A Down Week with Paso Robles Wine Tasting

View of Justin Winery from the balcony of our room

E's parents came into town for a few days and I gladly traded miles for time with family.  They spent 2 nights in town, where we squeezed in dinners and lunches between work.  Then, on Thursday, we drove down to Paso Robles to spend two nights in wine country before they continued south to LA and we returned home.

Look closely, the flower buds are just starting for the grape bunches.  So cute!

Mileage for the week was 18.43, but I feel great about it, nonetheless.  I'd been pushing myself for a few weeks and the down week felt right.  Plus, I did manage to squeeze in the best track workout I've done this year (have I mentioned how much I love having the track 0.5 miles from my house!):

4X800/3minRest; 2X400/90sR (9:00; 8:51; 9:01; 9:06; 8:33; 8:53)

E and I are not as hardcore as some folks when it comes to wine-tasting.  It turns out, we're on roughly the same speed as his folks, which was a pleasant surprise.  We've done trips with people who want to hit 15 wineries -- it's just so exhausting and, honestly, not fun for us after the first few.  This trip was gloriously mellow and perfect.

Thursday we toured Justin and did a seated tasting in their special members' only lounge (that you get access to with the tour, even if you aren't a member).  1 winery, dinner out in town, and some post-dinner wine was perfect for us.

Friday, we had a leisurely morning (okay, some were more leisurely than others, I had some client commitments, so I worked while E and his dad hiked), and then we headed out for an olive oil farm tasting.

Kiler Ridge Olive Oil Tasting -- Highly Recommended.

If you've never done olive oil tasting, I highly recommend it.  Extra Virgin Olive Oil doesn't have a legal meaning in the US.  But the folks that take it seriously observe the European rules, and boy can you tell the difference between the Bertolli they start you with and all of the other artisanal options.

From there we quickly snacked on nuts and cheese to fortify ourselves and then toured and tasted at Tablas Creek (also highly recommended) before closing out the day at Brecon Estate (where there are picnic tables and the tasting servers will come to you with your next pour instead of requiring you to stand at the tasting bar).  For dinner we did the 5+ course meal at Justin and all of us agreed that it was amazing.  There are only 6 tables in the restaurant.  The night that we ate there, they only served 3 tables, each seated 30 minutes apart.  There was one server.  One head chef. One sous chef.  It was by far the most intimate meal out I'd ever experienced.

View of the Paso Robles hills from Kiler Ridge.

Overall, it was such a peaceful, lovely experience.  Low-key with lots of time to enjoy conversation with E's folks.  Very different than the last few times we'd gone winetasting.  We were definitely ensconced in the westside of Paso, a good thirty minutes from the town (cell service was very spotty, but the property had wifi), but that meant that the mornings were absolutely nothing but bucolic silence (until the hardcore folks showed up to start their tasting days at 10 AM).

Saturday AM, I took advantage of our location to run 2.25 miles in the vineyards under the fog from the Pacific, fitting in hill repeats on the tractor trails and paved sections wherever I found a good hill on the property (which I had to myself).  I did this workout without any music or phone, just me, the early morning vineyard noise and the fog.  I only had 30 minutes, but I made the most of it, enjoying one of the more satisfying workouts I've done in a long time.

Venus next to the moon on our drive back from town on Thursday after dinner.

Overall, I'd say my biggest emotion about last week was gratitude.  I was so grateful to be healthy and run when I could but not feel any pressure to do more than made sense.  I was even more grateful that E's parents came to us to spend time with us.  And, of course, I was grateful, as always, at just how gorgeous California is, and how lucky I am to be able to live here (and to visit the part of the state where some of my family is from).

Perfect French Chaos

I studied French for 5 years before I ever set foot in this country.  I earned my time here in a way I'll never earn time in another foreign country.  Of course, like all things with a rewarding journey, once here, I fell completely in love and I've enjoyed every single one of my return visits.  With this feeling, E and I were very excited to start our European sabbatical leg in France.

The food.

The language.

The architecture.

The art.

The wine.

Streetside Bistrots -- one of the best things about Paris.

We were so excited, in fact, that I made plans to visit the Louvre, adjust to jet lag, get to know the 10th Arrondissement where we would be staying, meet up with friends who are traveling with their children and take part in several tourist activities with them, and round out the first 5 days with a park run on Saturday and a Sunday Domenical Lunch with friends in a suburb of Paris.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Crooked Notre Dame.

See, after all of our other travel this year, I was assuming that France would be a piece of cake -- everything would just work like being in the US and I could just plan and everything would fall into place.

Ha.

First of all, Paris is *not* a running city.  I headed out on multiple occasions trying to find something, anything, near our AirBnB where I could string at least 1-1.5 miles together without stopping.  Nope.  Traffic.  Construction.  Cobblestones.  Markets that only opened and shut down the streets on particular days.  Even the recommended locations like running along the Seine or the Canal Saint Martin had many more obstacles than expected.  A typical outing had me on my feet for 50 minutes and *barely* 3 miles.

Picasso Exhibit at the Quai Branley Museum

Essentially, after 8 days of trying to run, I can say that Paris is an amazing *walking* city, but if you want to run, you need to go somewhere protected (the last two times I'd stayed in Paris I'd been within 5 minutes of the Jardins des Tuileries and the Bois du Bologne and if I return with a plan to run, I'll definitely be sure to book a location with easy access to a running area that is separated by fences from the bikes, scooters, motos, cars, and trucks of the city).

Our AirBnB was in a fun, funky, edgy, young, hip part of town.  This meant that on Friday night, the night before the hoped for Park Run, street fights and partying woke us up intermittently (including for 1+ hour at 4 AM) all night long. 

The Paris Metro is a wonderful system and you can get anywhere within the city for the bargain price of 1€90 (the US dollar is essentially at parity with the Euro right now).  However, the metro stops seem to be every 50 meters and there are no express trains.  When trying to go all the way across town via metro, the trip can take *forever*.

Also, I'd forgotten but was quickly reminded that the French have a much different system than the US for waiting in lines, waiting for service in general, and delivering information that is up-to-date and correct.  This system is slower than one can imagine. 

All of this combined to mean that it took me 2 full days to successfully stand in all of the various lines in order to get tickets on the same day for the Louvre and the English highlights of the Louvre tour (which we very much enjoyed), and I never made the reconnaissance trip to figure out the specifics of just how to get to the start of the Park Run before race day.

False gargoyles on Notre Dame de Dijon

So, I totally bailed on the Park Run.

But, hey, I figured - We were headed to Dijon.  We could do our own 5K around Lac Kir.  I successfully ran to Lac Kir yesterday AM (only one big construction project to dodge -- Dijon is a much easier running city than Paris), and was looking forward to doing the loop this AM with E.

