Down in the Bayou

What is a Bayou?

"A Bayou is a slowly moving body of water, usually attached to a river." That's what we learned on the Swamp Tour, at least. We also learned that this particular bayou is home to a myriad of plants and animals, including an enormous alligator, a slew of smaller ones, snakes, birds, and people.

The swamp tour was a third-day diversion from the buzz of New Orleans. After umpteen "be careful in New Orleans" warnings, Linds and I were so preoccupied with watching our back, we barely saw a thing in front of us the first couple of days in the Big Easy.

A little nature was just what we needed, because frankly, we were doing everything else all wrong. We got to the French Quarter around 5 o'clock the first night with every intention of easing into a raucous evening. After nearly 2 pounds of boiled shrimp (we ordered 1 pound, but the waiter "brought extra"), a dozen Oysters on the half shell (we ordered 1/2 dozen), salad, beer and dessert (the latter bought for us by, you guessed it, our waiter) we were too spent to do much else, so we went home around 9pm after a relaxing smoke at the Hookah Bar.

The second evening out, we prepped ourselves again and again succumbed to the food coma.

By our third day we were prepared both mentally and physically, and realized that perhaps all of our guardian angels were probably being a little tiny bit over dramatic about crime in the Big-Easy.

Before the swamp tour we stopped for beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde and went house shopping in the Garden District under a picturesque November sky (t-shirts in November = 2 happy yankees). After the swamp, we went home and STAYED THERE until around 8:30 pm - we figured that by going out later than we had even stayed out the previous nights, we were bound to find some fun.

It's been brought to my attention that this blog is all about food. Dick & Jenny's was the restaurant that topped them all. We ate crawfish cheesecake as an appetizer. We ate fried oysters as an appetizer before that. Lindsay's lamb was the best plate of food we've been served anywhere in the country - and dessert (bought for us by our waiter - again) was beyond belief bread pudding. All of this in blue jeans and a relaxed atmosphere, with a wonderful waiter whose band we later learned we missed by just minutes that first night at the Hookah Bar.

We finished our night with a stroll around the quarter sipping a Hurricane, stopping to chat for nearly an hour with an artist painting in her open studio. We winced at the strip clubs on Bourbon street (Lindsay because she winces at strip clubs, me because Lindsay was there). Marveled at the antiques and the architecture. Wound our way to Frenchmen St. into Snug Harbor for Jazz that turned our untrained ears into Jazz-loving sponges (while sipping a Monsoon). Then wove our way back to the car by popping into club after club to soak up some more music.

The next morning we hit the highway through the Bayou, smiling about what a great time we had had - and how nice it is that there are no mosquitos in the swamp during the day (betcha didn't know that!).

Lovely (warm) Austin

We headed into Austin extremely excited to see my Uncle Tom and Kati and my friend Erica whom I have known since she was born. We pulled into the Pecan Grove RV park in south Austin and later learned what a cool place it was. The park was aptly named, all day and night pecans plunked down onto our roof. We collected a bunch and ate as many as we could. We noticed all of the locals doing the same thing. There were many people who lived in the park year round, the few we spoke to chuckled as they told us that the rent was the cheapest for miles and they were literally living on prime real estate. The owners and renters had created a funky, artistic, neighborhood, right in the heart of downtown Austin. The city had once put pressure on the owners to sell so they could fill up the empty land with more condos but NO, the owners and the people living there would not budge. There is great camaraderie within the park and everyone was cheerful and welcoming.

The first night in Austin we met up with my Uncle Tom and Kati at their beautiful house, got the tour and then went out to an amazing Chinese/Japanese restaurant. It was such a treat! We caught up and laughed for hours. We left them to meet up with Erica and her buddies for a drink and got a taste of what Austin had to offer. After a bit we headed back to Erica's house for another tour and more laughing.

The next day we headed over to my Uncle's for a full day of catching up, sharing stories, Football (on TV), and eating (surprise surprise). Katie had been cooking away in the kitchen a dinner of corned beef and cabbage. It was amazing, we ate until we couldn't eat anymore and waddled off toward home.

We spent the next day with Erica, checking out the sights, sounds and tastes of Austin. Again we ate at all the cool local places and tried to get our fill of Texas BBQ and sweet tea. We were lucky enough to get a tour of an amazing house that my Uncle had built, and is continuously updating due to the owners beautiful sense of design and style. We were awed by the grand entryway, the intricate tile work and the meticulous craftsmanship.

