Wine Country and Coffee

I wrote this a few days ago and just forgot to post it :)

The last few days have kind of blurred together. In fact yesterday we realized we hadn't taken a single picture all day! Two days ago though we went to Imagery and Benzinger wineries in Sonoma and tasted. I discovered a Spanish grape I'd never tried before that I just love called "Tempernillo", it was just fantastic. Imagery also put out a chocolate port that was absolutely perfect.

You know, guys, I find myself running out of synonyms for describing things. I like it all so much!!!

On our way of of Sonoma we stopped at a market that carried the Sonoma Syrup Co. brand and I got a bottle of Vanilla Almond syrup to bring back. Michele and Wendy, you'll need to come over and try some!!

Oh, and I have three cases of wine I was able to get from my dad's now 2000+ bottle cellar, so if anyone's dying to host a wine/cheese/chocolate party - you'll need to be sure to invite me. In fact, my homecoming might even be reason enough to throw one. I'm just saying...



Today, Thursday the 18th, we visited Rasha, a dear friend of mine from Tacoma. She and I met at a mom's meet-up group that neither of us returned to after that. We spent a lot of time together in the evenings during the time John worked nights and her husband was deployed and we kept up our friendship after her husband, Tim, returned and John returned to working days. They moved to California, their home state, a few months before we left Tacoma and now they live just 10 minutes from Dad, so it's great they're so easy to visit while we're down here!

Her daughter, Marley, is 6 months to the day older than Kate, but she was in preschool. But since the last time I saw them they'd also had a son, Dylan, and I found out today that she's just 8 weeks pregnant :) We had fun hanging out and letting the kids run free. We were able to catch up and we shared watermelon together. Tim arrived home about a half hour after I got there and I got to catch up with him as well. I really like their family, it sucks that we probably won't ever live near each other again. We're having breakfast together again just before we head out on Sunday morning.

After hanging out with them for the morning we drove down to Berkeley for lunch. Sometimes I'm not so bright. Sometimes when I have a big day I eat only toast, and then I put off eating again until I'm so cranky I'm pretty much unbearable to be around. So, we drove around Berkeley looking for a place called Naftali Caffee, I was cranky, the directions sucked, my following the directions sucked and my attitude sucked. After 30 or 40 minutes of driving around we finally found the right streets and got there. The upside was that the panini and salad were pretty good :)






Because I was already so far south I decided to jump into Oakland to visit another roaster I'd heard a lot about, Blue Bottle Coffee. It was in a weird location in an industrial district, and I realized that this was their actual roaster and the cafe was more just gratuitous because they had the space and a few blocks in a different direction it was developed into condos. But the initial impression was pretty skeezy. But once you stepped inside it was a little oasis of clean modern lines and delicious aromas. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, so I decided I'd buy the beans they were using in their espresso machine, but they were out :( So I got a cappuccino and a blend called "Three Africans", which, for my love of east African coffees I knew I couldn't go wrong. The cappuccino was excellent with more chocolatey notes, but still, it couldn't touch the one I'd had in Santa Cruz, but I really doubt I'll find one that could.

From Blue Bottle we stopped by Sweet Maria's, which for home roasters is kind of like a mecca. It's THE online store for buying roasting and brewing supplies, and is a virtual wikipedia of coffee information. The it was back home and we've been relaxing watching "Stardust" ever since. I think this is the first time on the trip so far I'm actually caught up on my writing :) Enjoy!