Except, SURPRISE -- despite no GI issues in all of South America, Mexico, or South East Asia, both E and I came down with serious travel belly yesterday.  We can't totally pinpoint what it was exactly, but we were both up all night, and today's run around Lac Kir was *not* an option.

Moules frites and a croque monsieur -- heaven.

Other than the complaints above, we've loved being in France so much.  For me, after 10 days in the country, my French seems to have finally found a way to wall itself off from Spanish, and surprisingly, I think it's the strongest it's ever been.  Reading novels and looking up words obviously helped, but interestingly, once I didn't try to actually grab Spanish words, it seems that all that time in a different romance language helped my ability to correctly guess at and comprehend French words I didn't know before.

Our original tentative plan involved a trip to Lausanne today, some time with friends there, and then off to Zurich, Krakow, and making our way back through central Europe.

One of many gorgeous sites on the Owl's Trail in Dijon.

But, after a deliciously perfect meal in Dijon two nights ago, we agreed that France really is so magically wonderful that we had to consider more time here and just staying in Western Europe for the next several weeks instead of heading to Krakow (we have to be in Italy by Memorial Day weekend for a wedding).

So, my friends, the current tentative plan has been heavily modified with the hopes of getting all the way to Portugal before Italy.  'Til next change of plans!

Taking It Easy, Wine Country Edition

Russian River Valley Views

I was fairly proud of myself for sucking it up and busting out the See Jane Run Half.  Good thing, too, because my left foot's blister was aggravated by the effort and I needed two full days to recover with no running.  On Tuesday, I did all of the tabatas in my tabata bootcamp that I'd missed in one big chunk.  The whole point of the Tabata protocol is 4ish minutes of ultra high effort once a day, 6 days a week.  Let's just say that when you skip them on busy days and then string 5 of them together on a single day, it's a bit of a disaster, in terms of ability to maintain maximum effort as well as post-workout soreness.  But, I did it.  So that counts for something.

Wednesday, I pulled off a fairly pedestrian 4X400 @ 8:30/mile on the TM at 1% with walking recovery for a total of 3 miles.  But hey, haven't you heard? some effort is better than nothing.  I'm just generally relaxing more and more now that my practice is approaching the full-time sabbatical.  Less and less clients to deal with and more time to focus on chores and trip prep.  Thursday and Friday, I was pressed for time, so my runs took a hit and both were squished down to 2 miles with 0.5ish miles walking.  But, again, I'm a believer that something is better than nothing.

Speaking of relaxing...

 

Garden and Insectiary at Dry Creek Vineyards

E's best man and his wife came into town for their 10th anniversary and we joined them on a wonderful trip up to Sonoma.  It's the most relaxed I've been there in ages, possibly ever.  It's a bit sad to realize how many times I've been unable to truly relax on previous trips to this region due to the work that's been lurking in the background, silently pushing on my shoulders.  Always reminding me that it's not getting done for every minute that I'm choosing not to do it.

Even though it hasn't fully started, this sabbatical year is already teaching me things.  I do love the practice of law, but being the service provider that is meeting such an extreme need (or what is perceived as an extreme need by my clients) is very, very, emotionally exhausting.  I've been carrying much more stress around with me for the last 10 years than I realized (possibly because if I admitted it, I might have to do something about it).

Some seriously unique and delicious dishes at Meadowood.

Super relaxed, we enjoyed a perfect itinerary (arranged entirely by our friends, which was awesome) of Friday night dinner at Meadowood, 3 wineries on Saturday (with a picnic lunch), a party in Healdsburg hosted by a high-school classmate of E & E's best man, dinner at Shed, 3 wineries on Sunday (another picnic lunch), dinner at Madrona Manor, 2 wineries on Monday AM, and lunch at Bravas before heading back to reality.

More at Dry Creek Vineyards

On both Saturday and Sunday, S and I rolled out of bed, took in the gorgeous views from the Healdsburg home we'd rented and ran 3 beautiful miles before starting each day's debauchery.

Total wine purchased: 2.5 cases.  Total mileage for the week: 15. Total weight change over the 3 days in wine country: I lost 2 pounds! (Most likely residual benefits from the last 2 higher mileage weeks and healthy eating before the half marathon, but hey, I'll pretend it's just that wine country indulgence is good for me.  That's totally possible, right?  That I just need to indulge more?)

Starting from (essentially) Scratch

Thanks to some poor toe management decisions coupled with tons of travel, work (and if I'm honest, general laziness) I've had the mellowest several weeks of fitness effort in years.

While I've generally averaged ~20 miles/week for the last decade or so, the last 5 weeks totaled 58 miles.  Less than 12 miles/week.  Most of it walking, often as a tourist (so stopping and gawking and not getting much in the way of cardio).

Yes, I've experimented with some alternative fitness options, but truly, fitness has been low on my priority list.  So, I'm looking forward to getting back to my regularly scheduled 20 miles per week, while cringing at how annoying it is to rebuild fitness when you've lost it.

You know what?  When you've been light on mileage, even after years of regular effort, it's actually hard to get moving again.

Last week, I totaled 11.46 miles, running 1 mile by myself and another 3 miler with E and doing the rest walking.  I was so sore after the 3 miler (and lazy with being at home after so much travel) that I scrapped my Sunday run and slept in before brunch with the inlaws.

Because, of course, E's parents visited, and there was much food and wine debauchery, which contributed to my laziness.

A beautiful day in San Francisco with E's parents.  Couldn't ask for better weather. 

After perfect weather in SF, we retreated home to a pub dinner on Saturday while watching college ball (Alabama won, so E's dad was happy. Cal lost, so I was sad).

Sunday, we shared a stereotypical "we are actually home" weekend treat of farmer's market, ramen, a lazy unplanned afternoon including a visit to the De Saisset Museum followed by winetasting at Pichetti and finally a light vegetarian dinner of farmer's market bounty with an oldie-but-goody from the wine cellar.

First Raid of the Wine Cellar.  

Monday, E's parents enjoyed the rainy day while we worked before we met up at a local steakhouse for our final meal together, complete with the second wine-cellar raid, a *delicious* 1999 Tignanello (the inlaws ordered the A. Rafanelli when it ran out, which was also awesome).

2nd Raid of the Wine Cellar. Plus Ice Cream Pie with Whipped Cream. Heaven.

And now, it's the middle of the week.  I've yet to run.  But I have plans for several easy "just get 'em done" miles this week and I've purchased a new 12 class card at the local yoga studio and signed up for a class on Friday.  I've also committed to a local trail run with friends in a few weeks, a 15K in January, and a half marathon in March.  I'm hoping I can fit in a few 7 minute workouts.  And, I'm even looking at the track and weekend run schedule for my local running group with an eye towards when I can get back in the habit.  So there's some momentum.  It's building.  So let's hope I can move back towards (and past) my 20 mile per week average sooner rather than later.