The next two nights we spent exploring the fabled downtown Austin, we heard amazing live music, ate on a rooftop with an stunning view of the city skyline, and enjoyed the company of more friends we hadn't seen in a very long time. Those friends were Annette and John Markward. Nettie and my folks have gone back as far as anyone can remember and my sister and I grew up with Nettie's kids Evan and Katy. It was a wonderful blast from the past. Nettie and John had just bought a house and moved from Maine to Texas. A trip that my Uncle and Kati knew dearly because they had made the same move many years before.

To top it all off Josh and I went to see a play that Erica and been the Dramaturge for. The play was called Elephant Graveyard and was based on the one and only known public hanging of an elephant. It was a tough play to watch because of the subject matter but the acting was impeccable and the story captivating. As an added bonus Erica's mom Sue flew in for a visit. Sue and her husband Terry were the one's who gave us the wonderful gift certificate for our pre-nniversary stay at the B&B. It was so nice to see her, it gave me a little taste of home.

The Frontier

Heading south from Fort Collins towards Austin, TX, we really didn't have anything on our itinerary. We discussed stopping in Boulder, but the weather wasn't holding up, so we loaded up on grease and headed for warmth again.

We ended up in Lamar, CO for one night, a charming if antiquated town. Our Campground was a large pebble parking lot in the middle if the prairie - a little disconcerting to have nothing surrounding you.

There in Lamar, the truck issues really came to a head. Instead of the usual inoperable gas pedal, the truck was now revving to red line all by itself. Charming! It turned out to be a fluke, but also turned out to be inspiration to really track down the problem. No one around really had the time (or wherewithal) to do a fuel filter change for us (one of the variables that needed to be eliminated) - but at one garage, a wonderful guy said he could get us in, and then literally let me use the shop as if it were my own to do the change. It was awesome. Turns out it's a really simple process on this truck, but having a shop floor instead of a dirt parking lot to work on made all the difference. It also made me a lot less concerned with spilling diesel all over the place!

This little update made a clear difference in truck performance, but did not fix the accelerator problem. So, back on the road to Post, TX, we dealt with it as usual. Post was a quick, overnight stop for us, and the rest of the much-longer-than-we-thought ride through Texas was dappled with the tiniest towns you can imagine and cotton fields as far as the eye can see. We, of course, stopped for authentic Texas BBQ at the first opportunity - damn it was good.

We grabbed a fluffy white cotton bud and it sits on our dashboard to this day.

Happy Halloween!

So we zigged and zagged a bit here in our itinerary. My good friend Katelyn had recently moved to Fort Collins with her boyfriend Nathan and we had promised her that we would come to visit. So North out of Pagosa Springs we headed. We planned on making the trip in two days but Lead Foot Lynn got behind the wheel and we got from Pagosa Springs to Fort Collins in one (long) day of driving.

On the way we stopped in the tiny town of South Fork CO at an organic market and restaurant. This restaurant was a diamond in the rough. We were in desperate need of good food after our amazing soak in the springs.

(Peace of Art Café - 14475 West Highway 160 - Del Norte, CO)

We wolfed down a chicken, red pepper, onion, mozzarella melty sandwich and learned of a better route through the mountains than we had been planning on taking. We chatted with the cook, the owner and her husband about our grease car, we even got a few tips on what might have been causing some recurring truck issues. Just as we were about to leave we were ushered into the fresh produce aisle and were personally introduced to the hand picked local tomatoes, the farm fresh organic eggs, and the local poultry, we also indulged in a few new teas. Almost $70.00, and a few new friends later we were out the door.

The drive over the hills, through the afternoon was beautiful, again, words hardly do the beauty of this amazing country justice but here are some samples.

We called Katelyn thirty minutes before our arrival with a request...Chinese food. It seemed that after our super healthy day of eating we needed the grease, and so did our truck! We arrived, hugged and chowed down.

We stayed with Katelyn and Nathan and their adopted dog Louis for a week. During that time we pimped out Josh's bike, made many amazing family dinners, raked leaves, carved pumpkins, handed out Halloween candy, took Louis on walks, rode our bikes a lot, talked a lot and laughed a lot. Oh yeah, and we got the watch the Red Sox sweep the Rockies. We went out to a bar for game three and felt horribly out numbered. But Katelyn wore her Sox hat bravely and quoted stats for anyone who dared to call her a fair weather fan.

