Highlights from the West Coast

 

After a lot of business travel this year, (and more to come - yay!) Christmas Boy and I spent ten fabulous days on the west coast with some of our dearest friends!

We spent the first three days in Seattle visiting friends. We me their baby for the first time, we went to the Puyallup Fair, did a little shooting at the indoor range, and just hung out. The other seven days we spent in the San Francisco Bay Area and wine country. Yay!

My first lunch in San Francisco was with -- you guessed it -- Monica Ricci!
She was in town and so was her mom, so the three of us ventured to The Ferry Building and had a delicious lunch of Italian sandwiches from Mastrelli's and chatted while walking along the water. The next day I had lunch with Christmas Boy and a friend of ours at A16, and one night we ate at a really yummy place called A Cote with three friends. Ummmm, did I mention we ate??

After three days in San Francisco, we headed north to Sonoma County's beautiful wine country where we tasted many wines at individual wineries, but we also were able to taste from six different wineries in one location at Family Wineries Dry Creek Valley. This is also where we met Shaun, the World's Most Fun Wine Guy. The Family Wineries place is pretty cool because you get to taste wines from several places without driving to them all. They are: Lago di Merlo, Collier Falls, Duxoup (yes that is indeed pronounced DUCK SOUP), Forth, Dashe (it's a monkey riding a fish, I know) and Meitz.

As for the rest of the wine country weekend, we ate, we hung out watching African Queen, we ate, we went on a hot air balloon ride over wine country, and I spent several glorious hours at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa. During our wine country weekend, we dined at The Girl and The Fig, which was exceptional, as was our server, Derek. Check out all the pictures in the sidebar photo album! Fun fun fun!

Comments

[John Trosko]

You are the only person I know that would make friends with someone SOLELY because their name is EXACTLY spelled like yours. And the freaky thing is, Monica-- you have actually remained friends for a long time!

Hey, my alter ego, John Trosko, is a big mucky-muck with the Boy Scouts in Texas. Seriously! Freaky! Fun! He found me through my blog.....

- John

[Monica Ricci]

John, I DISCOVERED her because we had the same name. We became friends because we're both totally kewl girls! :) And I can't believe there's another John Trosko in the world. Zoinks!
Hugs,
~Monica

[Jon King]

SF is a great destination... next time your at the Ferry Building, try LuLu Petite for breakfast (wow!) then grab some cheese right next door at "Cowgirl Creamery" (and send me some..!)

[Brandie Kajino]

How fun! What a great pic of the hot air balloon. I love that you talk about where you went to eat. :) Gives me ideas when I head north or south in this great area we call home (or west coast...).
Thanks for sharing!

[Terry Lessig]

Of all the Monica Riccis, we've got the best one here, keeping our junk to a minimum.
Great to see you in your smart girl glasses! When do we get the new headshots?

[Monica Ricci]

Jon, Brandie and Terry thanks for your comments! I had such a great time out there. It is always a fun place to visit, but I love living in the south. :)
~Monica