Happy running and fitness to all!

France, A Love Story in Food (now with more travel chaos!)

View from our hotel -- Terrible room, but great view.

I've stayed in France many times, mainly with friends, but once living in my own apartment as a French government employee for the entire summer. This time, however, I was like a normal business traveler, working all day in English from my hotel and eating out for every meal.  Not my ideal way to visit a country whose culture and language I LOVE.  But I still went and did my best to enjoy it...

Okay, it wasn't all work. This was our hotel's 34th floor bar view. It didn't suck.

Despite this, one of the things I could make time for was a checklist of the French Foods I wanted to enjoy.  So, most days, I took myself out for a solo lunch at a local brasserie and also tried to influence the dinner group to check one or more boxes on my food list as well.

Nighttime view -- the hotel room was small, old, and lame -- peeling paint, non-functional tub, but damn, what a view!

Soupe a L'ognion -- check. (Yes, this was my first choice. Lunch.  Paris.  Smokers in my outdoor/indoor glass cabin.  What can I say?  It was iconic and I love me some French Onion Soup. Also, perhaps I just love butter, but either way, it was delicious.)

Iconic.  Place de la Bastille -- unexpected  bonus of lunch with my childhood French pen-pal.

Moules Frites -- check. (Across the street from the hotel, a chain, and deliciously so, and from Belgium, whose people, supposedly, are responsible for both the moules in the preparation we enjoyed and the frites, so it was wonderful.) 

Bistek tartare – check.

Crepes -- check.  We went to the  closest creperie to our hotel, just off the Champs Elysees, not too far from the Franklin Roosevelt metro station.  I assumed that if a creperie could stay open in Paris it wouldn’t be bad.  And my assumption was correct.  Normally, I opt out of the dessert crepe, but E convinced me we needed one.  He was right.  The savory buckwheat crepes were delicious (mmm… mushrooms, emmenthal, et jambon).  But the Nutella caramel white wheat crepe was sublime.  The quintessential dessert.

You know you are jealous!

The third day’s bistro lunch was with a friend and I enjoyed choucroute de la mer avec la sauce beurre blanc (This was an adventure – something I’d never had before, I love me some Sauerkraut, but the French version at this restaurant with fish around it in a packed tube-like preparation with potatoes and rich sauce was entirely too much food, but delicious, of course.) (Café Europeen)

Love locks.  Going strong on the passarelles of Paris.

Nightitme Seine view.

Musee D'Orsay.

The Fourth day’s surprise lunch was simply opportunistic -- to avoid the long lines at the metro for the folks heading out for their weekend holidays, E & I went to a local fancy place (Le Congres).  La Degustation de fruit du mer had the expected oysters and prawns, but it also included a couple of surprises I’d never had before including *raw* mussels (les moules espagnoles) and les bulots.  I had to look “Bulots” up, as I’d never had them before, ever, and I didn’t know the English word either – so, in case you were wondering, “Whelks” are nautilus shells with delicious meat inside, and apparently this is the British term for cooked seasnails (not to be confused with landsnails/escargots).  Did I mention they were delicious? (Also, "Bulots" should not be confused with "Boulot" or job.  Good luck with the pronunciation differentiation on that one...)

On the Fourth night in Paris, E and I went out and I ordered encornets a la provencale. (Mmmmm…. Delicious.  New to me.  Never had squid in this style or preparation before.  Absolutely delicious.) (Restaurant Georges.)

The next AM, despite our best efforts, we left France in a typical international travel fiasco.  We arrived at Gare du Lyon 1 hour before our TGV.  We’d purchased tickets online, however, the automatic ticket machines wouldn’t recognize our US credit cards to print our tickets.  So, I went to information, explained the problem, was sent to the guichet, which took a while to find, finally arrived, took a number to wait to be helped for today’s travel issues (not to be confused with *future* day’s travel issues, a much shorter, faster line, for future reference), and learned that there were 34 people in front of me.

Place de la Concorde

I went back to where E was with the luggage, telling him, “Well, it looks like there are 37 minutes until our train departs and 34 people to be helped – this should be exciting.”  I was then treated to a very relaxed set of civil servants calling people to their desks by number and closing and opening their desks on 15 minute intervals as they alternated breaks.  Finally, as the number before mine appeared to be a no-show, I jumped up to the counter and explained my situation to the woman, correctly assessing from observing the previous folks in line that French would be faster even though I may not have all the necessary vocabulary. 

First, our reservations were a bit complicated to find (of course) because we hadn’t bought directly through the French site, but rather through an EU-wide site.  Then, when she found them, she asked, “Vous-etes bien sur que vous avez payez?  Je ne vois rien de charges.” (Essentially – I don’t see any charges on your credit card.  You don’t have *real* tickets!)   Yikes, I had stepped up to the desk with 6 minutes to spare, assuming all I needed to do was show my confirmation, and get the tickets.  Somehow, after I assured her that we had indeed been charged, she found my ticket and was getting ready to dismiss me with “Allez, tu dois faire le courir de ta vie” (Go, you must run for your life!) when I explained that I also needed E’s ticket.  She found it, printed it, and yelled at the people in front of the door to get out of my way, shouting at me as I left “Allez – VITE! VITE! Vous ne compostez pas, allez juste a la voie C et prennez la premiere voiture.” 

So, that’s what we did.  I ran frenetically zig-zagging and obviously-not-French through the crowds, found E, grabbed one of the bags, shouted at him – “Track C, First car!” and we ran.  We arrived with 30 seconds to spare.  The attendant asked as we arrived – “Lausanne?” “Oui!” I breathlessly confirmed.  “Allez alors!  Montez dans!”  Once we were on the stairs, safely inside the first class car, the conductor asked, “Which coach?”  Laughing, I admitted that I didn’t actually know.  We opened the tickets, confirmed that we had a nice long walk through the train and finally made our way to our 2nd class seats.

L'Obelisque de la Place de la Concorde.

Not yet done with the international ridiculousness, after we’d nicely kicked the guy who’d decided to squat in our seats out of the way, I found my way to the bar car to purchase lunches for E&me, since we hadn’t had time to do that in the station.  After our food was prepared and ready to go, the credit card system stopped working and I had to explain that all I had was 15 Euros and a bunch of American money.  The suite attendant refused to accept my apologies and sent me back to our seats with 26 EU worth of lunch and beer in exchange for my 15 Euros and the promise that I’d bring any and all change I could find.  I found less than 2 Euros in my jacket pocket and when I brought it back to him, apologizing yet again, he said, “Vous devez dejeuner.  Ce n’est pas votre faute que la machine ne marche pas. Enjoyez!”  (You have to eat lunch!  It’s not your fault the machine isn’t working.  Enjoy!)