We ended up being there during the work week so both Katelyn and Nathan were busy during the day, no problem. Nathan owns a bike shop so Josh and I took it upon ourselves to hang with Nathan at the shop almost every day and persuaded him to come out to lunch with us. Nathan also did some sweet custom work on Josh's bike. Nathan bought the bike shop a few weeks earlier and had made himself quite at home with new paint on the walls, new (vintage) cruisers, and a whole new way of doing things. While Josh and I hung out we watched him greet customers, make them feel like part of the crowd and then tend to whatever issue they might be having. We watched him fix flat tires, install new break lines and install new seats. It is always fun watching someone do what they are really good at.

On that note while we were there we got to watch Katelyn sketch a three canvas piece of artwork to hang over their couch in the living room. After what seemed like hours in the art store we happily left with the materials needed to make their living room look like a gallery. For hours Katelyn poured over what to draw, when the decision was made we watched her carefully, painstakingly measure then sketch a beautiful scene. We left before the color went on it but I am hoping for a picture of the final product (hint hint).

On Halloween we carved pumpkins in the living room and handed out candy to the witches and goblins who dared to knock on our door. Katelyn had originally thought Josh and I had gone overboard with the bags and bags of candy...but no, we had to send the last of the trick or treaters away without any candy. Even though they could have tricked us and smashed our pumpkins they didn't and our grinning orange friends were still there in the morning.

We parked in front of their house until the cops asked us to move, then we squeezed the RV into their tiny driveway. It was such beautiful fall weather in Fort Collins and it felt like we had just gotten settled when all of a sudden there was snow in the forecast and Austin TX was beckoning.

We could live here, and here and here...

After we left Vegas we hit up three locations that we had heard we would love.

Our first stop was Flagstaff AZ. We got our first taste of cold the night we arrived. It hit the mid 20's for the first time. We had been averaging 40-50 degrees at night until we got to AZ. Brrr, we got the furnace going and were amazed at how cozy and warm our RV got. We spent the next day wandering the town, doing errands, and taking in the crisp fall weather.

We always seem to find that we really like staying in college towns. They tend to have the really interesting bars, and coffee shops. In the case of Flagstaff Josh and I found a great little combination of both...a coffee AND wine bar. We ordered two glasses of wine and proceeded to play a pretty amazing game of Backgammon. I totally thought I had it in the bag, Josh kept asking me the rules and I kept mercilessly sending his chips out, but he won by ONE chip. He was as surprised as I was. We headed out the next morning, to.....

Durango Co. We decided to spend only one night here because the next day we were headed to Pagosa Springs to see Mark Devoti, who toured with my parents when I was just a wee one. He was my body guard/baby tamer. But before we headed there, we hung out for most of the day in Durango, again, awesome little college town. We wandered in and out of galleries, and coffee shops. It (again) was a beautiful, clear, crisp day and we enjoyed being out in it.



Pagosa Springs was a mere hour away so we hit the road again. The drive was beautiful. When we got there we settled down on their front porch to catch up and take in the view which was breath taking. You can see our RV parked next to their horse barn in one of the shots.


Mark's wife Erica is an endurance rider and she has two race horses. We heard tales of 25-50 mile races completed in 12-24 hours. It was amazing to hear stories about just her and her horse, during a race, in the middle of the night when both of them had to keep awake and moving. Talk about a wonderful feeling.


We had a great lasagna dinner and opened the wine that Josh and I brought. Mark shared old pictures of the touring days complete with me as a bald, chunky, baby. Boy, does it look like they had some fun in those days. We chatted and caught up but before long we were all yawning. We headed up to bed with explicit instructions from Mark and Erica to go to the local hot springs the next day on our way out of town....

And boy are we glad we did. Pool after pool had been created from the natural hot sulfur springs that bubbled up from the ground. Your could choose which tub you wanted to soak in depending on the temp of the water to how much privacy you wanted. We soaked until we were pruney and relaxed. We got back on the road, this time headed to Fort Collins CO to see one of my partners in crime Ms. Katelyn Foster.

We had the Rockies looming on the horizon and the promise of a long slow haul over Wolf Creek pass. Luckily Mark had dropped off CD he had recorded of a few of his original songs, one of them being about the fabled pass. We ended up listening to the CD twice and burned 1/4 of a tank of gas by the time we finally boogied over the mountains.

Mini Turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving from Savannah, GA, everyone! We'll continue the narrative after this post, but we just wanted to take a moment and let our friends and family, wherever you all are, know that we're thinking of you.

