shouldn’t be missed.  Even as a visitor, the kitchen and cafeteria didn’t feel safe.  It might have had something to do with the utensil outlines in the cupboards!  Back in the day, the prison guards made painted outlines of the kitchen utensils on the cupboards as a very quick way for taking inventory lest a prisoner smuggle a deadly weapon from the kitchen.

The infirmary was truly creepy.  We walked around the medical ward for a few minutes before promptly returning to the less medieval and rusty parts of the building.  The recreation yard wasn’t much to write home about but it was the site of, perhaps, the most accidentally artistic picture of me ever taken.  This is my best James Dean impression.

Bready or Knot

Ali and I have been watching a show called, ‘American Baking Competition.’  The show follows a group of bakers through the trials and tribulations of a several months long baking competition.  The bakers are given a new baking specialty each week allowing them to prove themselves as the next great American baker.  Since Ali and I have taken to this show, we’re sure that it will be canceled before summer is over.

This week’s episode featured breads as the creative challenge.  Feeling inspired, I went ahead and made this recipe for Braided Farmer’s Cheese Bread.  All in all, I’m rather proud of the outcome.

It didn’t taste bad either! The cheese bread was the perfect companion for the new olive oil and peach vinaigrette that we brought home from a recent tasting we did in the Marina neighborhood of San Francisco.  I admit that it took me nearly twice as long to prepare as was suggested by the recipe but then again, why rush something as wonderful as braided bread?

It's been a long time since I made bread and a much longer time since I made dough without the help of a breadmaker.  I'm guessing that the last time I made dough (sans breadmaker) was back on Needle Drive.  I imagine mom was artfully aligning childcare with the requirements of the household through the magic of homemade pizza.  It was one of those fun things to do as a child: measure the ingredients, kneed the dough, spread the sauce, place the toppings, and wait for the oven to work it's magic.  For the record, my favorite pizza these days is the simplicity of a pepperoni pizza!

Rule 119: Beware of the Guy with a Saber

Have you ever wished to have been a fly on the wall at the exact moment that a (then obscure) idea was hatched?  Take for example, champagne sabering.  What was going on in the room during the first time that someone thought, “Sacré bleu!  I must open this champagne with my sword!”  Whatever was happening, I bet it was a good party…

Wifey and I decided to test my sabering skills at the local champagne lounge.  It’s not as easy as it looks!  OK, it is as easy as it looks.  Apparently I was not on my game today.

Despite hacking at the bottle for several minutes, the instructor assured me that simply having a larger sword would not make it any easier.  Well, I guess we’ll never know…now.  After I finally severed cork and neck from bottle (6^th time’s a charm), we emerged from the weird underground cave to enjoy our bounty.  Is it too early to start my Christmas list?

Click here for a quick lesson on the history of sabrage.

Good to Go

It took over a month but Jake received a clean bill of health!  Two weeks of a pharmaceutical haze and two weeks of on leash walks begets one elated Labrador (and a lot of energy).  All in all; we feel like we are rather fortunate.  Welcome back, Jake!