Vivez la France!

A Glorious Week At Home

You're the Wine That I Want!

So. thanks to some seriously impressive organizational skills on the part of the captain of my van for our Ragnar Napa team, most of us met up today in Oakland, legs recovered, ready for some deliciously awesome wine-tasting.  Despite the destination of our relay, there was very little (van 1) to no wine (van 2, my van) actually tasted on the relay weekend, so we were on a mission.

A Sunday full of local winetasting was the perfect way to cap off a week at home with lots of general home todo stuff (laundry, bills, voting, etc.), prep for upcoming travel and the holidays (the rest of the year is ridiculous), a trip out to the impressive Gallo Center for the Arts to see (and more importantly listen to) Joshua Bell, and dealing with the final punch-lists for the kitchen (almost done!).

Final Inspection (fingers crossed) is Monday.

Overall, the week was low-drama.  Lots of work, laundry, easy miles, etc.  Following the World Series (Go Giants!) including being guests at Giants-fan-friends who sent us home with 3 nights worth of microwaveable lasagna leftovers (HUGE THANKS! -- also, there appears to be a correlation with the wins, more lasagna is clearly needed).

On the running front, it was a fine week.  My knees are completely recovered from Chicago.  I managed 30.55 miles total including *much* walking. Today, I woke early, and, since we were staying the night in the East Bay near the trail, headed for an out and back along the new span of the Bay Bridge for 9+ miles of one last long run before NYC.  It was cool, beautiful, and overall, a great way to spend the morning:

View of the Oakland Port Cranes (AT-ATs) under the old bay bridge span.

Good side-by-side showing the new pedestrian portion and bike path vs. the old bridge span.

What remains of the old Treasure Island touchdown (from the new pedestrian trail).

The gap of the removed old span from the current pedestrian turn-around point.

In other news, thanks to the YTWTIW East Bay Wine excursion, we learned all about the East Bay Vinters Alliance, which is so cool.  Who knew there were so many wine tasting venues you could visit in the greater Oakland metropolitan region?   Makes perfect sense, really.  There are way more people in the actual bay area than up in NorCal wine country, why not source the grapes, make the wine, and have a tasting room and wine experience close to the people, instead of requiring them to get themselves all the way up to where some subset of the grapes are grown.

We visited two wineries -- Urban Legend (AT-AT logo alert!), where the owners were so welcoming and willing to chat about anything and everything related to their wine business; and Cerruti Cellars who blew us away with the phenomenal space and huge back table/room that they gave to our group solely in exchange for the tasting fee (which was waived w/purchase).

All-in-all, it was a great bay area week.  We even held our own in the World Series and got some (minimal) rain! Now all we need is for the Giants to kick some booty in Kansas City...

Closing out AUS and NZ

Day 4 of the Queen Charlotte Track did not go according to plan.  E was limping -- the ice, aspirin, and aspercreme had not been sufficient to stop the knee pain.  Could he have hiked the full 20K on the slippery track after days and nights of rain in time to reach the boat cut off at 4 PM?  Probably.  Did it makes sense for him to do so?  No.

So, after 0.25 miles up the hill, we agreed to head back down to the resort and take the next boat service back to Picton.

We arrived at Picton in time to re-book ourselves for a night in Marlborough wine country!  Bonus! (Aside: Marlborough looks almost *exactly* like Edna Valley from the golden creased hills to the native plants, to the intermittent deep green trees and vegetation planted by the farmers and the interrupting red barns).

After check-in, we expressed interest in wine-tasting, but we were informed that all of the wine tours for the day had already departed.  We called the shuttle manager for the service we'd used to get from the train station to our hotel, and he assured us we were "good as gold" to get in on his current driver's tour, so long as we didn't mind paying full price for only *4* wineries instead of *6*.

6 Wineries in an afternoon is standard?  Let's be clear.  In the event of alien invasion, we want the Kiwis as our ambassadors.  Yikes!

We had a wonderful abbreviated tour of my favorite any-day drinking wine region (there are other regions I prefer, but they are not affordable enough for me to be super-familiar with all of their offerings -- for no-guilt opening of bottles I know I will enjoy, Marlborough is the winner).

Mmmmmm....delicious.

Jane Hunter is a bad ass lady -- inspirational.

We had the shuttle drop us off in downtown Blenheim and we had a true pub food dinner.  A *MASSIVE* plate of fish and chips (with bonus fried calamari) for me while Nolan had the fillet (pronounced fill-it).

From there, we headed back to our hotel, slept, and then woke late, lazy.  We'd originally hoped that the bad weather would hold so our Picton flight would be re-routed to Blenheim like our flight in, but when I called at 10 AM, I was assured that this was not the case for this day.  So, I headed out for a quick short 2.15 mile run through wine country (we were pressed for time, but how could I resist?).  From there, we checked out, dropped our luggage at the front desk and headed to the cafe across the street for the most languid, decadent brunch feast ever.

As we sat finishing our wine, a large man sat down and asked for us by name.  Turns out, he was the shuttle driver and since everything in this region is shuttles or private car, we were treated to some standard local culture.  He'd added some folks to his itinerary and if we could hurry it up that would be best for him.  He left us, went across the street, picked up our luggage (again with the complete lack of ID/veracity check) and came back for us and off we set so he would have time to include his additional charges.  As a result of his enthusiasm, we arrived at the super-quaint Picton airport almost an hour early.

Thankfully, the waiting area was essentially a park, so we both read and enjoyed our books.  The weather was getting worse, so we quickly set off as soon as the plane arrived, turning around in this cul-de-sac before heading to the far end for take-off.

We made it.  The weather held and we got to Wellington without too much chaos.  Here's a shot of the South Island behind us as we head to the North Island from the plane:

After that, it was nothing but New Year's and then home.  

It was an awesome trip.  Happy 2014 to all of my loyal readers! (all 14 or so of you!)

Bittersweet Aging

I think the hardest part of aging as a healthy person firmly in your "middle age" is when you realize that even if you are blessed with currently good health, time *is* *still* actually passing you by.

This Holiday season, we've attended several parties where it seems like it's only been a few months or possibly even weeks since we've interacted in person with the attendees... but no.  When we discuss it, it turns out, we actually haven't seen each other in at least 12 months.  In other words, Time Is Flying!

And, those of us who actually experience this shock?  We're the lucky ones.  We are still here.  The last few years, I've personally known a few people my own age who have died of natural causes.  Like all losses, the pain will never completely fade -- it will mellow, but won't completely go away.  But, the reality that I am old enough that a non-trivial percentage of my cohort is starting to die of natural causes is a separate but difficult thing, which, conveniently, my brain has decided to try to process during the Holidays.  Fun!  (Not.)