We also know you're thinking of us and you're worried that we're missing out on the feast. Fear not! Our little "kitchen" and "dining room" can't cook a 20 pound bird or host 12 people, but it can certainly pack all the flavor.

We just finished our meal of Stuffed Cornish Game Hens with Gravy, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Fresh Cranberry/Orange Sauce and Green Beans with Toasted Almonds. We're taking a break to prepare our mini-pies (apple & pumpkin, of course) and we'll be sure to post a photo of the final product a little later.

This morning, we spent 3 hours doing prep work and serving food in a Savannah Mission Kitchen - what a gratifying and rewarding experience. We met a wonderful group of people and it really made the day special. A Happy and Thankful Thanksgiving, indeed.

The Much anticipated pie photos...

Boy they were good!!

Viva Lake Meade

Vegas has it's allure, that's for sure, but after so much city time, we were overwhelmed with the idea of actually living in Vegas for the next few days.

We arrived at Lake Mead (40 minutes from Vegas) at night, and went to visit our good friends Jesse & Jon (and their new peanut Felicity). Jesse is Max's older sister, again she and I were raised practically as siblings.

Jesse assured us we would be awestruck by the morning's view, and boy were we ever. The photo above was our view from our front porch. Josh and I were both ready to unwind after so much city time so we set up camp, did laundry, made amazing meals and visited with Jesse, Jon and Felicity as much as we could.

We met a great couple (Jack and Allison) who were doing the same thing as us except they were really living in their RV with their very sweet dog Humphrey. They were also starting a new business in Vegas, they are setting up scooters so they tow mini billboards. I'm sure we've all seen those awful gas guzzling trucks that pull billboards. Such a waste, but the scooters use so much less fuel, can buzz down the strip where their fuel swilling counterparts can't go because they are stuck in traffic, and the people driving the scooters can stop and hand out information related to what they are advertising. Brilliant! Jack and Josh immediately fell into a business relationship.


Jesse and I got to catch up on all of the books we had been reading and take turns passing Felicity back and forth. Jesse used to babysit me when I was little and we reminisced about all of the hilarious stuff we used to do. I was a happy kid when Jesse came over toting her clothes, makeup and candy.

Josh and I also "did" Las Vegas, don't worry, we're still waiting to get married next summer. Even though the temptation to get married by Elvis was great. We headed to the strip for a late dinner and a tour of the casinos. Basically we found that Vegas is a lot like Burning Man. People everywhere in costumes, heels, boas, or cowboy boots and jeans. People wandered by completely drunk or open-mouthed by the spectacle. We tried to take it all in, we ate, drank and yes gambled. We were amazed by the extraordinary measures these casinos go through to make you feel like you are in Paris, or New York. We got to travel the globe that night. We had dinner in Paris, wandered down the Champs Elysees out in to he night, past the statue of Liberty and back into another magical world.



We did decided to spend some time in the Bellagio just because I was hoping to see Matt, George, or maybe Brad (Oceans 11,12,or 13 anyone?) All in all we lost $2.50 at the nickel slot machines. We headed home soon after that, after months in flip flops my feet just couldn't stand the high heels I had worn out.


On our way out of town we drove over the Hoover Dam (with the RV in tow) before we crossed we stopped to have Homeland Security check our truck and RV, no terrorists with us on our trip! Josh attempted to leave me behind while I was taking a video, he thinks this trick is hilarious and has repeated it many times since (oh I feel sorry for our kids already). Once I was safely back in the car we headed off to Flagstaff Arizona.

Stay Classy, San Diego

Everything was sunny as we pulled into San Diego. We pulled up to Silver Strand Beach State Park (we had just left Dockweiler so things were looking up!) and were all set to go, then we found out they LOCK the gates at 8pm. No cars in or our. Uh... no late dinners, no evening time with family in San Diego. See Ya!

We ended up near Pacific Beach at Campland on the Bay, a very cute park. Happy and tired, we blew everyone off that first night - needing a quiet rest after driving from LA.

Soon, though, morning would come and we'd be on our way to the National Aerospace Museum to see Grandad Pepper. As a Docent there, he toured us around, sharing stories about this "Bird" and that, one "Flyboy" or another, this "mission", or that "encounter." It was the first time I've ever been at a museum and really learned something about the people. Usually, museums are all about the stuff, and as a visitor, you miss all the stories. For me, it was the difference between being bored and completely engaged.

