Chris's Birthday Week Extravaganza!!

MONDAY, August 24th, 2009

For Chris's actual 30th birthday, we met some friends at the Top of the Mark for a martini and some appetizers - what a view. For dinner we ended up at Luna Park Kitchen and Cocktails and had a delicious meal. They brought out a giant fake cake - fireworks thing and we sang happy birthday - our chocolate cake dessert was underneath. Gladly, no ones eyebrows caught on fire.

TUESDAY
Homemade dinner, redeemable at any time.
Steak and Decero Petit Verdot from our trip to Argentina



WEDNESDAY
Super Surprise Present:
Vs.

on September 8th at AT&T Park... take me out to the ballgame...





THURSDAY
Nightlife at Academy of Sciences!!!

smelling the giant flower
my new favorite fish "the vacuum"

Nick, Ann, Chris, Tami, and Elly on the living roof
FRIDAY
For Fridays event, we went to what turned out to be our new favorite restaurant, Anchor and Hope. Not only do they have amazing seafood, they have the longest beer list I have ever seen at a fwancy restaurant. Note the heirloom tomato salad, delicious belgian beer, and our favorite - "angels on horseback" bacon wrapped oysters!

SUNDAY
Tickets for...

ze bridge

Mini-moon, Part 2: Big Sur

On our way home we stopped for lunch at a fwancy hotel restaurant. When I say hotel, I mean an out of the way place where you get your own hobbit hole with an amazing view of the ocean from the cliffs of Big Sur. The restaurant was set up to get the view of the ocean, but with the clouds it just made it very bright and surreal. Like eating lunch floating in a cloud. It also turned out to have the best food ever. yum.

bwak

Our Mini-moon in Cambria <3

It's amazing when you've lived in California as long as I have and traveled up and down it as much as I have, that you can still find a new place to discover. At the recommendation of Chris's mom, we headed up the coast to Cambria for a few nights right after our wedding. We meant to get there in the evening, but with everything going on, ended up getting there at 10 pm. We checked in to our fabulous B&B, the Pelican Cove Inn and were delighted to find our room luxurious and comfortable with a balcony looking over the ocean.

The next day we had a delicious breakfast and then got picked up to go wine tasting in Paso Robles. Our first stop was a castle atop a hill, complete with moat and suit of armor. The wine was eh, but all the decorations were cool.

Next stop, Rotta Winery had delicious wine and a hilarious, sassy, bubbly wine pourer that made the whole experience. After about 20 minutes we figured out that she went to high school with my mom, and had gone to Long Beach the weekend before to the Poly High Reunion that my mom helped organize - small world!

At the next stop we tasted and had lunch. Our last stop was Tobin James, a saloon-like place with a gruff wine pourer that poured too much and tried to make us taste upwards of 20 wines!

The bus ride back

HEARST CASTLE!!!
Wow, we took the tour that was recommended for first timers, it gives an overview of the grounds. I just love that there are (or were) crazy old eccentric rich people that decided to build an outlandish, ornate castle in the middle of nowhere. My favorites were the pools - the outdoor italian/greek style and the gold plated indoor.

can you see the woodpecker? hacking away?


pigeon


...walking on gold as we left...
As we were leaving Hearst Castle, we saw the zebras! Then we headed over to see the elephant seals- there were a few lazing around on the beach and some playing in the surf. They are so fat and cute!