Then there are the kids -- Every time I see them, unless they are local or family I see regularly, children seem to be shockingly 1 year, 2 years, or 7 years older than the last time I saw them.   It's the kids that really get me.  Make no mistake -- Seeing a child you haven't seen in 8 years will floor you.  And then, there is nothing you can do but admit that you are old.  Much older than you've been telling yourself.

I rebelled against the pressures of time for so long.  I insisted on maintaining close relationships with friends who lived far away.  We had the phone.  We had time. We could be the exception to the rule that says all of your most important emotional interactions come from those that are physically and psychologically close to you due to shared experience.

But then, along came my close friends' and families' children, not to mention the pick-up of my career, E's career, the careers of all of those who stayed on the traditional career ladder, and the need to travel if E & I wanted to spend time together as a couple rather than apart. All of a sudden, the rule was right for me, too.

Those I sincerely care about from afar, and lately even those who live close by (and no doubt me for them) belong to the same category as my monthly wine club -- I could swear I make the effort to pick it up every month, and yet, every time I go, I have 4 to 6 months worth of deliveries to sign for.

Oh, Time.  You devil.  Despite your deleterious effects -- how thankful I am to be here, still enjoying your annoyances...  This shall make for some interesting New Year's Resolutions, methinks.

Enjoy your Holidays!

Baby Steps

Welcome back from the Holiday, Y'all.  In a wonderfully surprising development, despite 6 days in the delicious land of pork, lard, and fried, I only brought 1 lb. of the South back with me.  The previous record low has to be at the lowest 4 lbs -- so this is a PR.  It may be my only fitness related PR this year, so I'll take it.

Given that I indulged as much as I did, this is kind of amazing.  I mean, we had a HUGE Thanksgiving afternoon of food and wine (*AND* the first bloody mary I've ever actually enjoyed -- my Dad was a big bloody man, so I was pleased to finally understand.  Apparently, for me, it just needs to be *ridiculously* spicy and it has to have a pickle, then I'll love it and sip it with care much longer than everyone else in the room, which is a great side benefit of its own).  The other notable indulgences on the short trip included all of E's family/Southern food awesomeness including E's Mom's meaty spaghetti, E's mom's ground beef and risotto stuffed peppers, a lunch of a meat sandwich and potato chips (seriously -- no vegetables at all), spanakopita/pimento cheese/salmon mouse tartlette/etc. hors d'ouevres with wine or champagne before various meals, gratuitous bacon (of course), sausages (for dinner), japanese everything at a deliciously authentic ramen++ lunch out with the family, a true Southern "vegetable plate" laden with fried okra, fried sunchokes, broiled broccoli, mac and cheese, and collard greens cooked with ham, a fancy burger bar joint lunch with friends and fried pickles (Seriously -- I LOVE me some fried pickles), a true Southern breakfast of egg-in-a-hole with roasted tomato preserves and a side of cheese grits (in a sacrilegious but much appreciated deviation, they offered sauteed kale as an option in lieu of a biscuit or potatoes -- but the biscuit is apparently the best in ATL, so choose at your own peril), plus lots of delicious wine, beer, and, in a late night jet-lag hunger random kitchen raid, half a bag of Inca Corn Nuts.

You see what I'm saying?  This PR is a veritable miracle.  Go me.

After the eating orgy and the hard, hilly, and cold (but slow) effort at the ATL Thanksgiving 5K, I was inspired to try to pull together my end of year and early 2014 running/fitness goals.

Turns out, they are fairly simple.  Today, I did a very easy 5.5 miles at 10:35/mile, another 0.5 mile walking cooldown and closed out a week of 16 miles total.

If I increase that "long run" by approximately 1 mile/week (on average), I'll be ready for the Foster City 10 mile race in January. So I think I'll go ahead and sign up for it.  This should keep me honest in my running workouts over the holidays, which I need -- particularly since our Christmas/New Year's travel involves hiking, and without a running goal, I'd run the risk of writing off entirely too much time without a run at all.

After that, I'm thinking I'll do the Kaiser Half and the Oakland Half Marathon (which claims to have coupon codes for Cyber Monday -- so check it out if you're thinking of joining the fun).

My big fitness focus for the next three months is going to be on my diet/overall caloric balance, flexibility, and building up my average mileage per week without getting injured.  This likely means that my paces may take the hit or at least may not drop, but I'm hopeful that this means I'll build a decent mileage base without injury and lose some weight before trying to push on pacing (as, when I try to run hard and I'm on the heavier side, I'm more likely to pull something -- see my SJ RNR dnf).  I am happy to note that both the Foster City run and the Kaiser half have much less elevation change than the ATL 5K, so at least I can comfort myself that if nothing else, I'm already prepared for the hills...this is an anomaly for me, but one that is much appreciated.   

Other than that, I'm looking forward to spectating at CIM for inspiration next weekend and getting back in the Bikram studio and working towards multiple sessions per week while I'm in town over the next few months.  Ideally I'll get in tomorrow, but, realistically, it's the first true day back after the holiday, so if work doesn't allow it, then definitely sometime this week.  There, I said it.  Now it has to happen.

Adventures in Zoom Teeth Whitening

Today, I finally went to the dentist for the first time in well over a year.

On the way there, I drove beneath the Shuttle Endeavor, as it flew across Highway 101 on its way to Moffett Field before heading to its final resting place in Southern California.   I tried to grab my phone and snap a photo but I decided avoiding an accident from all the other gawking cars was probably more important.

I figured the Endeavor was an auspicious sign. And, indeed, it seemed to be -- no new cavities or major tooth issues to address for what felt like the first time in my life.

Since it appeared that I'd been successful in my bid to stop drinking diet coke over a year and a half ago, and because I'm getting too old to drink much red wine, I decided to try Zoom Teeth Whitening.  Apparently, it works best immediately after a thorough teeth cleaning, which, conveniently, I'd just completed.

I figured if I wasn't regularly taking part in many of the substances that were responsible for the stains on my teeth, I should at least enjoy the visual benefits of that decision, too. (Also, I had some money to burn in the Health Savings Account.)

First, they gave me a movie and headphones and propped my neck with a heated violet scented u-shaped pillow. (My dentist rocks!)

Then they went through a fairly intense process to isolate all of the soft tissue in my mouth and face from the bleaching gel and the light.

Once the final prep was done, they applied the bleaching gel and set the light, but I was only able to withstand a single 15-minute session. By the end of the session, my teeth nerves were firing off regular zings of short but intense pain. Eventually, the increasing frequency caused my hands to start sweating in fear, and I decided to ring the little bell they'd left by my side "in case you feel anything."