Grandma met us there at the end of our tour (Grandad only went 1/2 hour over our intended tour time) where they treated us to an impeccable lunch at Prado. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon with them trying to find someone who could help with the truck - being San Diegoans, they had some connections. Along the way, we found out that the Pepper name is literally written in stone around the city. I also got to meet Dave Pepper, who looks just like Jim! Crazy.

Later that evening Lindsay and I drove to Jeff & Bridie's for dinner (we were late, there was traffic, but we had borrowed Grandad's Mercedes, so that was cool). We only got a minute or two with the amazingly cute little Jack. But Meg was raring to go, and performed the most fantastic SuperStar dance you can imagine, shared little secrets and reading time with Lindsay, and still had energy enough to educate Buffy and me on the fine art of coloring. She's so adorable.

We wrapped up the evening with just a little adult time and said our goodbyes, but not before we seduced Jeff and Bridie into joining us for Mexican the following evening. Everyone we talked to in San Diego said that Old Town doesn't have the charm it used to, but we still enjoyed walking and shopping. The main square, admittedly, was desolate.

Jeff and Bridie caught up with us midway through our first ginormous margarita, ordered up one of their own, and we proceeded into a lively, entertaining, incredibly filling adults only meal. It was great to have time without the kids, and San Diego's mexican food is killer.

One note: We managed to take ZERO photos in San Diego for some reason, so those are from Jeff.

Bee line to LA

What is there between San Francisco and L.A. you ask, probably lots of stuff, that we did not stop to see. We were on a mission to get to the elusive Dockweiler Beach RV Park, where we were unable to make a reservation and no one could tell us if they thought there would in fact be a place for us to park. We took our chances, risking life and limb to get to the office before it closed at 9:30. White knuckled Josh drove our rig up the I-5 grapevine, all the while trying not to kill the brain dead L.A. drivers. Hasn't anyone told them what a turn signal is? Or when they see a turn signal, what idea it is actually trying to convey? We almost ran out of gas at 9:05 and had to stop. We literally had about four minutes to get off the highway, find diesel, pump it, and go. We maybe got about six gallons in before I screamed from the passenger seat "TIME'S UP!" We left the receipt for our sale fluttering in the breeze of our RV pealing back out into the night. Even after one (small) wrong turn we pulled up to the Park gate at 9:25, shaking, pale and heaving sighs of relief.

Our good friends Shiva and Nicole (remember the newly engaged from our Burning Man blog?) had gone to the park earlier in the day to try to secure a spot for us to no avail. To help us out, as we later found out, Shiva cleverly told us the park's office closed at 9:30 when in fact it closed at 10:00, tricky huh?

We spent the next few days in LA visiting with my good friend Beth and her husband Adam. Beth and Adam had moved from Holyoke to LA the previous spring and we hadn't seen them since. It was a wonderful visit. We hung out with her dog Oscar and her cat Lucy, ate really good food and caught up. We spent a night in their swanky new digs and headed out to dinner at Il Fornaio, where Adam is the manager. We visited the Container Store (I'm seriously considering registering there) and stocked up on, what else, containers. It was so nice to spend time with them and Josh and I both realized how much we have missed them, and their little dog too! As usual our visit was too short, Beth and Adam had to head (ironically enough) to the Northeast for a wedding.

After our visit with the Franzese's we headed to Nicole and Shiva's. The next few days were filled with surfing (Shiva and Josh), massages (Lindsay and Josh got AMAZING massages from Loni, more about that later), eating (what do you expect?), wedding planning (again, what do you expect?), dancing, laughing and more eating. Oh, and we waited FOREVER for UPS to figure out where and when to deliver a very important package containing a much anticipated part for the truck. UPS has yet to master efficiently and effectively delivering packages to the LA area.

Josh and Shiva, with Lindsay and the camera in tow, headed to the beach for an afternoon of surfing. Josh and I watched Shiva become one with the waves and the dolphins. Josh did really well after a year hiatus, and I soaked up the rays and tried to capture it all on the camera. We snacked and sunned then the boys headed back to the surf for another go. After about 45 minutes they hauled back out of the water with tired, rubbery arms and empty bellies. This is probably where more eating took place.