When I'd originally asked what I might feel, they indicated that it was unlikely I'd feel anything until the 3rd light session, but that sometimes people experienced "tingling". Hmmm... tingling? No. I'd say it was more like the intermittent nerve zap you get when you start to realize you're going to need a root canal. (I would know, I've had several.)

Generally, I have a ridiculous pain tolerance, but I think mouth pain may be the exception.

So, I bailed after one 15-minute session under the light. My dentist is awesome and offered to let me come back for 2 more separate 15-minute sessions to get the full benefit of the treatment. She explained that while most people can handle 3 or 4 15-minute sessions in one visit, some people (like me, apparently) just have very sensitive teeth and it's not possible to do it all at once.

I came home and did some more research (probably should have done this beforehand, right?) and it would appear I'm not alone in my side effects. In fact, some folks have serious pain for 48 hours after the procedure and many dentists recommend (i) using ACT and Sensodyne for 7 - 14 days leading up to the light treatment; and (ii) taking tylenol or ibuprofen before and after the treatment.

The good news is my teeth are noticeably whiter, and, the nerve zings have been decreasing in frequency ever since I left the office. I think the last one was an hour ago. So, now that I'm more informed, I'm likely do the ACT/Sensodyne dance and head back in for another 15-minute torture session in 2 weeks.

Healthy Discoveries

So, the healthy streak of no alcohol and low-glycemic index ovo-lacto vegetarian food was going swimmingly. The original plan was 10 days straight commencing the day we returned from our travels.

But, on night 3, E2 & J asked if they could come spend the night on their way up north. We were super excited to hang out with them, and, truly, both E and I were more than happy to take a quick break from the streak for a little wine with friends. So, we all sat around the dinner table, sipping wine and eating garden gazpacho, sliced garden veggies dipped in homemade hummus, brown rice tomato risotto (with oyster mushrooms for E) and J added some chicken sausages to his meal as he could not quite go full veggie after doing physical labor all day.

In exchange for the night off, E and I agreed that we should tack 2 full days to the remainder of the streak. We'll do this for every day we don't completely meet the goal (e.g. yesterday, I did a veggie juice fast for lunch, and the dinner meal was entirely on target...except the wine, but we've decided that any slip = 2 more full days). The current count is 9 days left, but we have plans on that 9th day with friends at a winery. So right now, it looks like the best we could do is 2 on, 1 off, 7 on, 1 off, 3 on. It should be interesting to see how long it takes us to get through the full streak and how many days we do in total before returning to our more ordinary reasonably healthy (but not super healthy) lifestyle. I have high hopes...

This morning, E2 and I headed out for a wonderful 4 mile walk (the last 4 I had to make up from the 6 I missed on Monday AM after the wedding). We hit up Starbucks and I opted for my favorite pre-workout drink -- a skinny vanilla latte (although sometimes I go Hazelnut). 9g protein. 14g carbs. 125mg Sodium. 75mg Caffeine. 90 Calories. What's not to like? We alternated talking and ended with a long-overdue fully-caught-up hug. I've missed my weekend long runs with E2, but a walk is almost as good.

After an hour of walking, my Garmin needed charging, so I stretched a bit and ate a Harvest Energy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bar. Mmmm... this tastes like a treat and at 250Cal with 9g fat, I wouldn't ordinarily want to indulge. But, I knew I had 8 solo miles to run and it was getting warm, so I erred on the side of extra fuel and electrolytes (140mg Na; 200mg K) , especially since I didn't have any sports drinks available to take with me.

And, what do you know? Between the latte and the bar, I made it through a 4 mile walking warm-up and a fairly difficult out and back 8 miler that ended in 84F heat (1200 ft total ascent, 300 ft net climb out and drop back) with nothing but water. I kept the run under 10 minute miles, including the stops for water walking, so my average pace without the stops was somewhere in the 9:40 range. Given that it seemed difficult, but not terrible, even with the heat and hills, I was quite pleased. Even better, when I got home, I wasn't totally useless. I wasted some time at the computer, took a good shower and prepared lunch without any of the post-workout fall-out I often experience if I don't tend to my energy/fuel needs.

The biggest healthy-related discovery of the week, however, was how delicious the St. Pauli N.A. tasted with lunch after my workout. I've never been a big fan of beer after runs. Some people swear by it, but the smell of the alcohol nauseates me after a hard work-out. It usually takes me at least an hour post-workout before a beer (or any alcohol) even starts to sound good. But, now, I've found the solution. Non-alcoholic beer! What a brilliant idea.

I thought I was being quite clever with my discovery. However, a German brewery already thought of this and ran a scientific study around the Munich Marathon (scientific abstract here). They concluded that non-alcoholic beer is an excellent long distance recovery beverage -- it's got all the great carbs you need plus it's got additional goodies that boost the immune system and help control inflammation, both of which are negative side effects of long distance high volume training and racing.

The moral of the story? Sometimes it's actually *good* to miss your goals and adjust.

1. If I hadn't missed my Monday run, I'm not sure I would have done the 4 mile walk with E2 *and* the 8 mile run this AM. The time with E2 was one of the best parts of my week, while the run was harder (aka better training) than it would have been in the cooler AM.

2. If we hadn't asked J and E2 to show up with wine last night, we would have drank the St. Pauli Girl N.A.s, and I wouldn't have learned the beauty of non-alcoholic beer as a training aid. 96Cals, 23g Carbs plus all the B vitamins and other random goodness you get from the brewing process without the stink of alcohol? I'm a fan. Besides, it tastes better than any other recovery drink I've tried.

Cooler Than We Thought

Thanks to my plane delay, tonight, we ended up showing up for one of our local late night happy hours for dinner at 11:15 PM. Pearl's free valet parking, mussels, tuna tartar, sautéed wild mushrooms, tenderloin bites with blue cheese and an extra side of bread? Oh, hell yes. We were spoiled rotten. And we devoured every bite amongst the cool digerati.

We were also out 'til after midnight, which for us is a serious rarity. Last night, I fell asleep at 10:30 PM before my 23-yr-old roommate in CA even made it home from his workout.

Add the pretty people in town for business in their gorgeous clothes and we were very happy with ourselves this evening. We felt like perhaps we were not seriously lame and old.

In fact, after our impressive late night performance on a Thursday (before a Friday and Saturday of ridiculously good behavior to prep for Sunday's race), the only downside was, by the time we got back to our building, all of the useful parking was taken and we had to park 2 floors down, far from the elevators.

All-in-all, given the scenery and delicious food, it was worth it. At least this once. Next time, we'll likely skip it, but at least we now know what it's all about and that next time we'd prefer a slightly less hip establishment.

Mmmm... I'm so happy to have butter sauce soaked bread (mussels with bacon and a separate mushroom dish???) in my belly. It's a rare option these last 4 months, since I've been committed to healthier eating and training. But, boy-oh-boy, when it's available, the hind-brain is all too happy to indulge in the high calorie protein/fat feast. Yummm!!!