We headed north to Topenga Canyon to visit Loni, one of Josh's mom's best friends. She lives in an amazing community of houses that teeter on the steep canyon incline. The view from her porch is breath taking, especially if you are taking it all in from the bubbling hot water of the outdoor hot tub. On our first visit to the Canyon, Loni treated us to the most amazing cookies we have ever had. In the simplest terms the cookies were oatmeal raisin, but then they were Loni-fied! Some ingredients were doubled others were tweaked, the product we tasted could have been served for breakfast or dessert. We also visited Loni for our much anticipated massages. For months Josh and I had been griping back and forth about our various aches and pains and we kept talking about getting a massage. Finally, as we neared southern CA we decided to really treat ourselves and hold out for a Loni massage. For an hour and a half we were lulled and kneaded, rubbed and soothed by Loni's amazing hands. Josh took the first massage as I soaked in the hot tub and watched the sun play with the shadows and light on the canyon walls. Josh emerged, all mumbly and sleepy eyed. He sunk into the hot tub with a sigh and I was whisked into Loni's house. For an hour and a half she worked on me. I have had body work from many different therapists, and when someone works on me who knows dance and dancers bodies I always feel amazing after. Needless to say, Loni being a dancer, knows where certain bodies hold tension. I was a noodle when she was done with me.
With our massage after glow still aglow, we met up with Nicole, Shiva and Jorge (a good friend of Nicole and Shiva's) for sushi. Josh and I have a pretty serious reputation of going WAY OVERBOARD with ordering and eating sushi. Tonight we were hungry and our bodies were screaming out for good healthy food, as you might have expected, we went WAY OVERBOARD. But we weren't alone, everyone ate until we had to lean way back in our chairs.

I can't remember which night this next event occurred, but Josh and I got one of the coolest engagement gifts from Nicole and Shiva. They had a woman named Linda Solomon (www.solmoonrising.com), do our natal charts and record her reading them. I had never identified with the typical "Capricorn" readings and that was because I had never had my charts read. When your charts are read there are so many other components involved like where you were born, what time you were born, each of these and many more will paint an incredibly accurate picture of who you are. As Josh and I listened we kept opening our mouths in disbelief. How did this woman know ANY of this about me, we wondered. She was on the ball and not afraid to say unflattering things, not that she was offensive but when you hear certain things from a complete stranger you hear it differently than if you were told by a friend. We have listened to them many times since and we always seem to come away with a slightly deeper understanding of who we are and what we do.

Then there was Dance Church. At the end of the week Nicole, Josh and I headed off to do a little free dance. We walked into an huge room filled with moving bodies. Bodies of all shapes and sizes swayed, stomped, twirled and flew to a great dance beat. This was a place that you could do whatever you needed however you wanted to do it. Having not danced in quite a while I took a good long time stretching before I started to move. I stretched and watched. Some bodies moved with strict training and technique and some moved as thought they felt the earth quaking beneath them. All of the faces wore smiles, tears, sweat or elation. Some of their energy reached out to welcome everyone in, others felt like they demanded you pay attention to them. It was constantly changing and constantly evolving. As I began to move, I tried to watch and tried to get lost, it turned out I couldn't do them both at once. So I got lost for a while, in the beat and in my body. Sometimes I was pulled out and distracted by an odd sight but I tried to take what I saw and let it go again. Sadly, Shiva, our whirling dervish, was home in bed. Some of the sushi from the night before got it's revenge. We all danced healthy belly dances for Shiv.

It was sad to leave people we love, but that is a trend for our trip unfortunately. Imagine if we got to take everyone with us? We would have one PACKED RV. As LA disappeared into the yellow smog and traffic congestion we remembered all the fun we had while we were there. In fact we found that we did bring a little LA with us, a few weeks later while washing the RV we got to watch the last of the gray soot rinse off the white exterior.

Escape From the Vines, Part III

Our last escape from the vines was to visit a very good old friend, Maxwell MacVeety (my brother from another mother) in Oakland, CA. After our meal and drinks with Brian, Josh and I headed toward Oakland to meet up with Max and his girlfriend Alli at their place. We shmoozed with them and their two adorable cats and then Max, Josh and I headed to a tiny club where Max would be playing later that night. Normally when we see Max behind his drum set he is playing with The Crown City Rockers (who ROCK I might add, more about them to come in future blogs), tonight he was sitting in with another band.

We boogied and whooped and met so many people who raved about Max's skills on the drums. When the band he was playing with started we were thoroughly entertained. Max had told us the lead was "a real showman". We debated who this man reminded us of, finally deciding he must be the love child of Bobby Brown and MC Hammer. He had all the right moves, whether it be walking through the audience handing out roses to the lovely ladies, to tossing handfuls of candy into the hands of his sighing fans.


After the music wound down we headed to a late night Thai place where we ordered HUGE orders of deliciousness. We chatted and munched until the wee hours and then we headed home to bed.

Escape From the Vines, Part II

With so few days in Sonoma, it's hard to imagine that we would take time away, but as it turns out, Santa Rosa is nicely situated amidst people we love. One of those people is Bryan Stillman. Once my boss as a fledgling intern at TBWA/Chiat/Day - he remains to this day one of my favorite people to be around. He's smart, funny, obnoxiously loud and vulgar (only when completely inappropriate - he is otherwise mild and sweet) and totally easy to be around.


I won't say that he's the ONLY reason we visited San Francisco, it happens to be one of my favorite places in the country. However, instead of the usual role we play as tourists, we skipped most of the city, battled with a cracked-out urbanista weaving her BMW through traffic and made our way to Bryan's favorite establishment, Zuni. I would take the time to describe it, but he's already done it eloquently here.

We, sadly, did not have the chicken. But we did manage to scarf down the shoestring fries and Caesar salad along with a couple of our own additions to Bryan's standard repertoire: 12 Oysters from around the Pacific ("Yum", "Yuk and "Oh my!" were all well represented), and a delectable plate of the softest, most palatable gnocchi I've ever had (Tuscany included).

From Zuni we made our way to the wine bar next door (also in the link above). After our two days of wine tasting in the Sonoma Valley, we were experts and ready to give the bartenders a run for their money. The beauty of the place is that they sold "taste" size glasses of wine, so you could be non-committal. Lindsay wasn't having any of that, though, and ordered a full glass of the first thing she tasted. As it turns out, it was far and away the most interesting wine of our week in Sonoma - with undertones of leather, earthiness and still the tang of berry, it was something to speak of, if only we remembered the damn name.

The evening turned into the night, we hugged thoroughly and made clear to Bryan that it is now his turn to come East, and we set off for Oakland, where in a most stark contrast to the shi shi San Francisco nightlife, we met with the indelible Maxwell Macveety & Ali to accompany Max to a show in West Oakland...

That is To Be Continued in: Escape From the Vines, Part III

Escape From the Vines, Part I

Difficult as it was to tear ourselves away from the beauty of Sonoma County, we were well rewarded by the people we visited.

It started with a day trip to Sacramento, for dinner and Belt Promotion with the Howes and Aunt Barbara. I think Meredith was a little worried that she was dragging us along to Elijah's Belt Promotion Ceremony, but she had nothing to worry about once we got there. The Karate instructor was warm and inviting, plus humorous, teaching the kids values rather than just butt-kicking. It was awesome. The kids were stellar. Elijah is a serious martial artist. I'm not saying I think he could take me out in a street fight, but he worked with determination and poise, and was clearly one of the more disciplined kids there. Elijah received his purple belt with pride.

As a bonus, we were all treated to a couple of martial arts exhibitions, one by a little guy named Scott Wu. Little? Yes. Meek? NO! Small in Sprit? His Chi was enough to give me chills. If you're interested, do a Google or YouTube search for his name, you will be blown away by what we saw up close and personal.

Upon returning to the house to catch up a bit, we got to experience the magic of non-martial-arts sword fighting between two brothers and a dad. When Jonah took a long enough break from running around in circles, he was a pretty good sword fighting partner for Elijah. Fred, clearly the master swordsman of the group, made quick work of dispatching Elijah of both arms and one eye. I fear his martial arts training will suffer, but he'll hang in there.

Bedtime came, we got to spend a little time catching up with the grownups (Meredith was extraordinarily angry with Fred about the bloodstains on the carpet - StainMaster is no match for Swordfighting.) All kidding aside, we got to catch up on years of missed time, and it seem Mer & Fred are doing great. Aunt Barbara LOVES being Mom Mom, and while we didn't get a chance to squeeze Tom, he was there in spirit.

On the ride home, we had a remarkable, notable moment at one of our favorite National Treasures: Our first In-n-Out Burger of the trip. Yum.