Mendoza

Wine. Food. Wine. Food.

I felt like I was living a fairly healthy tourist lifestyle in Buenos Aires. Lots of walking. Working out. No bread or pastas except for the occasional empanada. Sharing delicous portions of meat on the side of full portions of vegetables. With a few modifications, we followed this pattern in Iguazu as well.

With no scales to be had, I convinced myself I must be getting healthier and losing weight on this Atkin's diet of sorts.

And now, I'll never know if it was true. Thanks Mendoza.

We flew from Iguazu back to Buenos Aires and, despite the chaos and confusion of the Mitre Omnibus Terminal, we managed to board our bus for the overnight ride to Mendoza. Apparently, this is the standard mode of transportation in Argentina. So, while our trip was too short to do it for every leg of transport between cities, we figured we'd give it a try at least once.

Pros: it's less expensive than flying and much more comfortable than 13 hours on a plane in economy class. Also, there's a dedicated attendant, and since we opted to pay the extra $25 US or so to get leather seats that fully reclined, our seats came with sparkling wine and our dinner came with wine.

Cons: The flight would have been about an hour and forty minutes. More importantly for me, a rocking bus in traffic is much louder than a plane. So, I spent much of the night almost dozing off to be woken by a horn, a jostle, cross traffic, or my fellow passengers. While awake, I cursed my stupidity for leaving my earplugs in my checked luggage.

Eventually, we arrived in Mendoza unshowered and sleepy. Thankfully, we were immediately checked in, and after a shower, we sat for a 2 hour Italian lunch including a meat and cheese plate, salad, beet and squash gnocchi with lamb in a tomato sauce, and pounded veal cutlets for E in a white wine olive sauce. You know, a light lunch.

Siesta.

A flight of wines at Vines of Mendoza Tasting Room (highly recommended).

Dinner at the hotel and sleep. Glorious sleep.

A weak excuse for a workout. Wait for the driver, who is 30 minutes after the rescheduled late arrival. Coffee. Of course, the driver arrives once the coffee has been ordered.

A gluttonous day of wine tasting and food including the lunch of infinite awkwardness. Suffice it to say that we are not wine buyers, but we were the guests of a winemaking family who had come under this impression for some reason. They were not thrilled with our honest questions, like "Rioja? As in Spain?" (Note: we have since learned that there is a wine region known as Rioja in Argentina as well)

Thankfully, despite the mix-up, we had a superlative day of fabulous wines and great food, which makes everything wonderful.

For dinner, we followed the advice of the amazing Carolyn of Uncorked Argentina and enjoyed a deliciously multi-regional meal at Siete Cocinas (Note: best scallop ceviche I've ever had. Order it.)

On our walk home, we stopped to buy water. We re-hydrated until sleep.

The last morning in Mendoza, I rose to work out, guiltily. Restraint of any sort had not been in effect for several days and the workout felt as you'd imagine.

From there, we were to fly to Bariloche, the land of chocolate.

(pictures and more details to come)

Wonderful Weekend

A beautiful wedding ceremony for The Enforcer in Tilden Park where the rain waited until after the ceremony to fall.

Hours of catching up with old friends at the wedding celebration.

Dim Sum with family and friends.

Wine tasting with girlfriends in Sonoma.

A delicious Portuguese dinner at La Sallette.

A long walk along the San Francisco Bay Trail followed by mediterranean food.

A long chat with a good friend on the phone to catch up.

Watching the Giants win their third World Series Game while handing out candy to witches, goblins, and ghosts.

Is it any surprise that the return to Monday normal is a bit difficult this morning...

Happy Solstice!

Summer is here and bringing its usual treats: lots of social stuff.

Last weekend's trip to Sonoma with E's family was gluttonous, relaxing, and wonderful.

A 1999 Barolo we'd been storing was an excellent complement to the meat and dessert courses we shared with E's family for the father's day celebration at Cyrus.

Our wine fridge is restocked, and I have new favorite winery in Sonoma: Passalacqua -- gorgeous grounds, excellent small production wines that you can only buy on site, friendly staff, discounts for wine club membership, and reasonable prices, what's not to like?

Next weekend, I'm off to Seattle to run the rock 'n roll half marathon with a friend I haven't seen in several months. It'll be her first half, and I'm excited to share it with her.

And, of course, the end of the fiscal quarter is doing what it does: burying me with work.

So, I'll probably be fairly quiet on the blogfront until July (when I hope to have ripe tomatoes!).

Sili Valley Week

I had a very stereotypical valley week.

Monday and Tuesday, I woke, worked out, worked for my start-up clients and fit in networking lunches. Monday, after a particularly frustrating morning, I also fit in a pre-lunch visit to Happy Feet in their new Mountain View location (Oh! How awesome are lazy boys interbred with massage tables for you to lay upon while beaten to a relaxed pulp by shiatsu-accupressure-influenced hands until your feet are removed for the hot water bath, treated to reflexology and you are finally turned to your belly for the final 20 minutes of back of the body massage/pressure, all in silent common room? Holy grail of massage value -- I'm telling you. Of course, there's no speaking to the masseuse in anything other than Mandarin, but no need, at least for me.)

Wednesday, I volunteered all day as a broken-Spanish (mine, not theirs) translator for a Puerto Rican team of adorably awesome high-schoolers at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, and then we hosted a BBQ for visiting Argentinian students (the PR team had to stay with their chaperons -- apparently, we do not appear trustworthy. [grin]).

Thursday, I worked more and attended the Google Annual Shareholder meeting.

And today, I woke to work for an hour and a half, then I took my favorite Friday yoga class, met with a former colleague for lunch in downtown San Jose, and worked from the Hacker Dojo in the afternoon (because I had too much work to do to attend the PhD defense of a friend at Stanford that E was able to attend).

This weekend? I've got a long run with E2 in Santa Cruz tomorrow AM while E bikes along the coast with J. Then we've got a wine tasting lunch in the Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Region at Beauregard and a 40th birthday party for a good work-friend in Palo Alto in the evening.

In short, I am in awe of the chaos and fast-paced life that we live. But, at the same time, we can do nothing more than appreciate the beauty and balance and lifestyle we can enjoy where we live. And I aim to do just that.

Sonoma Wine and Food Weekend

Because E's sister, her fiance, and the sisters had raved so much about their meal, on December 14, I called Cyrus to see if E & I could get a table for Valentine's dinner. Success! I reserved two free rooms we'd earned in Hyatt points and our plans were set for the long weekend.

Fortuitously, I've been working entirely too much lately. I've taken several conference calls 'til midnight and often have been rising before 5 to start work. So, a long weekend to reconnect with E in wine country was just what the doctor ordered.

Plus, on Friday, the IT department of my law firm saw fit to break email at 5 PM. Sweet! I was off the hook for the entire weekend by 5 PM (except today). Thanks IT!

So, after arriving, instead of finishing work, E and I headed down to the complimentary wine tasting with Simi Winery. Their wines were okay, except they were free, so, of course, like all gifts, they were quite wonderful. The chardonnay was not my style (but they usually aren't -- too buttery). But I had a perfectly pleasant glass of sauvignon blanc, while E enjoyed the cabernet sauvignon. They even served us an appetizer of asian chicken on endive with fried rice noodles. How great is that?

From there, we headed to the hotel bar and ordered two lovely glasses of wine to go with the charcuterie plate (mmm... salamis, cheeses and nuts. What's not to like?) One of the best things about wine country is that even the random hotel bar will have 20 excellent wines by the glass. This bar even had 2.5 ounce pours so you could try more options if you like. My pinot was excellent and E's big red explosion of a wine was exactly what he was looking for.

After lounging a bit, we headed to an early dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It was everything we like a hotel restaurant to be. Close. Good food and service. Unpretentious, but nice enough to have foods that feel like special occasion treats. Not super-expensive.

I devoured my oysters, they were perfectly cleaned and pre-separated from the shell, which meant I had to share. I love the little suckers so much that I'll shuck 'em myself and deal with the sand for the privilege, but E is a bit more picky. We sat and enjoyed our meals (steak for E, salmon over red pepper coulis for me) and slowly caught up over a bottle of delicious local pinot noir. There was still wine left after dinner, so we ordered the cheese plate. Mmmm.... more cheese. Then coffee. Then a lazy night in the hotel bed watching the latest Bond movie. Mmmm... relaxing.

Saturday was more of the same, only bigger.

We finally left the hotel around noon to head out for cheese, nuts, and chocolate paired with delicious wines served by the Williamson family (that would be the first wine club we joined).

From there, we had a lunch of small servings of family recipes of Italian food and a family history tour with wine at Seghesio (that would be the second wine club we joined). If you are going to go to Seghesio, call ahead and reserve the wine and food pairing. We bypassed a tasting room of at least 50 guests in exchange for a one-on-one conversation with the 5th generation family member and daughter of the winemaker (thanks Alison!), as well as some history from Rachel Ann Seghesio, an adorable 70-year-old woman with pictures to show, stories to tell, and a ton of spunk.

We very much enjoyed both of these wine-tasting experiences and we pleased that they were smaller, less thronged, and just generally relaxing, which is something we often fear we will miss while trying to wine-taste with the crowds in Sonoma or Napa.

From there, we did the pure relaxation thing (hot tub, steam room, massage, reading) for a few hours until it was time for the big event.

Cyrus -- it was everything we were told, and more

Our dinner at Cyrus was nothing short of phenomenal. As much as I love Chez TJ, it pales in many ways compared to Cyrus, and if Cyrus is an example of a two-star michelin restaurant, then, I must agree with the recent downgrade of Chez TJ to one star (of course, my experience with two-starred Manresa was much worse than any Chez TJ visit, so perhaps of course the michelin stars don't really mean anything).

The service at Cyrus is dedicated -- you can tell they are *all* very committed to making sure that your evening is amazing. I'm not certain I've ever experienced that level of concern and care about my meal before. Not even at the French Laundry. It is very obvious that Cyrus has something to prove (in a good way) and is trying its very best to get its third michelin star and/or just to become the equal of the Laundry in the eyes of the foodies who come to the region.

The food is excellent, and I can see why E's sister and fiance said it was the best meal of their life. It was definitely one of the best meals I've ever had. In terms of quality and presentation, it is on par with everything we've ever had. In comparison with the French Laundry, the care in ingredient selection, preparation, plating, and balance was quite similar except that there was a stronger asian influence in many of the ingredient selections at Cyrus, whereas French Laundry seemed to stay within more of the traditional continental ingredient list on our visit.

We did the full 8-course tasting menu (which totals 11 courses including all the teasers and palate cleansers), E ate every speck, and I finished everything except the Quince Riesling Soup (below the Verjus Sorbet). When we left we were pleasantly full, but not uncomfortable. The food was rich, but balanced at all times, which is an area where Chez TJ occasionally falters on the side of the overly rich (not that we really mind...).

My favorite course was a line of 4 or 5 gnocchi alternated with carmelized brussels sprouts, parsley root and topped with black truffle pecorino, plated on a rectangular plate with a brilliant green sauce line drawn below. E's favorite was the 3 slices of duck breast fanned over maitake mushrooms laid on top of a small rectangular prism of bamboo-cilantro (I think) rice (it was such a pretty shade of light green) which was plated with ponzu. Every course was amazing, truly.

With a little help from the somellier, we selected a bottle of Anthill Farms 2006 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir that worked quite well with all of the courses. The service kept our glasses at what I have to assume is exactly 4 ounces throughout the meal. This had the odd side effect of making it very apparent when I poured the remainder of my wine into E's glass after the cheese course. No one said anything, they just whisked away my empty glass and asked if we would like coffee, which, of course, I did, and they brought it to me to enjoy while E finished the wine.

I think the highest compliment we can give it is this: we would be happy to return to Cyrus in the near future and look forward to the opportunity. In contrast, Michael Mina and the French Laundry are excellent experiences that we are glad we had, but we have no plans to return to them anytime soon, we'd rather search for a new and different experience.

Finally, we had brunch on Sunday with friends at The Girl and The Fig. The ambiance is warm (there is a fire) friendly, polite (despite our late arrival causing them to hold a 6-person table longer than they should have had to), and the food was wonderful -- a little on the heavy side, but that's what brunch is supposed to be, no? Plus, it was what we needed to soak up the wine we went to taste afterward.

In terms of Sunday's tasting -- it was mediocre in terms of wine, but a great way to spend the day with friends.

Jacuzzi winery is gorgeous, but it was thronged with folks for the olive tasting event. They have an olive press and several olive oils available for tasting. On a less crowded day, I suspect I would have enjoyed this one more and probably would have stayed to taste wine.

Next, we hit up Viansa Winery, which, like Jacuzzi is a beautiful setting and building. If it hadn't been raining, we likely would have bought a bottle and sat on the porch sipping it while looking at the hills and vines. But, due to the rain, we had to stay indoors, and due to the holiday weekend, they were quite crowded as well.

Finally, on our way out, we stopped at Roche Winery. Their building is older, the wine tasting room is simply that (very few displays of fancy food products and supplies), and the crowd was much smaller. Also, they had a fireplace with a nice warm fire. In terms of ambiance, this was the winner of the day. Their cabernet was probably the group's favorite wine of the day's tasting, but none of us took any home due to the price point.