Wine Country

At Burning Man, man named Dino said "Eh, skip Napa, it's like the Disneyland of wine country. Go to Sonoma." After exhaustive internet research we concluded that we would rather spend money on wine than money on a campground so we parked our rig at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, which was simply a giant gravel parking lot that smelled like horse manure. We decided that this didn't matter because we planned on either being gone all day everyday or so buzzed from the numerous wine tastings that we wouldn't care anyway.
The first night in town we headed to Healdsburg and dined at Cena Luna which was, without question one of the best restaurants we have ever eaten at. The waitress suggested a bottle of Zinfandel from a local vineyard. After the first sip we were hooked, and vowed to visit the vineyard as soon as we could.

The day after we arrived, we had planned to visit Josh's cousin Meredith, her husband Fred and their two (adorable) boys, Elijah, and Jonah. Josh's Aunt Barbara was visiting them for the evening so it was an added treat to see her too. We took the long way to Sacramento stopping at an amazing castle-like estate with vineyards that reached as far as we cold see. We were greeted warmly and set up at one of the many tasting bars. The architecture in the mansion was amazing. Huge gabled windows looked out on beautifully manicured rows of vines. We sipped six of seven wines from white, to blush to red and weren't that impressed. We thanked our bartender and headed on our way. (Our next post will tell all about the fun that we had with Josh's family).

A few days later we awoke to clear blue skies, warm breeze and a hankering to go wine tasting.
Remembering the amazing bottle of wine we had with dinner a few nights before, we decided to head to Healdsburg and to Ridge Vineyards. When we arrived we found a beautiful building nestled in acres and acres of old grizzled vines. The vineyard boasted 80% solar powered and when we entered we were welcomed by a beautiful tasting room. We told the bartender where we had enjoyed a bottle of the Three Valleys Zinfandel and she happily started our tasting. We enjoyed quite a few of their wines and left with a few bottles of our favorites.


The bartenders at Ridge suggested a few more vineyards we should visit while we were in Healdsburg. We headed down a beautiful dirt road passing vineyard after vineyard. We found the Quivera Vineyard and when we entered the tasting room we found it almost full. We waited for a space to open and enjoyed the ambiance. We enjoyed our tasting and we chatted with the bartender who knew the Pioneer Valley and told us that the vineyard was 100% solar powered. We left with two bottles that are supposed to lay down (fancy wine term for age) for a couple years. We liked to think that when we open that bottle we will be a married couple.
Awww.


After two tastings we were feeling nice and relaxed, we sat on the patio at Quivera and enjoyed the sparkling afternoon. Once our heads cleared a bit we headed back to the RV to put our feet up and get ready for dinner. Earlier that morning Josh had called Cafe St. Rose and made a reservation for two later that night. He spoke to the chef who told him what the fixed menu would be for the evening. All of the options sounded delicious, but the rib eye stood out in particular. Josh commented how tempting that selection sounded and the chef agreed that it was going to be amazing. When Josh got off the phone he was worried that by the time we sat down to dinner, the chef may have run out of the coveted rib eye. Josh called back and asked if he could reserve one so he wouldn't miss out on the deliciousness. The chef readily agreed to hold one for him and they both had a good laugh.

The night before we planned to leave wine country we decided that we hadn't spent enough money on wine. We both realized that we needed at least another case of the Three Valley Zin from Ridge Vineyards to share. We checked their hours of operation and planned on taking a quick run up there in the morning before we headed to L.A.

We were there when the doors opened and much to the amusement of the bartender who had served us the day before, we bought a case of our new favorite wine. Oh well, we got swept away I guess, but when in Rome...

The Oregon Coast

Driving South from Seattle could have been a boring drive - we could have just stayed on big ole route 5 (The Five) and buzzed our way through the Western states. Lucky for us, we picked 101 instead.

Starting in Lincoln City, where Lindsay earned the honor of First Police Encounter (oh, she didn't mention that to you?), we had just finished winding our way through the coastal rainforest, and she left her brights on as we entered the little town. The officer that pulled us over was easily the nicest policeman either of us have ever met. He was just so darn curious about all of our silly Massachusetts Laws, our Drivers Licenses, our Registration, you name it. No tickets were issued. I laughed a lot afterwards. Lindsay well, not so much.

Back to the point, the Oregon coast easily boasts some of the most dazzling scenery in the country. Great rolling waves crashing against rocky cliffs for hundreds of miles. Redwood trees accenting the cliff-tops, sporadic sandy beaches dappled the waterline.

The pictures don't do justice (I'm getting tired of saying that, maybe I need a better camera) but here they are:



And this is a natural "geyser" that comes from a hollow rock formation that pressurizes when the waves smash against it. cool beans!